twigs, and straw, with thatched roofs. It included a bundle of
communities, townships, parishes, and lordships. There were churches, a
goods market, a fish market, quays on the river, and a bridge over the
river. Streets probably named by this time include Bread Street, Milk
Street, Honey Lane, Wood Street, and Ironmonger Lane. Fairs and games
were held outside the town walls in a field called "Smithfield". The
great citizens had the land qualifications of knights and ranked as
barons on the Conquerer's council. The freemen were a small percentage
of London's population. There was a butchers' guild, a pepperers' guild,
a goldsmiths' guild, the guild of St. Lazarus, which was probably a
leper charity (of which there were many in the 1000s and 1100s), the
Pilgrims' guild, which helped people going on pilgrimages, and four
bridge guilds, probably for keeping the wooden London Bridge in repair.
Men told the time by sundials, some of which were portable and could be
carried in one's pocket. London could defend itself, and a ringing of
the bell of St. Paul's Church could shut every shop and fill the streets
with armed horsemen and soldiers led by a soldier portreeve. Across the
Thames from London on its south side was Southwark, a small trading and
fishing settlement.
The Conquerer did not interfere with landholding in London, but
recognized its independence as a borough in this writ: "William the King
greets William, Bishop of London, and Gosfrith the portreeve, and all
the burgesses [citizens] of London friendly. Know that I will that you
be worthy of all the laws you were worthy of in the time of King Edward.
And I will that every child shall be his father's heir after his
father's day. And I will not suffer any man to do you wrong. God
preserve you." The Norman word "mayor" replaced "portreeve".
So London was not subjected to the Norman feudal system. It had neither
villeins nor slaves. Whenever Kings asserted authority over it, the
citizens reacted until the king "granted" a charter reaffirming the
freedoms of the city and its independence.
Under pressure from the ecclesiastical judges, the Conquerer replaced
the death penalty by that of the mutilation of blinding, chopping off
hands, and castrating offenders. Castration was the punishment for rape.
But these mutilations usually led to a slow death by gangrene.
The Normans used the Anglo-Saxon concepts of jurisdictional powers.
Thus when the Conquerer confirmed "customs" to the abbot of Ely, these
were understood to include the following: 1) sac and soke - the right to
hold a court of private jurisdiction and enjoy its profits, 2) toll - a
payment in towns, markets, and fairs for goods and chattel bought and
sold, 3) team - persons might be vouched to warranty in the court, the
grant of which made a court capable of hearing suits arising from the
transfer of land, 4) infangenthef - right of trying and executing
thieves on one's land, 4) hamsocne [jurisdiction over breach of the
right of security and privacy in a man's house, e.g. by forcible
entry],, 5) grithbrice - violation of the grantees' special peace, for
instance that of the sheriff, 6) fightwite - fine for a general breach
of the peace, 7) fyrdwite - fine for failure to appear in the fyrd.
Every shire, now called "county", had at least one burh, or defensible
town. Kings had appointed a royal moneyer in each burh to mint silver
coins such as pennies for local use. On one side was the King's head in
profile and on the other side was the name of the moneyer. When a new
coinage was issued, all moneyers had to go to London to get the new
dies. The Conquerer's head faced frontally on his dies, instead of the
usual profile used by former Kings.
The Conquerer held and presided over his council three times a year, as
was the custom, at Easter, Christmas, and Whitsuntide, which coincided
with the great Christian festivals. This was an advisory council and
consisted of the Conquerer's wife and sons, earls, barons, knights,
officers of the King's household, archbishops, and bishops. It replaced
the witan of wise men. It dealt with fundamental matters of law, state,
war, and church. Earldoms and knighthoods were conferred and homages to
the king were witnessed. Bishops were nominated. Attendance at the
council, like attendance at courts, was regarded as a burden rather than
a privilege. The Conquerer's will was the motive force which under lay
all the council's action. When it was administering royal justice, it
was called the Royal Court.
