testaments may take a fee for probating a testament where the goods of
the testator are under 100s., except that the scribe writing the probate
of the testament may take 6d., and for the commission of administration
of the goods of any man dying intestate, being up to 100s, may be
charged 6d. Where the goods are over 100s. but up to 800s. sterling,
probate fees may be 3s.6d. at most, whereof the official may take 2s.6d.
at most, with 12d. residue to the scribe for registering the testament.
Where the goods are over 800s. sterling, probate fees may be 5s. at
most, whereof the official may take 2s.6d. at most, with 2s.6d. residue
to the scribe, or the scribe may choose to take 1d. per 10 lines of
writing of the testament. If the deceased had willed by his testament
any land to be sold, the money thereof coming nor the profits of the
land shall not be counted as the goods or chattel of the deceased. Where
probate fees have customarily been less, they shall remain the same. The
official shall approve and seal the testament without delay and deliver
it to the executors named in such testaments for the said sum. If a
person dies intestate or executors refuse to prove the testament, then
the official shall grant the administration of the goods to the widow of
the deceased person, or to the next of kin, or to both, in the
discretion of the official, taking surety of them for the true
administration of the goods, chattels, and debts. Where kin of unequal
degree request the administration, it shall be given to the wife and, at
his discretion, other requestors. The executors or administrators, along
with at least two persons to whom the deceased was indebted, or to whom
legacies were made, or, upon their refusal or absence, two honest
kinsmen, shall make an inventory of the deceased's goods, chattels,
ware, merchandise, as well moveable as not moveable, and take it upon
their oaths to the official.
No parish clergyman or other spiritual person shall take a mortuary fee
or money from a deceased person with movable goods under the value of
133s., a deceased woman-covert, a child, a person keeping no house, or a
traveler. Only one mortuary fee may be taken of each deceased and that
in the place where he most dwelled and lived. Where the deceased's
moveable goods are to the value of 133s. or more, above his debts paid,
and under 600s., a mortuary up to 3s. 4d. may be taken. Where such goods
are 600s. or more and under 800s., mortuary up to 6s.8d. may be taken.
Where such goods are 800s. or above, mortuary up to 10s. may be taken.
But where mortuaries have customarily been less, they shall remain the
same.
Executors of a will declaring land to be sold for the payment of debts,
performance of legacies to wife and children, and charitable deeds for
the health of souls, may sell the land despite the refusal of other
executors to agree to such sale.
A man may not marry his mother, stepmother, sister, niece, aunt, or
daughter.
Any clergy preaching contrary to the King's religious doctrine shall
recant for the first offense. He shall abjure and bear a faggot (a badge
resembling a faggot of wood which would have been used for burning him
as a heretic) for the second offense. If he refuses to abjure or bear a
faggot or offends a third time, he shall be burned and lose all his
goods. If a layperson teaches, defends, or maintains a religious
doctrine other than the King's, he shall recant and be imprisoned for
twenty days for the first offense. He shall abjure and bear a faggot if
he does not recant or offends a second time. He shall forfeit his goods
and suffer perpetual imprisonment if he does not abjure or bear a faggot
or offends a third time.
The entry of an apprentice into a craft shall not cost more than 2s.6d.
After his term, his entry shall not be more than 3s.4d. This replaced
the various fees ranging from this to 40s.
No master of a craft may require his apprentice to make an oath not to
compete with him by setting up a shop after the term of his
apprenticeship.
No alien may take up a craft or occupation in the nation.
No brewer of ale or beer to sell shall make wood vessels or barrels,
and coopers shall use only good and seasonable wood to make barrels and
shall put their mark thereon. Every ale or beer barrel shall contain 32
of the King's standard gallons. The price of beer barrels sold to ale or
beer brewers or others shall be 9d.
An ale-brewer may employ in his service one cooper only to bind, hoop
and pin, but not to make, his master's ale vessels.
No butcher may keep a tanning-house.
Tanned leather shall be sold only in open fairs and markets and after
it is inspected and sealed.
