Our Legal Heritage, 4th ed. | Page 8

6 shillings; if it be pierced within, let him make bot with 6 shillings.
65. If a thigh be broken, let bot be made with 12 shillings; if the man become halt [lame], then friends must arbitrate.
66. If a rib be broken, let bot be made with 3 shillings.
67. If [the skin of] a thigh be pierced through, for each stab 6 shillings; if [the wound be] above an inch [deep], a shilling; for two inches, 2; above three, 3 shillings.
68. If a sinew be wounded. let bot be made with 3 shillings.
69. If a foot be cut off, let 50 shillings be paid.
70. If a great toe be cut off, let 10 shillings be paid.
71. For each of the other toes, let one half that for the corresponding finger be paid.
72. If the nail of a great toe be cut off, 30 scaetts for bot; for each of the others, make bot with 10 scaetts.
73. If a freewoman loc-bore [with long hair] commit any leswe [evil deed], let her make a bot of 30 shillings.
74. Let maiden-bot [compensation for injury to an unmarried woman] be as that of a freeman.
75. For [breach of] the mund [protection] of a widow of the best class, of an eorl's degree, let the bot be 50 shillings; of the second, 20 shillings; of the third, 12 shillings; of the fourth, 6 shillings. [Mund was a sum paid to the family of the bride for transferring the rightful protection they possessed over her to the family of the husband. If the husband died and his kindred did not accept the terms sanctioned by law, her kindred could repurchase the tutelage.]
76. If a man carry off a widow not under his own protection by right, let the mund be twofold.
77. If a man buy a maiden with cattle, let the bargain stand, if it be without fraud; but if there be fraud, let him bring her home again, and let his property be restored to him.
78. If she bear a live child, she shall have half the property, if the husband die first.
79. If she wish to go away with her children, she shall have half the property.
80. If the husband wish to keep them [the children], [she shall have the same portion] as one child.
81. If she bear no child, her paternal kindred shall have the fioh [her goods]and the morgen-gyfe [morning gift; a gift make to the bride by her husband on the morning following the consummation of the marriage].
82. If a man carry off a maiden by force, let him pay 50 shillings to the owner, and afterwards buy [the object of] his will from the owner.
83. If she be betrothed to another man in money [at a bride price], let him [who carried her off] make bot with 20 shillings.
84. If she become gaengang, 35 shillings; and 15 shillings to the King.
85. If a man lie with an esne's wife, her husband still living, let him make twofold bot.
86. If one esne slay another unoffending, let him pay for him at his full worth.
87. If an esne's eye and foot be struck out or off, let him be paid for at his full worth.
88. If any one bind another man's esne, let him make bot with 6 shillings.
89. Let [compensation for] weg-reaf [highway robbery] of a theow [slave] be 3 shillings.
90. If a theow [a type of slave] steal, let him make twofold bot [twice the value of the stolen goods]. "
- Judicial Procedure -
If a man did something wrong, his case would be heard by the King and his freemen. His punishment would be given to him by the community.
There were occasional meetings of "hundreds", which were probably a hundred hides of land or a hundred families, to settle wide-spread disputes.


Chapter 2
- The Times: 600-900 -
People lived in villages in which a stone church was the most prominent building. They lived in one-room huts with walls and roofs made of wood, mud, and straw. Hangings covered the cracks in the walls to keep the wind out. Smoke from a fire in the middle of the room filtered out of cracks in the roof. Grain was ground at home by rotating by hand one stone disk on another stone disk. Some villages had a mill powered by the flow of water or by horses.
Farmland surrounded the villages and was farmed by the community as a whole under the direction of a lord. There was silver, copper, iron, tin, gold, and various types of stones from remote lead mines and quarries in the nation. Silver pennies replaced the smaller scaetts.
Everyone in the village went to church on Sunday and brought gifts such as grain to the priest. The parish of the priest was coextensive with the holding of one landowner. The priest and