The Times: 1100-1154
King Henry I, son of William of Normandy, 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. Private wars were now
replaced by 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.
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.
Queen Matilda served as regent in Henry's absence. She was
literate and a literary patron. Her compassion was great and her
charities extensive. She founded a care-giving hospital and 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.
"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.
[1.] Know that by the mercy of God and by the common counsel of
the barons of the whole kingdom of England I have been crowned
king of this realm. And because the kingdom has been oppressed
by unjust exactions, I now, being moved by reverence towards God
and by the love I bear you all, make free the Church of God; so
that I will neither sell nor lease its property; nor on the death
of an archbishop or a bishop or an abbot will I take anything
from the demesne of the Church or from its vassals during the
period which elapses before a successor is installed. I abolish
all the evil customs by which the kingdom of England has been
unjustly oppressed. Some of those evil customs are here set
forth.
[2.] If any of my barons or of my earls or of any other of my
tenants shall die his heir shall not redeem his land as he was
wont to do in the time of my brother [William II (Rufus)], but
he shall henceforth redeem it by means of a just and lawful
'relief`. Similarly the men of my barons shall redeem their
lands from their lords by means of a just and lawful 'relief`.
[3.] If any of my barons or of my tenants shall wish to give in
marriage his daughter or his sister or his niece or his cousin,
he shall consult me about the matter; but I will neither seek
payment for my consent, nor will I refuse my permission, unless
he wishes to give her in marriage to one of my enemies. And if,
on the death of one of my barons or of one of my tenants, a
daughter should be his heir, I will dispose of her in marriage
and of her lands according to the counsel given me by my barons.
And if the wife of one of my tenants shall survive her husband
and be without children, she shall have her dower and her
marriage portion [that given to her by her father], and I will
not give her in marriage unless she herself consents.
[4.] If a widow survives with children under age, she shall have
her dower and her marriage portion, so long as she keeps her
body chaste; and I will not give her in marriage except with her
consent. And the guardian of the land, and of the children,
shall be either the widow or another of their relations, as may
seem more proper. And I order that my barons shall act likewise
towards the sons and daughters and widows of their men.
[5.] I utterly forbid that the common mintage [a forced levy to
prevent loss to the King from depreciation of the coinage],
which has been taken from the towns and shires, shall henceforth
be levied, since it was not so levied in the time of King Edward
[the Confessor, before the Norman conquest]. If any moneyer or
other person be taken with false money in his possession, let
true justice be visited upon him.
[6.] I forgive all pleas and all debts which were owing to my
brother [William II], except my own proper dues, and except
those things which were agreed to belong to the inheritance of
others, or to concern the property which justly belonged to
others. And if anyone had promised anything for his heritage, I
remit it, and I also remit all 'reliefs` which were promised for
direct inheritance.
[7.] If any of my barons or of my men, being ill, shall give away
or bequeath his movable property, I will allow that it shall be
bestowed according to this desires. But if, prevented either by
violence or through sickness, he shall die intestate as far as
concerns his movable property, his widow or his children, or his
relatives or one his true men shall make such division for the
sake of his soul, as may seem best to them.
[8.] If any of my barons or of my men shall incur a forfeit, he
shall not be compelled to pledge his movable property to an
unlimited amount, as was done in the time of my father [William
I] and my brother; but he shall only make payment according to
the extent of his legal forfeiture, as was done before the time
of my father and in the time of my earlier predecessors.
Nevertheless, if he be convicted of breach of faith or of crime,
he shall suffer such penalty as is just.
[9.] I remit all murder-fines which were incurred before the day
on which I was crowned King; and such murder-fines as shall now
be incurred shall be paid justly according to the law of King
Edward [by sureties].
[10.] By the common counsel of my barons I have retained the
forests in my own hands as my father did before me.
[11.] The knights, who in return for their estates perform
military service equipped with a hauberk [long coat] of mail,
shall hold their demesne lands quit of all gelds [money
payments] and all work; I make this concession as my own free
gift in order that, being thus relieved of so great a burden,
they may furnish themselves so well with horses and arms that
they may be properly equipped to discharge my service and to
defend my kingdom.
[12.] I establish a firm peace in all my kingdom, and I order
that this peace shall henceforth be kept.
[13.] I restore to you the law of King Edward together with such
emendations to it as my father [William I] made with the counsel
of his barons.
