that all writs of formedon [right to land by gift of a tail] in
descender, formedon in remainder, and formedon in reverter for any
manors, lands, tenements, or hereditaments shall be sued within
twenty years, for the quieting of men's estates and avoiding of
suits. In default thereof they shall be excluded from such entry
except children under 21 years, women-covert, non compos mentis,
imprisoned or overseas shall have an additional 10 years after
their disability ceases if the 20 years have expired. The
limitation for bringing actions on the case (except slander),
account, trespass, replevin, debt, detinue for goods and chattels
and the action of trespass, quare clausum fregit [damages for
unlawful entry on land], is within 6 years; for trespass of
assault, battery, wounding, imprisonment is within 4 years; and
for actions upon the case for words is within 2 years.
The trial of Sir Walter Ralegh in 1603 began a call for a right to
confront and question one's accusers. Before trial, privy
counselors who in theory sat as impartial justices, cross-examined
Ralegh in prison. With a carefully selected jury present, the
trial began with reading of the indictment, which Ralegh had not
yet seen. He was charged with treason in plotting with Catholic
Spain to put Arabella Stuart on the throne. Arabella was to write
to Spain promising peace, toleration of Catholics in England, and
direction by Spain in her marriage choice. He pled not guilty and
took no exception to any jurors, stating that he knew them all to
be honest men. Next, Attorney General Edward Coke, his enemy and
rival, and he engaged in a debate about who was right, with Coke
outright bullying him. Coke then produced a signed confession by
Lord Cobham that implicated him in the alleged conspiracy and
accepting 10,000 crowns for his part. Ralegh was given permission
to speak. He said that Cobham had retracted his confession. He
ridiculed the idea that he would betray England to Spain for gold
after fighting against Spain, including risking his life three
times, and spending 4,000 pounds for the defeat of Spain. He
pointed to a treatise he had written to the king on the present
state of Spain and reasons against peace. Then there was a
discussion on the validity of Cobham's confession. Cecil gave an
oration of Ralegh. Coke gave a speech. Ralegh asked to have his
accuser brought before him face to face. He cited law that two
witnesses were necessary for a conviction for treason. Chief
Justice Popham replied that only one witness was necessary under
common law, which applied to his case, and that the trial was
properly by examination of the defendant. Coke added that it would
be improper to call Cobham because he was a party. Then Coke
surprised Ralegh with a letter from Cobham stating that Ralegh had
asked Cobham to procure him an annual pension of 1500 pounds from
Spain for disclosing intelligence. Ralegh acknowledged that a
pension was offered, but denied that he had ever intended to
accept it. He admitted that it was a fault not to inform
authorities of this offer. The jury deliberated for fifteen
minutes and returned with a verdict of guilty. The Chief Justice
delivered the sentence for treason: drawing, hanging,
disembowelling, beheading, and quartering. The whole trial was not
so much to access guilt, but to show the general public that the
person was guilty.
Church courts were revived after a period of disuse. They could
annul an unconsummated or legally invalid marriage (e.g.
consanguinity, impotence, a witnessed precontract to marry) and
order judicial separations in case of adultery, cruelty, or
apostasy. Annuled marriages made a person's children illegitimate.
An action at common law for "criminal conversation" [adultery]
with the plaintiff's spouse or for assault and battery could
result in an order for separation. But only a private statute of
Parliament could grant a divorce, which allowed remarrige. It was
granted in only a few cases and only to the very wealthy. Church
officials spied upon people's conduct to draw them into their
courts and gain more money from the profits of justice.
In 1610, Edward Coke, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas,
decided that the statute giving the Royal College of Physicians
power to imprison and fine those practicing without a license was
invalid and unenforceable because it gave the college half of each
fine awarded, which was a conflict of interest with its role as an
adjudicator. Coke said that a maxim of the common law was that no
man ought to be judge in his own cause. By this decision, he
asserted a court supremacy over Parliament with respect to the
validity of statutes. He opined that the courts should not only be
independent of the Crown, but should act as arbiter of the
Constitution to decide all disputed questions. In his words, "When
an Act of Parliament is against common right and reason, the
common law will control it and adjudge such Act to be void."
Justices still explained and in some degree interpreted
legislative acts of Parliament as they had since the 1500s, but
their right to do so was coming into question and was slowly lost.
Female scolds were still dunked into water as punishment.
Only barristers, who were called to the bar after being in long
residence in one of the Inns of Court, could practice before the
King's court. Attorneys and solicitors prepared cases for
barristers and practiced before minor courts.
The king appointed the justices, with the advice of the
Chancellor. James I often intimidated the justices to see things
his way.
The oath of a justice was: "Well and and truly ye shall serve the
King and his people. And ye shall take no fee or livery of none
but the King, nor gift or reward of none that hath a do before you
except it shall be meat or drink of small value, as long as the
plea hangs before you. And ye shall do equal law and execution of
Right to all the King's subjects rich and poor, without regard to
any person. Ye shall counsel our Sovereign Lord the King in his
need. And ye shall not delay any person of common right for the
letters of the King or of any person or for any other cause ... So
help you God."
The courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas, and the Chancery all
met simultaneously in Westminster Hall. Throngs passed up and down
the middle aisles between the courts, including booksellers,
stationers, scriveners, and vendors of bread and hot meat. The
hall was so cold that people kept on their coats and hats.
The last court case concerning villeinage was in 1618.
- - - Chapter 15 - - -
- The Times: 1625-1642 -
The entourage of Charles I came to be called "Cavaliers". They
were named by their opponents for the Spanish caballero who was a
Catholic who prosecuted Protestants. Their hair had long, curled,
and flowing locks. They wore a broad-rimmed decorated hat. Their
fancy jackets and breeches were loose. Boots were wide and folded
over at the top. Young men wore earrings and painted their faces.
A lady wore her hair in ringlets on each side of her face. Her
dress was fitted at the waist, with a peaked bodice. It was low at
the shoulders with a scoop neckline in front. She often wore much
lace, especially at the neck down to the bust line. Her outer
dress and under-skirt that was revealed in front were full and
made of satin and stiff silk or velvet. Only hose of silk was worn
at court.
A majority of prosperous industrial towns and fee farmers, led
sometimes by lords or old landed gentry were Puritans. They
dressed plainly and in somber colors such as black, grey, and
buff, with no ornamentation except plain white collars and cuffs
of linen rather than of lace. Wool replaced silk and velvet. No
jewelry was worn. The Puritan women also wore long white aprons.
The Puritan men for a time had short-cut hair. The Puritan-
Parliamentarians were given the name "Roundheads" after the crop-
headed London apprentices whose rioting had marked every stage of
the conflict between king and Parliament. The Puritan women
smoothed their hair back into little knobs and covered their hair
and head with a white covering. Both Puritan men and women wore
broad-rimed hats and plain shoes. The ordinary country man wore a
felt hat, broadcloth coat, woolen trousers, hand-knitted worsted
stockings, and plain, strong shoes.
Nine-tenths of the people were Protestant. Religion was a favorite
and serious topic of discussion, even among the illiterate. On the
whole, they were more inclined to salvation by grace than to
salvation by good works. Popular reading included guides for good
manners such as "The Rich Cabinet" by Thomas Gainsford, and
"Youths Behavior" translated from the French by Francis Hawkins.
It advised not to sit with one leg on the other, but with the feet
even; not to spit on one's fingers; and not to sniffle in the
sight of others. Books for ladies such as "Delights for Ladies" by
Hugh Platt told them how to adorn themselves, tables, closets, and
distillatories with beauties, banquets, perfumes, and waters. It
taught preserving and comfit making, cooking, and housewifery.
