II Aethelstan; or, the Grately Code

Audience

Because the law was promulgated at a meeting attended primarily by dignitaries, these dignitaries must be considered as the initial audience. However, the law was not intended to end with them but to radiate out through them into the lands they controlled and to the people over whom they had authority. The written version of the law code would originally have been the product of one member or perhaps a few members of that audience, which is to say most likely ecclesiastics and possibly the archbishop himself. Undoubtedly, the law code is an adapted form of the oral pronouncement of the law and likewise was further changed from the time it was first written down in the meeting to the surviving copies that still exist. Nevertheless, something of the original audience can be deduced from the contents of the law code.

First, it should be observed that the law was intended to be valid throughout Aethelstan's kingdom. How much of Britain that originally included depends on how late into Aethelstan's reign the law was promulgated. The locations mentioned in clause 14.2 of the law code—Canterbury, Rochester, London, Winchester, Lewes, Hastings, Chichester, Southampton, Wareham, Dorchester, Exeter, and Shaftesbury—would appear to imply that the audiences were located in the south of England. Whether this implies that the law code was promulgated earlier in Aethelstan's reign, before his acquisition of Northumbria in 927, is uncertain. On the surface the argument seems sound, as no northern settlements are mentioned. However, the final words, stating that the other boroughs should have one moneyer each, could equally be applied to the north. It is quite possible that Aethelstan, or whoever composed the law code, was based in the south and not familiar or concerned enough with the northern settlements to name them. A further point to consider is that clause 14.2 falls in the middle of the section discussed previously, wherein a separate set of clause numbering has been used, implying that an earlier law code was incorporated into II Aethelstan when it was being produced. In all, therefore, there is nothing in the law code that can conclusively pinpoint when in Aethelstan's reign it was promulgated and, consequently, how far his kingdom reached and to what parts of Britain the law did, or did not, apply.

In terms of social class, the contents of the law code were aimed at all strata of society. On one hand, the king is referred to repeatedly throughout the law code but by title rather than by name, implying that the law was to be valid not just under Aethelstan but under his successors also. At the other end of the social spectrum, slaves are also frequently mentioned. Numerous other occupations and social classes are cited, including “landless men,” “lordless men,” “moneyers,” bishops, and lords.

In short, the audience of the law was the entirety of society. However, something of the people responsible for its implementation—its immediate audience—can also be seen in the law code. In clause 25 the focus of the law code turns to ensuring its enforcement, with the instruction that “if any of my reeves will not carry out this [ordinance] and is less zealous about it than we have pronounced, he is then to pay the fine for disobedience to me, and I shall find another who will.” The following clause, 25.1, instructed the bishop of the diocese in question to enforce this law. Clause 25.2 expanded the attention of the law code once more to include all of society.

The main audience who needed to know the law therefore was the reeves, for it was their job to implement the law on the local and immediate level. The term reeve refers generally to a person with administrative duties, which were often further defined in terms of a reeve's specific authority and responsibilities. For example, there were royal reeves, bishops' reeves, town reeves, port reeves, and reeves with authority over various administrative areas, such as boroughs and shires. The final one, the shire reeve, is perhaps the best known to the modern audience, as the term is the origin of the modern word sheriff.

To what degree the reeves were literate is difficult to determine. At the very least some reeves must have been literate, especially those who were of higher social rank or those who were attached to ecclesiastical figures. Alternatively, it is possible that the spread of literacy was far greater and may have played a fundamental role in the administration of the kingdom and the implementation of royal decrees and the law. If such is the case, then copies of the written law code—even if their production was unofficial—may still have played a significant role in the actual administration of the law.