The Laws of Clovis in The Lex Salica and PDF
The Laws of Clovis in The Lex Salica and PDF
The Laws of Clovis in The Lex Salica and PDF
The laws of Clovis in the and the transition from Gaul to Francia
by Jonathan Neumann Exeter University
Different Frankish kingdoms were flourishing in Northern Gaul throughout the fifth century.
One of them was the kingdom of the Salic Franks ruled by Clovis who, through conquests
and alliances, had united most of the other Frankish kingdoms under his rule by the late
fifth/early sixth century.1
Lex Salica
In order to legitimise his rule, Clovis issued the . Probably conceived shortly
before 507, this text establishes the law that should be applied to all the subjects of his
extensive kingdom.2 Written in Latin by four
electi
, it allowed the Frankish king to legitimise
his position as ruler of an independent kingdom, much like his barbarian neighbours had
done before him. 3 Indeed the making of laws had been the privilege of the Roman
emperors. By issuing his own laws a king thus took on the role of a Roman emperor and
reflected the authority that everyone should obey to henceforth local Roman aristocracy
included.
Because Clovis ruled over Franks and Romans, a distinction is made between the two in
the law with a clear bias towards the Franks. Thus in the sections dealing with assault and
murder, a Roman would have to pay twice as much for assaulting a Frank as a Frank would
for assaulting a Roman.4 Similarly, the life of a Roman was worth half a Frank’s.5 As a
consequence one can imagine that it was far better and safer to be considered a Frank
rather than a Roman. In a sense the law encouraged the “barbarisation” of the Roman
subjects for obvious reasons.
It is interesting to note as well how “nonRoman” this law was: many elements referenced in
it are distinctively of Germanic origin. There is for example the “Thing”, probably a sort of
1
R. Van Dam, ‘Merovingian Gaul and the Frankish Conquests’, in The New Cambridge
Medieval History c.500–c.700
, I: , ed. P. Fouracre (Cambridge, 2005), pp. 1978
2
R. Le Jan, ‘La sacralité de la royauté Mérovingienne’, in Annales. Histoire, Sciences
Sociales , 58 (2003), pp. 12267
3
Ibid
., p. 1227
4
Laws of the Salian Franks XIV , trans. E. F. Henderson in ‘The Internet Medieval
Sourcebook’, ed. P. Halsall ( http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/saliclaw.html ),
accessed 25 February 2013
5
Ibid.
1
tribal court where individuals could be summoned to be judged.6 In reference to money
payment the term “firth” or peacemoney is used, as well as “wergeld” or
compoundingmoney.7 Finally there is the process called “chrenecruda” by which the debt
owed by an individual rested on his kin until it was paid in full.8 This bestowed responsibility
for every member on the kin as a whole, and must have reinforced the ties between
extended family members.
The law also allows for an insight into what problems plagued Frankish society and how it
tried to deal with them, at least at the time it was composed. This one for example deals
with the killing of children or women in a specific article.9 The payment for wounds is also
set aside, going from the most serious case attempted murder down to the least serious
one blows that do not draw blood.10 Finally the insults that a person could be fined for
must ultimately reflect Frankish society or they would not appear in the law: interestingly
enough they reference animals known for their femininity and sneakiness.11 We could
therefore conclude that Frankish society emphasised the contrary manliness and
frankness.
There is of course a major difference between what the law says and how it was applied.
Unfortunately there are no court cases remaining from the Merovingian time, it is thus
was respected in reality.12 But the only fact that
lex
impossible to assess how thoroughly the
it was codified with distinctly Germanic roots is proof of the very selfconscious ethnicity of
the Franks.
6
Laws of the Salian Franks I
, trans. E. F. Henderson in ‘The Internet Medieval
Sourcebook’, ed. P. Halsall (
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/saliclaw.html ),
accessed 25 February 2013
7
Ibid.
, XIII and LXII
8
Ibid
., LVII
9
Ibid., XXIV
10
Ibid
., XVII
11
Ibid
., XXX
12
Leges barbarorum
P. Wormald, P ‘The : Law and Ethnicity in the postRoman West’, in
Regna and Gentes: The Relationship between Late Antique and Early Medieval Peoples
and Kingdoms in the Transformation of the Roman World , ed. H.W. Goetz, J. Jarnut and
W. Pohl (Leiden, 2003), pp. 456
2
Bibliography
Signet ring of Childeric (document with images provided)
Laws of the Salian Franks
, trans. E. F. Henderson in ‘The Internet Medieval Sourcebook’,
ed. P. Halsall (
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/saliclaw.html )
The History of the Franks
Gregory of Tours, II.35–7, trans. L. Thorpe (London, 1974), pp.
150–4
R. Van Dam, ‘Merovingian Gaul and the Frankish Conquests’, in The New Cambridge
Medieval History c.500–c.700
, I: , ed. P. Fouracre (Cambridge, 2005), pp. 193–231
P. Wormald, P ‘The Leges barbarorum : Law and Ethnicity in the postRoman West’, in
Regna and Gentes: The Relationship between Late Antique and Early Medieval Peoples
and Kingdoms in the Transformation of the Roman World , ed. H.W. Goetz, J. Jarnut and
W. Pohl (Leiden, 2003), pp. 21–53
W. Goffart,
The Narrators of Barbarian History (A.D. 550–800): Jordanes, Gregory of Tours,
Bede, and Paul the Deacon (Princeton, NJ, 1988), pp. 112–27
R. Le Jan, ‘La sacralité de la royauté Mérovingienne’, in
Annales. Histoire, Sciences
Sociales
, 58 (2003), pp. 121741
Speculum
W. M. Daly, ‘Clovis: How Barbaric, How Pagan?’, in , 63 (1994), pp. 61964
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