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The early Kentish ‘divorce laws’: a reconsideration of Æthelberht, chs. 79 and 80

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Carole A. Hough
Carole A. Hough
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham
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Extract

Evidence concerning the position of women in Anglo-Saxon England, particularly during the early period, is sparse and often difficult to assess. Surviving law-codes constitute an important source of information, but due to their cryptic phraseology and sometimes archaic vocabulary they are notoriously open to misinterpretation. Two clauses from the earliest extant code, issued by King Æthelberht of Kent towards the beginning of the seventh century, are commonly treated as evidence of the independent status of divorced women in early Kentish society. So far as I am aware this view has never been challenged, although it remains uncorroborated by other sources and is by no means the only possible interpretation of the text. In this paper I wish to put forward an alternative reading.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anglo-Saxon England , Volume 23 , December 1994 , pp. 19 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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References

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2 The numbering of clauses has no manuscript authority and therefore no significance. The only copy of Æthelberht's law-code is contained in the twelfth-century manuscript Textus Roffensis (Maidstone, Kent Archives Office, DRc/R1), where the whole code is written consecutively. However, it is convenient to refer to clauses by number, and I shall use the system found in the standard edition of the Anglo-Saxon laws, Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, ed. Liebermann, F., 3 vols. (Halle, 1903–1916).Google Scholar

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62 I also revise Whitelock's translation of Æthelberht, ch. 77, since I accept Fell' arguments concerning the use of the verb bicgan in marriage contexts: ‘there is a vast range of evidence … for the fact that the money the bridegroom had to pay (the morgengifu) was payment to the woman herself, intended to guarantee her financial security and independence within marriage. Bicgan has the meaning “to pay for” and there is evidence that it could be used in the sense of paying money within a contractual framework’ (Women in Anglo-Saxon England, p. 16).

63 I am very grateful to Christine Fell, Simon Keynes and Patrick Wormald for their advice whilst this paper was in preparation.