Editing Ine of Wessex (section)

== Laws ==
[[File:ASC Parker page.png|thumb|250px|right|A page from the Parker Library copy (MS 173) at [[Corpus Christi College, Cambridge]] of the [[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]], which contains the oldest surviving copy of Ine's laws.]]

The earliest Anglo-Saxon law code to survive, which may date from 602 or 603, is that of [[Æthelberht of Kent]], whose reign ended in 616.<ref name="EHD_357">Whitelock, ''English Historical Documents'', p. 357.</ref><ref name="attenborough4">Attenborough, [https://archive.org/stream/lawsofearliesten00grea#page/4/mode/2up The laws of the earliest English kings, pp. 4–17]</ref> In the 670s or 680s, a code was issued in the names of [[Hlothhere of Kent|Hlothhere]] and [[Eadric of Kent]].<ref name="attenborough18">Attenborough, [https://archive.org/stream/lawsofearliesten00grea#page/18/mode/2up The laws of the earliest English kings, pp. 18–23]</ref> The next kings to issue laws were [[Wihtred of Kent]] and Ine.<ref name="EHD_327">Whitelock, ''English Historical Documents'', pp. 327–337.</ref><ref name="attenborough24">Attenborough, [https://archive.org/stream/lawsofearliesten00grea#page/24/mode/2up The laws of the earliest English kings. pp. 24–61]</ref>

The dates of Wihtred's and Ine's laws are somewhat uncertain, but there is reason to believe that Wihtred's laws were issued on 6 September 695,<ref name="EHD_361">Whitelock, ''English Historical Documents'', p. 361.</ref> while Ine's laws were written in 694 or shortly before.<ref name="Stenton_72"/> Ine had recently agreed to peaceful terms with Wihtred over compensation for the death of Mul, and there are indications that the two rulers collaborated to some degree in producing their laws. In addition to the coincidence of timing, there is one clause that appears in almost identical form in both codes.<ref>The law is chapter 20 in Ine's code, and chapter 28 in Wihtred's. Ine's version reads "If a man from a distance or a foreigner goes through the wood off the track, and does not shout nor blow a horn, he is to be assumed to be a thief, to be either killed or redeemed." Wihtred's version is "If a man from a distance or a foreigner goes off the track, and he neither shouts nor blows a horn, he is to be assumed to be a thief, to be either killed or redeemed." See Whitelock, ''English Historical Documents'', pp. 364, 366.</ref> Another sign of collaboration is that Wihtred's laws use ''gesith'', a West Saxon term for noble, in place of the Kentish term ''eorlcund''.  It is possible that Ine and Wihtred issued the law codes as an act of prestige, to re-establish authority after periods of disruption in both kingdoms.<ref name="Kirby_125"/>

Ine's laws survive only because Alfred the Great appended them to his own code of laws.<ref name="EHD_364">Whitelock, ''English Historical Documents'', pp. 364–372.</ref> The oldest surviving manuscript, and only complete copy, is in [[Corpus Christi College, Cambridge]] MS 173, which contains both Alfred's and Ine's law codes and the oldest extant text of the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle''. Two more partial texts survive. One was originally a complete copy of Ine's laws, part of British Library MS [[Cotton Otho]] B xi, but that manuscript was largely destroyed in 1731 by a fire at [[Ashburnham House]] in which only Chapters 66 to 76.2 of Ine's laws escaped destruction. A fragment of Ine's laws can also be found in [[British Library]] Burney MS 277.<ref name="EHD_327"/>

It is possible that we do not have Ine's laws in their seventh-century form. Alfred mentions in the prologue to his laws that he rejected earlier laws which he disliked. He did not specify what laws he omitted, but if they were the ones no longer relevant in his own time, it cannot be assumed that the surviving version of Ine's laws is complete.<ref name="EHD_327"/> Ingrid Ivarsen suggests that the laws were originally composed in Latin and translated into Old English.<ref name="Ivarsen">{{cite journal |last1=Ivarsen |first1=Ingrid |title=King Ine (688–726) and the Writing of English Law in Latin |journal=The English Historical Review |date=9 May 2022 |volume=137 |issue=584 |pages=1–46 |doi=10.1093/ehr/ceac003 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