[14.] If since the death of my brother, King William [II], anyone
shall have seized any of my property, or the property of any
other man, let him speedily return the whole of it. If he does
this no penalty will be exacted, but if he retains any part of
it he shall, when discovered, pay a heavy penalty to me.
Witness: Maurice, bishop of London; William, bishop-elect of
Winchester; Gerard, bishop of Herefore; Henry the earl; Simon the
earl; Walter Giffard; Robert of Montfort-sur-Risle; Roger Bigot;
Eudo the steward; Robert, son of Haimo; and Robert Malet.
At London when I was crowned. Farewell."
Henry took these promises seriously, which resulted in peace and
justice. Royal justice became a force to be reckoned with by the
multiplication of justices. Henry had a great respect for
legality and the forms of judicial action. He became known as
the "Lion of Justice".
The center of government was a collection of tenants-in-chief
whose feudal duty included attendance when summoned and certain
selected household servants of the King. When it met for
financial purposes, Henry called it the Exchequer and it became
a separate body. It 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 payments in
kind, such as grain or manual services, from the royal demesnes
had been turned into money payments. This income from royal
estates was also received by the Exchequer and then commingled
with the other funds. Each payment was indicated by notches on a
stick, which was then split so that the payer and the receiver
each had a half showing the notches. The Chancellor managed the
domestic matters of the Crown's castles and lands. Henry brought
sheriffs under his strict control, free from influence by the
barons.
A woman could inherit a fief if she married. The primary way for
a man to acquire land was to marry an heiress. If a man were in
a lower station than she was, he had to pay for his new social
status as well as have royal permission. A man could also be
awarded land which had escheated to the King. If a noble woman
wanted to hold land in her own right, she had to make a payment
to the King. Many widows bought their freedom from guardianship
or remarriage from the King. Women whose husbands were at war
also ran the land of their husbands.
Barons were lords of large holdings of farmland called "manors".
Many of the lesser barons left their dark castles to live in
semi-fortified stone houses, which usually were of two rooms
with rug hangings for drafts, as well as the sparse furniture
that had been common to the castle. There were shuttered windows
to allow in light, but which also let in the wind and rain when
open. The roof was of thatch or narrow overlapping wood
shingles. The floor was strewn with hay and there was a hearth
near the center of the floor, with a louvered smoke hole in the
timber roof for escape of smoke. There were barns for grain and
animals. Beyond this area was a garden, orchard, and sometimes a
vineyard. The area was circumscribed by a moat over which there
was a drawbridge to a gatehouse.
The smaller room was the lord and lady's bedroom. It had a
canopied bed, chests for clothing, and wood frames on which
clothes could be hung. Life on the manor revolved around the
larger room, or hall, where the public life of the household was
passed. There, meals were served. The daily diet typically
consisted of milk, soup, porridge, fish, vegetables, and bread.
Open hospitality accompanied this communal living. There was
little privacy. Manor household villeins carried the lord's
sheaves of grain to the manor barn, shore his sheep, malted his
grain, and chopped wood for his fire. At night some slept on the
floor of the hall and others, cottars and bordars, had there
own dwellings nearby.
Games with dice were sometimes played. In winter, youths
ice-skated with bones fastened to their shoes. They propelled
themselves by striking the ice with staves shod with iron. On
summer holydays, they exercised in leaping, shooting with the
bow, wrestling, throwing stones, and darting a thrown spear. The
maidens danced with timbrels. Since at least 1133, children's
toys included dolls, drums, hobby horses, pop guns, trumpets,
and kites.
The cold, indoors as well as outdoors, necessitated that people
wear ample and warm garments. Men and women of position dressed
in long full cloaks reaching to their feet, sometimes having
short full sleeves. The cloak generally had a hood and was
fastened at the neck with a brooch. Underneath the cloak was a
simple gown with sleeves tight at the wrist but full at the
arm-hole, as if cut from the same piece of cloth. A girdle or
belt was worn at the waist. When the men were hunting or
working, they wore gown and cloak of knee length. Humble folk
also wore knee-length garments, with a band about the waist.
There was woodland, common pasture land, arable land, meadow
land, and wasteland on the manor. The arable land was allotted
to the villeins in strips to equalize the best and worst land
and their distance from the village where the villeins lived.
