Factfile

Law and Order

One system for punishing those guilty of a crime which is still in use in many parts of the world is that the criminal or the criminal's family have to pay a blood-fine to the victim (or if the victim is dead, his/her family). In Wales in the Thirteenth Century, a wife who caught her adulterous husband could murder her rival without any recriminations! And the husband? I guess he suffered no punishment for his adultery that caused it.

“I think you need to know how we look upon women. It is true … that a Welshwoman cannot inherit her father's lands, whereas she would have a right of inheritance in England. But that is for the same reason that our laws exclude men maimed, deaf, crippled, or stricken with leprosy. It was feared … that women, and men so afflicted, could not hold their lands against attack. But we do not claim that womanly weakness on the battlefield should make her subordinate in all else … Our women cannot be wed against their will, and a Welsh wife has no less right to walk away from an unhappy marriage than does her husband … we were talking of how we end a marriage. It may always be done by mutual consent. And then, a husband may disavow his wife if she claims to be a virgin and he discovers on their wedding night that she is not, or if he finds her in compromising circumstances with another man … or if her marriage portion falls short of what was promised. … But do you not want to know how a wife may shed an unwanted husband? There are four grievances that will gain her freedom: if the man contracts leprosy, if he has foul breath, if he is incapable in bed or if he does three times dishonour their marriage vows… The first two times that a Welsh wife discovers her husband has bedded with another woman, she has the right to demand from him payment of a ‘gowyn' – a fine, if you will – for his adultery. With his third fall from grace, she may leave him, although if she does not, she then has no further cause for complaint … There is one more reason for ending a marriage … if a husband does ever bring another woman under his wife's roof” - from 'Here Be Dragons'.