[Author’s Name]
[Institution’s Name]
Essay on Laws of Ethelbert
King of Kent; b. 552; d. 24 February, 616; son of Eormenric, through whom he was descended from Hengest. He succeeded his father, in 560, as King of Kent and made an unsuccessful attempt to win from Ceawlin of Wessex the over lordship of Britain. His political importance was doubtless advanced by his marriage with Bertha, daughter of Charibert, King of the Franks. A noble disposition to fair dealing is argued by his giving her the old Roman church of St. Martin in his capital of Cantwaraburh (Canterbury) and affording her every opportunity for the exercise of her religion, although he himself had been reared, and remained, a worshipper of Odin. The same natural virtue, combined with a quaint spiritual caution and, on the other hand, a large instinct of hospitality, appears in his message to St. Augustine when, in 597, the Apostle of England landed on the Kentish coast.
Ethelbert the Anglo-Saxon ruler of Kent, England, issued the Law of Ethelbert containing detailed restitution schedules. For example, the laws differentiated the value of the four front teeth from those next to them, and those teeth from all the restWe can find other evidence of a civilized society in early Anglo-Saxon times, from documentary sources. The Laws of Ethelbert (written around AD 603), demonstrate a clear regard for law and order in Anglo-Saxon Kent. Categories of crime and the penalty to be paid by the offender are distinctly set down. Hair seems to have been an important feature in early Anglo-Saxon law and order... Here are a few examples of Ethelbert's Laws: (Robinson, 268-270)
- '33. If hair-pulling occur, 50 sceattas (pennies) (are to be paid) as compensation’
- '73. If a freewoman, with long hair, (a feature of a free woman) commits any misconduct, she is to pay 30 shillings compensation......