The Justiciar was the head of all legal matters and he or the
Conquerer's wife represented the King at the Royal Court in his absence
from the realm. The chamberlain was a financial officer of the
household; his work was rather that of auditor or accountant. The
Chancellor headed the Chancery and the chapel. Other household offices
were steward, butler, constable, and marshall. The Treasurer was
responsible for the collection and distribution of revenue and was the
keeper of the royal treasure at the palace at Winchester. He was also an
important member of the household and sat in the Exchequer at
Westminster, where he received the accounts of the sheriffs. The
Exchequer was composed of the justiciar as head, the chancellor, the
constable, two chamberlains, the marshall and other experienced
councilors. The word "Exchequer" came from the chequered cloth on the
table used to calculate in Roman numerals the amount due and the amount
paid. The word "calculate" derives from the word "calculi", meaning
pebbles. It was a kind of abacus. The Exchequer received yearly from the
sheriffs of the counties taxes, fines, treasure trove, goods from
wrecks, deodands, and movable property of felons, of persons executed,
of fugitives, and of outlaws due to the Crown. The Conqueror presided
yearly over feasts involving several thousand guests at Westminster
Hall, which was 250 feet by 70 feet with a high ceiling, the largest
hall in England.
The Conquerer's reign was a time of tentative expedients and simple
solutions. He administered by issuing writs with commands or
prohibitions. These were read aloud by the sheriffs in the county courts
and other locations. Administration was by the personal servants of his
royal household, such as the chancellor, chamberlain, constable,
marshals, steward, and butler. The language of government changed to
Latin. The chancellor was from the clergy and supervised the writers and
clerks, who were literate, and appended the great seal before witnesses
to documents. He also headed the staff of the royal chapel. The
chamberlain was a financial officer who audited and accounted. The
constable was responsible for supplies for the knights of the royal
household. He also supervised the care of horses, hounds, hawks, and
huntsmen, houndsmen, and foresters. The marshals came from less
important families than the constable and they preserved order in the
king's hall and recorded expenditures of the household officers on
tallies. The steward was a great baron whose duties were chiefly
ceremonial, such as placing the dishes before the king at banquets.
Sheriffs became powerful figures as the primary agents for enforcing
royal edicts. There was no longer supervision of them by earls nor
influence on them by bishops. They were customarily prominent barons.
They collected the royal taxes, executed royal justice, and presided
over and controlled the hundred and county courts. They were responsible
for remitting a certain sum annually. If a sheriff received more than
necessary, he retained the difference as his lawful profit of office. If
he received less than necessary, he had to make up the difference from
his own pocket. Before rendering this account, he paid the royal
benefactions to religious houses, provided for the maintenance of stock
on crown lands, paid for the costs of provisions supplied to the court,
and paid for traveling expenses of the king and his visitors. The
payments were initially paid in kind: e.g. grain, cattle, horses,
hounds, and hawks. Sheriffs also took part in the keeping of castles and
often managed the estates of the King. Most royal writs were addressed
to the sheriff and county courts. They also led the county militia in
time of war or rebellion. At times, a sheriff usurped royal rights, used
royal estates for his own purposes, encroached on private land and
rights, extorted money, and collected revenues only for his own pockets.
Over the centuries, there was much competition for the authority to
select the sheriff, e.g. by the king, the county court, the barons, and
the Exchequer. There was also much pressure to limit his term to one
year. Over time, the powers of the sheriffs slowly declined.
Royal income came from customary dues, profits of coinage and of
justice, and revenues from the King's own estates. For war, there was no
change in the custom that a man with five hides of land was required to
furnish one heavy armed horseman for forty days service in a year. The
fyrd was retained. A threat of a Viking invasion caused the Conquerer to
reinstate the danegeld tax at 6s. per hide, which was three times its
old rate. (The price of an ox was still about 30d.) To impose this tax
uniformly, he sent commissioners to conduct surveys by sworn verdicts of
appointed groups of local men. A detailed survey of land holdings and
the productive worth of each was made in 1086. The English called it the
"Doomsday Book" because there was no appeal from it.
The survey revealed, for instance, that one estate had "on the home
farm five plough teams: there are also 25 villeins and 6 cotters with 14
teams among them. There is a mill worth 2s. a year and one fishery, a
church and four acres of meadow, wood for 150 pigs and two stone
quarries, each worth 2s. a year, and two nests of hawks in the wood and
10 slaves." This estate was deemed to be worth 480s. a year.
