Editing Edgar, King of England (section)

=== Law ===
Four law codes have been attributed to Edgar, but the correct number is two. The ''[[Hundred (county division)|Hundred Ordinance]]'' was formerly called I Edgar by historians, but it does not say who issued it, and it may date to an earlier king. II and III Edgar are the ecclesiastical and secular sections of one set of provisions, known as the Andover Code. IV Edgar is thus the second code.{{sfnm|1a1=Wormald|1y=1999|1pp=313, 378|2a1=Whitelock|2y=1979|2pp=431–437|3a1=Robertson|3y=1925|3pp=16–39}} Edgar was more concerned with the administration of the law than its substance. His primary concern was to ensure that existing laws were properly enforced.{{sfn|Keynes|1999|p=480}} Law codes were not unilateral royal pronouncements, but issued with the advice of the king's councillors.{{sfn|Huscroft|2019|p=154}}

The legal historian [[Patrick Wormald]] describes the Andover Code as impressive and rational.{{sfn|Wormald|1999|pp=316–317}} II Edgar covers ecclesiastical matters, especially church dues.{{sfn|Williams|2014}} For the first time, a specific penalty was prescribed for non-payment of [[tithe]]s, and anyone who did not pay [[Romescot]], the penny due to the Pope, had to take it to Rome – a penalty theoretical rather than real.{{sfn|Blair|2005|p=442}} III Edgar is concerned with making justice accessible, preventing unjust judgments, standardisation of weights and measures, and that "one coinage is to be current throughout all the king's dominion".{{sfn|Williams|2014}} Plaintiffs had to exhaust other avenues before they were allowed recourse to the king, judgements had to be just and punishments had to be appropriate.{{sfn|Wormald|1999|p=315}} Courts were to be held regularly, and every man was to provide himself with a [[surety]] to hold him to his legal duty.{{sfnm|1a1=Keynes|1y=1999|1pp=480–481|2a1=Robertson|2y=1925|2p=27}} The preservation of order required the cooperation of the secular and religious authorities, but it is not until III Edgar that ealdormen and bishops were required to work together in the judgement of legal cases.{{sfn|Trousdale|2013|p=295}}

IV Edgar is more wordy than the Andover Code and more rhetorical than any previous one.{{sfn|Wormald|1999|p=318}} It has attracted the most attention by historians as it recognises the separate customs of the former Viking [[Kingdom of York]], which was to have "such good laws as they best decide on".{{sfn|Williams|2014}} [[Wapentake]]s, the name in the northern [[Danelaw]] for the administrative divisions known to the Anglo-Saxons as hundreds, are first mentioned in this law code.{{sfn|Hadley|2000|p=105}} One exception to the concession that the Danelaw was to have its own customs was a provision to make the sale of stolen goods more difficult. At least twelve sworn witnesses were to be appointed in each [[burh]], hundred and wapentake, and all transactions had to be witnessed by two or three of these witnesses.{{sfn|Molyneaux|2015|p=122}} Shires, hundreds and wapentakes began to play an important part in the king's control over the population around this time.{{sfn|Molyneaux|2015|pp=48–49}} IV Edgar refers "to all the nation, whether Englishmen, Danes or Britons, in every province of my dominion", recognising that Edgar's subjects were made up of three distinct political communities.{{sfn|Keynes|2008a|p=25}} He ordered that many copies of the code be sent to ealdormen Ælfhere and Æthelwine, so that they can be widely distributed and made known to rich and poor.{{sfn|Wormald|1999|p=317}}

The late tenth-century hagiographer, [[Lantfred|Lantfred of Winchester]], writing at about the time that Edgar died, stated:
:At the command of the glorious King Edgar, a law ... was promulgated throughout England, to serve as a deterrent against all sorts of crime ... that if any thief or robber were found anywhere in the {{lang|la|patria}}, he would be tortured at length by having his eyes put out, his hands cut off, his ears torn off, his nostrils carved open and his feet removed; and finally, with the skin and hair of his head shaved off, he would be abandoned in the open fields dead in respect of nearly all his limbs, to be devoured by wild beasts and birds and hounds of the night.{{sfn|Wormald|1999|pp=125–126}}

Edgar's known laws do not specify mutilation, although IV Edgar does refer a list of punishments which does not survive. A code of Cnut specifies similar punishments, and its author, [[Wulfstan (died 1023)|Archbishop Wulfstan of York]], stated that Cnut's legislation was based on the laws of Edgar. Wormald describes the punishments as "ghastly",{{sfn|Wormald|1999|pp=126–127}} and Keynes observes that it is no wonder that Edgar was hailed as "the strongest of all kings", but that if we are disposed to admire the peace he brought then we should bear in mind the measures he took to enforce it.{{sfn|Keynes|1999|p=481}}

[[Cnut]] held up Edgar's legislation as the precedent to be followed, and declared in a proclamation of 1020 that everyone should "steadfastly observe the law of Edgar."{{sfn|Molyneaux|2015|p=221}} ''ASC D'' states that in 1018 the [[Danes]] and the English reached an agreement "according to Edgar's law".{{sfnm|1a1=Wormald|1y=1999|1pp=129–130|2a1=Whitelock|2y=1979|2p=251 and n. 14}} In a letter from Cnut to his subjects in 1019/20, he referred to a law code agreed at Oxford, which he described as Edgar's law, and urged people to keep to it. In Wormald's view, Cnut considered that his regime was based on the Oxford agreement to keep to Edgar's law. However, the code bears little resemblance to Edgar's legislation, and the reference to him was probably symbolic as a revered lawmaker, rather than practical as a source.{{sfn|Wormald|1999|pp=131–132}} Edgar's legislation continued to be held in high regard after the Norman Conquest, and the twelfth-century historian [[Eadmer]] referred to the "holy laws" of "the most glorious king Edgar", although there is no evidence that he knew the codes.{{sfn|Wormald|1999|p=135}}