Lex Chamavorum

''Ewa ad Amorem'', traditionally known as the ''Lex Francorum Chamavorum'', is a 9th-century law code from the Carolingian Empire. It is generally counted among the ''leges barbarorum'' (barbarian laws), but it was not a national law. It applied only to a certain region in the Low Countries, although exactly where is disputed. Its association with the Chamavi is a modern conjecture.

Title, manuscripts and editions

''Ewa ad Amorem'' is known from two manuscript copies of the 10th century now in the National Library of France, BN Lat. 4628A and BN Lat. 9654 (Codex Sancti Vincentii Mettensis, from Metz). A 15th-century copy, identical to BN Lat. 4628A is found in BN Lat. 4631 (Codex Navarricus, from the College of Navarre). In BN Lat. 9654, the work is entitled ''Notitia vel commemoratio de illa euua quae se ad Amorem habet''. In the 10th or 11th century, a scribe added the High German gloss ''gezunfti'', meaning "pact, contract", to explain ''ewa''. The general meaning of Old High German ''êwa'' is "law" or "custom". It had a "technical legal function ... made clear by its adoption into the Latin vocabulary of the ''Leges Barbarorum'' to denote the unwritten customary law of different Germanic tribes as distinct from laws established by capitularies". Kees Nieuwenhuijsen translates ''euua quae se ad Amorem habet'' as "the law that they have along the Amor".

The name ''Lex Francorum Chamavorum'' (or simply ''Lex Chamavorum''), which means "law of the Chamavian Franks", is a modern invention, derived from E. T. Gaupp's conclusion that the text belonged to the Hama(r)land, the Amor of the title, and his interpretation of this as the land of the Chamavi. The Latin text has been published at least four times; ; ; . and there are French, German, English and Dutch translations.

Date and place

The work contains no internal indicators of ethnic or geographic attachment. Only the use of ''Amor'' in the title indicates a place, but its interpretation is uncertain. Traditionally, German scholars have identified Amor with the Hamaland, located partially in northwestern Germany, while Dutch scholars have placed it further west in the Netherlands. R. Fruin identified the Amor (or Ammor, Amer) with a lost river, whose name he thought was preserved in the placenames Groot-Ammers and Ammerstol, thus placing the land of Amor in Alblasserwaard, in the western Netherlands around the Waal. J. F. Niermeyer extended Amorland to cover the entire central Netherlands, including Batavia and extending north of the Rhine as far as the IJssel. Luit van der Tuuk argued that Dorestad represented its northern frontier and that it did not extend beyond the Rhine. In either case, ''Ewa ad Amorem'' is associated with the northern frontier of Francia facing the Frisians and Saxons.

Georg Pertz interpreted the phrases "''in sanctis''" and "''in loco qui dicitur sanctum''" in the ''Ewa ad Amorem'' as referring to Xanten and associated the text with that place. Although the spelling Sanctum for Xanten does occur in medieval Latin texts, it is more likely that here it means "holy".

The date of the text is uncertain, but its administrative language is certainly Carolingian. It is most probably of the 9th century. It has been connected with Charlemagne's codification program of 802–803, which also produced the ''Lex Thuringorum'', '' Lex Frisionum'' and ''Lex Saxonum''. If so, this suggests that the ''Ewa'' should also be associated with a land or people beyond the Rhine. Collectively, these four codes have been called ''karolingischen Stammesrechte'' ("Carolingian tribal laws"). Étienne Baluze thought the ''Ewa'' was the "forty-six articles concerning matters of necessity to God's church and the Christian people" issued at Aachen in 813 according to the ''Chronicle of Moissac''. This thesis, however, is untenable.

Legal content

Gaupp classified the ''Ewa'' as ethnic law, while Henri Froidevaux argued that it was royal law. Thomas Faulkner rejects both, preferring to see it as some sort of regional agreement (as the gloss ''gezunfti'' suggests) between two unequal but not ethnically distinct parties.

The ''Ewa'' is divided into 48 chapters. The first two are given in the first person, asserting that "we have" ecclesiastical matters and the ''bannum'' "as other Franks" have them. A total of eight chapters deal with the ''bannum'', the right to command, both that of the king and that of his officials, such as counts and '' missi''. Under the ''bannum'', a person could be summoned to a '' placitum'' (the count's court), to do guard duty or to go to war. Failure to obey incurred a fine payable to the king, the so-called king's peace (''fredus dominicus''). The emphasis on the ''bannum'', the ''fredus'' and the rights of the king and his officials sets the ''Ewa'' apart from, e.g., the Frankish '' Lex Salica''.

In the ''Ewa'', there are two senses of the word ''Francus'' ( Frank): that indicated by the phrase ''alii Franci'' (other Franks) in chapters 1, 2 and 13 and that indicated by the phrase ''Francus homo'' (Frankish nobleman). In contrast to earlier ''leges barbarorum'', wherein the ''homo ingenuus'' (freeman) is the highest social rank with the highest '' wergild'' (blood price), in the ''Ewa'' the ''Francus homo'' has a ''wergild'' three times higher than an ''ingenuus'': 600 '' solidi'' versus 200. Traditionally, the ''Franci homines'' have been seen as recently arrived ethnically Frankish settlers living amongst a non-Frankish population. Alternatively, they may be the '' Uradel'', the oldest strain of the local nobility, that had long before adopted a Frankish identity.

Notes

Bibliography

Editions

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Secondary sources

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External links

Lex Francorum Chamavorum
at ''Bibliotheca Legum: A Database on Carolingian Secular Law Texts'', .
Lex Francorum Chamavorum
at ''Geschichtsquellen des deutschen Mittelalters''.

9th century in law
Germanic legal codes