Salic law

The Salic law (Lat. lex Salica) was a body of traditional law to govern the Salian Franks that was codified in the early 6th century, during the reign of Clovis I. Salic law was the basis for the laws of Charlemagne, but by the 12th century, both the Frankish kings and their laws had changed.

This set of laws codified policy on matters such as inheritance, crime, and murder. In a kingdom with diverse groups and ethnicities each ethnic group expected to be governed under its own law.

The laws went into extreme detail concerning damages to be paid in fines for injuries to persons or goods, such as slaves, and for theft and unproven insults. One third of the fine went to court costs. Interpretation of the laws was put in the charge of a jury of peers.

The great detail of the laws and what we retain of their interpretations give interesting insights into Frankish society, for Salic law makes it clear that an individual has no right to protection if he is not part of a family.

Historical consequences

The Salic law is responsible for some interesting chapters of history. The Carlist Wars occurred in Spain over the question of whether the heir to the throne should be a female or a male relative. The War of the Austrian Succession was triggered by the Pragmatic Sanction in which Charles VI of Austria, who himself had inherited the Austrian patrimony over his nieces as a result of Salic law, attempted to ensure the inheritance directly to his own daughter Maria Theresa of Austria, this being an example of an operation of the so-called Semi-Salic law.

Shakespeare claims that Charles VI rejected Henry V's claim to the French throne on the basis of Salic law's inheritance rules, leading to the Battle of Agincourt. In fact, the conflict between Salic law and English law was a justification for many overlapping claims between the French and English monarchs over the French Throne

The British and Hanoverian thrones separated after the death of King William IV of the United Kingdom and of Hanover. Hanover practiced the Salic law, while Britain did not. King William's niece Victoria ascended to the throne of Great Britain and Ireland, but the throne of Hanover went to William's brother Ernest, Duke of Cumberland; Salic law was also an important issue in the Schleswig-Holstein question.

In the Channel Islands, the only part of the former duchy of Normandy still held by the British Crown, Queen Elizabeth II is traditionally ascribed the title of Duke of Normandy (never Duchess). The influence of Salic law is presumed to explain why she is toasted as "The Queen our Duke."

In 1316, in events which would later lead to the Hundred Years' War (1339 - 1450), upon the first situation in history of Capetian kings where the closest relative of the dead king was not a son. French lords, notably led by the late king's uncle, Philip of Poitiers, the beneficiary of this, wanted to forbid inheritance by a woman.

Agnatic succession

Main article: Agnatic succession

Agnatic succession means succession to the throne or fief going to an agnate of the predecessor; for example, a brother, a son, or nearest male relative through male line (collateral agnate branches, for example cousins, very distant cousins included). Chief forms are agnatic seniority and agnatic primogeniture. The latter, which has been the most usual, means succession going to the eldest son of the monarch; if the monarch had no sons, the throne would pass to the nearest male relative through male line.

These genealogical ways to organize succession fulfill the prerequisites of the Salic law.

Female inheritance

See also: Terra salica

One provision of the Salic law continued to play a role in European politics during the Middle Ages and beyond. Concerning the inheritance of land, the Salic Law provided

But of Salic land no portion of the inheritance shall come to a woman: but the whole inheritance of the land shall come to the male sex.

or, another transcript:

concerning terra Salica no portion or inheritance is for a woman but all the land belongs to members of the male sex who are brothers.

As actually interpreted by the Salian Franks, the law simply prohibited women from inheriting, not all property (such as movables), but ancestral "Salic land", and under Chilperic I sometime around the year 570, the law was actually amended to permit inheritance of land by a daughter if a man had no surviving sons. (This amendment, depending on how it is applied and interpreted, offers the basis for either Semi-Salic succession or male-preferred primogeniture, or both.)

The wording of the Salic law, as well as usual usages in those days and centuries afterwards, seem to support an interpretation that the Salic law would mean partition of the inheritance between brothers. And, if it is intended to govern succession, it can be interpreted to mandate agnatic seniority, not a direct primogeniture.

In its usage of hereditary monarchies since 15th century, aiming at agnatic succession, the Salic law is regarded as excluding all females from the succession as well as prohibiting succession rights to transfer through any woman. At least two systems of hereditary succession are direct and full applications of the Salic Law: agnatic seniority and agnatic primogeniture.

So-called Semi-Salic version of succession order stipulates that firstly all male descendance is seen through, including all collateral male lines, but if all agnates become extinct, then the female who is closest heir (such as daughter) of the last male holder of the property, inherits, and after her, her own male heirs according to the Salic order. In other words, the female closest to the last incumbent, is regarded as a male for the purposes of inheritance/succession. This is a pragmatic way of putting order: the female is the closest, thus continuing the most recent incumbent's blood, and not any more distant relative than necessary. At that order, the original primogeniture is not followed with regard to the requisite female. She could be child of a relatively junior branch of the whole dynasty, but still inherits thanks to the longevity of her own branch.