There was three-way rotation of wheat or rye, oats or barley, and
fallow land. Cows, pigs, sheep, and fowl were kept. The meadow
was allocated for hay for the lord's household and each
villein's. The villeins held land of their lord for various
services such as agricultural labor or raising domestic animals.
The villeins, who worked the farm land as their ancestor ceorls
had, now were so bound to the land that they could not leave or
marry or sell an ox without their lord's consent. If the manor
was sold, the villein was sold as a part of the manor. The
villeins worked about half of their time on their lord's fields
[his demesne land], which was about a third of the farmland. This
work was primarily to gather the harvest and to plough with
oxen, using a yoke over their shoulders, and to sow in autumn
and Lent. They threshed grain on barn floors with flails cut
from holly or thorn, and removed the kernels from the shafts by
hand. Work lasted from sunrise to sunset and included women and
children. Life expectancy was probably below thirty-five.
The villeins of a manor elected a reeve to communicate their
interests to their lord, usually through a bailiff, who directed
the labor. Sometimes there was a steward in charge of several of
a lord's manors, who also held the manorial court for the lord.
The steward held his land of the lord by serjeanty, which was a
specific service to the lord. Other serjeanty services were
helping in the lord's hunting expeditions and looking after his
hounds. The Woodward preserved the timber. The Messer supervised
the harvesting. The Hayward removed any fences from the fields
after harvest to allow grazing by cattle and sheep. The Coward,
Bullard, and Calvert tended the cows, bulls, and calves; the
Shepherd, the sheep; and the Swineherds the pigs. The Ponder
impounded stray stock.
The majority of manors were co-extensive with a single village.
The villeins lived in the village in one-room huts enclosed by a
wood fence, hedge, or stone wall. In this yard was a garden of
onions, leeks, mustard, peas, beans, parsley, garlic, herbs, and
cabbage and apple, pear, cherry, quince, and plum trees, and
bee-hives. The hut had a high-pitched roof thatched with reeds or
straw and low eaves reaching almost to the ground. The walls are
built of wood-framing overlaid with mud or plaster. Narrow slits
in the walls serve as windows, which have shutters and are
sometimes covered with coarse cloth. The floor is dirt and may
be covered with straw or rushes for warmth, but usually no
hearth. At one end of the hut was the family living area, where
the family ate on a collapsible trestle table with stools or
benches and used drinking horns and wooden bowls and spoons,
along with jars and other earthenware. Their usual food was beans
and peas, and some bacon, butter, cheese, and vegetables, rough
bread made from a mixture of wheat, barley, and rye flour,
honey, and herrings or other salt fish. They drank water, milk,
buttermilk, apple cider, mead, ale made from barley malt, and
bean and vegetable broth. Cooking was done over a fire with iron
tripod, pots, and kettle. Most of the food was boiled. They slept
on straw mattresses or sacks on the floor or on benches. The
villein regarded his bed area as the safest place in the house,
as did people of all ranks, and kept his treasures there, which
included his farm implements, as well as hens on the beams,
roaming pigs, and perhaps stalled oxen. Around the room are a
couple of chests to store salt, meal, flour, a broom made of
birch trigs, some woven baskets, the distaff and spindle for
spinning, and a simple loom for weaving. All clothes were
homemade. They were often coarse, greasy wool and leather made
from their own animals. The man wore a tunic of coarse linen
embroidered on the sleeves and breast, around with he wore a
girdle of rope, leather, or folded cloth. Sometimes he also wore
breeches reaching below the knee. The woman wore a loose
short-sleeved gown, under which was a tight fitting garment with
long loose sleeves. If they wore shoes, they were clumsy and
patched. Some wore a hood-like cap. At the other end of the hut
were the horses, cattle, pigs, and poultry. In the middle is a
wood fire burning on a hearthstone. The smoke rises through a
hole in the roof.
The villein and his wife and children worked from daybreak to
dusk in the fields, except for Sundays and holydays. He had
certain land to farm for his own family, but had to have his
grain milled at his lord's mill at the lord's price. He had to
retrieve his wandering cattle from his lord's pound at the lord's
price. He was expected to give a certain portion of his own
produce, whether grain or livestock, to his lord. However, if he
fell short, he was not put off his land. When his daughter or
son married, he had to pay a "merchet" to his lord. He could not
have a son educated without the lord's permission, and this
usually involved a fee to the lord. His best beast at his death,
or "heriot", went to his lord. If he wanted permission to live
outside the manor, he paid "chevage" yearly. Woodpenny was a
yearly payment for gathering dead wood. Sometimes a "tallage"
payment was taken at the lord's will. The villein's oldest son
usually took his place on his land and followed the same customs
with respect to the lord. For an heir to take his dead
ancestor's land, the lord demanded payment of a "relief", which
was usually the amount of a year's income but sometimes as much
as the heir was willing to pay to have the land. The usual aids
were also expected to be paid.