The prologue to Ine's laws lists his advisors. Three people are named: bishops [[Earconwald|Eorcenwald]] and [[Hædde]], and Ine's father, King Cenred. Ine was a Christian king, whose intent to encourage Christianity is clear from the laws. The oath of a communicant, for example, is declared to carry more weight than that of a non-Christian,<ref name="EHD_327"/> and baptism and religious observance are also addressed. Significant attention is also paid to civil issues—more than in the contemporary Kentish laws.<ref name="Kirby_124">Kirby, ''Earliest English Kings'', p. 124.</ref>

One of the laws states that [[common land]] might be enclosed by several [[churl|ceorl]]s (the contemporary name for Saxon freemen). Any ceorl who fails to fence his share, however, and allows his cattle to stray into someone else's field is to be held liable for any damage caused.<ref name="EHD_364"/> This does not mean that the land was held in common: each ceorl had his own strip of land that supported him. It is notable that a king's law is required to settle a relatively minor issue; the laws do not mention the role of local lords in obtaining compliance from the ceorls.<ref name="Stenton_279">Stenton, ''Anglo-Saxon England'', pp. 279–280.</ref> It is clear from this and other laws that tenants held the land in tenure from a lord; the king's close involvement indicates that the relationship between lord and tenant was under the king's control.<ref name="Stenton_312">Stenton, ''Anglo-Saxon England'', pp. 312–314.</ref>

The laws that deal with straying cattle provide the earliest documentary evidence for an [[open field system|open-field farming system]]. They show that open-field agriculture was practiced in Wessex in Ine's time, and it is probable that this was also the prevalent agricultural method throughout the English midlands, and as far north and east as [[Kingdom of Lindsey|Lindsey]] and [[Deira]]. Not all of Wessex used this system, however: it was not used in Devon, for example.<ref name="Stenton_279"/> The law which mentions a "yard" of land is the first documented mention of that unit. A yard was a unit of land equal to a quarter of a [[hide (unit)|hide]]; a hide was variable from place to place but could be as much as {{convert|120|acre|ha}}. The yard in this sense later became the standard holding of the medieval [[villein]], and was known as the [[virgate]]. One historian has commented that "the beginnings of a manorial economy are clearly visible in Ine's laws."<ref name="Stenton_312 "/>

The fine for neglecting [[fyrd]], the obligation to do military service for the king, is set at 120 shillings for a nobleman, and 30 shillings for a ceorl,<ref name="EHD_364"/> incidentally revealing that ceorls were required to serve in the army. Scholars have disagreed on the military value of the ceorl, but it is not surprising that all free men would fight, since defeat might have meant slavery.<ref name="Stenton_290">Stenton, ''Anglo-Saxon England'', p. 290.</ref>

Another law specified that anyone accused of murder required at least one high-ranking person among his "oath-helpers". An oath-helper would swear an oath on behalf of an accused man, to clear him from the suspicion of the crime. Ine's requirement implies that he did not trust an oath sworn only by peasants. It may represent a significant change from an earlier time when a man's kin were expected to support him with oaths.<ref name="Stenton_316">Stenton, ''Anglo-Saxon England'', pp. 316–317.</ref>

The laws made separate provision for Ine's English and British subjects, favouring the former over the latter; the [[weregild]]s paid for Britons were half of those paid for Saxons of the same social class, and their oaths also counted for less.<ref>Yorke, Barbara; 1995; Wessex in the Early Middle Ages, p. 72</ref> The evidence they provide for the incomplete integration of the two populations is supported by research into placename history, the history of religious houses, and local archaeology, which indicates that the western part of Wessex was thinly settled by the Germanic newcomers at the time the laws were issued.<ref name="Yorke_137"/> It is notable that, although issued by the Saxon king of a Saxon kingdom, the term used in the laws to define Ine's Germanic subjects is ''Englisc''. This reflects the existence, even at this early date, of a common English identity encompassing all the Germanic peoples of Britain.<ref>Patrick Wormald, "Bede, the ''Bretwaldas'' and the origins of the ''Gens Anglorum''", in Patrick Wormald, ''The Times of Bede – studies in early English Christian society and its historian'' (Oxford 2006), pp. 106–134 at p. 119</ref>