Laxton "had 2 carucates of land [assessed] to the geld. [There is] land
for 6 ploughs. There Walter, a man of [the lord] Geoffrey Alselin's has
1 plough and 22 villeins and 7 bordars [a bordar had a cottage and a
small amount land in return for supplying small provisions to his lord]
having 5 ploughs and 5 serfs and 1 female serf and 40 acres of meadow.
Wood [land] for pannage [foraging by pigs] 1 league in length and half a
league in breadth. In King Edward's time it was worth 9 pounds; now [it
is worth] 6 pounds."
Ilbert de Laci has now this land, where he has twelve ploughs in the
demesne; and forty-eight villani, and twelve bordars with fifteen
ploughs, and three churches and three priests, and three mills of ten
shillings. Wood pastures two miles long, and one broad. The whole manor
five miles long and two broad. Value in King Edward's time sixteen
pounds, the same now.
That manor of the town of Coventry which was individually held was that
of the Countess of Coventry, who was the wife of the earl of Mercia.
"The Countess held in Coventry. There are 5 hides. The arable land
employs 20 ploughs. In the demesne lands there are 3 ploughs and 7
bondmen. There are 50 villeins and 12 bordars with 20 ploughs. The mill
there pay[s] 3 shillings. The woodlands are 2 miles long and the same
broad. In King Edward's time and afterwards, it was worth 22 pounds [440
s.], now only 11 pounds by weight. These lands of the Countess Godiva
Nicholas holds to farm of the King."
The survey shows a few manors and monasteries owned a salthouse or
saltpit in the local saltworks, from which they were entitled to obtain
salt.
In total there were about 110,000 villani [former coerls regarded as
customary, irremovable cultivator tenants]; 82,000 bordarii; 7,000
cotarii and cotseti [held land by service of labor or rent paid in
produce], and 25,000 servi [landless laborers]. There are no more
theows. This survey resulted in the first national tax system of about
6s. per hide of land.
The survey also provided the Conquerer with a summary of customs of
areas. For instance, in Oxfordshire, "Anyone breaking the King's peace
given under his hand and seal to the extent of committing homicide shall
be at the King's mercy in respect of his life and members. That is if he
be captured. And if he cannot be captured, he shall be considered as an
outlaw, and anyone who kills him shall have all his possessions. The
king shall take the possessions of any stranger who has elected to live
in Oxford and who dies in possession of a house in that town, and
without any kinfolk. The king shall be entitled to the body and the
possessions of any man who kills another within his own court or house
excepting always the dower of his wife, if he has a wife who has
received dower.
The courts of the king and barons became schools of chivalry wherein
seven year old noble boys became pages or valets, wore a dagger and
waited upon the ladies of the household. At age fourteen, they were
advanced to squires and admitted into more familiar association with the
knights and ladies of the court. They perfected their skills in dancing,
riding, fencing, hawking, hunting, jousting, and engaged in team sports
in which the goal was to put the other side to rout. They learned the
knightly art of war. Enemy fighters were to be taken and held for ransom
rather than killed. Those engaging in rebellion were to be pardoned and
restored to some or all of their lands and titles. Lords' sons could be
mutually exchanged with an enemy's as security for peace. After
achieving knighthood, a man usually selected a wife from the court at
which he grew up. Parents tried to send their daughters to a household
superior in social status not only to learn manners, but to make a good
marriage. A girl who did not marry was often sent to a nunnery; a dowry
was necessary before her acceptance.
