Edict of Rothari

The Edict of Rothari, or Edictum Rothari, was the first written compilation of Lombard law, codified and promulgated on 22 November 643 by King Rothari at an assembly of the Lombard army, a gairethinx, held at Pavia. Running to 388 chapters and written in Vulgar Latin with some Lombard terms left untranslated, it recorded the Lombards' Germanic customary law rather than Roman law, aiming to set uniform legal standards, limit the power of local feudal lords and strengthen royal authority. Its content is dominated by weregild and compensation, with detailed schedules of payment for damage to each part of the body, alongside rules on property, inheritance, the status of slaves, the legal protections of freeborn women, the inheritance rights of illegitimate children, emancipation and judicial procedures including compurgation and trial by combat. It applied specifically to the Lombards; the Roman population under Lombard rule generally continued to live under Roman law unless the king granted an exemption.