The title ''Leges Edwardi Confessoris'', or ''Laws of Edward the Confessor'', refers to a collection of laws, purporting to represent English law in the time of

Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor ; la, Eduardus Confessor , ; ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was one of the last Anglo-Saxon English kings. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066. Edward was the son of Æth ...

(reigned 1042–1066), as recited to the

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

invader king William I in 1070, but which was not composed until probably the early years of the reign of King Stephen (r. 1135–1154).

Background

The issue of continuity and change in post conquest England is a topic of significant debate in scholarship. By 1086, there were very few Englishmen among the 200 or so major landowners recorded in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

. Normans,

Flemings The Flemish or Flemings ( nl, Vlamingen ) are a Germanic ethnic group native to Flanders, Belgium, who speak Dutch. Flemish people make up the majority of Belgians, at about 60%. "''Flemish''" was historically a geographical term, as all inha ...

Bretons The Bretons (; br, Bretoned or ''Vretoned,'' ) are a Celts, Celtic ethnic group native to Brittany. They trace much of their heritage to groups of Common Brittonic, Brittonic speakers who emigrated from Dumnonia, southwestern Great Britain, par ...

and others had settled on the estates of dead, dispossessed or

outlawed An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them ...

English nobility. Contemporary

chronicle A chronicle ( la, chronica, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and lo ...

rs were divided, with Henry of Huntingdon writing that the English people had been "delivered pfor destruction by the violent and cunning Norman people", while William of Poitiers lauded the Norman victory at the

Battle of Hastings The Battle of Hastings nrf, Batâle dé Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William the Conqueror, William, the Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godw ...

and said the slaughter of the English had been just punishment for Harold Godwinson "perjury". The ''Leges Edwardi'' served the purpose of legitimizing the legacy of

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...

s rule and distancing the 12th-century ruling class of England from their violent origins as conquerors. The treatise is believed to have been written sometime between 1130 and 1135, towards the end of

Henry I Henry I may refer to: 876–1366 * Henry I the Fowler, King of Germany (876–936) * Henry I, Duke of Bavaria (died 955) * Henry I of Austria, Margrave of Austria (died 1018) * Henry I of France (1008–1060) * Henry I the Long, Margrave of the No ...

reign. Historians believe the treatise intended to recast Norman institutions as having

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

origins. The work's authority lay in its claim that the author had recorded the laws and customs that were spoken to

in 1070, four years after the

by "English nobles who were wise men and learned in their law". The

apocrypha Apocrypha are works, usually written, of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin. The word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered ...

l account claims that William yielded to English demands to live under the English laws of

or the ''laga Edwardi''. The value of the treatise stems more from its influence on postconquest perceptions of Norman rule than the historicity of the author's claims about the treatise's origin. The ''laga Edwardi'' is not a single law code, but rather is a descriptive term meaning the laws and customs of England that were observed prior to the Norman conquest. English bishops like

Dunstan Saint Dunstan (c. 909 – 19 May 988) was an English bishop. He was successively Abbot of Glastonbury, Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, Bishop of Worcester, Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury, later canonised as a saint. His work restor ...

and Wulfstan wrote the laws of

Edgar Edgar is a commonly used English given name, from an Anglo-Saxon name ''Eadgar'' (composed of '' ead'' "rich, prosperous" and ''gar'' "spear"). Like most Anglo-Saxon names, it fell out of use by the later medieval period; it was, however, rev ...

, Æthelred the Unready and

Cnut Cnut (; ang, Cnut cyning; non, Knútr inn ríki ; or , no, Knut den mektige, sv, Knut den Store. died 12 November 1035), also known as Cnut the Great and Canute, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norwa ...

. Most of these preconquest law codes, including

Instituta Cnuti The ''Instituta Cnuti'', in full ''Instituta Cnuti aliorumque regum Anglorum'' (''Institutes of Cnut and other kings of the English''), is a legal compilation that cites, in Latin translation, selected material of Old English law. It was put togeth ...

, have only survived in postconquest Church compilations the earliest of which is the Textus Roffensis, dated to around 1123. William's purported acceptance of the ''laga Edwardi'' symbolized the continuity from Edward the Confessor's reign to his own, perhaps seeking to minimize the disruption caused by the conquest in 1066.

Leges Edwardi

Prior to the 17th century the ''Leges Edwardi Confessoris'' had several titles variously attributing the treatise to Edward or William. It is one of the four major treatises on the ''laga Edwardi''. The others are the Willelmi articuli decem,

Leis Willelme William the Conqueror, the first Norman King of England who reigned from 1066 until his death in 1087, created 10 laws for the English people to abide by after the Battle of Hastings. Laws * The first law stated that "First that above all things ...

