Topics

Kin

Who stood behind a person, and who was owed when they were wronged.

• The Body-FineA free man is killed. Who is paid, and by whom?
• The Case of Tanistry draftWho inherits land: the eldest son, or the most worthy man of the kin?

Words used

• derbfine: The kin-group of a man’s father’s side, which received the body-fine when he was killed. The lawyers described it as a group four generations deep.
• éraic: The fixed fine for killing a freeman: seven cumals, whatever his rank. It went to the dead man’s close paternal kin, with a third deducted if a lord had to enforce it.

The wider machinery is in How the law worked.

Cases are listed in the order of the book. Each case page says where it comes from.