Weregild: The dead man was worth a monetary amount to his family. If the murderers pay this amount then the family has no right to pursue further justice.
Compurgation: If the accused can find a certain number of land-owing men to attest to his good character he can clear his name.
Thanks for the link; it seems an interesting book, I'll see whether someone can get it from me. It's not easy to get the really cool stuff here in Hungary, where I live.
Such things are possible? *is amazed* Shows how much - or how little - I know about all this Internet business. Then I'm even more grateful and will hop over and take a look. Thank you!
I've chosen to allow Cadfael suggesting that they would use the Welsh practice of the blood-price: the culprit will pay a certain sum for the victim's widow on a weekly basis, until her son reaches the age of 14 and will be able to take care of his mother (unless she remarries before that). I hope I won't get lynched for it by historically savvy people. :)England =/= Wales. They are very different countries that happen to share a border. Welsh ideas of law and justice are very different than English ideas of law and justice
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Going by the Cadfael books, the laws ruling in Shrewsbury were definitely the English ones. When reading the Cadfael book Dead Man's Ransom, even in Shrewsbury there were occasional frictions with Welsh factions that even came over the border for looting. If that is the political situation according to the books, then it would seem very unlikely that Beringar would even consider following Welsh customs on English ground.
So I'm thinking there would have to be special circumstances in which Welsh customs would be followed in something as serious as murder cases. Like say, if the family of the murdered man was Welsh and would be willing to accept the blood-price and Beringar didn't think the proof good enough for hanging.
Actually, the murdered man's widow is Welsh, without any living relatives, with a recently-born child and in desperate need of money, which is why I thought this solution would be acceptable. I had Beringar decided that since the other people involved in the murder case were dead already (and the fourth one having the least guilt of all), the widow would profit more from a financial compensation than from a fourth death.
Glad you're delighted by the thought of Cadfael fic. There is clearly not enough of those out there.
Compurgation: If the accused can find a certain number of land-owing men to attest to his good character he can clear his name.
From "The History of England from the Earliest Times to the Norman Conquest", page 226 and onwards. http://books.google.com/books?id=wUkNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA226&lpg=PA226&dq=wergild+norman&source=bl&ots=HEqSylMAHL&sig=BU3SVXfSOoPEwhGfT5BM49TBqJo&hl=en&ei=YdQSTfzfMoissAOc3ZzOAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=wergild%20norman&f=false
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So I'm thinking there would have to be special circumstances in which Welsh customs would be followed in something as serious as murder cases. Like say, if the family of the murdered man was Welsh and would be willing to accept the blood-price and Beringar didn't think the proof good enough for hanging.
Also, yeay for Cadfael fic!
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Glad you're delighted by the thought of Cadfael fic. There is clearly not enough of those out there.
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