Only people living in designated towns may make cloth to sell, to
prevent the ruin of these towns by people taking up both agriculture and
cloth-making outside these towns. No one making cloth for sale may have
more than one woolen loom or else forfeit 20s. This to protect the
weavers' ability to maintain themselves and their families from rich
clothiers who keep many looms and employ journeymen and unskillful
persons at low wages. No one owning a fulling mill may own a weaving
loom. No weaver may own a fulling mill.
No one shall shoot in or keep in his house any handgun or crossbow
unless he has 2,000s. yearly.
No one may hunt or kill hare in the snow since their killing in great
numbers by men other than the king and noblemen has depleted them.
No one shall take an egg or bird of any falcon or hawk out of its nest
on the King's land. No one may disguise himself with hidden or painted
face to enter a forest or park enclosed with a wall for keeping deer to
steal any deer or hare.
Ducks and geese shall not be taken with any net or device during the
summer, when they haven't enough feathers to fly. But a freeholder of
40s. yearly may hunt and take such with long bow and spaniels.
No one may sell or buy any pheasant except the King's officers may buy
such for the King.
No butcher may kill any calf born in the spring.
No grain, beef, mutton, veal, or pork may be sold outside the nation.
Every person with 36 acres of agricultural land, shall sow one quarter
acre with flax or hemp-feed.
All persons shall kill crows on their land to prevent them from eating
so much grain at sowing and ripening time and destroying hay stacks and
the thatched roofs of houses and barns. They shall assemble yearly to
survey all the land to decide how best to destroy all the young breed of
crows for that year. Every village and town with at least ten households
shall put up and maintain crow nets for the destruction of crows.
No land used for raising crops may be converted to pasture. No woods
may be converted to agriculture or pasture. The efforts to enforce these
proved these prohibitions were not successful.
No one shall cut down or break up dikes holding salt water and fresh
water from flooding houses and pastures.
No one shall dump tin-mining debris, dung, or rubbish into rivers
flowing into ports or take any wood from the walls of the port, so that
ships may always enter at low tide.
A person may lay out a new highway on his land where the old one has
been so damaged by waterways that horses with carriages cannot pass,
with the consent of local officials.
Only poor, aged, and disabled persons may beg. Begging without a
license is punishable by whipping or setting in the stocks 3 days with
only bread and water.
Alien palm readers shall no longer be allowed into the nation, because
they have been committing felonies and robberies.
Butchers may not sell beef, pork, mutton, or veal from carcasses for
more than 1/2 penny and 1/2 farthing [1/4 penny] per pound.
French wines may not sell at retail for more than 8d. per gallon.
A barrel maker or cooper may sell a beer barrel for 10d.
No longer may aliens bring books into the nation to sell because now
there are sufficient printers and bookbinders in the nation.
No one may buy fresh fish other than sturgeon, porpoise, or seal from
an alien to put to sale in the nation.
Every person with an enclosed park where there are deer, shall keep two
tall and strong mares in such park and shall not allow them to be
mounted by any short horse, because the breeding of good, swift, and
strong horses has diminished.
A man may have only as many trotting horses for the saddle as are
appropriate to his degree.
No one may maintain for a living a house for unlawful games such as
bowling, tennis, dice, or cards. No artificer, craftsman, husbandman,
apprentice, laborer, journeyman, mariner, fisherman may play these games
except at Christmas under his master's supervision. Noblemen and others
with a yearly income of at least 2,000s. may allow his servants to play
these games at his house.
Hemp or flax may not be watered in any river or stream where animals
are watered.
No one shall sell merchandise to another and then buy back the same
merchandise within three months at a lower price. No one shall sell
merchandise to be paid for in a year above the sum of 200s. per 2000s.
worth of merchandise. No one shall sell or mortgage any land upon
condition of payment of a sum of money before a certain date above the
sum of 200s. per 2000s. per year.
No one shall commit forgery by counterfeiting a letter made in another
person's name to steal any money, goods, or jewels.
No one shall libel by accusing another of treason in writing and
leaving it in an open place without subscribing his own name to it.
If any servant converts to his own use more than 40s. worth of jewels,
money, or goods from caskets entrusted to him for safekeeping by a
nobleman or other master or mistress, it shall be a felony.
If a person breaks into a dwelling house by night to commit burglary or
murder, is killed by anyone in that house, or a person is killed in
self-defense, the killer shall not forfeit any lands or goods for the
killing.