A large village also had a smith, a wheelwright, a millwright, a
tiler and thatcher, a shoemaker and tanner, a carpenter
wainwright and carter.
Markets were about twenty miles apart because a farmer from the
outlying area could then carry his produce to the nearest town
and walk back again in the daylight hours of one day. In this
local market he could buy foodstuffs, livestock, household
goods, fuels, skins, and certain varieties of cloth.
The cloth was crafted by local weavers, dyers, and fullers, who
made the cloth full and dense by washing, soaping, beating, and
agitating it. Then its surface could be raised with teazle-heads
and cropped or sheared to make a nap. Some cloth was sold to
tailors to make into clothes. Butchers bought, slaughtered, and
cut up animals to sell as meat. Some was sold to cooks, who sold
prepared foods. The hide was bought by the tanner to make into
leather. The leather was sold to shoemakers and glovemakers.
Millers bought harvested grain to make into flour. Flour was
sold to bakers to make into breads. Wood was bought by
carpenters and by coopers, who made barrels, buckets, tubs, and
pails. Tilers, oil-makers and rope-makers also bought raw
material to make into finished goods for sale. Wheelwrights made
ploughs, harrows, carts, and later waggons. Smiths and
locksmiths worked over their hot fires.
The nation grew with the increase of population, the development
of towns, and the growing mechanization of craft industries.
There were watermills for crafts in all parts of the nation.
There were also some iron furnaces.
Stone bridges over rivers could accommodate one person traveling
by foot or by horseback and were steep and narrow.
Merchants, who had come from the low end of the knightly class or
high end of the villein class, settled around the open market
areas, where main roads joined. They had plots narrow in
frontage along the road and deep. Their shops faced the road,
with living space behind or above their stores. Town buildings
were typically part stone and part timber as a compromise between
fire precautions and expense.
Towns, as distinct from villages, had permanent markets. As towns
grew, they paid a fee to obtain a charter for self-government
from the King giving the town judicial and commercial freedom.
These various rights were typically expanded in future times.
Such a town was called a "borough" and its citizens or
landholding freemen "burgesses". They were literate enough to do
accounts. Selling wholesale could take place only in a borough.
The King assessed a tallage [ad hoc tax] usually at ten per cent
of property or income. Henry standardized the yard as the length
of his own arm.
London had at least twenty wards, each governed by its own
alderman. Most of them were named after people. London was ruled
by sixteen families linked by business and marriage ties. These
businesses supplied luxury goods to the rich and included the
goldsmiths [sold cups, dishes, girdles, mirrors, purses knives,
and metal wine containers with handle and spout], vintners [wine
merchants], mercers [sold textiles, haberdashery, combs,
mirrors, knives, toys, spices, ointments, and drugs], drapers,
and pepperers, which later merged with the spicerers to become
the "grocers". These businesses had in common four fears: royal
interference, foreign competition, displacement by new crafts,
and violence by the poor and escaped villeins who found their
way to the city.
London in Middlesex county received this charter for
self-government and freedom from the financial and judicial
organization of the shire:
"Henry, by the grace of God, King of England, to the Archbishop
of Canterbury and the bishops, abbots, earls, barons,
justiciars, sheriffs and all his loyal subjects, both French and
English, throughout the whole of England - greeting.
1. Be it known to you that I have granted Middlesex to my
citizens of London to be held on lease by them and their heirs
of me and my heirs for 300 pounds paid by tale [yearly], upon
these terms: that the citizens themselves [may] appoint a
sheriff, such as they desire, from among themselves, and a
justiciar, such as they desire, from among themselves, to
safeguard the pleas of my Crown [criminal cases] and to conduct
such pleas. And there shall be no other justiciar over the men
of London.
2. And the citizens shall not take part in any [civil] case
whatsoever outside the City walls.
1) And they shall be exempt from the payment of scot and
danegeld and the murder fine.
2) And none of them shall take part in trial by combat.
3) And if any of the citizens has become involved in a plea
of the Crown, he shall clear himself, as a citizen of London, by
an oath which has been decreed in the city.
4) And no one shall be billeted [lodged in a person's house
by order of the King] within the walls of the city nor shall
hospitality be forcibly exacted for anyone belonging to my
household or to any other.
5) And all the citizens of London and all their effects
[goods] shall be exempt and free, both throughout England and in
the seaports, from toll and fees for transit and market fees and
all other dues.
6) And the churches and barons and citizens shall have and
hold in peace and security their rights of jurisdiction [in
civil and criminal matters] along with all their dues, in such a
way that lessees who occupy property in districts under private
jurisdiction shall pay dues to no one except the man to whom the
jurisdiction belongs, or to the official whom he has placed
there.
7) And a citizen of London shall not be amerced [fined by a
court when the penalty for an offense is not designated by
statute] to forfeiture of a sum greater than his wergeld,
[hereby assessed as] 100 shillings, in a case involving money.
8) And further there shall be no miskenning [false plea
causing a person to be summoned to court] in a husting or in a
folkmoot [meeting of the community], or in any other court
within the City.
9) And the Hustings [court] shall sit once a week on Monday.
10) And I assure to my citizens their lands and the property
mortgaged to them and the debts due to them both within the City
and without.
11) And with regard to lands about which they have plead in
suit before me, I shall maintain justice on their behalf,
according to the law of the City.
12) And if anyone has exacted toll or tax from citizens of
London, the citizens of London within the city shall [have the
right to] seize [by process of law] from the town or village
where the toll or tax was exacted a sum equivalent to that which
the citizen of London gave as toll and hence sustained as loss.
13) And all those who owe debts to citizens shall pay them or
shall clear themselves in London from the charge of being in
debt to them.
14) But if they have refused to pay or to come to clear
themselves, then the citizens to whom they are in debt shall
[have the right to] seize [by process of law] their goods
[including those in the hands of a third party, and bring them]
into the city from the [town, village or] county in which the
debtor lives [as pledges to compel appearance in court].
15) And the citizens shall enjoy as good and full hunting
rights as their ancestors ever did, namely, in the Chilterns, in
Middlesex, and in Surrey.
Witnessed at Westminster."
The above right not to take part in any case outside the city
relieved London citizens from the burden of traveling to
wherever the King's court happened to be, the disadvantage of
not knowing local customs, and the difficulty of speaking in the
language of the King's court rather than in English. The right
of redress for tolls exacted was new because the state of the law
was that the property of the inhabitants was liable to the King
or superior lord for the common debt.
Craft guilds grew up in the towns, such as the tanners at Oxford,
which later merged with the shoemakers into a cordwainers'
guild. There were weavers' guilds in several towns given royal
sanction. They paid an annual tribute and were given a monopoly
of weaving cloth within a radius of several miles. Guild rules
covered attendance of the members at church services, the
promotion of pilgrimages, celebration of masses for the dead,
common meals, relief of poor brethren and sisters, the hours of
labor, the process of manufacture, the wages of workmen, and
technical education.
Newcastle-on-Tyne was recognized by the King as having certain
customs, so the following was not called a grant:
"These are the laws and customs which the burgesses of Newcastle
upon Tyne had in the time of Henry King of England and ought to
have.
[1] Burgesses can distrain [take property of another until the
other performs his obligation] upon foreigners within, or
without their own market, within or without their own houses,
and within or without their own borough without the leave of the
reeve, unless the county court is being held in the borough, and
unless [the foreigners are] on military service or guarding the
castle.
[2] A burgess cannot distrain upon a burgess without the leave of
the reeve.
[3] If a burgess have lent anything of his to a foreigner, let
the debtor restore it in the borough if he admits the debt, if
he denies it, let him justify himself in the borough.
[4] Pleas which arise in the borough shall be held and concluded
there, except pleas of the Crown.
[5] If any burgess be appealed [sued] of any plaint, he shall not
plead without the borough, unless for default of [the borough]
court.
[6] Nor ought he to answer without day and term, unless he have
fallen into 'miskenning'[error in pleading], except in matters
which pertain to the Crown.
[7] If a ship have put in at Tynemouth and wishes to depart, the
burgesses may buy what they will [from it].
