Is there a Welsh or Irish equivalent to the Declaration of Arbroath or Magna Carta?
score:3
The closest example that I could find is the Irish Brehon law. The Brehon law according to Wikipedia is the oldest surviving codified legal system in Europe and originally it was handed down through oral tradition. These laws according to the "Prologue to the Senchas Már", Senchas Már being the largest grouping of such legal texts, were in effect from the time of St. Patrick although scholars consider its compiling closer to the 8th century AD.
These laws determine the hierarchy of the society, social status, right and duties stemming from such status and relationships between lords, clients and serfs. So this part is rather similar to the Magna Carta.
In particular, according to the Brehon Law, the king is ranked at the top, parallel with the Bishops and the highest level of poets.
From the Wikipedia page on the status of kings in the Brehon Law, emphasis mine:
...the king is ranked at the top, parallel with the Bishops and the highest level of poets.... To a certain degree, kings acted as agents of the law. While other kings in Europe were able to promulgate law, such as Alfred the Great and his Doom book, the Irish had very little authority to do so. They could collaborate on law authored by the church. Cáin Adomnáin has the names of many kings attached to it who apparently enacted and enforced the law. Additionally, a king could issue a temporary law in times of emergency. But kings could not, by their own authority, issue permanent law codes. Kings also acted as judges, although the extent of their power compared to that of professional jurists has been debated.
Additionally, on the status of the different hierarchies that existed:
Although the various groups were theoretically on par with each other, the church apparently had supremacy. Críth Gablach states "Who is nobler, the king or the bishop? The bishop is nobler, for the king rises up before him on account of the Faith; moreover the bishop raises his knee before the king."
Generally, the rights and obligation of everyone derived from a complex favor-based hierarchy, that determined the lordship level from the number of clients they had. As a result, gaelic lordship was not conferred by the king.
The levels of lordship were according to the above source were:
- flaith aithig - 'commoner lord' - having 10 clients - but not yet a lord because 3 generations haven't provided aire ('care') to clients yet. Also called fer fothlai ('man of withdrawal') because he is withdrawing from the rank of commoner
- aire déso - 'lord of vassalry' - having 10 clients. Although translated as 'lord of vassalry', 'aire' literally means 'care' and 'caregiver'. Lords care for their clients. The word 'aire' is also used for government ministers in modern Irish.
- aire ard - 'high lord - having 20 clients
- aire tuíseo - 'lord of leadership' - having 27 clients
- aire forgill - 'lord of superior pledge' (or superior testimony) - having 40 clients
Again from Wikipedia:
Much depended on status, and each rank was assigned an honour that was quantified in an honour-price to be paid to them if their honour was violated by certain crimes. The types of food one received as a guest in another's house, or while being cared for due to injury varied based on status. Lower honour-prices limited the ability to act as sureties and as witnesses. Those of higher status could "over-swear" the oaths of those of lower status.
So overall, the Brehon Law was above all, defining the rights of the Church as being above the king, and creating a social hierarchy with defined rights and obligation for everyone, including kings, that could not be changed by said kings unilaterally.
More post
- 📝 Is there a group picture of RMS Titanic's 8 officers?
- 📝 How did Diego Gutiérrez know the boundaries (shape of the Americas) when he drew the 1562 Map of America
- 📝 When did Napoleon start to be regarded as a French national hero?
- 📝 Did Hitler brag about or downplay his war experiences in WW I in appealing to 1932 voters?
- 📝 Did Rome attempt to justify its conquests?
- 📝 Is it fair to say that the USSR has technical parity over NATO on land and air over much of the cold war?
- 📝 At what height were Gargoyles typically used in Gothic architecture
- 📝 What differences led to Technicolor becoming the dominant color filming technology in Hollywood?
- 📝 Were there cases of bride kidnapping in the medieval period?
- 📝 Who were the first people to get divorced in Western* Christendom?
- 📝 Drug abuse in the Holy Land?
- 📝 Ports Used by French Navy in 1792 and Strength of Fleet
- 📝 Hotel de Ville during Women's March on Versailles
- 📝 Why were crusaders called "Latins"?
- 📝 Mystery of the many-loaded muzzles
- 📝 What was the reason for the ubiquitous pigeon farms in Soviet cities?
- 📝 Did personnel from the "Aktion T4" ("euthanasia" murders) kill severely wounded Wehrmacht soldiers on the eastern front?
- 📝 When was the first time lower-class people had a reasonable chance of having a fair trial?
- 📝 Did everyone have to carry identity papers in Nazi Germany?
- 📝 Were there any tests or prerequisites for Blacks and Indians to be admitted to the University of Cape Town during Apartheid?
- 📝 Who were the target audiences of this propaganda lithograph?
- 📝 Are the slavs somehow involved in slavery?
- 📝 Did Jewish families feel Nazi oppression was exceptional?
- 📝 How did early America collect taxes?
- 📝 Communist resistance groups in the Nazi German military
- 📝 Has the feminization of the labor force continued after WW1?
- 📝 How did Greece avoid the Soviet sphere of influence?
- 📝 Why do people refuse to acknowledge the Holocaust?
- 📝 Were children often renamed in late Saxon England?
- 📝 What distinguishes the mesolithic period from neolithic and paleolithic?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Is there a Welsh or Irish equivalent to the Declaration of Arbroath or Magna Carta?
- 📝 Was there a Japanese equivalent of the Gestapo during WW2
- 📝 Why was there no "Atlantic Wall" equivalent on the Mediterranean coast of France?
- 📝 Were there natives In Iceland prior to the Irish monk's landings?
- 📝 Is there an equivalent in Chinese history to the Spartans?
- 📝 Is there a Soviet equivalent to foundational Cold War documents such as the Long Telegram and NSC-68?
- 📝 Were there women who were against giving women the right to vote?
- 📝 Is there any evidence to support the claim that the United States was "suckered into WW1" by Zionists, made by Benjamin Freedman in his 1961 speech?
- 📝 Has there ever been a case when a traitorous military commander took command again for the side he betrayed?
- 📝 Has there ever been a cold war other than between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.?
- 📝 Was there ever a treaty between 2 entities with significantly different translations to the detriment of one party?
- 📝 (Why) are there two different versions of the photograph of inmates at the Buchenwald concentration camp?
- 📝 Are there any accounts of everyday life during the Black Death?
- 📝 Why aren't there major cities on the Atlantic coast of France?
- 📝 In the "Christmas truce" of 1914 were there any football (soccer) matches between British and German troops?
- 📝 What led some people to (correctly) believe that there was no land under the ice cap at the North Pole?
- 📝 Is there any evidence of armies enrolling women in fighting roles in significant number in antiquity or the middle ages?
- 📝 Were there large scale protests after earlier presidential elections in the US?
- 📝 How much evidence is there regarding the naval punishment of keelhauling?
- 📝 Are there photos/footage of the Titanic sinking?
- 📝 Is there any documented criticism of the brutality of the Colosseum from citizens at the time?
- 📝 Is there a historical explanation as to why the USA people are so litigious compared to the French?
- 📝 Were there any drunk driving laws before the automobile?
- 📝 Why was there a surge in the US incarceration rate during the 1990s?
- 📝 Has there ever been a major migration from the New World to the Old World? If not, why?
- 📝 Is there a historical precedent to the vaccine scare?
- 📝 Has there been any "invasive plants warfare" in the past?
- 📝 Is there any evidence that Cleopatra and Caesarion considered fleeing to India to escape the Romans?
- 📝 When did Britain learn about the American Declaration of Independence?
- 📝 Were there any travel restrictions during the Black Death pandemic?