Gervase Markham wrote advice for men in "Hobsons Horse-load of
Letters", which addressed serious negotiations, private
businesses, amorous accomplishment, wanton merriment, and the
defense of honor and reputation. "A Helpe to Discourse" by W.B.
and E.P. primed a man to meet company with suggested questions and
answers, epigrams, riddles, and jests. In Henry Peacham's "The
Compleat Gentleman" (1622), the model Cavalier is portrayed in
terms of horsemanship, tilting, sports, choice of companions,
reserved and dignified conduct, good scholarship, and
responsibility. This popular book was a guide to university, where
there was a seven year course of classroom lectures. It advised
conversation with men of the soundest reputation for religion,
life, and learning, but recreation with those of the same rank and
quality. First place was to be given to religion, so that the
foundation of all studies would be the service of God. Following
in importance were: speaking and writing in English or Latin
(grammar, syntax, and rhetoric), astronomy, astrology, geography
(whose authorities were Pliny, Strabo, and the pagan writers of
the first century), chorography, mathematics, including arithmetic
and geometry, poetry (reading, writing, and criticizing), music,
including part-music, drawing, limning, painting, art history,
exercise (riding, running, leaping, tilting, throwing, wrestling,
swimming, shooting, and falconry), logic and disputation if
related to one's intended profession such as the law, philosophy
(Plato and Aristotle), and some medicine and botany.
The Flemish Johann Baptista van Helmont demonstrated that metals
dissolved in acid can be recovered through chemical means and
enunciated the doctrine that each thing in nature has its own
specific organization.
Richard Brathwaite's "The English Gentleman" portrays the sombre
Puritan who accepts the gospel of work. He is a staid and serious
businessman. "Matrimonial Honour" by Daniel Rogers opined that for
success, a marriage must be godly, with the parties equally
religious, worshipping together in private and in public. A hasty
or worldly marriage would bring repentance. The spouses should
agree, but keep to their spheres. Children should not be spoiled.
Large households were more or less self-supporting and were
managed by their ladies. Work included ordering wool, hemp, and
flax; making cloth and dying it; dairy work; brewing; malting;
baking; preserving wines; extracting oils; distilling perfume; and
putting on banquets. Couches were coming into use in parlors.
The king and his court entourage settled for most of the year in
Whitehall instead of travelling around the country. The king let
the public into Hyde Park for recreation. The City of London and
Westminster were still separate, but a mass of hovels was
springing up in between them. The water carrier was still active
and the night transport of sewage necessary. In certain areas
there lived in crowded houses, those wanted for minor offenses,
small thefts, and debt. Bailiffs did not dare venture into them
because the inhabitants hid and defended each other unless the
offense was a major one. The penalty for stealing even small sums
was still death.
Indigo Jones was the first architect of consequence. He had
studied in Italy and designed and built the Banqueting House at
Whitehall in London in 1622. It had classical proportions and nice
shaping and dressing in stone. He was now an arbiter of taste for
the King Charles and his Queen and built many structures for them,
including the Queen's Chapel at St. James Palace and her bedroom
in the Queen's Hose in Greenwich. All over London and the country
he and his pupils built many classical buildings, including
houses, churches, stables, lodgings, out-buildings, staircases,
galleries, watergates, and archways. They stood in stark contrast
to the Tudor buildings around them. In the 1632, Jones started
town-planning in London with Covent Garden fruit and vegetable
market with terraced houses around a central piazza surrounded by
open arcades with a Tuscan church at one end. In 1634, a man from
the suburb of Hackney introduced a line of coaches rented at 1s.
per hour. They soon became very popular.
A large part of England was rebuilt as yeomen expanded their
houses and others lower in rank replaced mud and wood hovels with
brick and stone cottages. A separate kitchen appeared. The ground
floors are boarded over to create bedrooms. Permanent stairs
replace ladders. Glass appears in windows. Glass and crockery
replace wood and pewter, Chairs replace benches. Knives and forks
become common.
About 1640 began travel between towns by covered wagons called
stage coaches. They carried passengers and goods and stopped at
inns for stabling and repairs.
