Law & Lawlessness: Brut (Welsh Law)

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Background

  • Often it is violence/infringement of honour results in higher compensation demanded
  • These texts present an idealistic picture of law and order in medieval Wales => compare to other forms of lterature
  • Brut y Tywysogyon (Brut) = composed after conquest of Wales by Edward I in 1282; deals with early 12th cent. feud between Owain ap Cadwygan of Powys & Gerald of Windsor
    • Esp. illuminates importance of kinship, role of lord/king, violence feuding, status of women
    • Narrative is highly-stylised, w/ lots of detail and direct speech - highlights its retrospective position and Powysian political agenda to extol Owain's deeds
    • Can iner from text that Anglo-Norman kings/lords exploited the violent feuding element of Welsh law for financial & political gain, often replacing kin-enforcement w/ their own officials' actiities
    • Legal value of woman's honour remained, in spite of a marginally less oppressive stance in Anglo-Norman and Angevin culture towards women, predominantly dependent on her relationships with men
      • Broadly corresponds with impression of law in action given by 13th cent. Welsh texts
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Other key law texts

  • Cyfraith Hywel = main Welsh legal texts containing the laws, which are associated with the 10th cent. Welsh king Hywel Dda
    • No versions of the laws survive in MS pre-dating the 13th cent.
    • Texts divided intwo 3 families of Welsh texts, and 1 of Latin texts
    • Welsh families are named after the jurists mentioned in their respective prefaces: Iorweth, Cyfnerth and Blegywryd
  • Naw Affaith Galanas Herwydd Gwyr Powys = lists the various offences which, when committed, could ignite a feud
  • These two texts inform our reading of the Brut
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Compensation in Welsh law

  • Sarhaed = honour price
    • When a man was slain, the slayer first had to ensure his sarhaed was paid
    • Corresponds to individual's social status
    • Sarhaed amounts for individuals of each rank listed in Cyfraith Hywel from royalty -> slave
    • = Payment for injury to a victim's honour, paid in addition to compensation for physical injury
    • By 13th cent. = payment for intential harm, so that an unintended killing would be compensated by the galanas alone
  • Galanas = life-price
    • More generaly applied to a blood-feud, e.g. between the kinsmen of a slayer and of the slain in a homicide case
    • Also dependent on status and v. similar to Germanic wergild payment
    • Galanas in terms of blood feud survived into late medieval Wales in some areas
      • Although the 1284 Statute of Wales insisted on establishing English law fully in Wales, it seems that galanas was still a recognised means of terminating a case of homicide in March in 15th cent.
      • = In keeping with attention on bloodfeud between Owain ap Cadwgan & Gerald of Windsor in Brut
  • Other payments of compensation for physical injury were not dependent on status but on nature of damage
    • Cyfraith Hywel: eyes, ears, nose, lips, hands and feet have same value of 480 pennies
    • These paints were articulated in cattle and partially coinage
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Feud in Brut

  • Describes the course of the feud as it ran from 1105 to 1116
    • Owain's attack on Gerald's castle and abduction of Gerald's wife Nest cause serious consequences for his family, which culminate in his own slaying on Gerald's instruction
  • Believed that the chronicle's entries from c. 1100 to c. 1175 were recorded in Llanbadarn Fawr, Ceredigion, where Owain's father, Cadwgan, held territory for some time
    • Brut is generally well disposed towards Powys, from which Cadwgan's family came
  • Sense of nationalistic Welsh fervour in opposition to the Normans - as such one can expect exaggerations of both Owain's bravery and Gerald's shame
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Kinship in the Brut

