Editing Salic law (section)

==Some tenets of the law==
These laws and their interpretations give an insight into Frankish society. The criminal laws established damages to be paid and fines levied in recompense for injuries to persons and damage to goods, [[theft]], and unprovoked insults. One-third of the fine paid court costs. Judicial interpretation was by a [[jury of peers]].

The civil law establishes that an individual person is legally unprotected if he or she does not belong to a [[family]]. The rights of family members were defined; for example, the equal division of land among all living male heirs, in contrast to [[primogeniture]].

===Agnatic succession===
One tenet of the civil law is [[Patrilineality#Agnatic succession|agnatic succession]], explicitly excluding females from the inheritance of a throne or [[fief]]. Indeed, "Salic law" has often been used simply as a [[synonym]] for agnatic succession, but the importance of Salic law extends beyond the rules of inheritance, as it is a direct ancestor of the systems of law in use in many parts of continental Europe today.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}

Salic law regulates succession according to sex. "Agnatic succession" means succession to the throne or fief going to an agnate of the predecessor – for example, a brother, a son, or nearest male relative through the male line, including collateral agnate branches, for example very distant cousins. Chief forms are [[agnatic seniority]] and [[agnatic primogeniture]]. The latter, which has been the most usual, means succession going to the eldest son of the monarch; if the monarch had no sons, the throne would pass to the nearest male relative in the male line.

===Female inheritance===
{{See also|Terra Salica}}
Concerning the inheritance of land, Salic law said:

{{blockquote|But of Salic land no portion of the inheritance shall come to a woman: but the whole inheritance of the land shall come to the male sex.<ref>Cave, Roy and Coulson, Herbert. ''A Source Book for Medieval Economic History'', Biblo and Tannen, New York (1965) p.&nbsp;336</ref>}}

or, another transcript:

{{blockquote|[C]oncerning terra Salica, no portion or inheritance is for a woman, but all the land belongs to members of the male sex who are brothers.}}

The law merely prohibited women from inheriting ancestral "Salic land"; this prohibition did not apply to other property (such as [[personal property]]); and under [[Chilperic I]] sometime around the year 570, the law was actually amended to permit inheritance of land by a daughter if a man had no surviving sons (This amendment, depending on how it is applied and interpreted, offers the basis for either Semi-Salic succession or male-preferred [[primogeniture]], or both).

The wording of the law, as well as common usage in those days and centuries afterwards, seems to support an interpretation that inheritance is divided between brothers, and if it is intended to govern succession, it can be interpreted to mandate agnatic seniority, not direct primogeniture. In its use by continental hereditary monarchies since the 15th century, aiming at agnatic succession, the Salic law is regarded as excluding all females from the succession, and prohibiting the transfer of succession rights through any woman. At least two systems of hereditary succession are direct and full applications of the Salic Law: [[agnatic seniority]] and [[agnatic primogeniture]].

The '''Semi-Salic''' version of succession order stipulates that firstly all-male descendance is applied, including all collateral male lines, but if all such lines are extinct, then the closest female agnate (such as a daughter) of the last male holder of the property inherits, and after her, her own male heirs according to the Salic order. In other words, the female closest to the last incumbent is "regarded as a male" for the purposes of inheritance and succession. This has the effect of following the closest extant blood line (at least in the first instance) and not involving any more distant relatives. The closest female relative might be a child of a relatively junior branch of the whole dynasty, but still inherits due to her position in the male line, due to the longevity of her own branch;{{clarify|date=May 2017}} any existing senior{{clarify|date=May 2017}} female lines come behind that of the closest female.

From the Middle Ages, another system of succession, known as cognatic male primogeniture, actually fulfills apparent stipulations of the original Salic law; succession is allowed also through female lines, but excludes the females themselves in favour of their sons. For example, a grandfather, without sons, is succeeded by a son of his daughter, when the daughter in question is still alive. Or an uncle, with no children of his own, is succeeded by a son of his sister, when the sister in question is still alive. This fulfils the Salic condition of "no land comes to a woman, but the land comes to the male sex". This can be called a "quasi-Salic" system of succession and it should be classified as primogenitural, cognatic, and male-preferred.