stole people to sell as slaves. Paedophiles seduced children and even priests
and monks stole from their churches and monasteries. People lived in fear of
burglars–they left lights burning in windows so that it would seem that
someone was home, they bought dogs, installed locks and bars, and drew
magic eyes on their walls for protection. Masked gangs of housebreakers
would nevertheless often break in. Chrystosom’s advice was that the best way
to avoid being robbed was not to gather too much wealth! Even tombs were
robbed for the precious goods buried with the dead. One practice to avoid
desecration of the dead was to wrap the body in cloths soaked in myrrh, which
glued themselves to the corpse, making life difficult for a wouldbe robber.
Prisons in Chrystosom’s diocese were extremely harsh places–no food was
provided unless by relatives or friends, torture was used, and punishments
included flaying and the cutting off of limbs, as well as hanging.^1
Little by little, the situation stabilised. Small kingdoms developed in
Britain, and other parts of Europe, often matching their boundaries to pre
Roman, tribal areas. Kings began to rule more or less effectively from new
royal centres. In England, a number of early law codes were created. The
earliest is thought to be that of King Æthelberht of Kent in the early seventh
century. Others were established in Essex and Wessex. The laws of King Ine
of Wessex, dating to around 694, survive because Alfred the Great
incorporated many of them into his own laws in the ninth century, and they are
recorded in a manuscript which still survives at Corpus Christi College,
Cambridge. Ine’s laws encompassed fighting, theft and belonging to a band of
thieves, prevention of damage caused by neglecting to maintain fences, and
looting. The existence of organised bands of robbers is implied by the
definition of the numbers of people involved in criminal activity–up to seven
men were simple thieves, seven to thirtyfive were a‘band’and over thirty
five men constituted an army of looters and brigands. Many of the laws
concerned the ‘wergeld’ (worth) of individuals, and the amount of
compensation payable to victims and the king for a variety of crimes. Alfred
attempted to bring together an assemblage of laws from the other kingdoms,
and combine them with Christian principles and older folk customs.
Administration of the law was in the hands of free citizens at an assembly
called a ‘moot’, although there may have been some legal advice from
‘doomsmen’(Figure 13). These individuals are recorded, but we do not know
much about how they operated or what power they had to influence the moot.
Moot sites can sometimes be traced through placename evidence, a form of
documentary archaeology. The title of a borough in Surrey records a moot site
associated with a tree–the name Spelthorne derives from‘the speaking thorn
DARK AGE CRIMES