Document 8-2: The Law of the Salian Franks (ca. 500–600)

A Germanic People Create a Code of Law

As the institutions of Roman government in the West faltered and then crumbled, the power and reach of Roman law also declined. This is not to say that Roman law disappeared in the West or that the West descended into utter lawlessness. The Germanic peoples whose migrations played such an important role in precipitating Rome’s fall brought with them their own systems of law and justice. As Germanic peoples settled in the West and established kingdoms, those systems were written down and codified. Such was the case with The Law of the Salian Franks, first published in written form in the early sixth century at the order of Clovis I (ca. 466–511). As you read this excerpt, consider what it reveals about Frankish society. What kinds of problems did the laws address? How did ideas about social status and gender shape the laws?

Title I. Concerning Summonses

  1. If any one be summoned before the “Thing” by the king’s law, and do not come, he shall be sentenced to 600 denars, which make 15 shillings (solidi).
  2. But he who summons another, and does not come himself, shall, if a lawful impediment have not delayed him, be sentenced to 15 shillings, to be paid to him whom he summoned.
  3. And he who summons another shall walk with witnesses to the home of that man, and, if he be not at home, shall bid the wife or any one of the family to make known to him that he has been summoned to court.
  4. But if he be occupied in the king’s service he can not summon him.
  5. But if he shall be inside the hundred5 seeing about his own affairs, he can summon him in the manner explained above.

Title II. Concerning Thefts of Pigs, etc

1. If any one steal a sucking pig, and it be proved against him, he shall be sentenced to 120 denars, which make three shillings.

2. If any one steal a pig that can live without its mother, and it be proved on him, he shall be sentenced to 40 denars — that is, 1 shilling.

14. If any one steal 25 sheep where there were no more in that flock, and it be proved on him, he shall be sentenced to 2500 denars — that is, 62 shillings.

Title III. Concerning Thefts of Cattle

4. If any one steal that bull which rules the herd and never has been yoked, he shall be sentenced to 1800 denars, which make 45 shillings.

5. But if that bull is used for the cows of three villages in common, he who stole him shall be sentenced to three times 45 shillings.

6. If any one steal a bull belonging to the king he shall be sentenced to 3600 denars, which make 90 shillings.

Title IV. Concerning Damage Done Among Crops or in Any Enclosure

  1. If any one finds cattle, or a horse, or flocks of any kind in his crops, he shall not at all mutilate them.
  2. If he do this and confess it, he shall restore the worth of the animal in place of it, and shall himself keep the mutilated one.
  3. But if he have not confessed it, and it have been proved on him, he shall be sentenced, besides the value of the animal and the fines for delay, to 600 denars, which make 15 shillings.

Title XI. Concerning Thefts or Housebreakings of Freemen

  1. If any freeman steal, outside of the house, something worth 2 denars, he shall be sentenced to 600 denars, which make 15 shillings.
  2. But if he steal, outside of the house, something worth 40 denars, and it be proved on him, he shall be sentenced, besides the amount and the fines for delay, to 1400 denars, which make 35 shillings.
  3. If a freeman break into a house and steal something worth 2 denars, and it be proved on him, he shall be sentenced to 15 shillings.
  4. But if he shall have stolen something worth more than 2 denars, and it have been proved on him, he shall be sentenced, besides the worth of the object and the fines for delay, to 1400 denars, which make 35 shillings.
  5. But if he have broken, or tampered with, the lock, and thus have entered the house and stolen anything from it, he shall be sentenced, besides the worth of the object and the fines for delay, to 1800 denars, which make 45 shillings.
  6. And if he have taken nothing, or have escaped by flight, he shall, for the housebreaking alone, be sentenced to 1200 denars, which make 30 shillings.

Title XII. Concerning Thefts or Housebreakings on the Part of Slaves

  1. If a slave steal, outside of the house, something worth two denars, he shall, besides paying the worth of the object and the fines for delay, be stretched out and receive 120 blows.
  2. But if he steal something worth 40 denars, he shall either be castrated or pay 6 shillings. But the lord of the slave who committed the theft shall restore to the plaintiff the worth of the object and the fines for delay.

