Laws of Hlothere
& Eadric

1. If any one’s servant kills a man of noble birth, whoever it be, let the owner pay with three hundred shillings, give up the killer, and add the value of three men.

2. If the killer escapes, let him add a fourth man, and let him prove, with good oath supporters,  that he could not obtain the killer.

3. If any one’s servant kills a freeman, whoever it be, let the owner pay with a hundred shillings, give up the killer, and the value of a man thereto.

4. If the killer escapes, let the owner pay for him with the value of two men; and let him prove, with good oath supporters, that he could not obtain the killer.

5. If a freeman steal a man; if he (the man who has been stolen) comes back to give information of the theft, let him make his charge against the thief when the latter is present; let him (the thief) clear himself if he can, and let him have the number of free oath supporters, and one with (himself) in the oath, each at the village he belongs; if he be unable, let him pay as with wht he has.

6. If a husband should die, wife and child yet living, it is right that the child follow the mother; and let there be security given to him from among his paternal kin, to keep his property till he be 10 years of age.

7. If one man steal property from another, and the owner afterwards lay claim to it; let him (the accused) vouch to warranty at the king’s hall, if he can, and let him bring forward the person who sold it to him; if he cannot do that, let him give it up, and let the owner take possession of it.

8. If one man makes a complaint against another in a suit, and he cite the man to an assembly or to a thing (meeting), let the man always give surety to the other, and do him such right as the Kentish judges prescribe to them.

9. But if he refuse to give assurance, let him pay 12 shillings to the king, and let the suit be as open as it was before.

10. If one man makes a complaint against another; after he has given him assurance, and then after three days let them seek for themselves an arbitrator, unless a longer period be desired by him who carries on the suit: after the suit is settled, let the man do justice to the other within seven days; let him satisfy him either in money or with an oath, whichever be desired by him; but if he will not do this, then let him make an oath: within one day after, let them settle.

11. If one man calls another perjurer, in another’s home, or shamefully insult him with abusive words, let him pay a shilling to him who owns the home, and 6 shillings to him to whom he said the words, and 12 shillings to the king.

12. If a man take the cup of another, where men are drinking unoffendingly; according to ancient usage, let him pay a shilling to him who owns the home, and 6 shillings to him to whom he took the cup from, and 12 shillings to the king.

13. If a man draws a weapon where men are drinking, and no harm be done there; a shilling to him who owns the dwelling, and 12 shillings to the king.

14. If the dwelling be stained with blood, let him pay to the man the fine, and 50 shillings to the king.

15. If a man entertains a stranger for three nights at his own home, a chapman or any other who has come over the march, and then feed him with his own food, and he then do harm to any man, let the man bring the other to justice, or do justice for him.

16. If any Kentish-man buy a chattel in Lunden-wic (London), let him then have two or three true men to witness, or the king’s town-reeve. If it be afterwards claimed of the man in Kent, let him then vouch the man who sold it him to warranty, in the town at the king’s hall, if he know him, and can bring him to the warranty; if he cannot do that, let him prove at the altar, with one of his witnesses or with the king’s town-reeve, that he bought the chattel openly in the town, with his own property, and then let him be paid its worth: but if he cannot prove that by law, let him give it up, and let the owner take possession of it.