Posted on 08/14/2006 6:17:14 PM PDT by blam
I did, because it didn't. English courts needed to know Welsh laws to make rulings based on them when dealing with Welsh subjects. Their laws weren't made universal, IE: English. Where Welsh laws were in conflict with English law, English law replaced Welsh law. Use of Welsh law in Wales & therefore English courts was discontinued in the 16th century.
Then, when you took the trouble to look it up, you found that you were wrong
Gotta be using some very twisted logic to come to that conclusion, but then again, I seem to be dealing with someone who believes it appropriate to bring credentials to the table instead of a case.
You also found out that the argument made upstream, that English law is "really" Danelaw, was also false.
I saw the claim as hyperbole, mostly a counter to the common claim about Scandinavians being only barbarians, contributing nothing of value to Europe. The Jutes, Angles & Saxons bumped up against each other on the mainland for generations & claim common ancestors. I don't think it is knowable whether or not an understanding about laws came before or after the tribes split. Could be they were created because the tribes split, where blood feuds could become a threat to the existence of all.
The Viking genetic heritage in Britain used to be visible in East Anglia, which was the heart of the Danelaw. I think Canute (whose father Svein Forkbeard spent 20 years preparing his conquest of England, only to die just before the launch) made his landing there, but that's a dim and distant memory. :')
I was talking about the Orkneys, not England proper. The article I was responding to said something about a "Viking" settlement built over a site previously populated by Picts & made the claim that the Vikings wiped out the Picts, which is very possible. The Picts were "pirates", so in my mind, there could have been back & forth between two different populations for generations on the Orkneys.
The Viking men did take women and children along when colonizing, but back & forth does seem likely.
Did you see the putfile.com notice?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1683720/posts?page=6#6
Yeah, I did, thanks.
Putfile is FROM HUNGER. They used to be OK, but now they'e nowhere near as good as Photobucket or YouTube.
TinyPic is the one I've been using.
I really think that you should go back and read what you posted in #56. It says that;
1) Welsh law was very probably incorporated into English-Mercian law in the Midland region near Wales,
2) the majority of the south, the greater part of the country, continued to use the old Saxon laws of King Alfred, the first unifier of the nation of England,
3) the Danes occupied and controlled, to varying degrees, the northern midlands and N.E. coastal area.
I'll risk contradicting your assertion in post #51 that there was no nation of England under the Anglo-Saxons. There very much was such a nation. What do you think William conquered, and Knute before him?
The time of Æthelred "the Unready" makes the whole Kingdom question less clear, with Sweyn ruling for a few weeks in the middle of his reign, though I guess the same argument could be made during times of post Norman conquest English civil wars.
Welsh law was very probably incorporated into English-Mercian law in the Midland region near Wales,
True. While I don't want to wander off into speculation about King Arthur, it is possible Welsh/British law is much stronger than my earlier statement gave credit.
Go back and read the thing you posted again. Edward the Confessor promulgated a code of laws based on the three legal systems which were in existence at the time, Mercian law which was "very probably" intermixed with British and Druidical customs, West-Saxon-Lage, the laws of the West Saxons, and Dane-law, and I quote from the source you quoted but either did not read or did not understand:
1. The Mercen-Lage, or Mercian laws which were observed in many of the midland counties, and those bordering on the principality of Wales, the retreat of the antient Britons; and therefore very probably intermixed with the British or Druidical customs. 2. The West-Saxon-Lage, or laws of the west Saxons, which obtained in the counties to the south and west of the island, from Kent to Devonshire. These were probably much the same with the laws of Alfred above-mentioned, being the municipal law of the far most considerable part of his dominions, and particularly including Berkshire, the seat of his peculiar residence. 3. The Dane-Lage, or Danish law, the very name of which speaks it's original and composition. This was principally. maintained in the rest of the midland counties, and also on the eastern coast, the part most exposed to the visits of that piratical people. As for the very northern provinces, they were at that time under a distinct government.[8]
Out of these three laws, Roger Hoveden[9] and Ranulphus Cestrensis[10] inform us, king Edward the confessor extracted one uniform law or digest of laws, to be observed throughout the whole kingdom; though Hoveden and the author of an old manuscript chronicle[11] assure us likewise, that this work was projected and begun by his grandfather king Edgar.
Why on earth would you venture off into speculation about King Arthur when you're talking about the sources of English law?
If you pass this test, does it give you license to putt and put on woad?
That’s not a good thing to learn. He has my best wishes and prayers.
On a map showing where surnames originated in ancient times, mine came from the Orkney Islands.
>>No, but there was one called “Several species of small furry animals gathered together in a cave and grooving with a pict”.
I used to play that, endlessly, at high volume, out the front windows on Halloween.
My New Zealand neighbor just got his Y-chromosome results back today and he's an I1a and a peculiar marker indicates that he's a Saxon...and, probably one who invaded England. His MtDNA is 'H', the most wide spread in Europe.
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