The law-code of King Æthelberht of Kent (560–616) represents the creation of the Old English alphabet, which combines Latin characters and letters based on ancient runes. Issued around the year 600, Æthelberht’s Code is the first of three Kentish laws unique to the Textus Roffensis – the others being Hlothere and Eadric’s Code (c679–85), and Wihtraed’s Code (695).It is the opening text of a ‘legal encyclopaedia’ of more than three dozen English laws (ranging from 600–1100) that constitute the bulk of the first part of the Textus Roffensis.Æthelberht’s Code offers us insight into the system of compensation that probably prevailed...