Maleville has married at London without the lord's licence; therefore
let the said Richard be distrained. He has made fine with 12d. Also that
Alice Berde has done the same; therefore let her be distrained. Also
that Robert Fountain has committed a trespass against William Gery;
therefore the said Robert is in mercy; pledge, Humfrey; fine, 6d. Also
that Richard Maleville has drawn blood from Stephen Gust; therefore he
is in mercy; fine, 2s.
36. Geoffrey Coterel in mercy for a battery; fine, 12d.; pledge, Adam
Serjeant. Geoffrey Coterel for trespass in the hay; fine, 6d.; pledge,
Alan Reaper. Hugh of Senholt in mercy for trespass in the green wood;
fine, 6d.
37. Hugh Wiking in mercy for delay in doing his works; fine, 6d. Hugh
Churchyard for trespass in [cutting] thorns; fine, 6d. Thomas Gold in
mercy for trespass in the wood; fine, 3d.; pledge, Robert Grinder.
38. William Dun in mercy for subtraction of his works due in autumn;
fine, 2s. Avice Isaac for the same, 6d.; Hugh Wiking for the same, 6d.;
Agnes Rede in mercy for her daughter's trespass in the corn [grain], 6d.
39. Walter Ash in mercy for not making suit to the lord's mill; fine,
6d. Hugh Pinel in mercy for diverting a watercourse to the nuisance of
the neighbors; fine, 6d.; pledge, Robert Fresel.
40. John Dun in mercy for carrying off corn [grain] in the autumn;
pledge, Adam White. Alan Reaper gives the lord 12d. on account of a
sheep which was lost while in his custody.
41. Adam White in mercy for bad mowing; fine, 6d. Hugh Harding in mercy
for the same; fine, 6d.
42. The chief pledges present that Henry Blackstone (fine, 6d.), Hugh
Churchyard (fine, 18d.), Walter Ash (fine, 6d.), Henry of Locksbarow
(fine, 12d.), Avice Isaac (fine, 6d.), Richard Matthew (fine, 6d.), Hugh
Wiking (fine,--), Ralph Dene (fine, 6d.), John Palmer (fine, 12d.), John
Coterel (fine, 6d.), John Moor (fine, 6d.), John Cubbel (fine, 12d.),
Hugh Andrew (fine, 6d.), Philip Chapman (fine, 6d.), John Fellow (fine,
12d.), Robert Bailiff (fine, 6d.), Alice Squire (fine, 12d.), John
Grately (fine,--), Richard Hull (fine, 6d.), Osbert Reaper (fine, 6d.),
and Robert Cross (fine, 6d.), have broken the assize of beer. Also that
Henry of Senholt, Henry Brown, Hugh Hayward, Richard Moor, Juliana
Woodward, Alice Harding, Peronel Street, Eleanor Mead make default. Also
that Walter Ash (fine,--), John Wiking (fine,--), John Smart (fine,--),
and Henry Coterel have married themselves without the lord's licence;
therefore let them be distrained to do the will of the lord.
43. Alan Reaper for the trespass of his foal; fine, 6d.
44. Philip Chapman in mercy for refusing his gage to the lord's bailiff;
fine, 3d.
45. William Ash in mercy for trespass in the growing crop; fine, 6d.
46. John Iremonger in mercy for contempt; fine, 6d.
47. The chief pledges present that William of Ripley (fine, 6d.), Walter
Smith (no goods), Maud of Pasmere (fine, 6d.), have received [strangers]
contrary to the assize; therefore they are in mercy.
48. Maud widow of Reginald of Challow has sufficiently proved that a
certain sheep valued at 8d. is hers, and binds herself to restore it or
its price in case it shall be demanded from her within year and day;
pledges, John Iremonger and John Robertd; and she gives the lord 3d. for
[his] custody [of it].
The Court of Hustings in London is empowered to award landlords their
tenements for which rent or services are in arrears if the landlord
could not distrain enough tenant possessions to cover the arrearages.