Killing by poisoning shall be deemed murder and is punishable by death.
A person who has committed a murder, robbery, or other felony he has
committed shall be imprisoned for his natural life and be burned on the
hand, because those who have been exiled have disclosed their knowledge
of the commodities and secrets of this nation and gathered together to
practice archery for the benefit of the foreign realm. If he escapes
such imprisonment, he shall forfeit his life.
A person convicted or outlawed shall be penalized by loss of life, but
not loss of lands or goods, which shall go to his wife as dower and his
heirs.
Buggery may not be committed on any person or beast.
No one shall slander or libel the king by speeches or writing or
printing or painting.
No one shall steal fish from a pond on another's land by using nets or
hooks with bait or by drying up the pond.
The mayor of London shall appoint householders to supervise watermen
rowing people across the Thames River because many people have been
robbed and drowned by these rowers. All such boats must be at least 23
feet long and 5 feet wide.
No man shall take away or marry any maiden under 16 years of age with
an inheritance against the will of her father.
Any marriage solemnized in church and consummated shall be valid
regardless of any prior agreement for marriage.
Sheriffs shall not lose their office because they have not collected
enough money for the Exchequer, but shall have allowances sufficient to
perform their duties.
Butchers, brewers, and bakers shall not conspire together to sell their
victuals only at certain prices. Artificers, workmen and laborers shall
not conspire to work only at a certain rate or only at certain hours of
the day.
No one shall sell any woolen cloth that shrinks when it is wet.
No one shall use a rope or device to stretch cloth for sale so to make
it appear as more in quantity than it is.
No one may sell cloth at retail unless the town where it was dressed,
dyed, and pressed has placed its seal on the cloth. Cloth may not be
pressed with a hot press, but only with a cold press.
Only artificers using the cutting of leather, may buy and sell tanned
leather and only for the purpose of converting it into made wares.
A beggar's child above five years may be taken into service by anyone
that will.
Cattle may be bought only in the open fair or market and only by a
butcher or for a household, team, or dairy, but not for resale live.
Butter and cheese shall not be bought to be sold again except at retail
in open shop, fair, or market.
No man may enter a craft of cloth-making until he has been an
apprentice for seven years or has married a clothiers' wife and
practicing the trade for years with her and her servants sorting the
wool.
No country person shall sell wares such as linen drapery, wool drapery,
hats, or groceries by retail in any incorporated town, but only in open
fairs.
For every 60 sheep there shall be kept one milk cow because of the
scarcity of cattle.
No clothier may keep more than one wool loom in his house, because many
weavers do not have enough work to support their families. No weaver may
have more than two wool looms.
No clothmaker, fuller, shearman, weaver, tailor, or shoemaker shall
retain a journeyman to work by the piece for less than a three month
period. Every craftsman who has three apprentices shall have one
journeyman. Servants in agriculture and bargemen shall serve by the
whole year and not by day wages.
There shall be a sales tax of 12d. per pound of wool cloth goods for
the Crown.
All people shall attend church on Sundays to remember God's benefits
and goodness to all and to give thanks for these with prayers and to
pray to be given daily necessities.
Anyone fighting in church shall be excluded from the fellowship of the
parish community.
No one going from house to house to repair metal goods or sell small
goods he is carrying may do this trade outside the town where he lives.
No one may sell ale or beer without a license, because there have been
too many disorders in common alehouses. Offenders may be put in the town
or county gaol for three days.
Only persons with yearly incomes of 1,333s. or owning goods worth
13,333s. may store wine in his house and only for the use of his
household.
No one may sell forged iron, calling it steel, because the edged tools
and weapons made from it are useless.
Parish communities shall repair the highways for four days each year
using oxen, cart, plough, shovels, and spades.
The children of priests are declared legitimate so they may inherit
their ancestor's lands. The priests may be tenants by courtesy after the
death of their wives of such land and tenements that their wives
happened to be seized of in fee simple or in fee tail, during the
spousals.
As of 1541, it was felony to practice witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment,
or conjuration for the purpose 1) of obtaining money, or 2) to consume
any person in his body, members, or goods, or 3) to provoke any person
to unlawful love or lucre of money, or 4) to declare where stolen goods
be, or 5) to despite Christ, or 6) to pull down any cross.