Work was begun in 1630 to make canals that would make waters run
to the sea. Barges on canals were the most efficient mode of
transportation. A barge could carry 50 tons on a canal and only 30
on a river. A single horse could haul a wagon on iron rails with 8
tons, on a soft road with 8 tons, and on his back 1/8 of a ton.
Real wages, which had been falling, reached their low point and
the gap between the poor and others widened. There were
depressions from 1629-32 and from 1636 to about 1640, which called
for Royal proclamations for the relief and distress, especially
among the poor. The Book of Orders, for the relief of distress in
earlier reigns, was to be reissued. The assize of beer and bread
maintaining quality, prices, weights, and measures, was to be duly
kept. Hoarding of foodstuffs was to be punished. Fish days and
lent were to be observed to maintain the fishers. Abstaining from
suppers on Fridays and on the eves of feasts was ordered in all
taverns and commended to private families. City corporations were
to give up their usual feasts and half the charge given to the
poor. Foreign ships were not to be victualled for long voyages.
The revised Book of Orders also covered the regulation of beggary,
the binding of apprentices, and the general relief of the poor.
All magistrates were to enforce the rules and raise special rates
from all the parishes, the richer of these to help the poorer.
A new trend of spring-sown crops led to better crop balance and
reduced the risks of scarcity in a bad year. But the economy was
still volatile.
There were riots in London in 1640-1 from a complete breakdown in
political consensus, the factions being the Royalist City elite
versus the middling and lesser merchants and craftsmen.
In 1631, the clock makers broke away from the control of the
Blacksmiths. The gunmakers also broke away from the Blacksmiths.
The tinplate workers broke away from the Ironmongers.
"Searching" for bad cloth became more difficult as the industry
became more diversified. For instance, a new machine called a gig-
mill did the work of many hand finishers. In 1633, Charles issued
a commission for the reformation of the cloth industry with minute
directions for the manufacture of cloth. But there were many
disagreements over the details of manufacture and reform was
difficult to enforce.
By the 1630s, many parishes had a resident intellectual for the
first time. The parish priests came from gentry, upper yeomanry,
urban tradesmen and clerical families. They were educated and
highly learned. They had libraries and were in touch with
contemporary religious debates. They saw their role primarily as
pastoral care. Many wanted to improve the religious knowledge and
moral conduct of their parishioners. Puritan influence deepened as
they forbade dancing, games, minstrels, and festivals. They
punished superstitious conduct. They initiated prosecutions in
church courts for sexual lapses and drunkenness. The church court
had little coercive power and its punishments were restricted to
penance or excommunication. Many Puritan sects espoused equality
for women. By the 1640s women were preachers, e.g. in the Baptist
and Anabaptist religions and, until 1660, prophetesses. These
sects were mostly composed of the lower echelons of society.
The poor people did not respond to sermons as did the well-to-do.
Nor were they as involved in church activity, attending church
only for marriages, baptisms, and funerals.
Charles I not only believed in the divine right of kings and was
authoritarian; he was the ultimate autocrat. He had an unalterable
conviction that he was superior to other men, who were
insignificant and privileged to revolve around him. He issued
directives to reverse jury verdicts. Parliamentarians Oliver
Cromwell and other educated men opposed this view. The Commons
voted not to grant Charles the usual custom-dues for life, making
it instead renewable each year, conditioned on the king's
behavior. Charles dissolved Parliament before this passed. He
continued to take tonnage and poundage.
He wanted money for war so he imposed many taxes, but without the
consent of Parliament. They included many of which had fallen into
disuse. He imposed a compulsory "loan" on private individuals,
which the courts held was illegal, and imprisoned, those who
refused. Bail was denied to these men. Simpler people who refused
were threatened with impressment into the Navy, which included
being landed on shore to fight as marines and soldiers. They
sought to revive the old writ of habeas corpus [produce the body]
to get released, but to no avail. The old writ had been just to
bring to court those persons needed for proceedings, but Coke in
1614 had cited the writ with a new meaning "to have the body
together with the cause of detention". Charles billeted unpaid and
unruly soldiers in private homes, which they plundered. It was
customary to quarter them in inns and public houses at royal
expense. Martial law was declared and soldiers were executed. But
the citizens did not want martial law either.
