devices from his own warren [breeding ground], upon the freehold
of any other person, or else forfeit 200s., one half to the owner
of the land and the other half to the suer. No one may take eggs
of any falcon, hawk, or swan out of their nest, whether it is on
his land or any other man's land, on pain of imprisonment for one
year and fine at the King's will, one half to the King, and the
other half to the holder of the land, or owner of the swan. No
man shall bear any English hawk, but shall have a certificate for
any imported hawk, on pain for forfeiture of such. No one shall
drive falcons or hawks from their customary breeding place to
another place to breed or slay any for hurting him, or else
forfeit 200s. after examination by a Justice of the Peace, one
half going to the king and one half to the suer.
Any person without a forest of his own who has a net device with
which to catch deer shall pay 200s. for each month of possession.
Anyone stalking a deer with beasts anywhere not in his own forest
shall forfeit 200s. Anyone taking any heron by device other than a
hawk or long bow shall forfeit 6s.8d. No one shall take a young
heron from its nest or pay 10s. for each such heron. Two justices
may decide such an issue, and one tenth of the fine shall go to
them.
No man shall shoot a crossbow except in defense of his house,
other than a lord or one having 2,667s. of land because their use
had resulted in too many deer being killed. (The longbow was not
forbidden.)
No beasts may be slaughtered or cut up by butchers within the
walls of a town, or pay 12d. for every ox and 8d. for every cow or
other beast, so that people will not be annoyed and distempered by
foul air, which may cause them sickness.
No tanner may be a currier [dressed, dyed, and finished tanned
leather] and no currier may be a tanner. No shoemaker [cordwainer]
may be a currier and no currier may be a shoemaker. No currier
shall curry hides which have not been tanned. No tanner shall sell
other than red leather. No tanner may sell a hide before it is
dried. No tanner may tan sheepskins.
No long bow shall be sold over the price of 3s.4d.
Good wood for making bows may be imported without paying customs.
No grained cloth of the finest making shall be sold for more than
16s., nor any other colored cloth for more than 11s. per yard, or
else forfeit 40s. for every yard so sold. No hat shall be sold for
more than 20d. and no cap shall be sold for more than 2s.8d., or
else forfeit 40s. for each so sold.
Silver may not be sold or used for any use but goldsmithery or
amending of plate to make it good as sterling, so that there will
be enough silver with which to make coinage.
Each feather bed, bolster, or pillow for sale shall be stuffed
with one type of stuffing, that is, dry pulled feathers or with
clean down alone, and with no sealed feathers nor marsh grass, nor
any other corrupt stuffings. Each quilt, mattress, or cushion for
sale shall be stuffed with one type of stuffing, that is, clean
wool, or clean flocks alone, and with no horsehair, marsh grass,
neatshair, deershair, or goatshair, which is wrought in lime fats
and gives off an abominable and contagious odor when heated by a
man's body, on pain of forfeiture of such.
Salmon shall be sold by standard volume butts and barrels. Large
salmon shall be sold without any small fish or broken-bellied
salmon and the small fish shall be packed by themselves only, or
else forfeit 6s.8d. Herring shall be sold at standard volumes. The
herring shall be as good in the middle and in every part of the
package as at the ends of the package, or else forfeit 3s.4d. Eels
shall be sold at standard volumes, and good eels shall not be
mixed with lesser quality eels, or else forfeit 10s. The fish shall
be packed in the manner prescribed or else forfeit 3s.4d. for each
vessel.
Fustians shall always be shorn with the long shear, so that it can
be worn for at least two years. If an iron or anything else used
to dress such injures the cloth so that it wears out after four
months, 20s. shall be forfeited for each default, one half to the
king and the other half to the suer.
Pewter and brass ware for sale shall be of the quality of that of
London and marked by its maker, on pain of forfeiture of such, and
may be sold only at open fairs and markets or in the seller's
home, or else forfeit 200s. If such false ware is sold, its maker
shall forfeit its value, one half to the king and one half to the
searchers. Anyone using false weights of such wares shall forfeit
20s., one half to the king and one half to the suer, or if he
cannot pay this fine, to be put in the stocks until market day and
then be put in the pillory all the market time.
