EVOLUTION OF SAXON LAW and ORDER
In about 700 AD, Ine, King of Wessex, decide to record the best of the old customs and laws. The book that they were recorded in was called “The Dooms of Ine”. A “doom” was a law or judgement.
A century and a half later Wessex had another king, Alfred. Being interested in learning and books, he rewrote Ine’s laws.
King Alfred’s laws included detailed punishments for various wrongs, most being fines (and this still applies in Magistrates’ Courts today!). To the best of his ability, he tried to run the courts in a fair and just way.
The good order in his kingdom was called the “King’s Peace” and even today a person may be taken to court for causing “a breach of the Peace”.
It was also King Alfred who formalised compensation to the aggrieved, either by way of goods or money, which is another form of redress that has continued into modern times, although now purely in monetary terms.
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