The Hlafclaenness Dom
(The Anglo-Saxon Bread Purity Law of 1047)
is completely untrue.
I made the concept up as a joke, but people started believing me.
Things that I made up are in red; actual facts or references are linked to their sources where available.
I only made up one work in the bibliography. I actually have most of these books!
Much has been written on
the Reinheitsgebot, or the Beer Purity Law ("the only ingredients used for the
brewing of beer must be Barley, Hops and Water."), proclaimed by Duke Wilhelm IV
of Bavaria in 1516. It is commonly thought of as one of the oldest consumer
protection laws, a predecessor to today's "truth in labeling"
requirements.
However,
similar laws were enacted elsewhere much earlier. Limitations on bread prices,
quality, weight, and freshness have been documented to very early on: the Roman
emperor Aurelian set minimum weights and maximum prices around 275 AD and the
emperor Constantine enacted similar laws in 330. More
specifically, the idea of regulating allowable ingredients in bread was
conceived in England half a millennium before the German law! This was embodied
in the Hlafclaenness Dom, or Anglo-Saxon Bread Purity Law (alternately, Decree). It was proclaimed in 1047
by Edward the Confessor (r. 1042-1066). A description written in the period reads:
(English has been modernized)
"King Edward kept
Christmas with all due solemnity at York and immediately afterwards set out by
the direct road for London. In this journey he found a deficiency in the
measures of bread, for it seemed to him the baking
trade was more indifferently observed than it should be, what he had formerly
commanded. He broke some loaves and tasted others, and, finding the character
lacking, he ordered the bread to be made of fairer ingredients. Henceforth in
the realm bread should be made from only these four things: fine flour, water,
barm [yeast], and salt.
And those who
broke this law should be heavily fined; for the first offence, with xxx [thirty]
shillings; and for the second offense, the like; and for the third, with cxx
[120] shillings to the king."
Another, more ethereal reason for assuring bread's
purity was its
use in trial by ordeal: a man's innocence or guilt was proven by eating food.
If the person died, he was guilty by a "heavenly judgment". One story goes that
King Edward believed that Earl Godwin had murdered his brother Alfred, while a
court of law had found him innocent. Godwin submitted himself to a trial by
ordeal with bread, and died, thus "proving" his guilt. [Click on the Baker's
timeline and read in 1053.]
If impure ingredients were put into bread used in trial by
ordeal, it would be sacrilege - attempting to interfere with what should be God's
rightful judgment.
The Hlafclaenness Dom continued to be enforced after the Norman Conquest. It remained in
effect, with some modifications (principally to fine amounts), until it was
superseded by the
Assize of Bread
in 1266. This is a principal reason why few bread
recipes from the period survive: in order to be called "bread", it could only
contain the four listed ingredients. There was little point in writing down a
recipe when everyone knew its components.
Bibliography
Ashley, William. The Bread of Our Forefathers: An Inquiry in Economic History.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1928.
Bailey, Adrian. The Blessings of Bread. New York: Crown Publishers, 1975.
David, Elizabeth. English Bread and Yeast Cookery. Prospect Books, 1988.
Desportes, Françoise. Le Pain au Moyen Âge (Bread in the Middle Ages). Paris: Olivier Orban, 1987.
Dupaigne, Bernard. Antonio and Sylvie Roder, trans. The History of Bread.
New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1999.
Flandrin, Jean-Louis and Massimo Montanari ed. Albert Sonnenfeld trans. Food: A Culinary History.
New York: Penguin Books, 2000.
Gregory, Alexander. "Bread Laws through the Ages", The Journal of
Economic History, April 1992.
Hagen, Ann. A Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Food & Drink: Processing and Consumption.
Norfolk: Anglo Saxon Books, 1992.
Hagen, Ann. A Second Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Food & Drink: Production & Distribution.
Norfolk: Anglo Saxon Books, 1995.
Holt, Richard. The Mills of Medieval England. Oxford and New York: Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1988.
Jacob, H.E. Six Thousand Years of Bread. New York: Lyons & Burford, 1997. Reprint of the
original edition of 1944.
Postan, M.M. and Rich, E.E., ed. The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, vol. III.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965.
Richardson, H.G. and G.O. Sayles. Law and Legislation from AEthelberht to Magna Carta. 1966.
Sheppard, Ronald, and Edward Newton. The Story of Bread. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1957.
Thrupp, Sylvia. The Worshipful Company of Bakers: A Short History. Croydon: Galleon Press, 1933.
Wilson, C. Anne. Food and Drink in Britain: From the Stone Age to the 19th Century.
Chicago: Academy Chicago Publishers, 1991.
Wormald, Patrick. The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century, vol. 1: Legislation and
its Limits. Blackwell Publications, 1999.
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Changes last made on: November 14, 2003