Ethnic Relations: Ine's Laws

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Overview

  • Ine ruled Wessex 688-726 = earliest non-Kentish legislator we have record of
  • Ine's Laws = WS King Ine's law code; composed in late 7th cent. sometime between 688 and 694; survives today compiled as appendic in Alfred the Great's 9th cent. law code and is undated/unplaced
  • Wormald: importantly, Ine's laws not an 'Alfredian paraphrase'
  • Fact that at least one of Ine's laws is echoed by Wihtraed, ruled Kent from c. 690/1, in own law code implies Ine's laws were written down during early years of his reign
  • Syntax used = far superior in terms of complexity to that of even later Kentish legal codes: of 137 clauses, 18 are relatives and 17 are 'statements of principle' => approx. 1/4 of all clauses were not conditional at all
    • Wormald: complexity 'increases the chances that, were Aethelberht's law reproduced in pre-existing observance, Ine's were new law in their own right: law was actually being made in writing 
    • => Wormald argues Ine is not only transitioning from oral transmitance of law to physical recording of it, but is also creating as opposed to merely recording laws/interpretations of social justice
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Structure of Ine's Laws

  • Wormald: structure is 'the least organised post-Roman legal statement'
  • Opens with Church law & injuries to the king's peace clauses -closely paralleled in contemporary legislation in Kent
  • Then 5 or so declarations on subject of theft, each separated from one another by at least 6 clauses on other social issues and injustices
  • Then first of at least 4 sets of laws regarding relationships and the 'wergelds' of English and 'Welsh' citizens
  • Later we have decrees on the responsibilities of the gesith (companion to a king), displaced by approx. 12 further laws regarding gesith  obligations (theft and English-Welsh disputes feature heavily in these laws)
    • Notably high level of repition between these clauses: e.g. multiple clauses on repeat theft offenders being punished when caught by losing hand and/or foot
  • => Ine's laws do not appear to have been pre-planned - chaotic structure
  • Wormald: look to Europe for parallels e.g. Lex Salica would look similar if it survived in manuscripts that added later legislation to the older, pre-existing core
    • Burgundian Code only survives in expanded form and is similar to Ine's Laws in terms of disorganised format
  • Wormald: => Ine's laws is not a legal code as much as it was a 'series of enactments added to an original core ove ryears or decades'
  • Due to nature of survival, maybe some laws attributed by Alfred to Ine were actually those of Ine's successors
  • Structure shows early WS law-makers were writing down legislation in response to social problems as they arose; law making = 'live' process and one which grew to become an integral part of a king's responsibilities
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Comparison to Dunsaete Ordinance & Norðleoda laga

  • Dunsaete Ordinance (DO) = legal document designed tor egularte affairs between the 'Welsh' and 'English' populations residing in a shared geographical region but revivided by a river that was likely the Wye
  • Fordham: DO = evidence of king adapting their approach to rulership and law-keeping to successfully champion new challenges, most notably regarding relationship between society members residing in core & periphery of kingdom
  • Purpose of DO = primarily peace-keeping, awarding wergilds to all members of society in a similar way to Ine's laws
    • BUT considerably less special treatment between the ranks of society compared to both Ine and the Norðleoda laga
    • Gives insight into delicate relationship between the 2 ethnic groups, as suggests document was designed to aid the general keeping of peace with as little disruption as poss. as opposed to punishing injustices based on the rank and status of those involved 
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Contents of Ine's Laws

  • Ine's law = feud-centred, meaning it was primarily focused on compensating injury
  • See more active level of royal involvement in this early form of jurisdiction
    • 'Wite' = fine paid to king; applied almost as a matter of course
    • Victimisation of/injury to the king through disruption of peace becomes increasingly accentuated in vocuabulary of text
    • E.g. 'If anyone catches a thief, or is given a captive, and he then let him go or concealed the thief, let him pary for the thief with his wergeld' - wergeld here is paid to a governmental authority as opposed to the victim
  • Similarly to Merovingian kings transitioning form codified lex to royal edicta, Ine gravitated towards making fiscal gains from those who disturbed his social stability
  • Exploitation of law for economic growth is strong indicator for mapping growth and evolution of AS royal power during 7th cent.; growth in revenue creates a growth in power
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Discrimination in law

  • Ine dictates value of each stratum of society dependent upon both class and injury
  • Significantly, he awards wealas (i.e. Welsh subjects) just half the legal status of his English subjects
    • Similar discrimination in Lex Salica's discrimination in favour of Franks
    • Not to say 6th cent. Lex Salica was direct inspiration for Ine, but more that English law went on to develop in similar way Continental law did
    • Wormald: law evolves to be at once the vehicle of accepted 'popular' tradition and a tool of aggressive royal power
  • Key lessons from distinction between Welsh and English legal status in Ine's law
    • 1) There were Welsh subjects present both in Wessex and Ine's court
    • 2) Discrimination in legal status = reflection of contemporary prejudices towards & tensions with Welsh groups
  • Wealas = unspecific and Wales was subdivided into a number of kin-groups and kingdoms
    • Whether wealas was a generic term used to refer to all Breton-speaking people or a specific kin-group cannot be gauged from text
    • Term doe stell us there was a strong sense of ethnic identity that resulted in social and legal seperation of West Saxons and wealas counterparts
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Wider impact of Ine's laws

  • Impact can be seen on later legislation, mos famously Alfred's law book in which it is preserved
  • Influence on Norðleoda laga, preserved by Wulfstand alongside Mircna laga and Að
  • Norðleoda laga = list of wergelds assigned to different strata of Northumbrian society from king downwards
    • Unsure when document dates but inclusion of wergeld for 'high-reeve' and hold classes show it must postdate Scandinavian invasions
  • Distinction between classes and ethnic factions likely derived from Ine's laws' influence and demonstrates the continuation of this storng sense of ethnic diversity across medieval England
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