Wills are proven in the Court of Husting, the oldest court in London,
which went back to the times of Edward the Confessor. One such proven
will is:
"Tour (John de La) - To Robert his eldest son his capital messuage and
wharf in the parish of Berchingechurch near the land called
'Berewardesland`. To Agnes his wife his house called 'Wyvelattestone',
together with rents, reversions, etc. in the parish of S. Dunstan
towards the Tower, for life; remainder to Stephen his son. To Peter and
Edmund his sons lands and rents in the parish of All Hallows de
Berhyngechurch; remainders over in default of heirs. To Agnes, wife of
John le Keu, fishmonger, a house situate in the same parish of Berhyng,
at a peppercorn [nominal] rent."
The Court of the Mayor of London heard diverse cases, including
disputes over goods, faulty or substandard goods, adulteration, selling
food unfit for human consumption, enhancing the price of goods, using
unlawful weighing beams, debts, theft, distraints, forgery, tavern
brawling, bullying, and gambling. Insulting or assaulting a city
dignitary was a very serious crime; an attack on the mayor was once
capitally punished. Sacrilege, rape, and burglary were punished by
death. Apart from the death penalty, the punishment meted out the most
was public exposure in the pillory, with some mark of ignominy slung
round the neck. If the crime was selling bad food, it was burnt under
the offender's nose. If it was sour wine, the offender was drenched in
it. Standing in the pillory for even one hour was very humiliating, and
by the end of the day, it was known throughout the city. The offender's
reputation was ruined. Some men died in the pillory of shame and
distress. A variation of the pillory was being dragged through the
streets on a hurdle. Prostitutes were carted through the streets in
coarse rough cloth hoods, with penitential crosses in their hands.
Scolds were exposed in a "thewe" for women. In more serious cases,
imprisonment for up to a year was added to the pillory. Mutilation was
rare, but there are cases of men losing their right hands for rescuing
prisoners. The death penalty was usually by hanging. The following four
London cases pertain to customs, bad grain, surgery, and apprenticeship,
respectively.
"John le Paumer was summoned to answer Richer de Refham, Sheriff, in a
plea that, whereas the defendant and his Society of Bermen [carriers] in
the City were sworn not to carry any wine, by land or water, for the use
of citizens or others, without the Sheriff's mark, nor lead nor cause it
to be led, whereby the Sheriff might be defrauded of his customs,
nevertheless he caused four casks of wine belonging to Ralph le Mazun of
Westminster to be carried from the City of Westminster without the
Sheriff's mark, thus defrauding the latter of his customs in contempt of
the king etc. The defendant acknowledged the trespass. Judgment that he
remain in the custody of the Sheriff till he satisfy the King and the
Court for offense."
"Walter atte Belhaus, William atte Belhous, Robert le Barber dwelling at
Ewelleshalle, John de Lewes, Gilbert le Gras, John his son, Roger le
Mortimer, William Ballard atte Hole, Peter de Sheperton, John Brun and
the wife of Thomas the pelterer, Stephen de Haddeham, William de
Goryngg, Margery de Frydaiestrate, Mariot, who dwells in the house of
William de Harwe, and William de Hendone were attached to answer for
forestalling all kinds of grain and exposing it, together with putrid
grain, on the pavement, for sale by the bushel, through their men and
women servants; and for buying their own grain from their own servants
in deception of the people. The defendants denied that they were guilty
and put themselves on their country. A jury of Richard de Hockeleye and
others brought in a verdict of guilty, and the defendants were committed
to prison till the next Parliament."
"Peter the Surgeon acknowledged himself bound to Ralph de Mortimer, by
Richard atte Hill his attorney, in the sum of 20s., payable at certain
terms, the said Ralph undertaking to give Peter a letter of acquittance
[release from a debt]. This Recognizance arose out of a covenant between
them with regard to the effecting of a cure. Both were amerced for
coming to an agreement out of Court. A precept was issued to summon all
the surgeons of the City for Friday, that an inquiry might be made as to
whether the above Peter was fitted to enjoy the profession of a
surgeon."
"Thomas de Kydemenstre, shoemaker, was summoned to answer William de
Beverlee, because he did not clothe, feed and instruct his apprentice
Thomas, William's son, but drove him away. The defendant said that the
apprentice lent his master's goods to others and promised to restore
them or their value, but went away against his wish; and he demanded a
jury. Subsequently, a jury of William de Upton and others said the
apprentice lent two pairs of shoes belonging to his master and was told
to restore them, but, frightened by the beating which he received, ran
away; further that the master did not feed and clothe his apprentice as
he ought, being unable to do so, to the apprentice's damage 40d., but
that he was now in a position to look after his apprentice. Thereupon
Thomas de Kydemenstre said he was willing to have the apprentice back
and provide for him, and the father agreed. Judgment that the master
take back the apprentice and feed and instruct him, or that he repay to
the father, the money paid to the latter, and that he pay the father the
40d. and be in mercy."
