Norman Conquest Encyclopedia

Murdrum

The security of the followers of William the Conqueror was to some extent procured by the fine called murdrum . The name derives from the Old French murdre from which the English word murder comes. The new law provided that if a Norman was killed and the killer was not apprehended within five days, the hundred within which the crime was committed should be liable for a collective penalty of whatever balance of the sum of forty-six marks of silver the lord of the hundred could not pay. The killing of a Saxon triggered no such penalty.