Our Legal Heritage, 5th Ed. | Page 9

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.
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 money and chattels] and the morgen gyfe [morning gift: a gift made 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 [pregnant], 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 steal, let him make twofold bot [twice the value of the stolen goods]."

- Judicial Procedure -
The King and his freemen would hear and decide cases of wrongful behavior such as breach of the peace. Punishment would be given to the offender by the community.
There were occasional meetings of "hundreds", which were 100 households, to settle widespread disputes. The chief officer was "hundreder" or "constable". He was responsible for keeping the peace of the hundred.
The Druid priests decided all disputes of the Celts.

- - - Chapter 2 - - -

- The Times: 600-900 -
The country was inhabited by Anglo-Saxons. The French called it "Angleterre", which means the angle or end of the earth. It was called "Angle land", which later became "England".
A community was usually an extended family. Its members lived a village 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. All freeholders had the duty of watch [at night] and ward [during the day], of following the hue and cry to chase an offender, and of taking the oath of peace. These three duties were constant until 1195.
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. Freemen paid "scot" and bore "lot" according to their means for local purposes.
Offa, the strongest of the Saxon kings, minted high-quality silver pennies. He traded woolen coats for lava grindstones with Emperor Charlemagne, who used a silver denarius coin. There were 12 denarii to the solidus and 20 soldi to the pound of silver. These denominations were taken by England as 12 pennies to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound. The pound sign, an "L" with a hash mark derived from the word Libra, which meant weighing scales.
Everyone in the village went to church on Sunday and brought gifts such as grain to the priest. Later, contributions in the form of money became customary, and then expected. They were called "tithes" and were spent for church repair, the clergy, and poor and needy laborers. Local custom determined the amount. There was also church-scot: a payment to the clergy in lieu of the