Lex Frisionum
8th-century Frisian legal code
The Lex Frisionum (lit. 'Law of the Frisians') is a set of legal documents governing early medieval Frisia. Written in 802, it was recorded in Latin during the reign of Charlemagne when the Frankish conquest of Frisia was completed by the final defeat of the Saxon rebel leader Widukind. The law code covered the region of the Frisians.
Content
The Frisians were divided into four legal classes, to whom the law, or those transgressions of it that incurred set fines, applied. They were the nobles, the freemen, the serfs and slaves. The clergy are not mentioned in the Lex Frisionum as they were not liable to civil law.
The Frisians received the title of freemen and were allowed to choose their own potestaat, or imperial governor. In the Lex Frisionum three districts of Frisia are clearly distinguished: the law governs all of Frisia, but West Frisia "between Zwin and Vlie" and East Frisia "between Lauwers and Weser" have certain stated exceptional provisions.
At the partition treaty of Verdun (843) the whole of Frisia became part of Lotharingia; at the treaty of Meersen (870) it was briefly divided between the kingdoms of the East Franks (Austrasia) and the West Franks (Neustria), but in 880 the whole country was reunited under Austrasia.
The first twenty-two chapters of the Lex Frisionum are entirely concerned with schedules of fines (compositio) and wergeld, the compensations due victims or their kin, scheduled according to the social ranks of perpetrator and victim.
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