No alien nor denizen [foreigner allowed to reside in the nation
with certain rights and privileges] may carry out of the nation
any raw wool or any woolen cloth which has not been barbed, rowed,
and shorn.
Silk ribbons, laces, and girdles of silk may not be imported,
since they can be made in the nation.
No one shall import wine into the nation, but on English ships, or
else forfeit the wine, one half to the king and one half to the
seizer of the wine.
No one may take out of the nation any [male] horse or any mare
worth more than 6s.8s. or under the age of three years, upon pain
of forfeiture of such. However, a denizen may take a horse for his
own use and not to sell. This is to stop losing horses needed for
defense of the nation and to stop the price of a horse from going
up.
Freemen of London may go to fairs and markets with wares to sell,
despite the London ordinance to the contrary.
Merchants residing in the nation but outside London shall have
free access to foreign markets without exaction taken of more than
133s. sterling by the confederacy of London merchants, which have
increased their fee so much, 400s., that merchants not in the
confederacy have been driven to sell their goods in London for
less than they would get at a foreign market. Exacting more is
punishable by a fine of 400s. and damages to the grieved party of
ten times the excess amount taken.
For the privilege of selling merchandise, a duty of scavage shall
be taken of merchant aliens, but not of denizens. Any town
official who allows disturbing of a person trying to sell his
merchandise because he has not paid scavage, shall pay a fine of
400s.
Coin clipped or diminished shall not be current in payment, but
may be converted at the King's mint into plate or bullion. Anyone
refusing to take coins with only normal wear may be imprisoned by
the mayor, sheriff, bailiff, constable or other chief officer. New
coins, which have a circle or inscription around the outer edge,
will be deemed clipped if this circle or inscription is interfered
with.
The penalty for usury is placement in the pillory, imprisonment
for half a year, and a fine of 400s. (The penalty was later
changed to one half thereof.)
Lawbooks in use at the Inns of Court included "The Books of Magna
Carta with diverse Old Statutes", "Doctor and Student" by St.
Germain, "Grand Abridgment" by Fitzherbert, and "New Natura
Brevium" by Lombard.
- Judicial Procedure -
These changes in the judicial process were made by statute:
The Chancellor, Treasurer, keeper of the King's privy seal, or two
of them, with a bishop selected by them, and a temporal lord of
the King's council selected by them, and the two Chief Justices of
the King's Bench shall constitute the court of the Star Chamber.
It shall have the authority to call before it by writ or by privy
seal anyone accused of "unlawful maintenances, giving of liveries,
signs and tokens, and retainers by indentures, promises, oaths,
writings, or otherwise embraceries of his subjects" and witnesses,
and impose punishment as if convicted under due process of law.
These laws shall now be enforced: If a town does not punish the
murderer of a man murdered in the town, the town shall be
punished. A town shall hold any man who wounds another in peril of
death, until there is perfect knowledge whether the man hurt
should live or die. Upon viewing a dead body, the coroner should
inquire of the killers, their abettors, and anyone present at the
killing and certify these names. In addition, the murderer and
accessories indicted shall be tried at the King's suit within a
year of the murder, which trial will not be delayed until a
private suit is taken. If acquitted at the King's suit, he shall
go back to prison or let out with bail for the remainder of the
year, in which time the slain man's wife or next of kin may sue.
For every inquiry made upon viewing a slain body coroners shall be
paid 13s.4d. out of the goods of the slayer or from a town not
taking a murderer, but letting him escape. If the coroner does not
make inquiry upon viewing a dead body, he shall be fined 100s. to
the King. If a party fails to appear for trial after a justice has
taken bail from him, a record of such shall be sent to the King.
Up to 1600, the Star Chamber heard many cases of forgery, perjury,
riot, maintenance, fraud, libel, and conspiracy. It could mete out
any punishment, except death or any dismemberment. This included
life imprisonment, fines, pillory, whipping, branding, and
mutilation. Henry VII sat on it. If a Justice of the Peace does
not act on any person's complaint, that person may take that
complaint to another Justice of the Peace, and if there is no
remedy then, he may take his complaint to a Justice of Assize, and
if there is not remedy then, he may take his complaint to the King
or the Chancellor. There shall then be inquiry into why the other
justices did not remedy the situation. If it is found that they
were in default in executing the laws, they shall forfeit their
commissions and be punished according to their demerits.
Justices of the Peace shall make inquiry of all offenses in
unlawful retaining, examine all suspects, and certify them to the
King's Bench for trial there or in the King's council, and the
latter might also proceed against suspects on its own initiative
on information given.
Perjury committed by unlawful maintenance, embracing, or
corruption of officers, or in the Chancery, or before the King's
council, shall be punished in the discretion of the Chancellor,
Treasurer, both the Chief Justices, and the clerk of the rolls.
The Star Chamber, Chancellor, King's Bench and King and council
have the power to examine all defendants, by oath or otherwise, to
adjudge them convicted or attainted. They can also be found guilty
by confession, examination, or otherwise. If a defendant denied
doing the acts of which he is convicted, he was subject to an
additional fine to the king and imprisonment. Violations of
statutes may be heard by the Justices of Assize or the Justices of
the Peace, except treason, murder, and other felony.
Actions on the case shall be treated as expeditiously in the
courts of the King's Bench and Common Pleas as actions of trespass
or debt.
Proclamation at four court terms of a levy of a fine shall be a
final end to an issue of land, tenements, or other hereditaments
and the decision shall bind persons and their heirs, whether they
have knowledge or not of the decision, except for women-covert who
were not parties, persons under the age of twenty-one, in prison,
out of the nation, or not of whole mind, who are not parties.
These may sue within five years of losing such condition. Also,
anyone not a party may claim a right, title, claim, or interest in
the said lands, tenements, or other hereditaments at the time of
such fine recorded, within five years after proclamations of the
fine.
A defendant who appeals a decision for the purpose of delaying
execution of such shall pay costs and damages to the plaintiff for
the delay.
No sheriff, undersheriff, or county clerk shall enter any
complaints in their books unless the complaining party is present.
And no more complaints than the complaining party knows about
shall be entered. The penalty is 40s. for each such false
complaint, one half to the king and the other half to the suer
after examination by a Justice of the Peace. This is to prevent
extortion of defendants by false complaints. The justice shall
certify this examination to the King, on pain of a fine of 40s. A
bailiff of a hundred who does not do his duty to summon defendants
shall pay a fine of 40s. for each such default, after examination
by a Justice of the Peace. Sheriffs' records of fines imposed and
bailiffs' records of fines collected may be reviewed by a Justice
of the Peace to examine for deceit.
Any sheriff allowing a prisoner to escape, whether from negligence
or for a bribe, shall be fined, if the prisoner was indicted of
high treason, at least 1,333s. for each escape. However, if the
prisoner was in their keeping because of a suspicion of high
treason, the fine shall be at least 800s.; and if indicted of
murder or petite treason, at least 400s.; and if suspected of
murder or petite treason, 200s.; and if suspected of other
felonies, 100s. Petite treason was that by a wife to her husband
or a man to his lord.
Any person not responding to a summons for jury service shall be
fined 12d. for the first default, and 2s. for the second, and
double for each subsequent default.
A pauper may sue in any court and be assigned a attorney at no
cost to him.
A Justice of the Peace to whom has been reported hunting by
persons disguised with painted faces or visors or otherwise, may
issue a warrant for the sheriff or other county officer to arrest
such persons and bring them before the justice. Such hunting in
disguise or hunting at night or disobeying such warrant is a
felony. This is to stop large mobs of disguised people from
hunting together and then causing riots, robberies, and murders.
Benefit of clergy may be used only once, since this privilege has
made clerics more bold in committing murder, rape, robbery, and
theft. However, there will be no benefit of clergy in the case of
murder of one's immediate lord, master, or sovereign. (This begins
the gradual restriction of benefit of clergy until it disappears.
Also, benefit of clergy was often disregarded in unpeaceful
times.)
