Lit. 'man payment'. AS custom and law valued people in pecuniary terms according to their rank. For example in Mercia a *ceorl's life was worth 200s; a * thegn was worth 1,200s; an *earl, next below the king, was worth 6,000s. In the years immediately following the Conquest of 1066, wergeld was applied to Normans killed by the English. If a Norman was killed but no killer found, then the *hundred had to come up with the appropriate sum. This applied also if the identity of the murder victim was unknown -the assumption by the Normans being the victim might be one of their own, while an extra penalty could not do much harm and it might discourage violence. During William I's reign when wergeld was being paid, the value of a horse if part of the payment was set at 20s. In the charter given to London by Henry I a citizen of the city was worth 100s. The Latin form was weregeldum. -
Dictionary of Medieval Terms and Phrases. Christopher Coredon with Ann Williams.