The Year Books of case decisions ceased in 1535.
- Judicial Procedure -
By royal proclamation of 1546, only those admitted by the Chancellor
and two chief justices may practice as counsel or in legal pleading in
any of the King's courts. Also, such a person must be serjeant-at-law,
reader, utter barrister, or an eight-year fellow of one of the four
houses of court, except in the Court of Common Pleas.
Doctors of the civil law may practice in the church or Chancery courts.
Justices shall tax inhabitants of the county for building gaols
throughout the nation, for imprisonment of felons, to be kept by the
sheriffs and repaired out of the Exchequer.
Piracy at sea or in river or creek or port are adjudicated in counties
because of the difficulty of obtaining witnesses from the ship, who
might be murdered or who are on other voyages on the sea, for
adjudication by the admiral.
Piracy and murder on ships is punishable by death only after confession
or proof by disinterested witnesses.
Land held by tenants in common may be partitioned by court order,
because some of these tenants have cut down all the trees to take the
wood and pulled down the houses to convert the material to their own
use.
Persons worth 800s. a year in goods shall be admitted in trials of
felons in corporate towns although they have no freehold of land.
Each justice of the high courts may employ one chaplain.
The Privy Council took the authority of the star chamber court, which
organized itself as a specialty court. Also, a specific group of
full-time councilors heard pleas of private suitors.
The bishops, nobility, and Justices of the Peace were commanded to
imprison clergy who taught papal authority. Justices of the Peace and
sheriffs were to watch over the bishops. The Justices of Assize were to
assess the effectiveness of the Justices of the Peace as well as enforce
the treason statute on circuit.
The criminal court went outside the common law to prosecute political
enemies, e.g. by dispensing with a jury.
Since the nation was now peaceful, expediency was no longer needed, so
judicial procedures again became lengthy and formal with records.
The Chancery court enforced the obligations known as trusts, in the
name of equity and good conscience. It adopted every analogy that the
common law presented. Its procedure was to force the defendant to answer
on oath the charges that were brought against him. All pleadings and
usually testimony was put into writing. Much evidence consisted of
written affidavits. There was no jury. The Chancery court did not record
its decisions apparently because it did not see itself s bound by
precedents.
Witnesses could be sworn in to state pertinent facts necessary for full
understanding and adjudication of cases, because they are reliable now
that there is no unlicensed livery and maintenance and because jurors no
longer necessarily know all the relevant facts.
When acting as the highest court, the House of Lords was presided over
by the Chancellor, who sat on his prescribed place on the wool sacks. It
had the following jurisdiction: trial of peers for high treason and
serious felony, appeals on writs of error from courts of the common law,
and impeachment. The House of Lords served as judge of impeachment
cases, whereas the House of Commons served as fact finders.
The leet court and sheriff's turn court have much less jurisdiction.
They may dispose of presentments of trespasses and nuisances, but not
felony or question of freehold. Such presentments are made by a set of
at least twelve men, and the presented person is amerced there and then.
The humanist intellectual revival caused the church courts to try to
eliminate contradictions with state law, for instance in debt,
restitution, illegitimacy, and the age of legal majority.
- - - Chapter 13 - - -
- The Times: 1558-1601 -
Queen Elizabeth I was intelligent, educated, and wise about human
nature. When young, she was a brilliant student and studied the Bible,
philosophy, literature, oratory, and Greek and Roman history. She wrote
in English, Latin, French, and Italian. She read Greek, including the
Greek Testament, Greek orators, and Greek dramatists, at age seven, when
the first professorship of Greek was founded at Cambridge University.
Learning from books was one of her highest values throughout her life.
