Salic law

The Salic law (/ˈsælɪk/ or /ˈseɪlɪk/; Latin: Lex salica), or the Salian law, was the ancient Salian Frankish civil law code compiled around AD 500 by the first Frankish King, Clovis. The written text is in Latin, or in 'semi-French Latin' according to some linguists; it also contains what Dutch linguists describe as one of the earliest known records of Old Dutch, perhaps second only to the Bergakker inscription. It remained the basis of Frankish law throughout the early Medieval period, and influenced future European legal systems. The best-known tenet of the old law is the principle of exclusion of women from inheritance of thrones, fiefs and other property. The Salic laws were arbitrated by a committee appointed and empowered by the King of the Franks. Dozens of manuscripts dating from the 6th to 8th centuries and three emendations as late as the 9th century have survived.But of Salic land no portion of the inheritance shall come to a woman: but the whole inheritance of the land shall come to the male sex.concerning terra Salica no portion or inheritance is for a woman but all the land belongs to members of the male sex who are brothers.The hostess, a civil, quiet, laborious drudge, came to take his orders for dinner, but declined to make answer on the subject of the horse and guide; for the Salique Law, it seems, extended to the stables of the Golden Candlestick. The Salic law (/ˈsælɪk/ or /ˈseɪlɪk/; Latin: Lex salica), or the Salian law, was the ancient Salian Frankish civil law code compiled around AD 500 by the first Frankish King, Clovis. The written text is in Latin, or in 'semi-French Latin' according to some linguists; it also contains what Dutch linguists describe as one of the earliest known records of Old Dutch, perhaps second only to the Bergakker inscription. It remained the basis of Frankish law throughout the early Medieval period, and influenced future European legal systems. The best-known tenet of the old law is the principle of exclusion of women from inheritance of thrones, fiefs and other property. The Salic laws were arbitrated by a committee appointed and empowered by the King of the Franks. Dozens of manuscripts dating from the 6th to 8th centuries and three emendations as late as the 9th century have survived. Salic law provided written codification of both civil law, such as the statutes governing inheritance, and criminal law, such as the punishment for murder. Although it was originally intended as the law of the Salians or Western Franks, it has had a formative influence on the tradition of statute law that extended to modern history in Western and Central Europe, especially in the German states, the Netherlands, parts of Italy and Spain, Austria-Hungary, Romania, and the Balkans. The original edition of the code was commissioned by the first king of all the Franks, Clovis I (c. 466–511), and published sometime between 507 and 511. He appointed four commissioners to research uses of laws that, until the publication of the Salic Law, had been recorded only in the minds of designated elders, who would meet in council when their knowledge was required. Transmission was entirely oral. Salic Law therefore reflects ancient usages and practices. In order to govern more effectively, it was desirable for monarchs and their administrations to have a written code. The name of the code comes from the circumstance that Clovis was a Merovingian king ruling only the Salian Franks before his unification of Francia. The law must have applied to the Ripuarian Franks as well; however, containing only 65 titles, it may not have included any special Ripuarian laws. For the next 300 years the code was copied by hand, and was amended as required to add newly enacted laws, revise laws that had been amended, and delete laws that had been repealed. In contrast with printing, hand copying is an individual act by an individual copyist with ideas and a style of his own. Each of the several dozen surviving manuscripts features a unique set of errors, corrections, content and organization. The laws are called 'titles' as each one has its own name, generally preceded by de, 'of', 'concerning'. Different sections of titles acquired individual names which revealed something about their provenances. Some of these dozens of names have been adopted for specific reference, often given the same designation as the overall work, lex. The recension of Hendrik Kern organizes all of the manuscripts into five families according to similarity and relative chronological sequence, judged by content and dateable material in the text. Family I is the oldest, containing four manuscripts dated to the 8th and 9th centuries but containing 65 titles believed to be copies of originals published in the 6th century. In addition they feature the Malbergse Glossen, 'Malberg Glosses', marginal glosses stating the native court word for some Latin words. These are named from native malbergo, 'language of the court'. Kern's Family II, represented by two manuscripts, is the same as Family I, except that it contains 'interpolations or numerous additions which point to a later period'. Family III is split into two divisions. The first, comprising three manuscripts, dated to the 8th–9th centuries, presents an expanded text of 99 or 100 titles. The Malberg Glosses are retained. The second division, with four manuscripts, not only drops the glosses, but 'bears traces of attempts to make the language more concise'. A statement gives the provenance: 'in the 13th year of the reign of our most glorious king of the Franks, Pipin'. Some of the internal documents were composed after the reign of Pepin the Short, but it is considered to be an emendation initiated by Pepin, and is therefore termed the Pipina Recensio. Family IV also has two divisions: the first comprised 33 manuscripts; the second, one manuscript. They are characterized by the internal assignment of Latin names to various sections of different provenance. Two of the sections are dated to 768 and 778, but the emendation is believed to be dated to 798, late in the reign of Charlemagne. This edition calls itself the Lex Salica Emendata, or the Lex Reformata, or the Lex Emendata, and is clearly the result of a law code reform by Charlemagne. By that time his Holy Roman Empire comprised most of Western Europe. He adds laws of choice (free will) taken from the earlier law codes of Germanic peoples not originally part of Francia. These are numbered into the laws that were there, but they have their own, quasi-sectional, title. All the Franks of Francia were subject to the same law code, which retained the overall title of Lex Salica. These integrated sections borrowed from other Germanic codes are the Lex Ribuariorum, later Lex Ribuaria, laws adopted from the Ripuarian Franks, who, before Clovis, had been independent. The Lex Alamannorum took laws from the Alamanni, then subject to the Franks. Under the Franks, they were governed by Frankish law, not their own. The inclusion of some of their law as part of the Salic Law must have served as a palliative. Charlemagne goes back even earlier to the Lex Suauorum, the ancient code of the Suebi preceding the Alemanni. Glosses to the Salic law code (the Malbergse glossen) contain several Old Dutch words and what is likely the earliest full sentence in the language: