''Ewa ad Amorem'', traditionally known as the ''Lex Francorum Chamavorum'', is a 9th-century
law code
A code of law, also called a law code or legal code, is a systematic collection of statutes. It is a type of legislation that purports to exhaustively cover a complete system of laws or a particular area of law as it existed at the time the cod ...
from the
Carolingian Empire
The Carolingian Empire (800–888) was a large Frankish-dominated empire in western and central Europe during the Early Middle Ages. It was ruled by the Carolingian dynasty, which had ruled as kings of the Franks since 751 and as kings of the Lom ...
. It is generally counted among the ''
leges barbarorum
Germanic law is a scholarly term used to described a series of commonalities between the various law codes (the ''Leges Barbarorum'', 'laws of the barbarians', also called Leges) of the early Germanic peoples. These were compared with statements ...
'' (barbarian laws), but it was not a national law. It applied only to a certain region in the
Low Countries
The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...
, although exactly where is disputed. Its association with the
Chamavi
The Chamavi, Chamãves or Chamaboe () were a Germanic tribe of Roman imperial times whose name survived into the Early Middle Ages. They first appear under that name in the 1st century AD '' Germania'' of Tacitus as a Germanic tribe that lived to ...
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
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, ce ...
, BN Lat. 4628A and BN Lat. 9654 (Codex Sancti Vincentii Mettensis, from
Metz
Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand E ...
). A 15th-century copy, identical to BN Lat. 4628A is found in BN Lat. 4631 (Codex Navarricus, from the
College of Navarre
The College of Navarre (french: Collège de Navarre) was one of the colleges of the historic University of Paris, rivaling the Sorbonne and renowned for its library.
History
It was founded by Queen Joan I of Navarre in 1305, who provided for thr ...
). 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
The High German dialects (german: hochdeutsche Mundarten), or simply High German (); not to be confused with Standard High German which is commonly also called ''High German'', comprise the varieties of German spoken south of the Benrath and ...
gloss ''gezunfti'', meaning "pact, contract", to explain ''ewa''. The general meaning of
Old High German
Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050.
There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old High ...
''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
A capitulary (Medieval Latin ) was a series of legislative or administrative acts emanating from the Frankish court of the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties, especially that of Charlemagne, the first emperor of the Romans in the west since the ...
". 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 Chamavi, Chamãves or Chamaboe () were a Germanic tribe of Roman imperial times whose name survived into the Early Middle Ages. They first appear under that name in the 1st century AD '' Germania'' of Tacitus as a Germanic tribe that lived to ...
. 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
Hamaland (also Hameland) was a medieval Carolingian vassal county in the east of the modern-day Netherlands. Its name originated from the former Chamavi inhabitants that merged into the newly formed confederation of Franks. It is located east of ...
, 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
Groot-Ammers is a town in the Dutch province of South Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Molenlanden, and is located about 13 km southeast of Gouda on the southside of the Lek River.
In 2001, the town of Groot-Ammers had 2822 inhab ...
and
Ammerstol
Ammerstol is a village, part of the municipality of Krimpenerwaard in the Netherlands. It is located about southeast of Gouda, on the Lek River.
Between 1817 and 1985, Ammerstol was an independent municipality. Until 2015, it was part of Bergam ...
, thus placing the land of Amor in
Alblasserwaard
The Alblasserwaard () is a polder in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is mainly known for the windmills of Kinderdijk, located near the village of Kinderdijk in the polder's northwestern part.
History
The first human inhabitan ...
, in the western Netherlands around the
Waal
WAAL (99.1 FM "The Whale") is a commercial radio station licensed to Binghamton, New York. It airs a classic rock radio format and is owned by Townsquare Media. WAAL is the oldest FM radio station in the Binghamton metropolitan area. It is an ...
. J. F. Niermeyer extended Amorland to cover the entire central Netherlands, including
Batavia
Batavia may refer to:
Historical places
* Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands
* Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...
and extending north of the
Rhine
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source1_coordinates=
, source1_elevation =
, source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein
, source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source2_coordinates=
, so ...
as far as the
IJssel
The IJssel (; nds-nl, Iessel(t) ) is a Dutch distributary of the river Rhine that flows northward and ultimately discharges into the IJsselmeer (before the 1932 completion of the Afsluitdijk known as the Zuiderzee), a North Sea natural harbour ...
. Luit van der Tuuk argued that
Dorestad
Dorestad (''Dorestat, Duristat'') was an early medieval emporium, located in the southeast of the province of Utrecht in the Netherlands, close to the modern-day town of Wijk bij Duurstede.
It flourished during the 8th to early 9th centuries, ...
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
Francia, also called the Kingdom of the Franks ( la, Regnum Francorum), Frankish Kingdom, Frankland or Frankish Empire ( la, Imperium Francorum), was the largest post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. It was ruled by the Franks dur ...
facing the
Frisians
The Frisians are a Germanic ethnic group native to the coastal regions of the Netherlands and northwestern Germany. They inhabit an area known as Frisia and are concentrated in the Dutch provinces of Friesland and Groningen and, in Germany, ...
and
Saxons
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 ...