From Middle Ages, we have one practical system of succession in cognatic male primogeniture, which actually fulfills apparent stipulations of original Salic law: succession is allowed also through female line, just females themselves do not inherit, but the sons of females do. For example, a grandfather, without sons, is succeeded by his grandson, a son of his daughter, when the daughter in question is yet alive. Or an uncle, without own children, is succeeded by his nephew, a son of his sister, when the sister in question is yet alive.

Strictly seen, this fulfills the Salic condition of "no land comes to a woman, but the land comes to the male sex". This can be called a Quasi-Salic system of succession and it should be classified as primogenitural, cognatic, and male.

However, in 1316, in events which would later lead to the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453), upon the first situation in history of the Capetian kings where the closest relative of the dead king was not a son, French lords (notably led by the late king's uncle, Philip of Poitiers, the beneficiary of this) wanted to forbid inheritance by a woman. At instance, in order to favor the previous king's (John I the Posthumous's) uncle Philip's claim over John's half-sister Joan, to totally disqualify the claim of the future Joan II of Navarre as well as having the by-product of disqualifying also any future claims of Edward III of England to the French throne.

In 1328, a further limitation was needed, to bar inheritance by a male through a female line. These applications of succession were at that time based on a number of reasons and excuses, such as "genealogical proximity with the king Saint Louis", and role of monarch as leader of war, as well as claiming to bar the realm going to an alien man and his clan through a woman, to not allow an order of succession where an alien man could become king of France as husband, without necessarily having any French blood himself. Some additional factors were, in 1316, that the rival heir was a five-year-old female and powerless compared with the rival. And in 1328, the rival was a king of a neighboring kingdom against which the French had had battles and quarrels for a couple of centuries already. As far as can be ascertained, Salic law was not explicitly mentioned at that time.

Later in time, jurists resurrected the long-defunct Salic law and reinterpreted it to justify the line of succession arrived at in the cases of 1316 and 1328 to forbid not only inheritance by a woman but also inheritance through a female line.

Notwithstanding the Salic law, when Francis II of Brittany died in 1488 without male issue, his daughter Anne succeeded him and ruled as duchess of Brittany until her death in 1514. (Brittany had been inherited by women earlier - Francis's own dynasty obtained the Duchy through their ancestress Duchess Constance of Brittany in the 12th century.) Francis's own family, the Montfort branch of the ducal house, had obtained Brittany in the 1350s on the basis of agnatic succession, and at that time, their succession was limited to the male line only.

This law by no means was intended to cover all matters of inheritance — for example not inheritance of movables - only those lands considered "Salic" — and there is still debate as to the legal definition of this word, although it is generally accepted to refer to lands in the royal fisc. Only several hundred years later, under the Direct Capetian kings of France and their English contemporaries who held lands in France, did Salic law become a rationale for enforcing or debating succession. By then somewhat anachronistic (there were no Salic lands, since the Salian monarchy and its lands had originally situated in Dutch areas, now belonging to another country), the idea was resurrected by Philip V 1316 to support his claim to the throne by removing his niece Jeanne from the succession, following the death of his nephew John. In 1328, at latest, the Salic Law needed a further interpretation to forbid not only inheritance by a woman, but inheritance through a female line, in order to bar the male Edward III of England, descendant of French kings through his mother Isabel of France, from the succession. When the Direct Capetian line ended, the law was contested by England, providing a putative motive for the Hundred Years' War.

Old Dutch

Main article: Old Dutch

The Salic Law contains one of the first examples of Old Dutch. Mainly loose words (Malbergse glossen) but even a full sentence appears what is to be Old Dutch^[1]:

Maltho thi afrio lito

I tell you: I free you, half free.

This phrase was used to free a serf.

More important perhaps, is the abundance of Old Low Franconian words present in the texts.

Literary references

Shakespeare uses the Salic law as a plot device in his play Henry V, and states that it was upheld by the French to bar the claim of Henry V from the throne of France. The play Henry V starts with the Archbishop of Canterbury being asked if Henry's claim can be upheld despite the law. The Archbishop says that it is not a French law but a German one, since "That the land Salique is in Germany, between the floods of Sala and of Elbe"

Notes

1. ^ The Dutch Language. Livios.org. Retrieved on 2006-09-20.

References

• Katherine Fischer Drew, The laws of the Salian Franks (Pactus legis Salicae), Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press (1991), ISBN 0-8122-8256-6 / ISBN 0-8122-1322-X.

• Craig Taylor, ed., Debating the Hundred Years War. "Pour ce que plusieurs" (La Loy Salique) and "A declaration of the trew and dewe title of Henrie VIII", Camden 5th series, Cambridge University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-521-873908

• Craig Taylor, "The Salic Law and the Valois succession to the French crown", French History, 15 (2001), pp. 358-77.

• Craig Taylor, "The Salic Law, French Queenship and the Defence of Women in the Late Middle Ages", French Historical Studies, 29 (2006), pp. 543-64.

See also

• Early Germanic law
• Agnatic descent

es:Ley Sálica eo:Salfranka leĝo eu:Lege Salikoa fr:Loi salique it:Legge salica nl:Salische Wet ja:サリカ法典 pl:Prawo salickie pt:Lei sálica ro:Legea Salică ru:Салический закон fi:Saalilainen laki zh:薩利克繼承法

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