The Magna Carta got attention as a protector of basic liberties.
Both attorneys and laymen read "The Pastyme of People" written by
John Rastell in 1529, which described the history of the Magna
Carta from 1215 to 1225. Also read was the "Great Abridgment" of
the English law written by Rastell in 1527, and Coke's volume of
his Institutes which dealt with the Magna Carta, which the Crown
took to prevent being published until 1642, when Parliament
allowed it. Broad-scale pamphleteering turned England into a
school of political discussion. Oxford University favored the
established church and Cambridge University was Puritan.
The estates of the members of the House of Commons were three
times the extent of the members' of the House of Lords. Bishops'
estates had diminished considerably because of secularization. The
members of the House of Commons were elected by the people. For
these reasons, the House of Commons asserted a preeminence to the
House of Lords.
The House of Commons drew up a Petition of Right in 1627, which
expanded upon the principles of Magna Carta and sought to fix
definite bounds between royal power and the power of the law. It
protested the loans compelled under pain of imprisonment and
stated that no tax or the like should be exacted without the
common consent of Parliament. It quoted previous law that "...no
freeman may be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his
freeholds or liberties, or his free customs, or be outlawed or
exiled; or in any manner destroyed, but by the lawful judgment of
his peers, or by the law of the land" and that "...no man of what
estate or condition that he be, should be put out of his land or
tenements, nor taken, nor imprisoned nor disinherited, nor put to
death without being brought to answer by due process of law". It
continued that "... divers of your subjects have of late been
imprisoned without any cause showed; and when for their
deliverance they were brought before your Justices by your
Majesty's writs of Habeas Corpus, there to undergo and receive as
the court should order, and their keepers commanded to certify the
causes of their detainer, no cause was certified, but that they
were detained by your Majesty's special command, signified by the
Lords of your Privy Council, and yet were returned back to several
prisons, without being charged with anything to which they might
make answer according to the law." It also protested the billeting
of soldiers in private houses and martial law trying soldiers and
sailors. If these terms were agreed to by the King, he was to be
given a good sum of money. Since he needed the money, he yielded.
He expected tonnage and poundage for the Navy for life, as was the
custom. But he got it only for one year, to be renewable yearly.
The King agreed to the petition, quietly putting his narrow
interpretation on it, and it was put into the statute book.
In 1629 Parliament distinguished between treason to the king and
treason to the Commonwealth.
The Chief Justice held in 1638 that acts of Parliament to take
away the King's royal power in the defense of his kingdom were
void; the king may command his subjects, their persons, their
goods, and their money and acts of Parliament make no difference.
But the people refused to pay these taxes.
Charles thought of more ways to obtain money and disregarded his
agreement to the Petition of Right.
Without the consent of Parliament, he extended ship money to all
the kingdom instead of just the ports. It was used to outfit ships
for the protection of the coasts. Hampden refused to pay it on
principle and the courts ruled against him in the case of King v.
John Hampden and he was sent to prison. When distraints were
tried, the common people used violence to prevent them. The
bailiffs were pelted with rocks when they came to distrain. One
man used his pitchfork to take back his steer being taken by the
bailiff. If distraint were successful, people would refuse to buy
the distrained property of their neighbors.
Charles revived the right of the Crown to force knighthood on the
landed gentry for a fee.
Charles sold monopolies in such goods as soap, leather, salt,
wine, coal, and linen rags although they had been abolished in the
last Parliament of James. This made employment uncertain for
workers and prices high for the public, and put masters in danger
of loss of capital.
Fines were levied on people for the redress of defects in their
title deeds. Crown forest boundaries were arbitrarily extended and
landowners near Crown forests were heavily fined for their
encroachments on them. Money was extorted from London by an
illegal proclamation by which every house had to pay three years'
rental to the Crown to save itself from demolition.