The following incidents of land tenure began (but were not firmly
established until the reign of Henry II). Each tenant, whether baron or
subtenant, was to pay an "aid" in money for ransom if his lord was
captured in war, for the knighthood of his lord's eldest son, and for
the marriage of his lord's eldest daughter. The aid was theoretically
voluntary. Land could be held by an heir only if he could fight. The
eldest son began to succeed to the whole of the lands in all military
tenures. Younger sons of great houses became bishops. An heir of a
tenant had to pay a heavy "relief" on succession to his estate. The
relief replaced the heriot. If there was a delay in proving heirship or
paying relief, the lord would hold the land and receive its income in
the meantime, often a year. If an heir was still a minor or female, he
or she passed into his lord's wardship, in which the lord had
guardianship of the heir and possession of the estate, with all its
profits. The mother was not made a minor's guardian. No longer was the
estate protected by the minor's kin as his birthright. A female heir was
expected to marry a man acceptable to the lord. The estate of an heiress
and her land was generally sold to the highest bidder. If there were no
heirs, the land escheated to the lord. If a tenant committed felony, his
land escheated to his lord. The word "felony" came from the Latin word
meaning "to deceive" and referred to the feudal crime of betraying or
committing treachery against one's lord.
Astrologers resided with the families of the barons. People went to
fortune tellers' shops. There was horse racing, steeple races, and chess
for recreation. Girls had dolls; boys had toy soldiers, spinning tops,
toy horses, ships, and wooden models.
The state of medicine is indicated by this medical advice brought to
the nation by William's son after treatment on the continent:
"If thou would have health and vigor Shun cares and avoid anger. Be
temperate in eating And in the use of wine. After a heavy meal Rise and
take the air Sleep not with an overloaded stomach And above all thou
must Respond to Nature when she calls."
The Conquerer allowed Jewish traders to follow him from Normandy and
settle in separate sections of the main towns. Then engaged in long
distance trade, money changing, and money lending. They loaned money for
interest for the building of castles and cathedrals. Christians were not
allowed by the church to engage in this usury. The Jews could not become
citizens nor could they have standing in the local courts. Instead, a
royal justiciar secured justice for them. They could practice their own
religion.
William the Conquerer was succeeded as king by his son William II
(Rufus), who transgressed many of the customs of the nation to get more
money for himself. He was killed by an arrow of a fellow hunter while
they and William's younger brother Henry were hunting together in a
crown forest. Henry then became king.
- The Law -
The Norman conquerors brought no written law, but affirmed the laws of
the nation. Two they especially enforced were:
1. Anyone caught in the act of digging up the King's road, felling a
tree across it, or attacking someone so that his blood spilled on it
shall pay a fine to the King.
2. All freemen shall have a surety who would hand him over to justice
for his offenses or pay the damages or fines due. If an accused man
fled, his surety would have a year to find him to obtain reimbursement.
The Conquerer proclaimed that:
No cattle shall be sold except in towns and before three witnesses.
For the sale of ancient chattels, there must be a surety and a
warrantor.
No man shall be sold over the sea. (This ended the slave trade at the
port of Bristol.)
The death penalty for persons tried by court is abolished.
- Judicial Procedure -
"Ecclesiastical" courts were created for bishops to preside over cases
concerning the cure of souls and criminal cases, in which the ordeal was
used. When the Conquerer did not preside over this court, an appeal
could be made to him.
The hundred and county courts now sat without clergy and handled only
"civil" cases. They were conducted by the King's own appointed sheriff.
Only freemen and not bound villeins had standing in this court. They
continued to transact their business in the English language.
The local jurisdictions of thegns who had grants of sac and soke or who
exercised judicial functions among their free neighbors were now called
"manors" under their new owners, who conducted a manor court.
The Conquerer's Royal Court was called the "Curia Regis". When the
Conquerer wished to determine the national laws, he summoned twelve
elected representatives of each county to declare on oath the ancient
lawful customs and law as they existed in the time of the popular King
Edward the Confessor. The recording of this law was begun. A person
could spend months trying to catch up with the Royal Court to present a
case. Sometimes the Conquerer sent the justiciar or commissioners to
hold his Royal Court in the various districts. The commissioner
appointed groups of local men to give a collective verdict upon oath for
each trial he conducted. The Conquerer allowed, on an ad hoc basis,
certain high-level people such as bishops and abbots and those who made
a large payment, to have land disputes decided by an inquiry of
recognitors. Besides royal issues, the Curia Regis heard appeals from
lower court decisions. It used English, Norman, feudal, Roman, and canon
law legal principles to reach a decision, and was flexible and
expeditious.
