The Danish Medieval Laws: the laws of Scania, Zealand and Jutland (Routledge Medieval Translations) by Ditlev Tamm & Helle Vogt

Author:Ditlev Tamm & Helle Vogt
Language: eng
Format: azw
ISBN: 9781317294801
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2016-01-12T16:00:00+00:00

Book II

1. On adultery If a householder takes another man with his wife, and it so happens that he either kills or beats the man, then he shall bring both pillow and bed-cover to the assembly as a witness if they are blood-stained, and in addition the witness of two men that it cannot be denied that he caught them together. Then he shall pay neither the king’s nor the bishop’s due, and he shall be free of charge before all kinsmen.

But if it comes thus that the wife stays alive, and it590 is done so openly that she or [her] kinsmen cannot deny, and if he finds consolation in being from then on without a wife, then he may throw her out of the house in only a shift and a mantle without her getting a penny of all that which she owns, because she has forfeited all of that to the householder, and the land the householder keeps as long as the wife lives.

But if the wife dies, then the land goes back to her heirs. But if the householder dies before the wife, then the land goes back either to her or to her heirs, because no one may completely forfeit land except to the king.

2. On compensation for adultery And if it comes about such that the one who has committed adultery with the householder’s wife offers compensation to the householder, then it is the householder’s own decision to establish what compensation he will take, and neither the king nor any assembly of the province shall force him to do it. But he shall have the compensation which he decides for himself.

But if it comes thus that there is some householder who is not able to take vengeance when another commits adultery with his wife, and accuses the adulterer and wishes to have compensation from him, if he has witnesses that he is guilty of it, then he shall either deny it with nominated men or pay forty marks. But if he does not have any witnesses to it, then the other shall defend himself with three oaths of twelve or else pay as said above.

3. If a man is killed in his own house If any man goes to another man’s house and kills him in his own house, or his son or his wife or his daughter or anyone of full partnership with him in that house, then it is a non-compensable crime. And all who were accompanying and following him and came into the house with him, they shall pay three marks for trespass and three marks for following. If there is someone there who attacked the deceased with sword point and edge, then three marks for trespass and nine marks for edge and sword point shall be paid. If some of those in the accompanying and following did not come into the house, they shall pay three marks. And all which belongs to the one who has killed, except his land, shall be in the king’s power, and he himself shall flee after having lost his peace.

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