A professional class of temporal attorneys whose business it is to
appear on behalf of litigants is prominent in the nation. Attorneys are
now drawn from the knightly class of landed gentlemen, instead of
ecclesiastical orders. Since it was forbidden for ecclesiastics to act
as advocates in the secular courts, those who left the clergy to become
advocates adopted a close-fitting cap to hide their tonsures, which came
to be called a "coif". The great litigation of the nation is conducted
by a small group of men, as is indicated by the earliest Year Books of
case decisions. They sit in court and will sometimes intervene as amicus
curiae [friends of the court]. Parliament refers difficult points of law
to them as well as to the justices. These reports became so
authoritative that they could be cited in the courts as precedent.
Groups of attorneys from the countryside who are appearing in London
courts during term-time and living in temporary lodgings start to form
guild-like fellowships and buy property where they dine and reside
together, called the Inns of Court. They begin to think of themselves as
belonging to a profession, with a feeling of responsibility for training
the novices who sat in court to learn court procedures and attorney
techniques. They invited these students to supper at the Inns of Court
for the purpose of arguing about the day's cases. The Inns of Court
evolved a scheme of legal education, which was oral and used
disputations. Thus they became educational institutions as well as clubs
for practicing attorneys. The call to the bar of an Inn was in effect a
degree. To be an attorney one had to be educated and certified at the
Inns of Court. They practice law full time. Some are employed by the
King. Justices come to be recruited from among those who had passed
their lives practicing law in court, instead of from the ecclesiastical
orders. All attorneys were brought under the control of the justices.
There are two types of attorney: one attorney appears in the place of
his principal, who does not appear. The appointment of this attorney is
an unusual and a solemn thing, only to be allowed on special grounds and
with the proper formalities. For instance, a poor person may not be able
to afford to travel to attend the royal court in person. The other one
is the pleader-attorney, who accompanies his client to court and
advocates his position with his knowledge of the law and his
persuasiveness.
In 1280, the city of London made regulations for the admission of both
types of attorneys to practice before the civic courts, and for their
due control. In 1292 the king directed the justices to provide a certain
number of attorneys and apprentices to follow the court, who should have
the exclusive right of practicing before it. This begins the process
which will make the attorney for legal business an "officer of the
court" which has appointed him.
- - - Chapter 9 - - -
- The Times: 1348-1399 -
Waves of the black death, named for the black spots on the body, swept
over the nation. The black blotches were caused by extensive internal
bleeding. The plague was carried in the blood of black rats and
transmitted to humans by the bite of the rat flea, but this cause was
then unknown. The first wave of this plague, in 1348, lasted for three
years and desolated the nation by about one half the population in the
towns and one third in the country. People tried to avoid the plague by
flight. The agony and death of so many good people caused some to
question their belief in God. Also, it was hard to understand why
priests who fled were less likely to die than priests who stayed with
the dying to give them the last rites. Legal and judicial, as well as
other public business weere interrupted by theplague and ceased for two
years. Thus begins a long period of disorganization, unrest, and social
instability. Customary ways were so upset that authority and tradition
were no longer automatically accepted. Fields lay waste and sheep and
cattle wandered over the countryside. Local courts could seldom be held.
Some monasteries in need of cash sold annuities to be paid in the form
of food, drink, clothing, and lodging during the annuitant's life, and
sometimes that of his widow also. Guilds and rich men made contributions
to the poor and ships with provisions were sent to various parts of the
country for the relief of starving people. In London, many tradesmen and
artisans formed parish fraternities which united people of all social
levels and women on almost equal terms with men, in communal devotion
and mutual support, such as help in resolving disputes, moral guidance,
money when needed, and burial and masses.
Farm workers were so rare that they were able to demand wages at double
or triple the pre-plague rate. The pre-plague had been 4-6d. daily for
masons, carpenters, plasterers, and tilers and 3d. for their laborers.
