depended on the victim’s social status and the severity of the crime. The
‘wergeld’system was complex, and amounts payable for damage or death
varied according to the rank of the victim. Highranking church officials were
valued at twice the rate of ordinary priests, and nobles were worth many times
the value of an ordinary free man. Even murder was punished by the
imposition of payment of the wergild of the victim to his family until, in the
ninth century, murder was made subject to the death penalty. The system was
intended to reduce the likelihood of cycles of revenge occurring. Schedules of
amounts were agreed upon–fifty shillings for the loss of a foot, ten shillings
for a big toe, fifty shillings for the loss of an eye, and so on. By accepting this
compensation, the victim avoided any loss of personal honour, an important
aspect of AngloSaxon society, and the community as a whole could regard
the matter as settled and done with. Wergeld also applied to property–a value
was set on stock, buildings and land, which had to be repaid in cases of theft,
slaughter or damage.
Welsh laws of the period also had a system of wergeld. As well as crimes
against people, the Welsh laws included cats and dogs–a cat was worth
fourpence once it had proved its worth by catching mice, twopence before
that, and just a penny while still a kitten that had yet to open its eyes. The
killing of mice was an important function, because mice infesting stored food
and grain could destroy the provisions that a community relied on for its own
survival. Likewise, guard dogs were valued–at twentyfour pence–unless
the dog was killed more than nine paces from the door, when no fine was
levied. The moral was that you should keep your dogs on a lead!
The reeve collected the fine on behalf of the king, and arranged for
compensation to be paid to the victim or his family. Nonpayment of fines
resulted in being outlawed or being enslaved for a set period of time. As royal
authority became more developed, death became the penalty for the worst
crimes–murder, treachery, arson and robbery–by hanging, beheading or
drowning. Arson was a particularly heinous crime – in a period when
everybody lived in wooden and thatched houses. Fire destroyed their shelter,
belongings, means of work and sometimes their lives. A death in a deliberate
fire was regarded as murder. Usually, there was no distinction made between
murder and manslaughter in this period.
AngloSaxon execution cemeteries have been excavated in a number of
counties across the country. Excavations at Walkington Wold in Yorkshire
have shown this execution site to date from the mid to late AngloSaxon
periods. The place had begun life as a Bronze Age barrow grave, and had seen
occupation and activity in the Roman period. It was not unusual for such
DARK AGE CRIMES