Salisches Gesetz

Salisches Gesetz or Lex Salica, a body of common law valid in the Frankish territories of western Europe. The earliest Latin MSS. date from the 6th c. A fragment of a 9th-c. Old High German version is preserved in Trier. The Lex Salica was primarily a penal code, but contained a clause (59, 5) declaring that women may not inherit land. In the 14th c. this became the basis of the Salic Law denying succession in monarchies to female members of royal families and as such forms the background to the Austrian Wars of Succession (see Österreichischer Erbfolgekrieg) securing Maria Theresia's succession. The Salic Law, however, was enforced in other instances, debarring, for example, Queen Victoria from acceding to the throne of Hanover in 1837. It was a factor in the political crisis involving Schleswig and Holstein (see Schleswig-Holsteinische Frage). The Salic Law was published in three volumes, ed. K. A. Eckhardt, in 1953-6.