Laws of Edward & Guthrum
Overview
The Laws of Edward and Guthrum are a set of legal codes that were purportedly issued by Edward the Elder, King of the Anglo-Saxons, and Guthrum, a Viking king who ruled parts of England during the 9th century. These laws primarily concern payments of church dues and the correct observance of religious festivals, rather than regulating the coexistence and interactions between the Anglo-Saxons and the Viking settlers.
Authenticity
Historians tend to agree that the Laws of Edward and Guthrum are medieval forgeries. Their authenticity came into question in 1941 when Dorothy Whitelock published her work, “Wulfstan and the So-Called Laws of Edward and Guthrum.” She suggests that the laws may be fabrications created during the medieval period by Wulfstan, Archbishop of York. The arguments against their authenticity primarily stem from the lack of contemporary historical records that explicitly mention the laws and the focus on religious topics.
Additionally, Andrew Rabin dates the law codes to 1002 to 1004 when Wulfstan was appointed Archbishop of York. He suggests that Wulfstan assigned the text to Edward and Guthrum to “…appeal to the Anglo-Danish population of his new archdiocese…” Moreover, Wulfstan wrote a number of political and religious documents during his life, and historians are able to observe his specific “‘homiletic style.'”
Laws of Edward & Guthrum
And this also is the decree which King Alfred and King Guthrum, and later King Edward and King Guthrum, agreed upon and proclaimed when the English and the Danes fully resolved on peace and friendship. And also the councilors, those who came after, often and frequently renewed it and strengthed it with improvements.
This is foremost among those things which they agreed upon: that they would love the one God and wholeheartedly reject the heathen practice.
And they also established secular penalties, for they knew that otherwise they could not govern many people, nor would many men otherwise comply with Church discipline as they should: and they decreed that secular compensation will be shared by Christ and king, wherever anyone refused to submit properly to church penance at the order of the bishops.
1. Next they also agreed that sanctuary within church walls and sanctuary received from the king’s hand shall remain equally inviolable.
2. And if anyone violates Christian practice or shows reverence for heathenism by word or deed, he must pay either his wergild or a penalty of lahslit (money you have to pay for breaking the law), according to the nature of the deed.
3. And if a man in orders steals or fights or commits perjury or adultery, he shall atone according to the nature of the deed, either with his wergild or with a penalty or with lahslit; and indeed, he must do penance before God as the canon decrees and either find a surety or submit to imprisonment.
§ 3.1 And if a priest misleads the people concerning a holy day or a fast, he must pay thirty shillings among the English or three half-marks among the Danes.
§ 3.2 If a priest does not fetch holy oil on the proper day or denies baptism to one who needs it, he must pay a penalty among the English and lahslit of twelve oras among the Danes.
4. And in cases of incest the councilors ruled that the king shall have jurisdiction over the upper and the bishop the lower, unless penance is performed before God and the world, as the bishop decrees according to the nature of the deed.
§ 4.1 If two brothers or two close relatives lie with the same woman, they must atone most fervently, just as it may be allowed, with a penalty or with lahslit, according to the nature of the deed.
§ 4.2 If a man in orders compromises himself with a capital crime, he is to be arrested and held for the bishop’s judgement.
5. And if someone sentenced to death desires confession, it shall never be denied him.
§ 5.1 And all God’s dues shall be rendered assiduously for God’s mercy and because of the penalties which the councilors assigned.
6. If anyone withholds his tithe, he shall pay lahslit among the Danes or apenalty among the English.
§ 6.1 If anyone withholds the dues owed to Rome, he shall pay lahslit among the Danes or a penalty among the English.
§ 6.2 If anyone does not pay the dues for the lighting of the church he shall pay lahslit among the Danes or a penalty among the English.
§ 6.3 If anyone does not pay his plow dues, he shall pay lahslit among the Danes or a penalty among the English.
§ 6.4 If anyone withholds his Church dues, he shall pay lahslit among the Danes or a penalty among the English.
§ 6.5 And if he fights and wounds anyone, he will be liable for his wergild.
§ 6.6 If he causes anyone’s death, then he will become an outlaw and be hunted with enmity by all those who wish for justice.
§ 6.7 And if he acts in such a way as to cause his own death through resistance to God’s justice or the king’s, and if that is shown to be true, no compensation need be paid for him.
7. If anyone does business on a Sunday, he shall forfeit his purchases and [pay] twelve oras among the Danes and thirty shillings among the English.
§ 7.1 If a freeman works on a holy day, he shall forfeit his freedom, or pay a penalty or lahslit. A slave will receive a whipping or pay to redeem himself.
§ 7.2 If a master compels his slave to work on a holy day, he must pay lahslit within the Danelaw and a penalty among the English.
8 If a freeman breaks a legally mandated fast, he must pay a penalty or lahslit. If a slave does so, he shall receive a lashing or pay to redeem himself.
9 Ordeals and oaths are prohibited on holy days and legally mandated fast days; and one who violates that shall pay lahslit among the Danes or a penalty among the English.
§ 9.1 If it can be managed, no one sentenced to death should ever be executed on a Sunday festival, but he is to be confined and held until the holy day has ended.
10 If a mutilated man, who is a criminal, comes to be abandoned and he survives for three nights, afterward, with the bishop’s permission, anyone who wishes to heal his injuries and his soul might help him.
11. If magicians or wizards, perjurers or murderers, or foul, corrupted, notorious prostitutes come to be discovered anywhere in the land, then they must be expelled from the country and the realm cleansed, or from the country they must be utterly wiped out unless they cease their wickedness and repent most deeply.
12 If a man in orders or a foreigner is, by any means, cheated of his goods or his life, then the king— or the lord of that land —and bishop of that people shall act as kinsman and protector, unless he has another; and compensation must readily be paid to Christ and the king according to the nature of the deed; or he who is king of that people must punish the crime most harshly.
Related Topics
Further Research & Sources
Attenborough, F.L. The Laws of the Earliest English Kings. University Press, 1922, 102. https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=q-sJAAAAIAAJ&pg=GBS.PR8
Bosworth, Joseph. “lah-slit.” In An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary Online, edited by Thomas Northcote Toller, Christ Sean, and Ondřej Tichy. Prague: Faculty of Arts, Charles University, 2014. https://bosworthtoller.com/21063.
Keynes, Simon, and Michael Lapidge, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Anglo-Saxon England. Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Morris, Marc. The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England, 400-1066. New York, NY. Pegasus Books, Ltd. 2021, 48-49.
Swanton, Michael, ed. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Phoenix Press, 2000.
Whitelock, Dorothy, ed. English Historical Documents. Volume 1: c.500-1042. Routledge, 1996.
Wulfstan. Old English Legal Writings. Edited and translated by Andrew Rabin. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2020.
Yorke, Barbara. “The Writing of History in Anglo-Saxon England.” Anglo-Saxon England, vol. 23, 1994.
Photos:
Statue of Alferd of Wessex
Odejea, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons