reasoning was for his nobles to pursue wisdom through reading or having texts recited to them, possibly including those which are most necessary for all men to as ‘books know’ described in the preface to translation of the It would be Regula Pastoralis. Alfred’s surprising if the king did not consider his own to be among these works for domboc encouraging sound judgement or ensuring fair sentences. Patrick Wormald argues elsewhere that the primary aims of early Germanic legislators, including Alfred, were ideological and political in nature; by following Roman legislators such as Justinian and Theodosius, parallels could be drawn between the Roman Empire and recently formed Germanic kingdoms while also legitimizing a position king’s as a Christian law-giver. In examining the ideological aims of early Germanic legislators, Wormald is skeptical of the practical goals of law-making, arguing that a lack of evidence for contextual use of law-codes in legal cases suggests that their practical application was not a primary concern. This is a controversial view. Wormald recognizes that Alfred included his own unique laws with those of his predecessors, that some of these laws seem to have been inspired by specific legal cases, and that they were written in the vernacular which would be more accessible to a nobility of limited levels of literacy. He also points to the survival of code in six manuscripts as well as the order by Edward the Elder, son, Alfred’s Alfred’s that reeves adhere to the in their judgements. Keynes agrees with domboc Wormald’s assessment of the ideological and political uses of legislation, but argues that Alfred’s written law may have had greater practical application than Wormald suggests. Keynes discusses the intentions of Alfred as presented in law-code, and the Life, Asser’s Alfred’s prologue to translation of the as well as references to the Regula Pastoralis, Alfred’s in later law-codes of the tenth century. Keynes concludes: domboc We may not have the dog-eared copies of King code which the Alfred’s judges actually used, but tenth-century kings certainly issued laws which
reasoning was for his nobles to pursue wisdom through reading or having texts recited to them, possibly including those ‘books which are most necessary for all men to know’ as described in the preface to Alfred’s translation of the Regula Pastoralis. It would be surprising if the king did not consider his own domboc to be among these works for encouraging sound judgement or ensuring fair sentences. Patrick Wormald argues elsewhere that the primary aims of early Germanic legislators, including Alfred, were ideological and political in nature; by following Roman legislators such as Justinian and Theodosius, parallels could be drawn between the Roman Empire and recently formed Germanic kingdoms while also legitimizing a king’s position as a Christian law-giver. In examining the ideological aims of early Germanic legislators, Wormald is skeptical of the practical goals of law-making, arguing that a lack of evidence for contextual use of law-codes in legal cases suggests that their practical application was not a primary concern. This is a controversial view. Wormald recognizes that Alfred included his own unique laws with those of his predecessors, that some of these laws seem to have been inspired by specific legal cases, and that they were written in the vernacular which would be more accessible to a nobility of limited levels of literacy. He also points to the survival of Alfred’s code in six manuscripts as well as the order by Edward the Elder, Alfred’s son, that reeves adhere to the domboc in their judgements. Keynes agrees with Wormald’s assessment of the ideological and political uses of legislation, but argues that Alfred’s written law may have had greater practical application than Wormald suggests. Keynes discusses the intentions of Alfred as presented in Asser’s Life, Alfred’s law-code, and the prologue to Alfred’s translation of the Regula Pastoralis, as well as references to the domboc in later law-codes of the tenth century. Keynes concludes: We may not have the dog-eared copies of King Alfred’s code which the judges actually used, but tenth-century kings certainly issued laws which
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