''Aldii'' were semifree in
Germanic law
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 ...
. Employees of a patron, they had a position intermediate between freedom and slavery but ended up sometimes being confused with the serfs. Deprived of political and military rights and related to the land that they cultivated, they could, however, marry and be defended in court, and they were entitled to
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 ...
(but the amount is less than that of free men) and, within limits, to their property.
[Drew, Katherine Fischer]
''The Lombard laws''
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1973.
References
Legal history of Germany
Germanic legal codes