BOOK gifu. So Elfleda, in her will, says, “Rettendun
? that was my morgen gyfu® ;" and Elfhelm, in his will, has this passage : “And I declare what I gave to my wife for her morgen give; that is, Beadewan, and Burge steile, and Strætford, and the three hides at Hean-healem.” The same tes- tator notices an additional present that he had made his wife on her nuptials: “And I gave to her,
: when we two first came together, the two hides at Wilburgeham, and at Hrægenan, and that thereto lieth."9 The morgen gift was therefore a settle- ment on the lady very similar to a modern jointure. It was bargained for before marriage, but was not actually vested in the wife till afterwards. Our conception of the thing will be probably simplified and assisted by recollecting the language of our modern settlements. The land or property con- veyed by them is given in trust for the person who grants it “until the said marriage shall take effect; and from and immediately after the solemnization thereof,” it is then granted to the uses agreed upon. So the morgen gift was settled before the nuptials, but was not actually given away until the morning afterwards, or until the marriage was completed.
Nothing could be more calculated to produce a very striking dissimilarity, between the Gothic nations and the Oriental states, than this exalta- tion of the female sex to that honour, consequence, and independence, which European laws studied to uphold. As the education of youth will always
7 See her will. Hickes's Pref. xxii. 8 See Lye, Sax. Dict. voc. morgen gife.
rest principally with women, in the most ductile CHAP. part of life, it is of the greatest importance that the fair sex should possess high estimation in society; and nothing could more certainly tend to perpetuate this feeling, than the privilege of possessing property in their own right, and at their own disposal.
That the Anglo-Saxon ladies both inherited and disposed of property as they pleased, appears from many instances : a wife is mentioned who devised land by her will, with the consent of her husband in his life-time. 10 We read also of land which a wife had sold in her husband's life.11 We frequently find wives the parties to a sale of land "?; and still oftener we read of estates given to women, or devised by men of affluence to their wives. 13 Widows selling property is also a common OCcurrence; so is the incident of women devising it. 15 That they inherited land is also clear, for a case is mentioned wherein, there being no male heir, the estate went to a female.16 Women appear as tenants in capite in Doomsday.
There are many instances of land being granted to both husband and wife." The queens frequently join in the charters with the kings 18; and it is once mentioned, that a widow and the heirs were sued
BOOK for her husband's debts. 19 Indeed, the instances
of women having property transferred to them, and also of their transmitting it to others, surround us on all sides. To name only a few: a king's mother gave five hides to a noble matron, which she gave to a monastery.20 When a bishop had bought some lands of an husband and a wife, he fixed a day when she should come and surrender them, because she had the greater right to the land by a former husband.21 A mother bequeathed property to two of her daughters; and to her third daughter, Leosware, she gave an estate at Wed- dreringesete, on the reproachful condition, that she should keep herself chaste, or marry, that she and her progeny might not be branded with the infamy of the contagion of prostitution.22
In the oldest Anglo-Saxon law, widows were protected by an express regulation. Four ranks are mentioned : an eorlcund's widow, another sort, a third and fourth sort. Their tranquillity in- vaded was to be punished by fines adapted to their quality, as fifty shillings, twenty, twelve, and six shillings.23
They were also guarded from personal violence. If any
took a widow without her consent, he was to be fined a double mulct.24 It was also expressly forbidden to any one to marry a woman if she was unwilling.”
The morgen gift was not left optional to the husband to give or withhold after the marriage. One of the laws of Ina expressly provides, that if
21 Ibid. 472. 22 Ibid. 507. So Alfred in his will gives estates to his three daugh- ters, and also mo 23 Wilk. Leg. Sax. 7.
a man bargained for a woman, and the gyft was not duly forthcoming, he should actually pay the money, and also a penalty and a compensation to her sureties for breaking his troth. 28 gift was also the means by which they punished widows who married too early. Twelve months was the legal time prescribed for widowhood. By Ethelred's law, every widow who kept herself in the peace of God and of the king, and who re- mained twelve months without a husband, might choose afterwards as she pleased. But by a sub- sequent law, if she married within the year, she lost her morgen gift, and all the property which she derived from her first husband.28
THESE pecuniary bargains which were made on the Anglo-Saxon marriages do not breathe much of the spirit of affectionate romance. however, cannot be called mercenary suitors, as they appear to have been the paymasters. These contracts give occasion to the Saxon legislators to express the fact of treating for a marriage by the terms of buying a wife. Hence our oldest law says, if a man buys a maiden, the bargain shall stand if there be no deceit; otherwise, she should be restored to her home, and his money shall be returned to him.2 So, in the penalty before men- tioned annexed to the non-payment of the morgen gift, the expression used is, if a man buys a wife.30 In this kind of marriage-bargains it was a necessary protection extended to the lover, that the same law which forbade the compelling a wo- man to marry the man she disliked, also, as an
BOOK impartial counterpart of justice, directed that a
man should not be forced to give his money, unless he was desirous to bestow it of his own free will.31 There is another passage which tends to express, that marriage was considered as the purchase of the lady. “If a freeman cohabit with the wife of a freeman, he must pay the were, and obtain an- other woman with his own money, and lead her to the other.” 32 In this point, we have greatly im- proved on the customs, or at least the language of our ancestors. Pecuniary considerations and ar- rangements are still important formulas preceding marriages; but ladies frequently bring their hus- band property, instead of receiving it; and if they do not, their affection and attentions are his dearest treasure. They are not now either bought or sold, unless their interest counterfeits affection.
AFTER adding that marriages were forbidden within certain degrees of consanguinity 33, we have only the unpleasing task remaining of mentioning the penalties which were attached to the violation of female chastity.
If a slave committed a rape on a female slave, he was punished with a corporal mutilation. If any one compelled an immature maiden, he was to abide the same punishment. Whoever violated a ceorl's wife, was to pay him five shillings, and be fined sixty shillings.34
For adultery with the wife of a twelve hundred man, the offender was to pay one hundred and twenty shillings; and one hundred shillings for the wife of a six hundred man, and forty shillings for
« ПретходнаНастави » |