Laws of Æthelberht

Law of Æthelberht
Opening folio of the code
Ascribed to	Æthelberht, king of Kent
Language	Old English
Date	7th century
Principal manuscript(s)	Textus Roffensis
First printed edition	George Hickes and Humfrey Wanley, Linguarum Vett. Septentrionalium Thesaurus Grammatico-Criticus et Archaeologicus (Oxford, 1703–5)
Genre	law code

The Law of Æthelberht is a set of legal provisions written in Old English, probably dating to the early 7th century. It originates in the kingdom of Kent, and is the first Germanic-language law code. It is also thought to be the earliest example of a document written in English, though extant only in an early 12th-century manuscript, Textus Roffensis.

The code is concerned primarily with preserving social harmony, through compensation and punishment for personal injury. Compensations are arranged according to social rank, descending from king to slave. The initial provisions of the code offer protection to the church. Though the latter were probably innovations, much of the remainder of the code may be derived from earlier legal custom transmitted orally.

There is only one surviving manuscript of Æthelberht's law, Textus Roffensis or the "Rochester Book". The Kentish laws occupy folios 1^v to 6^v, of which Æthelberht's has 1^v to 3^v. This is a compilation of Anglo-Saxon laws, lists and genealogies drawn together in the early 1120s, half a millennium after Æthelberht's law is thought to have been first written down. Æthelberht's law precedes the other Kentish law codes, which themselves precede various West Saxon and English royal legislation, as well as charters relating to Rochester Cathedral. Æthelberht's law is written in the same hand as the laws of other Kentish monarchs.

The compilation was produced at the instigation of Ernulf, bishop of Rochester, friend of the lawyer-bishop Ivo of Chartres. Ernulf was a legally minded bishop like Ivo, a canon lawyer and judge. He was responsible for commissioning copies of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle at Canterbury Cathedral Priory and Peterborough Abbey, as prior and abbot respectively.

Francis Tate made a transcription of Textus Roffensis .c 1589, which survives as British Museum MS Cotton Julius CII.Henry Spelman, Ecclesiarum Orbis Brittanici (London, 1639), provided a Latin translation of provisions relating to the church. In 1640 Johannes de Laet translated the whole code into Latin. Though no original survives, several 18th century authors copied it. The first full edition (with Latin translation) was: