In medieval England, this role would to some extent be filled by the Church, but various Anglo-Saxon legal codices throughout the Early Medieval period do make a variety of provisions for the care of the vulnerable members of society, in particular widows and orphans. The Seventh Century codex of Ine of Wessex (Cap. 38), for example, states that:
If a husband has a child by his wife and the husband dies, the wife shall have her child and rear it, and every year 6 shillings shall be given for it's maintenance - a cow in summer and an ox in winter; the family shall keep the family home until it reaches maturity.
There's a couple of really important provisions here. The annual ox is unlikely to have been a physical ox delivered to the child themselves; sources like Ælfric's Colloquy illustrate that a community's animals, while perhaps owned individually, were kept and employed communally, usually by dedicated oxherds and ploughmen, with neighbours "renting" each other's oxen by providing fodder or payment in kind. In this instance, the annual bequest of an ox is likely to ensure that the widow and child still retain their household's stake in the community's communal plough teams, and that their land will thus continue to be worked in the absence of a husband/father. It's also important that the family be specified to retain the house: if, like the majority of people, the household were tenant farmers then it was important that their tenancy was protected from the absence of an individual necessarily able to carry out the previous service rent obligations. This would allow the widow potentially to renegotiate her own tenancy, until the child came of age to negotiate their own. It also meant that the land stayed productive, and that the household retained a degree of self-sufficiency. An interesting point is that the term bearn used in Cap. 38 is gender-neutral. These provisions weren't just for sons but also extended those property protections to daughters as well.
The earlier laws of Hlothhere and Eadric of Kent agree upon a similar principle, albeit with less detail:
If a man dies leaving a wife and child, it is right, that thechild should accompany the mother''; and one of his father's relatives who is willing to act, shall be given him as his guardian to take care of his property, until he is ten'' years old.
The seventh century laws of Æthelbehrt of Kent (Cap. 75) state:
compensation to be paid for violation of the mund of a widow of the best class, [that is, of a widow] of the nobility, shall be 50 shillings.
§ 1. For violation of the mund of a widow of the second class, 20 shillings; of the third class, 12 shillings; of the fourth class, 6 shillings.
It's not entirely explicit what is meant by a mund, but contextual use elsewhere in the context implies that it is a surety or guardianship fund of some kind, administered by a legally appointed guardian. In this context, the liability appears designed to prevent unscrupulous relatives or in-laws defrauding a widow of the inheritance or support fund that should be rightfully theirs, or for trying to sell property or land that now belonged to the widow.
In cases of divorce, Æthelberht's codex also stipulated:
- If she bears a living child, she shall have half the goods left by her husband, if he dies first.
- If she wishes to depart with her children, she shall have half the goods.
- If the husband wishes to keep [the children], she shall have a share of the goods equal to a child's.
- If she does not bear a child, [her] father's relatives shall have her goods.
Æthelstan's 920s London code establishes the compensation for stolen goods as one basis for taxation, but also exempts the poor, particularly widows from taxation:
We have declared that each one of us shall annually contribute four pence for our common benefit; and we shall pay compensation for property which is stolen after we have made our contributions ; and quests [for missing property] shall be carried out by all of us together. And everyone shall pay his shilling* who has property which is worth thirty pence, except poor widows who have no land and no one to work for them.