Literally, "man money".
In order to prevent vigilante justice and blood feuds which could quickly not only devastate the men of fighting stock of a particular territory but also stoke war, early European kingdom developed a system of monetary value for the life of a man or a slave, known as a wergeld.
The bulk of a wergeld was paid to the victim or his family, with a small portion going to the King.
The wergeld was a popular feature of early Frank and Visigothic law codes such as the Burgundian Code and was set in accordance with a scale of formal social standing.
For example, the wergeld for a cow was 1 gold coin (solidi) but the destruction of a person’s sword, required a wergeld of 3 gold coin. A horse was worth 7 gold coins. An ordinary slave’s life was worth 30 gold coins but that of a slave goldsmith, 200 gold coins. The death of a member of the Royal entourage was 600 gold coins.
In the Salic Law, the wergeld was one gold coin for a “horned cow able to see and healthy”; two gold coins for a “horned ox able to see and healthy” and three gold coins for an “untrained hawk”.
References:
- Drew, K., The Burgundian Code (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1972), page 19.
- James, Edward, The Franks (Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1988), page 210-211.
- Kibler, W., and Zinn, G., editors, Medieval France: An Encyclopedia (London: Garland Publshing Inc., 1995), page 975.