Ki)igs Peace and EngUsJi Peace-Magistracy. 19 



But the Saxon laws did not absolutely prohibit the feud ; it 

 was still possible long after the Conquest for a private person 

 legally to resort to it in default of payment of the wergeld. 

 The general aim was to restrain private vengeance until the 

 public tribunals had passed judgment on the offender, and 

 the composition had been refused. After that the clansmen 

 were still the executors of the peace. In this spirit are the 

 enactments of Ine, /Elfred, Eadmund, and the so-called laws 

 of Henry I, a compilation probably of the twelfth century .^ 

 It is interesting also to note the persistent survival of the 

 responsibility of the kin in the blood-feud. Under yEthel- 

 berht (568-616) and yElfred (871-901) a portion of the wer 

 must still be paid by the magan or kinsmen.^ Not until 

 Eadmund (940-946) were the relatives entirely, relieved of 

 such liability, on condition of severing all connection with 

 the transgressor.^ But this law seems t-o have become a dead 

 letter ; for the liability of the viagan is recognized in the 

 legislation of ^thelred and Canute ; ^ but in the laws of 

 Henry I the enactment of Eadmund was expressly restored.^ 



that portion paid for manslaughter was the wergeld. The corresponding general 

 term for the fee of the state was iviU ; and, at least in later times, that portion 

 thereof corresponding to the w^wa' was sometimes c3.\[Qd Jihiwite ; and the part 

 corresponding to the wergeld was called manbot, and went, usually, to the lord, 

 when paid for the death of a dependent. But there were many special terms 

 used for the fines due the state. Cf. Konrad Maurer, Krit. Ueb., Ill, 45 ff.; 

 Schmid, Gesetze, 62S, 679; Wilda, Strafrccht, 319, 386 ff. 



1 Ine, S, 9; JElfred, 42; Eadmund, II, i; Henry I, 82, § i, 2; 83, § 1,3: 

 Schmid, Gesetze, 24, 42, 94, 176, 479-80. On ^-Elfred's laws, see Leo, Rectitii- 

 dines, 180-81. 



- ^^thelberht, 23; ^-Elfred, 27: Thorpe, ./;/(■. Laics, I, S, 78; Schmid, Gesetze, 

 4,86. 



^ Eadmund, II, l : Thorpe, Ajic. La-ws, I, 248; Schmid, Gesetze, 176. 



* /Ethelred, VIII, 23; Canute, I, 5, § 2: Schmid, Gesetze, 246, 256. 



* Henry I, 88, § 12: Schmid, Gesetze, 484. However, as late as the reign of 

 Edward IV, we find an instance of trial by battle and of composition for the 

 blood of the slain : Freeman, Comp.Pol.,2']Z. 'Y\\& c^^xzXtA. peine forte et dure 

 of the English law long marked a survival of the right of self-redress. " If a 

 prisoner refused to plead, the court had no authority to try him; and a severe 

 course of treatment, which subsequently degenerated into a horrible torture, was 

 used to extort the required consent " : Hearn, Aryan Household, 434. The reader 

 will also remember the theory of Brentano, that the gilds, particularly the frith- 