These laborers could buy 12 cheap loaves, 3 gallons of ale, and a gallon
of cheap wine or half a pair of shoes. Prices did not go up nearly as
much as wages. Villeins relinquished their tenements, and deserted their
manors, to get better wages elsewhere. They became nomadic, roaming from
place to place, seeking day work for good wages where they could get it,
and resorting to thievery on the highways or beggary where they could
not. The Robin Hood legends were popular among them. In them, Robin Hood
is pure outlaw and does not contribute money to the poor. Nor does he
court Maid Marion.
Villeins spread political songs among each other, such as: "To seek
silver to the King, I my seed sold; wherefore my land lieth fallow and
learneth to sleep. Since they fetched my fair cattle in my fold; when I
think of my old wealth, well nigh I weep. Thus breedeth many beggars
bold; and there wakeneth in the world dismay and woe, for as good is
death anon as so for to toil."
Groups of armed men took lands, manors, goods, and women by force. The
villeins agreed to assist each other in resisting by force their lords'
efforts to return them to servitude. A statute of laborers passed in
1351 for wages to be set at the pre-plague rates was ineffectual.
Justices became afraid to administer the law. Villeins, free peasants,
and craftsmen joined together and learned to use the tactics of
association and strikes against their employers.
The office of Justice of the Peace was created for every county to deal
with rioting and vagrants. Cooperation by officials of other counties
was mandated to deal with fugitives from its justice.
The Black Death visited again in 1361 and in 1369. The Black Death
reduced the population from about 5 million to about 2 1/2 million. It
was to rise to about 4 million by 1600.
When there were attempts to enforce the legal servitude of the
villeins, they spread rhymes of their condition and need to revolt. A
secret league, called the "Great Society" linked the centers of
intrigue. A high poll tax, graduated from 20s. to 12d., that was to be
raised for a war with France, touched off a spontaneous riot all over
the nation in 1381. This tax included people not taxed before, such as
laborers, the village smith, and the village tiler. Each area had its
own specific grievances. There was no common political motive, except
maladministration in general.
In this Peasants' Revolt, mobs overran the counties around London. The
upper classes fled to the woods. Written records of the servitude of
villeins were burned in their halls, which were also looted. Title deeds
of landlords were burned. Rate rolls of general taxation were destroyed.
Prisoners were released from gaols. Men connected with tax collection,
law enforcement, attorneys, and alien merchants were beheaded. The Chief
Justice was murdered while fleeing. The archbishop, who was a
notoriously exploitive landlord, the chancellor, and the treasurer were
murdered. Severed heads were posted on London Bridge. A mob took control
of the king's empty bedchamber in the Tower. The villeins demanded that
service to a lord be by agreement instead of by servitude, a commutation
of villein service for rents of a maximum of 4d. per acre yearly,
abolition of a lord's right for their work on demand (e.g. just before a
hail storm so only his crops were saved), and the right to hunt and
fish. The sokemen protested having to use the lord's mill and having to
attend his court.
The revolt was suppressed and its leaders punished. The king issued
proclamations forbidding unauthorized gatherings and ordering tenants of
land to perform their customary services. The poll tax was dropped. For
the future, the duty to deal with rioting and vagrants was given to
royal justices, sheriffs, mayors, bailiffs, and constables as well as
the Justices of the Peace. There was a high Justice of the Peace in each
hundred and a petty constable in each parish. Justices of the Peace
could swear in neighbors as unpaid special constables when disorder
broke out.
The sheriff was responsible for seeing that men of the lower classes
were organized into groups of ten for police and surety purposes, and
for holding of hundred and county courts, arresting suspects, guarding
prisoners awaiting trial, carrying out the penalties adjudged by the
courts, and collecting Crown revenue through his bailiffs. Royal writs
were addressed to the sheriff. Because many sheriffs had taken fines and
ransoms for their own use, a term limit of one year was imposed.
Sheriffs, hundreders, and bailiffs had to have lands in the same
counties or bailiwicks [so they could be held answerable to the King].
Efforts were made to keep laborers at the plough and cart rather than
learn a craft or entering and being educated by the church. The new
colleges at the universities ceased to accept villeins as students.
