Willis: Anglo-American Law 
65 
restrain his vengeance to the murderer or other wrongdoer 
and his kin. Then the right of sanctuary came to be re- 
spected.- * 1 About 600 A.D. wise men set down ninety dooms, 
or tariffs, or sums to be paid for deeds of violence in lieu of 
vengeance. These were known as the dooms of Aethelbert, 
king of Kent (584-616) 22 . Ine of Wessex (688-726) published 
another set of tariffs. Offa of Mercia (757-796) published 
still another set. Alfred (871-900) continued the work of the 
others and made new rules for the preservation of the peace. 
Canute, the Dane, (1017-1085) brought to a close the period 
of Anglo-Saxon law. Edward the Confessor (1042-1051) was 
famed in latel history as a lawgiver, but Maitland says he 
never made a law but simply was credited with the law of his 
predecessors. The next step after the development of the 
blood fine, or wergild, was the right of proof of innocence. 
This proof consisted (1) of the pronouncement of the doom 
by the elders, (2) privilege of the proof, (a) by oath-helpers 
if the accused was of good character, and (8) if the accused 
failed to clear himself, payment of the wergild. However, 
there was no way of compelling this. The accused had this 
privilege. If he paid, that ended the matter. If he refused 
to pay, or was too poor to pay, then the feud was revived. 
This was as far as legal development went in Anglo-Saxon 
times. 
Land Ownership. When the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes mi- 
grated to Britain they for the most part migrated as tribes. 
In the larger expeditions all the people, high and low, free 
and servile, from a considerable territory, moved together 
from their old location to the new they were seeking. Hence 
it would be expected that, after their conquests of the Britons, 
they would establish in their new environment the same legal 
system which they had had in Germany. This is found to be 
the case. The territory captured' was probably allotted by 
the leaders of a tribe or state according to a plan creating 
communities and districts corresponding with those with which 
they had been familiar. To each hundred warriors, with their 
families and all others who had occupied a similar district 
with them in Germany, was allotted definite territory with 
21 Cf. the regulation of vengeance in Hebrew law, 21 Exod. 13 ; 1 I Kings 50 ; 2 
I Kings 28 ; 19 Gen. 4 ; 19 Judg. 22 ; 21 Exod. 13 ; 20 Josh. 1-9. 
22 Maitland and Montague, Sketch of English Legal History, Appendix I. Cf. Code 
of Hammurabi. 
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