Title XIII. Concerning Rape Committed by Freemen

  1. If three men carry off a free born girl, they shall be compelled to pay 30 shillings.
  2. If there are more than three, each one shall pay 5 shillings.
  3. Those who shall have been present with boats shall be sentenced to three shillings.
  4. But those who commit rape shall be compelled to pay 2500 denars, which make 63 shillings.
  5. But if they have carried off that girl from behind lock and key, or from the spinning room, they shall be sentenced to the above price and penalty.
  6. But if the girl who is carried off be under the king’s protection, then the “frith” (peace-money) shall be 2500 denars, which make 63 shillings.
  7. But if a bondsman of the king, or a leet, should carry off a free woman, he shall be sentenced to death.
  8. But if a free woman have followed a slave of her own will, she shall lose her freedom.
  9. If a freeborn man shall have taken an alien bondswoman, he shall suffer similarly.
  10. If any body take an alien spouse and join her to himself in matrimony, he shall be sentenced to 2500 denars, which make 63 shillings.

Title XIV. Concerning Assault and Robbery

  1. If any one have assaulted and plundered a free man, and it be proved on him, he shall be sentenced to 2500 denars, which make 63 shillings.
  2. If a Roman have plundered a Salian Frank, the above law shall be observed.
  3. But if a Frank have plundered a Roman, he shall be sentenced to 35 shillings.
  4. If any man should wish to migrate, and has permission from the king, and shall have shown this in the public “Thing”: whoever, contrary to the decree of the king, shall presume to oppose him, shall be sentenced to 8000 denars, which make 200 shillings.

Title XV. Concerning Arson

  1. If any one shall set fire to a house in which men were sleeping, as many freemen as were in it can make complaint before the “Thing”; and if any one shall have been burned in it, the incendiary shall be sentenced to 2500 denars, which make 63 shillings.

Title XVII. Concerning Wounds

  1. If any one have wished to kill another person, and the blow have missed, he on whom it was proved shall be sentenced to 2500 denars, which make 63 shillings.
  2. If any person have wished to strike another with a poisoned arrow, and the arrow have glanced aside, and it shall be proved on him: he shall be sentenced to 2500 denars, which make 63 shillings.
  3. If any person strike another on the head so that the brain appears, and the three bones which lie above the brain shall project, he shall be sentenced to 1200 denars — which make 30 shillings.
  4. But if it shall have been between the ribs or in the stomach, so that the wound appears and reaches to the entrails, he shall be sentenced to 1200 denars — which make 30 shillings — besides five shillings for the physician’s pay.
  5. If any one shall have struck a man so that blood falls to the floor, and it be proved on him, he shall be sentenced to 600 denars, which make 15 shillings.
  6. But if a freeman strike a freeman with his fist so that blood does not flow, he shall be sentenced for each blow — up to 3 blows — to 120 denars, which make 3 shillings.

Title XVIII. Concerning Him Who, Before the King, Accuses an Innocent Man

If any one, before the king, accuse an innocent man who is absent, he shall be sentenced to 2500 denars, which make 63 shillings.

Title XIX. Concerning Magicians

  1. If any one have given herbs to another so that he die, he shall be sentenced to 200 shillings (or shall surely be given over to fire).
  2. If any person have bewitched another, and he who was thus treated shall escape, the author of the crime, who is proved to have committed it, shall be sentenced to 2500 denars, which make 63 shillings.

Title XXIV. Concerning the Killing of Little Children and Women

1. If any one have slain a boy under 10 years — up to the end of the tenth — and it shall have been proved on him, he shall be sentenced to 24000 denars, which make 600 shillings.

3. If any one have hit a free woman who is pregnant, and she dies, he shall be sentenced to 28000 denars, which make 700 shillings.

6. If any one have killed a free woman after she has begun bearing children, he shall be sentenced to 24000 denars, which make 600 shillings.

7. After she can have no more children, he who kills her shall be sentenced to 8000 denars, which make 200 shillings.

Title XXX. Concerning Insults

3. If any one, man or woman, shall have called a woman harlot, and shall not have been able to prove it, he shall be sentenced to 1800 denars, which make 45 shillings.

4. If any person shall have called another “fox,” he shall be sentenced to 3 shillings.

5. If any man shall have called another “hare,” he shall be sentenced to 3 shillings.

6. If any man shall have brought it up against another that he have thrown away his shield, and shall not have been able to prove it, he shall be sentenced to 120 denars, which make 3 shillings.

7. If any man shall have called another “spy” or “perjurer,” and shall not have been able to prove it, he shall be sentenced to 600 denars, which make 15 shillings.

E. F. Henderson, trans. and ed., Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages (London: G. Bell, 1892), 176–181.

READING AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  1. Based on these laws, how would you characterize life in a Frankish community?
  2. What might explain the fact that most crimes were punished with fines?
  3. What do the laws tell us about the status and role of women in Frankish society?
  4. What might explain Clovis’s decision to publish a written version of the laws? What does this decision suggest about the development of Frankish society and government?