These prices were fixed by the
laws of the Angles. By the Mercian law, the price of a ceorle's head
was two hundred shillings; that of a thane's six times as much; that
of a king's six times more [b]. By the laws of Kent, the price of the
archbishop's head was higher than that of the king's [c]. Such
respect was then paid to the ecclesiastics! It must be understood,
that where a person was unable or unwilling to pay the fine, he was
put out of the protection of law, and the kindred of the deceased had
liberty to punish him as they thought proper.
[FN [b] Wilkins, p. 71, 72. [c] LL. Elthredi, apud Wilkins, p. 110.]
Some antiquarians [d] have thought, that these compensations were only
given for manslaughter, not for wilful murder: but no such distinction
appears in the laws; and it is contradicted by the practice of all the
other barbarous nations [e], by that of the ancient Germans [f], and
by that curious monument above mentioned, a Saxon antiquity, preserved
by Hickes. There is indeed a law of Alfred's, which makes wilful
murder capital [g]; but this seems only to have been an attempt of
that great legislator towards establishing a better police in the
kingdom, and it probably remained without execution. By the laws of
the same prince, a conspiracy against the life of the king might be
redeemed by a fine [h].
[FN [d] Tyrrel, Introduction, vol. i. p.126. Carte, vol. i. p. 366.
[e] Lindenbrogius, passim. [f] Tac. de Mor. Germ.
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