Due to the shortage of labor, landlords' returns had decreased from
about 20% to about 5%. But some found new methods of using land that
were more profitable than the customary services of villeins who had
holdings of land or the paid labor of practically free men who paid a
money rent for land holdings. One method was to turn the land to sheep
breeding. Others leased their demesne land, which transferred the burden
of getting laborers from the landlord to the lessee-tenant. The payment
was called a "farm" and the tenant a "farmer". First, there were
stock-and-land leases, in which both the land and everything required to
cultivate it were let together. After 50 years, when the farmers had
acquired assets, there were pure land leases. Landlords preferred to
lease their land at will instead of for a term of years to prevent the
tenant from depleting the soil with a few richer crops during the last
years of his tenancy. The commutation of labor services into a money
payment developed into a general commutation of virtually all services.
Lords in need of money gladly sold manumissions to their villeins.
The lord and lady of some manors now ate with their family and
entertained guests in a private parlor [from French word 'to speak"] or
great chamber, where they could converse and which had its own
fireplace. The great chamber was usually at the fireplace end of the
great hall, where there was a high table. The great hall had been too
noisy for conversation and now was little used. There were also separate
chambers or bed-sitting rooms for guests or members the family or
household, in which one slept, received visitors, played games, and
occasionally ate.
Some farmers achieved enough wealth to employ others as laborers on
their farms. The laborers lived with their employer in his barn,
sleeping on hay in the loft, or in mud huts outside the barn. The
farmer's family lived at one end of the barn around an open fire. Their
possessions typically were: livestock, a chest, a trestle table,
benches, stools, an iron or bronze cauldron and pots, brooms, wooden
platters, wooden bowls, spoons, knives, wooden or leather jugs, a salt
box, straw mattresses, wool blankets, linen towels, iron tools, and rush
candles [used the pith of a rush reed for the wick]. Those who could not
afford rush candles could get a dim light by using a little grease in a
shallow container, with a few twisted strands of linen thread afloat in
it. The peasants ate dark bread and beans and drank water from springs.
Milk and cheese were a luxury for them. Those who could not afford bread
instead ate oat cakes made of pounded beans and bran, cheese, and
cabbage. They also had leeks, onions, and peas as vegetables. Some
farmers could afford to have a wooden four-posted bedstead, hens, geese,
pigs, a couple of cows, a couple of sheep, or two-plough oxen. July was
the month when the divide between rich and poor became most apparent.
The rich could survive on the contents of their barns, but the poor
tried to survive by grinding up the coarsest of wheat bran and shriveled
peas and beans to make some sort of bread. Grain and bread prices soared
during July. Farming still occupied the vast majority of the population.
Town inhabitants and university students went into the fields to help
with the harvest in the summer. Parliament was suspended during the
harvest.
Town people had more wealth than country people. Most townspeople slept
in nightgowns and nightcaps in beds with mattresses, blankets, linen
sheets, and pillows. Beds were made every morning. Bathing was by
sponging hot water from a basin over the body, sometimes with herbs in
it, rinsing with a splash of warm water, and drying off with a towel.
Tubs used only for baths came into use. There were drapery rugs hung
around beds, handheld mirrors of glass, and salt cellars. The first meal
of the day was a light breakfast, which broke the fast that had lasted
the night. Meals were often prepared according to recipes from cook
books which involved several preparation procedures using flour, eggs,
sugar, cheese, and grated bread, rather than just simple seasoning.
Menus were put together with foods that tasted well together and served
on plates in several courses. Children's sweets included gingerbread and
peppermint drops. Sheffield cutlery was world famous. Table manners
included not making sounds when eating, not playing with one's spoon or
knife, not placing one's elbows on the table, keeping one's mouth clean
with a napkin, and not being boisterous. There were courtesies such as
saying "Good Morning" when meeting someone and not pointing one's finger
at another person. King Richard II invented the handkerchief for
sneezing and blowing one's nose. There were books on etiquette. Cats
were the object of superstition, but there was an Ancient and Honorable
Order of the Men Who Stroke Cats.
New burgesses were recruited locally, usually from within a 20 mile
radius of town. Most of the freemen of the larger boroughs, like
Canterbury and London, came from smaller boroughs. An incoming burgess
was required to buy his right to trade either by way of a seven year
apprenticeship or by payment of an entry fee. To qualify, he needed both
a skill and social respectability.