The Law of Hywel Dda: Law Texts from Medieval Wales

by Hywel, Dda, King of Wales (Editor)

No dust cover. Clean copy.

Genres: History

425 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Lynne Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

For any person trained in our current version of law, this book astounds the imagination. First written in legible form in 10th Century Wales, the focus is on people. It has distinct chapters, eg. The Law of Women which describes what women deserve, what price someone would have to pay if marriage went bad and how property would be divided. 50/50 every time.

Law rated people's status to determine how much someone would have to pay if a person was hurt or treated poorly, in brief, a Celtic 'caste' system. On the low end bond-servants (indentured people) deserved protection from their owner. Laws related to property were top-heavy with 'oath-takers' (a jury) if someone chose to argue about land. An oath-taker needed to have a reputation for truthfulness and if that was proven to be *wrong* could never be an oath-taker again.

Law applied to everything, land, animals, theft, abortion, and the age one could manage *his* own affairs, fourteen, if anyone's still reading. Among many other things, the king had privileges and duties and *his* word trumped all others. It was an offence to kill *anything* that belong to the king, even if it was a cat.

The daughter of a king gave 24 pieces of gold to her father the day after she married. Since her dowry might have cemented an alliance between kingdoms in Wales most marriages were made for dynastic reasons.
As a song in our century once asked: "What's Love Got to Do With It?"

A 10th Century Celt would respond: "NOTHING!"

[Ivan Monckton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phew, that was pretty heavy going, but worthwhile. A compilation and translation of Welsh Law dating from the 10th century onwards, the book has an introduction, followed by the original text, then a very lengthy set of notes to the text, then a glossary to the notes...all of which means that the reader is constantly switching from one section to another. Surely it would have been better to combine the notes and glossary and to put them page to page with the text? Another quibble is that there are far too many words missing from the glossary that will be unknown to most non academics. Having had my moan, let me praise the immense amount of work that has gone into this book. It rally gives some inkling of what medieval life in Wales was like, and how property was more important than life. Everything appears to have been settled via compensation: for loss of life, injury to body or reputation, damage to crops, animals and land. The astounding thing is that the level of compensation for every single thing is laid down in law, from loss of individual eyelashes, through every tool and piece of equipment, animals through different stages of their lives, to homicide.
As always, the King or Lord rakes it in, wether or not he is directly affected by the loss or damage, or not.

[Mabon Finch · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must have for any medieval Welsh historian!

[dragonhelmuk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a translation of the law of hywel dda (mid c10). Hywel dda was probably the first king to reform the law and make it centralised rather than every surety looking after his own cases. It is prefixed with a law of the court. It is a reconstruction, since the original form of this law is lost, and assumes there was an original form. It uses the iorwerth recension, but gives alternate passages in other text sizes and indents depending on how trustworthy they are. It was the form until Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (1282), and parts of it were used until the act of union in 1536. Most interesting thing possibly the price list, which suggest how much is payable when things are destroyed. Of animals, horses are worth approximately the same as cows, and double as much as pigs 30p. sheep 4p, cats 4p, birds 1p, staghounds £1 (240p), greyhounds 120p, pet dog (£1/40p lower ranked) other curs, 4p, herd dog worth value of highest animal in herd. ?Hawk? 120p, sparrowhawk 24p, bee swarm 24p, deer 60p, oak trees 180p, fruit trees 24p, other trees less. All body parts have values.

{interesting contrast with ridiculous explanation}
“If the general reader is first struck by the contrast of crudity and sophistication, he is likely to be struck also by the fact that homicide appears in the lawbooks as primarily a matter for compensation whereas theft is a matter for punishment. Moreover theft – taking by stealth—is a more serious crime than robbery – taking by force: only theft is a capital offence. Both these are common phenomena in early societiesl though the explanation for them is not quite the same, both depend on the primacy of strength in early society. The strong man armed keeps his goods in peace, but trust in society is undermined by the thief who acts in secret.

{on the chief falconer}
“His lodging is the King’s barn, lest smoke affect his birds. He is entitled to take a vessal to the court to put his liquor in, for he is entitled only to quench his thirst: the reason for this is, lest he should neglect his birds. He is entltld to a handsbredth of wax candle from the steward so as to feed his birds and make his bed… (p15) He is entitled to the hearts and lungs of the wild animals killed in the kitchen, for feeding his birds. He is entitled to a dry sheep or fourpence from the King’s villeins. He is entitled to a circuit round the King’s cilleins once a year. He is entitled to a third of the falconer’s dirwy, and to the amobr of their daughters. He is entitled to a hart’s skin in autumn, and in spring to a doe’s skin, to make gloves for carrying his birds and jesses. He is entitled to be honoured with three gifts on the day his hawk kills one of three birds, a bittern, or a heron, or a crane… He is entitled to the tiercels, and to the nests of the hawks and sparrow-hawks on the King’s land.

{on the chief of huntsmen}
from Christmas to February it is right for him to be with the King when he wishes it. And from the first week in February it is right for him to take his hounds and his horns and his leashes, and to go to hunt hinds (and it is right for his horn to be of buffalo-horn, and its value is a pound) and to hunt hinds from then until St John’s Day at Midsummer… He is entitled to an ox’s skin iin winter to make leashes, and to a cow’s skin in summer to make brogues.
The day after St John’s Day at Midsummer it is right for him to go to hunt stags. And unless he is found before rising from his bed and putting on his brogues, he is not bound to answer to anyone for the claim that is brought against him. And during this period until the Winter Kalends it is right that there be twelve legal joints in a hart and accordingly they are hunted until the Winter Kalends. And on the ninth day of the Winter Kalends it is proper for him to go to hunt wild boars, and from then until the Kalends of December it is right for him to be hunting theml and for so long a time as that he is not bound to answer to anyone for a claim unless to one of his fellow-officers…
And on the Kalends of December it is right for him to share out the skins and to render to everybody among his fellow officers his entitlement, doing this before sharing the skins with anyone…
Of the huntsmen’s two thirds, two shares for a staghound huntsman and one for a greyhound huntsman; and the chief huntsman is entitled to two shares from the huntsmen.