For an issue of riot or unlawful assembly, the sheriff shall call
24 jurors, each of lands and tenements at least 20s. of charter
land or freehold or 26s.8d. of copyhold or of both. For each
default of the sheriff, he shall pay 400s. And if the jury
acquits, then the justice, sheriff, and under-sheriff shall
certify the names of any jurors maintained or embraced and their
misdemeanors, or else forfeit 400s. Any person proved to be a
maintainer or embracer shall forfeit 400s. to the king and be
committed to ward.
The principal leaders of any riot or unlawful assembly shall be
imprisoned and fined and be bound to the peace with sureties at a
sum determined by the Justices of the Peace. If the riot is by
forty people or heinous, the Justices of Peace shall certify such
and send the record of conviction to the King.
The King's steward, Treasurer, and comptroller have authority to
question by twelve discreet persons any servant of the king about
making any confederacies, compassings, conspiracies, or
imaginations with any other person to destroy or murder the king
or one of his council or a lord. Trial shall be by twelve men of
the King's household and punishment as by felony in the common
law.
When a land holder enfeoffs his land and tenements to people
unknown to the remainderman in tail, so that he does not know who
to sue, he may sue the receiver of the profits of the land and
tenements for a remedy. And the receivers shall have the same
advantages and defenses as the feoffees or as if they were
tenants. And if any deceased person had the use for himself and
his heirs, then any of his heirs shall have the same advantages
and defenses as if his ancestor had died seised of the land and
tenements. And all recoveries shall be good against all receivers
and their heirs, and the feofees and their heirs, and the co-
feoffees of the receivers and their heirs, as though the receivers
were tenants indeed, or feofees to their use, or their heirs of
the freehold of the land and tenements.
If a person feoffs his land to other persons while retaining the
use thereof for himself, it shall be treated as if he were still
seised of the land. Thus, relief and heriot will still be paid for
land in socage. And debts and executions of judgments may be had
upon the land and tenements.
The penalty for not paying customs is double the value of the
goods.
The town of London shall have jurisdiction over flooding and
unlawful fishing nets in that part of the Thames River that flows
next to it.
The city of London shall have jurisdiction to enforce free passage
of boats on the Thames River in the city, interruption of which
carries a fine of 400s., two-thirds to the king and one third to
the suer.
Jurors impaneled in London shall be of lands, tenements, or goods
and chattels, to the value of 133s. And if the case concerns debt
or damages at least 133s, the jurors shall have lands, tenements,
goods, or chattels, to the value of 333s. This is to curtail the
perjury that has gone on with jurors of little substance,
discretion, and reputation.
A party grieved by a false verdict of any court in London may
appeal to the Hustings Court of London, which hears common pleas
before the mayor and aldermen. Each of the twelve alderman shall
pick from his ward four jurors of the substance of at least
2,000s. to be impaneled. If twenty-four of them find that the
jurors of the petty jury has given an untrue verdict, each such
juror shall pay a fine of at least 400s. and imprisonment not more
than six months without release on bail or surety. However, if it
is found that the verdict was true, then the grand jury may
inquire if any juror was bribed. If so, such juror bribed and the
defendant who bribed him shall each pay ten times the amount of
the bribe to the plaintiff and be imprisoned not more than six
months without release on bail or surety.
Other changes in the judicial process were made by court decision.
For instance, the royal justices decided that only the king could
grant sanctuary for treason and not the church. After this, the
church withdrew the right of sanctuary from second time offenders.
The King's council has practically limited itself to cases in
which the state has an interest, especially the maintenance of
public order. Chancery became an independent court rather than the
arm of the king and his council. In Chancery and the King's Bench,
the intellectual revival brought by humanism inspires novel
procedures to be devised to meet current problems in disputed
titles to land, inheritance, debt, breach of contract, promises to
perform acts or services, deceit, nuisance, defamation, and the
sale of goods.
A new remedy is specific performance, that is, performance of an
act rather than money damages.
Evidence is now taken from witnesses.