.
Georg Pertz
Georg Heinrich Pertz (28 March 17957 October 1876) was a German historian.
Personal life
Pertz was born in Hanover on 28 March 1795. His parents were the court bookbinder Christian August Pertz and Henrietta Justina née Deppen.
He married twi ...
interpreted the phrases "''in sanctis''" and "''in loco qui dicitur sanctum''" in the ''Ewa ad Amorem'' as referring to
Xanten
Xanten (, Low Rhenish: ''Santen'') is a town in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the district of Wesel.
Xanten is known for the Archaeological Park, one of the largest archaeological open air museums in the wor ...
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
The Carolingian dynasty (; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charlemagne, grandson of mayor Charles Martel and a descendant of the Arnulfing and Pippin ...
. It is most probably of the 9th century. It has been connected with
Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...
's codification program of 802–803, which also produced the ''
Lex Thuringorum
The ''Lex Thuringorum'' ("Law of the Thuringians") is a law code that survives today in one 10th-century manuscript, the Codex Corbeiensis, alongside a copy of the ''Lex Saxonum'', the law of the Saxons. The code was compiled in the first decade of ...
'', ''
Lex Frisionum ''Lex Frisionum'', the "Law Code of the Frisians", was recorded in Latin during the reign of Charlemagne, after the year 785, when the Frankish conquest of Frisia was completed by the final defeat of the Saxon rebel leader Widukind. The law code co ...
'' and ''
Lex Saxonum
The ''Lex Saxonum'' are a series of laws issued by Charlemagne between 782 and 803 as part of his plan to subdue the Saxon nation. The law is thus a compromise between the traditional customs and statutes of the pagan Saxons and the established la ...
''. 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
Étienne Baluze (24 November 1630 – 28 July 1718) was a French scholar and historiographer, also known as Stephanus Baluzius.
Biography
Born in Tulle, he was educated at his native town, at the Jesuit college, where he studied the Arts. He ...
thought the ''Ewa'' was the "forty-six articles concerning matters of necessity to God's church and the Christian people" issued at
Aachen
Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th- ...
in 813 according to the ''
Chronicle of Moissac
The ''Chronicle of Moissac'' (also known as ''Chronicon Moissiacense'') is an anonymous compilation that was discovered in the abbey of Moissac, but is now thought to have been compiled in the Catalan monastery of Ripoll in the end of the tenth c ...
''. 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
In the Middle Ages, the ban (Latin ''bannus'' or ''bannum'', German ''Bann'') or banality (French ''banalité'') was originally the power to command men in war and evolved into the general authority to order and to punish. As such, it was the basis ...
'' "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
count
Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...
s and ''
missi''. Under the ''bannum'', a person could be summoned to a ''
placitum In the early Middle Ages, a (Latin for "plea") was a public judicial assembly. origins can be traced to military gatherings in the Frankish kingdoms in the seventh century. After the Frankish conquest of Italy in 774, were introduced before the ...
'' (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
The Salic law ( or ; la, Lex salica), also called the was the ancient Frankish civil law code compiled around AD 500 by the first Frankish King, Clovis. The written text is in Latin and contains some of the earliest known instances of Old Du ...
''.
In the ''Ewa'', there are two senses of the word ''Francus'' (
Frank
Frank or Franks may refer to:
People
* Frank (given name)
* Frank (surname)
* Franks (surname)
* Franks, a medieval Germanic people
* Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang
Curre ...
): 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
Weregild (also spelled wergild, wergeld (in archaic/historical usage of English), weregeld, etc.), also known as man price (blood money), was a precept in some archaic legal codes whereby a monetary value was established for a person's life, to b ...
'' (blood price), in the ''Ewa'' the ''Francus homo'' has a ''wergild'' three times higher than an ''ingenuus'': 600 ''
solidi
The ''solidus'' (Latin 'solid'; ''solidi'') or nomisma ( grc-gre, νόμισμα, ''nómisma'', 'coin') was a highly pure gold coin issued in the Late Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire. Constantine introduced the coin, and its weight ...
'' 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
(, German: "ancient nobility"; adjective or ) is a genealogical term introduced in late 18th-century Germany to distinguish those families whose noble rank can be traced to the 14th century or earlier. The word stands opposed to ''Briefadel'', ...
'', the oldest strain of the local nobility, that had long before adopted a Frankish identity.
Notes
Bibliography
Editions
*
* Reprinted in:
*:
*
*
Secondary sources
*
*
*
*
* Translated into French by S. Laboulaye as:
*:
*
*
*
{{refend
External links
Lex Francorum Chamavorumat ''Bibliotheca Legum: A Database on Carolingian Secular Law Texts'', .
Lex Francorum Chamavorumat ''Geschichtsquellen des deutschen Mittelalters''.
9th century in law
Germanic legal codes