  • Are told Nest is a kinswoman of Owain's: 'And kinsfolk they were for Cadwgan ap Bleddyn and Gwladus, daughter of Rhiwallon, Nest's mother, were first cousins, and Bleddyn and Rhiwallon, sons of Cynfyn, were brothers by Angharad, daughter of king Maredudd.'
  • Davies: survival of blood feuds into 15th cent. in parts of Wales may be partly to the strength of blood-ties
  • Kinship was vital for galanas, both in terms of the feud itself and its legal settlement
    • When a member of a kindred/cenedl committed a wrongdoing, the entire kin, extending to 5th cousin, had to contribute towards the payments of compensation
    • Cyfraith Hywel: in the case of homicide, the first share of galanas had to be paid by the perpretator, their parents and siblings; the murderer paid one third, the parents and siblings the rest but the women only paid half as much as the men
      • This share was recieved by the respective parents and siblings of the victim, along with the victim's sarhaed 
      • Then 2 more shares of the galanas  were paid by members of the perpetrator's father's kindred, and 1 by the mother's - the corresponding memebrs of the victim's kindred recieved those payments
  • => Families of both the victim and perpetrator had a vested interest in the setttlement of the conflict - former wanting compensation, latter wanting to deter family members from commiting crimes and imposing this obligation on them
  • If the galanas payment was not settled, it was assumed that a bloodfeud or dial would result, which required the kindred of the victim to avenge the relative's death
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Issues with kin-enforcement

  • Brut: Cadwgan tried to restore Gerald's wife and spoil to him but was unable to obtain them from Owain; Cadwgan later made peace with King Henry I, receiving territory in Ceredigion on the condition he did not associate with Owain; Cadwgan was unable to stop Owain from causing trouble in Ceredigion and eventually killing William of Brabant (prominent member of the Flemish community in Wales)
  • J. E. Lloyd: demonstrated to Henry that Cadwgan could not restrain Owain, leading to Cadwgan's temporary dsiplacement from Ceredigion by the king
  • Davies: issues created by trying to make kindred pay compensation may have contributed to gradual dissapearance of the galanas system, given that it was not uncommon for relatives to flee rather than pay
    • E.g. Owain fled to Ireland
  • => Brut hints at flaws in galanas system, whereby kin-enforcement could not successfully mitigate further violence 
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Exploitation of galanas system

  • Gradual exploitation of galanas system by AN kings/lords, before it was ultimately subsumed into the English criminal legal system - process clearly evident in Brut
    • Brut:Richard, bishop of London and Henry I's steward at Shrewsbury, wished to avenge Gerald; summoned Ithel and Madog instructing them to either seize/expel Owain and father in order to please the king,  as Owain had 'done wrong and injury against king Henry and immense loss to Gerald the steward, his special friend'
  • Shows rulers' involvement in the feud in two ways:
  • 1) Involvement of Richard is explained in terms of his service to king rather than any blood-tie to those involved in the feud - encourages Ithel and Madog to act in service to the king also
    • Shows development from Cyfraith Hywel, which shows that, when the galanas had to be paid, the eldest son of the victim accopmanied royal servants during its collection so as to identify his father's descendants => involvement of both lord and kin
  • 2) Injury to Gerald = injury to Henry I too
    • May be partly explained by Gerald's 'service family' background - gained status by service to king not birth
    • Archenfield Domesday entry: shows it was the norm by the late 11th cent. for the lord to take one third of the wergild payment arising from a homicide, according to Welsh law
    • In late 13th cent. Archbishop Pecham remarked that the payment of wergild  rather than treating killing as crime against the king was an irrationality which disgraced Welsh law - can see this ideological influence on Brut's depiction of Henry's officials' involvement in the feud
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Royal involvement in feuding

  • Infers from Brut  that the king's involvement did not reduce the violent aspect of feuding
    • Madog and another man sent by Richard, Llywarch, apparently raided and burnt the area in which they had been searching for Cadwgan and Owain (both of whom had fled), even ravaging a church in which locals were hiding and taking spoints from the precints of the Saints David and Padarn
  • = in keeping with statement in Domesday customs that should a Welshman kill a Welshman, the victim's relatives could raid the houses of the perpetrator and his relatives until around noon the next day, when the corpse would be buried and the king would get one third of this plunder
  • Iorweth B text of Cyfraith Hywel: implies it was simply the right of the lorder to plunder the kin of the slayer
  • => Perhaps Richar or Henry I expected to receive a share of the spoils form Madog and Llywarch's raid
  • If kings and lords were encouraging this violent feuding behaviour prior to the settlement of galanas and sarhaed payments, it is probably expected that they would have often been unsuccessful in eliminating the vendettas between families which spectators such as Archbishop Pecham despised
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Royal involvement in feuding cont.