, and

Leges Henrici Primi The ''Leges Henrici Primi'' or ''Laws of Henry I'' is a legal treatise, written in about 1115, that records the legal customs of medieval England in the reign of King Henry I of England. Although it is not an official document, it was written ...

. The ''Leges Edwardi'' is not directly based upon any known sources of preconquest laws, instead borrowing at times from a

Frankish Frankish may refer to: * Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture ** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages * Francia, a post-Roman state in France and Germany * East Francia, the successor state to Francia in Germany ...

text. In the absence of evidence, scholars have debated the extent to which the earlier Danelaw may have influenced the ''Leges Edwardi''. The treatise itself claimed that the origins of the

murder fine Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the c ...

could be traced back to

. This fine was imposed on the entire

vill Vill is a term used in English history to describe the basic rural land unit, roughly comparable to that of a parish, manor, village or tithing. Medieval developments The vill was the smallest territorial and administrative unit—a geographical ...

or hundred whenever a Norman was found slain. The ''Leges Edwardi'' says the practice was first introduced by Cnut to protect the Danes from the English. This claim was accepted by the 13th century legal writer Bracton. Felix Liebermann has argued that the assertion of Danish origins was an invention intended to shift the blame for the fine to the previous Danish rulers, but other scholars have disputed this. The primary concerns of the text lay with the king's peace and the peace of the Holy Church, especially in the North Midlands and Yorkshire region bordering on the Danelaw. Although the emphasis is on common law, the same text shows that there were regional differences. : :" 2There are many types of the king's peace; one is given by his hand, which the English call ''kinges hand salde grid''; 2aanother

s given S, or s, is the nineteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ess'' (pronounced ), plural ''esses''. History ...

on the day on which he is first crowned — this one lasts for eight days; at Christmas eight days and eight days at Easter and eight days at Pentecost; 2banother is given by his writ; 2canother which the four roads have, that is Watling Street, Fosse Way, Iknield Way, and Ermine Street, of which two extend for the length of the kingdom, the others across the width." Other points of interest include references to the

wapentake A hundred is an administrative division that is geographically part of a larger region. It was formerly used in England, Wales, some parts of the United States, Denmark, Southern Schleswig, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek, C ...

, the

reeve Reeve may refer to: Titles *Reeve (Canada), an elected chief executive of some counties, townships, and equivalents *Reeve (England), an official elected annually by the serfs to supervise lands for a lord *High-reeve, a title taken by some Englis ...

of the riding,

Peter's Pence Peter's Pence (or ''Denarii Sancti Petri'' and "Alms of St Peter") are donations or payments made directly to the Holy See of the Catholic Church. The practice began under the Saxons in England and spread through Europe. Both before and after the ...

, murder fines (''murdrum''), consciousness about England's

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

heritage, and the legal position of Jews in England. The most recent editor, Bruce O'Brien, has speculated that the popularity of the treatise may have been due to its portrayal of "a Norman king interested in preserving and maintaining" the native laws of the English nobility. The ''Leges Edwardi'' argues that what the work offers instead are "apparently original observations of and comments on the English law of the author's day."O'Brien, God's Peace, p. 29.

Influence

Aided by the Confessor's legendary reputation as a lawgiver, the compilation enjoyed considerable interest in medieval England. The text is found in a large number of manuscripts. Four recensions have been distinguished, two of which are revisions with additional material being grafted on to the core of the text. A version of the ''Leges Edwardi Confessoris'' was known to Henry de Bracton and to the barons and jurists responsible for ''

Magna Carta (Medieval Latin for "Great Charter of Freedoms"), commonly called (also ''Magna Charta''; "Great Charter"), is a royal charter of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. First drafted by the ...

''. In 17th century, during the controversy about

Ancient constitution of England The ancient constitution of England was a 17th-century political theory about the common law, and the antiquity of the House of Commons, used at the time in particular to oppose the royal prerogative. It was developed initially by Sir Edward Coke, i ...

, Leges Edwardi Confessoris was frequently used as support for the antiquity of the House of Commons.

Notes

References

*Constable, Marianne. The Law of the Other: The Mixed Jury and Changing Conceptions of Citizenship, Law, and Knowledge. University of Chicago Press, 1994. *Hamil, Frederick Coyne. "Presentment of Englishry and the Murder Fine." Speculum 12, no. 3 (1937): 285-98 *O'Brien, Bruce R. (ed. and tr.) ''God's peace and king's peace: the laws of Edward the Confessor.'' Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. *O'Brien, Bruce R. "Forgers of Law and Their Readers: The Crafting of English Political Identities between the Norman Conquest and the Magna Carta." PS: Political Science and Politics 43, no. 3 (2010): 467-73. *Yntema, Hessel E. "The Lex Murdrorum: An Episode in the History of English Criminal Law." Harvard Law Review 36, no. 2 (1922): 146-79.

External links