She read so much and was so influenced by Cicero that she acquired his
style of writing. Her Chief Secretary William Cecil was so guided by
Cicero's "Offices" that he carried a copy in his pocket. Cicero opined
that government officials had a duty to make the safety and interest of
citizens its greatest aim and to influence all their thoughts and
endeavors without ever considering personal advantage. Government was
not to serve the interest of any one group to the prejudice or neglect
of the rest, for then discord and sedition would occur. Furthermore, a
ruler should try to become loved and not feared, because men hated those
whom they feared, and wished themdead. Therefore obedience proceeding
from fear could not last, whereas that which was the effect of love
would last forever. An oppressor ruling by terror would be resented by
the citizens, who in secret would choose a worthier person. Then
liberty, having been chained up, would be unleashed more fiercely than
otherwise. To obtain the peoples' love, a ruler should be kind and
bountiful. To obtain the peoples' trust, a ruler should be just, wise,
and faithful. To demonstrate this, a ruler should be eloquent in showing
the people an understanding better than theirs, the wisdom to anticipate
events, and the ability to deal with adverse events. And this
demonstration should be done with modesty. One cannot get the peoples'
trust by vain shows, hypocritical pretenses, composed countenances, and
studied forms of words. The first goal of a ruler is to take care that
each individual is secured in the quiet enjoyment of his own property.
The second goal is to impose taxes that are not burdensome. The third
goal is to furnish the people with necessaries. The law should be
enforced keeping in mind that its fundamental purpose is to keep up
agreement and union among citizens.
Elizabeth cared deeply for the welfare of all citizens of whatever
class. She was sensitive to public opinion and was loved by her people.
She respected truth and was sincere, avoiding guile or fraud. She
claimed that she had never dishonored her tongue with a falsehood to
anyone. She expected that any covert manipulations by monarchs would be
found out and therefore would damage their credibility. "It becometh
therefor all of our rank to deal sincerely; lest if we use it not, when
we do it we be hardly believed."
She was frugal and diplomatically avoided unnecessary wars, saying that
her purse was the pockets of her people. Her credit reputation was so
good that she could always get loans at small rates of interest from
other countries. England was a small Protestant nation threatened by the
larger Catholic nations of France and Spain. When Elizabeth flirted and
talked of marriage with foreign princes, they laid aside any thoughts of
conquering England by war, hoping to obtain it my marriage. Not only did
she not seek to conquer other lands, but she turned down an invitation
to rule the Netherlands.
Elizabeth prayed for divine guidance as in this prayer: "Almighty God
and King of all kings, Lord of heaven and earth, by whose leave earthly
princes rule over mortals, when the most prudent of kings who
administered a kingdom, Solomon, frankly confessed that he was not
capable enough unless Thou broughtst him power and help, how much less
am I, Thy handmaid, in my unwarlike sex and feminine nature, adequate to
administer these Thy kingdoms of England and of Ireland, and to govern
an innumerable and warlike people, or able to bear the immense magnitude
of such a burden, if Thou, most merciful Father didst not provide for me
(undeserving of a kingdom) freely and against the opinion of many men.
Instruct me from heaven, and give help so that I reign by Thy grace,
without which even the wisest among the sons of men can think nothing
rightly. Send therefore, O inexhaustible Fount of all wisdom, from Thy
holy heaven and the most high throne of Thy majesty, Thy wisdom to be
ever with me, that it may keep watch with me in governing the
commonwealth, and that it may take pains, that it may teach me, Thy
handmaid, and may train me that I may be able to distinguish between
good and evil, equity and iniquity, so as rightly to judge Thy people,
justly to impose deserved punishments on those who do harm, mercifully
to protect the innocent, freely to encourage those who are industrious
and useful to the commonwealth. And besides, that I may know what is
acceptable to Thee alone, vouchsafe that I wish, dare, and can perform
it without paying respect to any earthly persons or things. So that when
Thou Thyself, the just Judge, who askest many and great things from
those to whom many and great things are entrusted, when Thou requirest
an exact accounting, charge me not with badly administering my
commonwealth and kingdom. But if by human thoughtlessness or infirmity
Thy handmaid strays from the right in some thing, absolve me of it by
Thy mercy, most high King and most mild Father, for the sake of Thy Son
Jesus Christ; and at the same time grant that after this worldly kingdom
has been exacted of me, I may enjoy with Thee an eternity in Thy
heavenly and unending kingdom, through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son
and the Assessor of Thy kingdom, our Lord and Mediator. To whom with
Thee and with the Holy Spirit, one everlasting King, immortal,
invisible, only-wise God, be all honor and glory forever and ever,
amen."