CHAPTER V 

 SAKE AND SOKE 



THE reference in the previous chapter to the pleas of the 

 hundreds and the profits of the hundred courts leads 

 us to a consideration of a phrase which is found on 

 almost every page of the Little Domesday, and on many 

 pages of the larger volume ; constantly we read of persons 

 having "sake and soke" over other persons or over certain 

 properties. What do these words mean ? The compiler of 

 the (so-called) Laws of Edward the Confessor, who lived in 

 the first half of the twelfth century, would have answered 

 that the person who had sake and soke had the right to punish 

 his own men for their offences in his own court, and to take 

 the fines imposed upon them ; 1 but whether the phrase had 

 this signification in 1086 requires a little consideration. 



Let us first remind ourselves of the principles of Old 

 English penal jurisprudence. In the earliest days, the ancient 

 Jewish maxim of "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a 

 tooth," was its guiding principle ; but in the course of time 

 the offender was allowed to purchase exemption from reta- 

 liation by a nicely regulated tariff, and, even in the case 

 of murder, the murderer might purchase his freedom by 

 paying the "wergild" to the family of the murdered man. 

 This wergild varied according to the social position of the 

 victim. At the same time, a "wite" was imposed on the 

 offender, which was paid to the court which administered 



1 Leges Edw. Con/., 20. L. 349. 

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