  • Henry I seems to have permitted men loyal to him to commit acts which would normally demand substantial payments in compensation according to Welsh law
  • E.g. having made peace with Owain, Henry I sent him and Llyward ap Trahaern to drive out Gruffudd ap Rhys who was accused of rising up against Anglo-Norman magnates and son
    • When they arrived in Ystrad Tywi (when they though he was staying) they sent in their men telling them to spare no one, incl. womena and children, 'without killing him or hanging him or cutting off his members'
  • Harris: notes that Welsh tariffs in the Cyfraith Hyrwel perceive the 5 sensory organs, hand and feet as the most prominent members of the body, the loss of which demanded a payment of 480 pennies
  • Yet in this account these people are seen as collateral damage
    • Discrepancy highlights the idealism of the tariffs, and the likelihood that many incidents went uncompensated
    • OR maybe this dramatic and violent instruction was an exaggeration incl. in the Brut  to highlight Owain's fearsome nature
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Women in the Brut

  • Nest's presentation in Brut at odds with known legal status of women from Welsh law texts
  • Women were seen as non-persons, recognised only as an appendage to their fathers, brother or husbands
    • No women had a galanas or sarhaed in her own right, except female slave
    • Otherwise half her brother's sarhaed before marriage, then one third of her husband's, whilst her galanas was equalt to half her brother's both before and after marriage
    • => Women were perceived as passive commodities useful for establishing alliances and bearing children - not natural participants in the feud, only ever receiving of compensation and never paying, unless on behalf of existent or potential children
  • BUT in Brut Nest is portrayed as ACTIVE party in her marriage
    • Upon hearing Owain and men setting Gerald's castle on fire, SHE instructs him to leave and informs them that Gerald is no longer there
    • Possible Nest's agency is emphasised at deliberate expense of her husband (text's bias)
  • Maund: Nest's actions must have been at least feasible to a 13th century audience
  • Brut states it was Nest who succeeded in persuading Owain to allow her children to return to Gerald after Cadwgan had failed - suggests women could negotation amidst a feud (even if result of his infatuation)
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Women in the Brut cont.

  • Provocation and consequences of Nest's abduction are consistent with principles of a woman's legal dependency on her husband
    • Maund: abduction was most likely and opportunistic act on Owain's part to insult Gerald
    • Text focuses on injury to Gerald: Cadwgan 'was indignantly grieved thereat because of the **** that had been committed upon Nest, daughter of Rhys and also for fear lest king Henry should be enraged at the injury to his steward'
  • Naw Affaith Galanas hergydd Gwyr Powys: dispute over a woman is among actions committed against a man which could create enmity and provoke a dial; was a great dishonour and sarhaed to a man for his wife to be insulted, as she was dependent on him
  • Virginal woman was entitled to several types of compensation if her virginity was forcibly taken from her
  • Rape of a married woman had fewer forms of compensation payment, her union with her husband being unaffected
  • If a woman was involved with a man who was not her husband, she could forfeit all her rights and be legally rejected by him
  • => Easy to imagine how many ****d wives would have been discardd by their husbands
  • Brutdoes not make Nest's fate clear - Maund inferred she did return to Gerald
  • Both Brut and Welsh legal texts suggest that insult to a married woman's honour, should she be ****d or abducted, was secondary to that inflicted upon her husband
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