Various courts had overlapping jurisdiction. For instance,
trespass could be brought in the Court of Common Pleas because it
was a civil action between two private persons. It could also be
brought in the Court of the King's Bench because it broke the
King's peace. It was advantageous for a party to sue for trespass
in the King's court because there a defendant could be made to pay
a fine to the king or be imprisoned, or declared outlaw if he did
not appear at court.
A wrongful step on the defendant's land, a wrongful touch to his
person or chattels could be held to constitute sufficient force
and an adequate breach of the king's peace to sustain a trespass
action. A new form of action is trespass on the case, which did
not require the element of force or of breach of the peace that
the trespass offense requires. Trespass on the case [or "case" for
short] expands in usage to cover many types of situations.
Stemming from it is "assumpsit", which provided damages for breach
of an oral agreement and a written agreement without a seal.
Parliament's supremacy over all regular courts of law was firmly
established and it was called "the high court of Parliament",
paradoxically, since it came to rarely function as a law court.
The humanist intellectual revival also caused the church courts to
try to eliminate contradictions with state law, for instance in
debt, restitution, illegitimacy, and the age of legal majority.
The Bishop's Court in London had nine offenders a week by 1500.
Half of these cases were for adultery and sexual offenses, and the
rest were for slander, blasphemy, missing church services, and
breach of faith. Punishment was penance by walking barefoot before
the cross in the Sunday Procession dressed in a sheet and holding
a candle.
- - - Chapter 12 - - -
- The Times: 1509-1558 -
Renaissance humanism came into being in the nation. In this
development, scholars in London, Oxford, and Cambridge emphasized
the value of classical learning, especially Platonism and the
study of Greek literature as the means of better understanding and
writing. They studied the original Greek texts and became
disillusioned with the filtered interpretations of the church, for
example of the Bible and Aristotle. There had long been
displeasure with the priests of the church. They were supposed to
preach four times yearly, visit the sick, say the daily liturgies,
and hear confessions at least yearly. But there were many lapses.
Many were not celibate, and some openly lived with a woman and had
children. Complaints about them included not residing within their
parish community, doing other work such as raising crops, and
taking too much in probate, mortuary fees, and marriage fees.
Probate fees had risen from at most 5s. to 60s. in the last
hundred years. Mortuary fees ranged from 1/3 to 1/9 of a deceased
person's goods. Sanctuary was abused. People objected to the right
of arrest by ecclesiastical authorities.
Also, most parish priests did not have a theology degree or even a
Bachelor's degree, as did many laymen. In fact, many laymen were
better educated than the parish priests. No one other than a
laborer was illiterate in the towns.
Humanist grammar [secondary] schools were established in London by
merchants and guilds. In 1510, the founder and dean of St. Paul's
School placed its management in the hands of London "citizens of
established reputation" because he had lost confidence in the good
faith of priests and noblemen. The sons of the nobility,
attorneys, and merchants were starting to go to grammar school now
instead of being taught at home by a tutor. At school, they
mingled with sons of yeomen, farmers, and tradesmen, who were
usually poor. The usual age of entry was six or seven. Classical
Latin and Greek were taught and the literature of the best
classical authors was read. Secondary education teachers were
expected to know Latin and have studied the ancient philosophers,
history, and geography. The method of teaching was for the teacher
to read textbooks to the class from a prepared curriculum. The
students were taught in Latin and expected not to speak English in
school. They learned how to read and to write Latin, to develop
and amplify a theme by logical analysis, and to essay on the same
subject in the narrative, persuasive, argumentative, commending,
consoling, and inciting styles. They had horn books with the
alphabet and perhaps a Biblical verse on them. This was a piece of
wood with a paper on it held down by a sheet of transparent horn.
They also learned arithmetic (solving arithmetical problems and
casting accounts). Disobedience incurred flogging by teacher as
well as by parents. Spare the rod and spoil the child was the
philosophy. Schools now guarded the morals and behavior of
students. There were two week vacations at Christmas and at
Easter. Royal grammar books for English and Latin were proclaimed
by Henry in 1543 to be the only grammar book authorized for
students. In 1545, he proclaimed a certain primer of prayers in
English to be the only one to be used by students.