WEHROELD or WEHRE (in Latin ." Werigelclum," and in some cases " Compositio "), was a kind of fine for manslaughter, wounds, &c., in use among the ancient Teutonic nations, by paying which the offender, if a freeman, got rid of every further obligation or punish ment. The serf or unfree bad no right to wehrgeld ; but by a law of the emperor Henry II. (1022) the lord of the serf had a claim against the slayer. The punishment of death was almost unknown among the Teutonic nations, and was never inflicted for crimes against individuals, but only for crimes and misdemeanours by which the community as such was injured. Tacitus (` Germania; 12) says that traitors and deserters were hanged on trees, and that cowards and such as were of infamous lives (corpore infames) were smothered in marshes ; hurdles were thrown over them, by which their bodies were kept down. Several bodies of Germans who were buried in that way, with the hurdles still over them, have been found in the great marshes of Northern Germany. It is very likely that death inflicted for such crimes was less a punishment than a means of getting rid of persons the sight of whom was a disgrace to the community, and for whom there were no prisons. Crimes committed by one individual against another were considered not directly to concern the community. The wounded man, or the relations of him who had been slain, pursued the culprit till they found him ready to satisfy their vengeance by giving them a certain number of cattle and arms. (Tacitus, ib., 21.) If the parties belonged to different communities, the consequence was a feud between them and their adherents, no community having the slightest authority over another; but if the parties belonged to the same community, the matter was soon settled. The plaintiff called the offender before the community, and if the defendant was found guilty, he was sentenced to pay a certain fine, the wehrgeld or wehre. If the defendant would not or could not pay, his relations were bound to pay for him; the father paid for his children, the master for his serfs, and he who received a stranger in his house was liable for the misconduct of his guest. The plaintiff was not obliged to summon the offender before the meeting : he could pursue his cause with his sword, and thus compel the defender to pay the wehrgeld, which was always pro portionate to the offence. If the cause was brought before the
community, the plaintiff only received part of the wehrgeld ; the com munity, or the king, when there was any, received the other part. (Tacitus, ib.,12.) The part paid to the community must be considered as a fine for the breach of peace, and the consequence of the reciprocal obligation of the members of the community to maintain order. If the wehrgeld were not paid, the right of taking personal revenge was resumed. Laws therefore were passed enabling the community to enforce a wehrgeld even when the defaulter was unable or refused to pay.
We learn from the written laws of the Teutonic nations that the wehrgeld was for various crimes and misdemeanours, such as murder, manslaughter, infliction of wounds, and grievous bodily harm, robbery, theft, incendiarism, plagiary, rape, sodomy, verbal and real injuries, and several others, such as the violation of a grave (` Lex Salica; tit. xvii.), by which is understood not only the injury done to the tomb, such as taking the tombstone from one grave and putting it, on another, but also stealing a dead body, or its clothes and ornaments. The general Latin name for the fine paid for such crimes is " corn positio ;" wehrgeld designating merely the fine for a crime committed against the person of a freeman. The amount of the fine was in pro portion to the nature of the crime, to the loss of property or damage resulting from it, and it varied according to the rank of the injured person as well as of the offender. In case of theft or damage, the fine did not exclude either the restitution of the stolen object or of the damaged thing, if possible. Iu England the laws relating to wehrgeld received many modifications from Alfred downward.
The wehrgeld was not the same among the different Teutonic tribes, as may be seen by a comparison of their laws. The laws of the Anglo Saxons deserve particular attention. Mr. Kemble calculates that in Kent the wehrgeld of the noble was 360 shillings, and of the freeman (or ceorl) 180 shillings. In Northumberland it seems to have been somewhat higher. In Wessex that of the freeman was 200 shillings and the noble 1200. The clergy were rated high—an archbishop with a prince, a bishop with an ealderman.
(Eichhorn, Deutsche &atilt. and Reichts Geschichtc ; Kemble, Saxons in England.)