Ancient Laws and Institutes of England
Comprising Laws Enacted under the Anglo-Saxon Kings from Aethelbirht to Cnut

This 1840 compendium of the ancient laws of England is a standard source of original-language documentary evidence from the period.

Benjamin Thorpe (Edited by)

9781108045148, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 22 March 2012

800 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 4.5 cm, 1.15 kg

Originally published for the Record Commissioners in 1840, this two-volume work remains a standard source for scholars of Anglo-Saxon and early Norman legal history. Benjamin Thorpe (1781?–1870) was a respected and prolific scholar and translator of Old English, whose publications in the field earned him a civil list pension in 1835. Trained in Copenhagen under Rasmus Rask, Thorpe advocated a scientific approach to philology, and this is reflected in the thoroughness of the notes, commentary, and concordance appended to the sources reprinted here. The preface to the text places the laws in their historical and geographical context, notes where there are unavoidable gaps in the evidence, and offers a descriptive analysis of the original documents. Volume 1 contains the secular laws issued from the reign of Æthelberht to that of Henry I, with a parallel translation of the Anglo-Saxon text, although the sources in Latin and French remain untranslated.

Preface
List of manuscripts and printed books
Anglo-Saxon Laws: 1. The laws of King Æthelbirht
2. The laws of Kings Hlothhaere and Eadric
3. The laws of King Wihtraed
4. The laws of King Alfred
5. The laws of King Ine
6. Alfred and Guthrum's peace
7. The laws of King Edward
8. The laws of Edward and Guthrum
9. Of W?rs
10. Of oaths
11. Of W?r-gilds
12. Of Mercian law
13. Ranks
14. The laws of King Æthelstan
15. The laws of King Edmund
16. The laws of King Edgar
17. The laws of King Ethelred
18. Ordinance respecting the 'Dun-setas'
19. The laws of King Cnut
20. Rectitudines singularum personarum
21. Leges Regis Edwardi Confessoris
22. The laws of King William the Conqueror
23. Leges Regis Henrici Primi
Notes on the laws ascribed to King Henry I
Additional remarks
Table of concordance
Index.

Subject Areas: British & Irish history [HBJD1]