This thread is all about your legal options if you were to travel back in time to medieval Europe and murder someone. It’s also about measuring the decline of the extended family and the origins of English individualism. On Bertha Phillpotts’ “Kindred and Clan in Past Time”.
Say as an example you traveled back in time to 14th century Sweden and murdered somebody. This is who and what you would have to pay: plaintiff 7 marks, King 4 marks, parents 2 marks, brothers 1 mark, 1st cousin 1/2 mark, 2nd cousin 1/4th, 3rd cousin 1/8th.
The old Germanic name for this custom is wergeld. The wergeld gets mocked as barbaric, but understand that the fine to be paid was huge. In early laws it was often set at 200 gold solidi, which Seebohm thought was the equivalent value of 100 cattle, the original Germanic fee.
