Saxon crime prevention

If a member of the community saw a crime being carried out, they would have to yell out for others in the village to join in the expected chase of the criminal.

If a person committed a crime against another then the victim's family were obliged to have a blood feud with the criminal's family.

This meant that the victim's family was allowed to take revenge on the criminal's family.

However, it caused a lot of problems because if the victim's family fought with a very harsh punishment, the criminal's family would feel the need to fight back harsher to balance things. This could go on for generations and the system was ended in the later Saxons period.

This translates to 'man price'. 

It was an act of compensation when a Saxon killed a Norman so the Saxon had to pay a fine to the Norman's family.

Fines payable depended on social status, for example, a wergild for a prince would be 1500 shillings and a serf would be 40 shillings. 

Once a man was aged 12 years old he was expected to join a tithing.

This was a group of 10 males aged over 12 to monitor each other's behaviour. Tithings had to bring a member to court or pay the compensation for the crime they committed.

It was used to decide guilt or innocence in the hands of God. This included:

Trial by Fire: The accused would be holding hot iron and have their wounds dressed. If after 3 days the wounds healed it was considered God had protected them and they were innocent. If the wounds were infected then God had forsaken them and would be punished for it.

Trial by Hot Water: The accused would retrieve an object from the bottom of a pot of boiling water. Their wounds were then bound and inspected 3 days later.

Trial by Cold Water: The accused was thrown into a pond of water that presented purity, therefore you were found guilty if you float. But, if the innocent was accepted into the pure water they drowned.

Trial by sacrament (bread): Was mainly used for the clergy and it involved the accused choking on a slice of bread and then eat the bread. If they survived they were innocent.