page_title: Ine of Wessex
section_title: Laws
hierarchical_section_title: Ine of Wessex / Laws
caption_attribution_description: The initial page of the Peterborough Chronicle, marked secondarily by the librarian of the Laud collection. The manuscript is an autograph of the monastic scribes of Peterborough. The opening sections were likely scribed around 1638 (See document). The section displayed is prior to the First Continuation.
context_page_description: Ine, also rendered Ini or Ina, was King of Wessex from 689 to 726. At Ine's accession, his kingdom dominated much of southern England. However, he was unable to retain the territorial gains of his predecessor, Cædwalla, who had expanded West Saxon territory substantially. By the end of Ine's reign, the kingdoms of Kent, Sussex, and Essex were no longer under West Saxon sway; however, Ine maintained control of what is now Hampshire, and consolidated and extended Wessex's territory in the western peninsula.
  Ine is noted for his code of laws, which he issued in about 694. These laws were the first issued by an Anglo-Saxon king outside Kent. They shed much light on the history of Anglo-Saxon society, and reveal Ine's Christian convictions. Trade increased significantly during Ine's reign, with the town of Hamwic becoming prominent. It was probably during Ine's reign that the West Saxons began to mint coins, though none have been found that bear his name.
  Ine abdicated in 726 to go to Rome, leaving, in the words of the contemporary chronicler Bede, the kingdom to "younger men". He was succeeded by Æthelheard.
context_section_description: The earliest Anglo-Saxon law code to survive, which may date from 602 or 603, is that of Æthelberht of Kent, whose reign ended in 616.  In the 670s or 680s, a code was issued in the names of Hlothhere and Eadric of Kent. The next kings to issue laws were Wihtred of Kent and Ine.
  The dates of Wihtred's and Ine's laws are somewhat uncertain, but there is reason to believe that Wihtred's laws were issued on 6 September 695, while Ine's laws were written in 694 or shortly before.  Ine had recently agreed peaceful terms with Wihtred over compensation for the death of Mul, and there are indications that the two rulers collaborated to some degree in producing their laws.  In addition to the coincidence of timing, there is one clause that appears in almost identical form in both codes. Another sign of collaboration is that Wihtred's laws use gesith, a West Saxon term for noble, in place of the Kentish term eorlcund.  It is possible that Ine and Wihtred issued the law codes as an act of prestige, to re-establish authority after periods of disruption in both kingdoms.
  Ine's laws survive only because Alfred the Great appended them to his own code of laws.  The oldest surviving manuscript, and only complete copy, is in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge MS 173, which contains both Alfred's and Ine's law codes and the oldest extant text of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.  Two more partial texts survive.  One was originally a complete copy of Ine's laws, part of British Library MS Cotton Otho B xi, but that manuscript was largely destroyed in 1731 by a fire at Ashburnham House in which only Chapters 66 to 76.2 of Ine's laws escaped destruction.  A fragment of Ine's laws can also be found in British Museum MS Burney 277.
  It is possible that we do not have Ine's laws in their original 7th-century form. Alfred mentions in the prologue to his laws that he rejected earlier laws which he disliked. He did not specify what laws he omitted, but if they were the ones no longer relevant in his own time, it cannot be assumed that the surviving version of Ine's laws is complete.
  The prologue to Ine's laws lists his advisors.  Three people are named: bishops Eorcenwald and Hædde, and Ine's father, King Cenred.  Ine was a Christian king, whose intent to encourage Christianity is clear from the laws. The oath of a communicant, for example, is declared to carry more weight than that of a non-Christian; and baptism and religious observance are also addressed. Significant attention is also paid to civil issues—more than in the contemporary Kentish laws.
  One of the laws states that common land might be enclosed by several ceorls (the contemporary name for Saxon freemen).  Any ceorl who fails to fence his share, however, and allows his cattle to stray into someone else's field is to be held liable for any damage caused. This does not mean that the land was held in common: each ceorl had his own strip of land that supported him. It is notable that a king's law is required to settle a relatively minor issue; the laws do not mention the role of local lords in obtaining compliance from the ceorls. It is clear from this and other laws that tenants held the land in tenure from a lord; the king's close involvement indicates that the relationship between lord and tenant was under the king's control.
  The laws that deal with straying cattle provide the earliest documentary evidence for an open-field farming system. They show that open-field agriculture was practiced in Wessex in Ine's time, and it is probable that this was also the prevalent agricultural method throughout the English midlands, and as far north and east as Lindsey and Deira. Not all of Wessex used this system, however: it was not used in Devon, for example.  The law which mentions a "yard" of land is the first documented mention of that unit. A yard was a unit of land equal to a quarter of a hide; a hide was variable from place to place but could be as much as 120 acres (49 ha). The yard in this sense later became the standard holding of the medieval villein, and was known as the virgate.  One historian h
caption: The initial page of Corpus Christi College Cambridge MS 173, the Peterborough Chronicle, which contains the oldest surviving copy of Ine's laws.
exif: {}