A dispute between a Norman and an English man over land or a criminal
act could be decided by trial by combat [battle]. Each combatant first
swore to the truth of his cause and undertook to prove by his body the
truth of his cause by making the other surrender by crying "craven"
[craving forgiveness]. The combatants used weapons like pickaxes and
shields. Presumably the man in the wrong would not fight as well because
he was burdened with a guilty conscience. Although this trial was
thought to reflect God's will, it favored the physically fit and adept
person. After losing the trial by combat, the guilty person would be
punished appropriately.
London had its own traditions. All London citizens met at its folkmote,
which was held three times a year to determine its public officers, to
raise matters of public concern, and to make ordinances. Its criminal
court had the power of outlawry as did the county courts. Trade, land,
and other civil issues were dealt with by the Hustings Court, which met
every Monday in the Guildhall. The city was divided into wards, each of
which was under the charge of an elected alderman [elder man]. (The
election was by a small governing body and the most wealthy and
reputable men and not a popular election.) The aldermen had special
knowledge of the law and a duty to declare it at the Hustings Court.
Each alderman also conducted wardmotes in his ward and decided criminal
and civil issues between its residents. Within the wards were the guilds
of the city.
The Normans, as foreigners, were protected by the king's peace. The
entire hundred was the ultimate surety for murder and would have to pay
a "murdrum" fine of 31 pounds [46 marks] for the murder of any Norman,
if the murderer was not apprehended by his lord within a few days. The
reaction to this was that the murderer mutilated the corpse to make
identification of ethnicity impossible. So the Conquerer ordered that
every murder victim was assumed to be Norman unless proven English. This
began a court custom in murder cases of first proving the victim to be
English.
The Royal Court decided this case: "At length both parties were
summoned before the King's court, in which there sat many of the nobles
of the land of whom Geoffrey, bishop of Coutances, was delegated by the
King's authority as judge of the dispute, with Ranulf the Vicomte, Neel,
son of Neel, Robert de Usepont, and many other capable judges who
diligently and fully examined the origin of the dispute, and delivered
judgment that the mill ought to belong to St. Michael and his monks
forever. The most victorious King William approved and confirmed this
decision."
- - - Chapter 5 - - -
- The Times: 1100-1154 -
King Henry I, son of William the Conquerer, furthered peace between the
Normans and native English by his marriage to a niece of King Edward the
Confessor called Matilda. She married him on condition that he grant a
charter of rights undoing some practices of the past reigns of William I
and William II. Peace was also furthered by the fact that Henry I had
been born in England and English was his native tongue. The private wars
of lords were now replaced by less serious mock battles.
Henry was a shrewd judge of character and of the course of events,
cautious before taking action, but decisive in carrying out his plans.
He was faithful and generous to his friends. He showed a strong
practical element of calculation and foresight. Although illiterate, he
was intelligent and a good administrator. He had an efficient
intelligence gathering network and an uncanny knack of detecting hidden
plans before they became conspiratorial action. He made many able men of
inferior social position nobles, thus creating a class of career judges
and administrators in opposition to the extant hereditary aristocracy.
He loved books and built a palace at Oxford to which he invited scholars
for lively discussion. Euclid's "Elements" ", which deduced from axioms
the properties of lines, circles, and spheres, was introduced into
England.
Queen Matilda served as regent of the kingdom in Henry's absence, as
William's queen had for him. Both queens received special coronation
apart from their husbands; they held considerable estates which they
administered through their own officers, and were frequently composed of
escheated honors. Matilda was learned and a literary patron. She founded
an important literary and scholastic center. Her compassion was great
and her charities extensive. In London she founded several almshouses
and a caregiving infirmary for lepers. These were next to small monastic
communities. She also had new roads and bridges built.
Henry issued charters restoring customs which had been subordinated to
royal impositions by previous Kings, which set a precedent for later
Kings. His coronation charter describes certain property rights he
restored after the oppressive reign of his brother, William II.
"Henry, King of the English, to Samson the bishop, and Urse of Abbetot,
and to all his barons and faithful vassals, both French and English, in
Worcestershire, greeting.