[8] If a plea arise between a burgess and a merchant, it shall be
concluded before the third ebb of the tide.
[9] Whatever merchandise a ship has brought by sea must be
landed, except salt; and herring ought to be sold in the ship.
[10] If any man have held land in burgage for a year and a day,
lawfully and without claim, he shall not answer a claimant,
unless the claimant have been without the realm of England, or a
child not of age to plead.
[11] If a burgess have a son, he shall be included in his
father's freedom if he be with his father.
[12] If a villein come to dwell in the borough, and dwell there a
year and a day as a burgess, he shall abide altogether, unless
notice has been given by him or by his master that he is
dwelling for a term.
[13] If any man appeal [sue] a burgess of any thing, he cannot do
battle with the burgess, but the burgess shall defend himself by
his law, unless it be of treason, whereof he is bound to defend
himself by battle.
[14] Neither can a burgess do battle against a foreigner, unless
he first go out of the borough.
[15] No merchant, unless he be a burgess, may buy [outside] the
town either wool or leather or other merchandise, nor within the
borough except [from] burgesses.
[16] If a burgess incur forfeit, he shall give six ounces [10s.]
to the reeve.
[17] In the borough there is no merchet [payment for marrying off
a daughter] nor heriot nor bloodwite [fine for drawing blood]
nor stengesdint [fine for striking with a stick].
[18] Every burgess may have his own oven and hand-mill if he
will, saving the right of the King's oven.
[19] If a woman be in forfeit for bread or beer, no one ought to
interfere but the reeve. If she forfeit twice, she shall be
chastised by her forfeit. If three times, let justice be done on
her.
[20] No one but a burgess may buy webs [woven fabrics just taken
off the loom] to dye, nor make nor cut them.
[21] A burgess may give and sell his land and go whither he will
freely and quietly unless there be a claim against him."
In the boroughs, merchant and manufacturing guilds controlled
prices and assured quality. The head officer of the guild
usually controlled the borough, which excluded rival merchant
guilds. A man might belong to more than one guild, e.g. one for
his trade and another for religion.
Trades and crafts, each of which had to be licensed, grouped
together by specialty in the town. Cloth-makers, dyers, tanners,
and fullers were near an accessible supply of running water,
upon which their trade depended. Streets were often named by the
trade located there, such as Butcher Row, Pot Row, Cordwainer
Row, Ironmonger Row, Wheeler Row, and Fish Row. Hirers of labor
and sellers of wheat, hay, livestock, dairy products, apples and
wine, meat, poultry, fish and pies, timber and cloth all had a
distinct location. Some young men were apprenticed to craftsmen
to assist them and learn their craft.
The nation produced sufficient iron, but a primitive steel [iron
with carbon added] was imported. Steel was used for tools,
instruments, weapons and armor. Ships could carry about 300
people.
Plays about miracles wrought by holy men or the sufferings and
fortitude of martyrs were performed. Most nobles could read,
though writing was still a specialized craft. There were books
on animals, plants, and stones. The lives of the saints as told
in the book "The Golden Legend" were popular. The story of the
early King Arthur was told in the book "The History of the Kings
of England". The story at this time stressed Arthur as a hero
and went as follows: Arthur became King at age 15. He had an
inborn goodness and generosity as well as courage. He and his
knights won battles against foreign settlers and neighboring
clans. Once, he and his men surrounded a camp of foreigners until
they gave up their gold and silver rather than starve. Arthur
married Guenevere and established a court and retinue. Leaving
Britain in the charge of his nephew Modred, he fought battles on
the continent for land to give to his noblemen who did him
service in his household and fought with him. When Arthur
returned to Britain, he made battle with his nephew Modred who
had crowned himself King. Arthur's knight Gawain, the son of his
sister, and the enemy Modred were killed and Arthur was severely
wounded. Arthur told his kinsman Constantine to rule Britain as
King in his place.
The intellectual world included art, secular literature, law, and
medicine. There were about 90 physicians.
Forests were still retained by Kings for their hunting of boars
and stags. The bounds of the Forest were enlarged. They
comprised almost one-third of the kingdom.
Barons and their tenants and sub-tenants were offered an
alternative of paying shield money ["scutage"] of 26s.8d. per
fee in commutation for and instead of military service for their
fiefs. This enabled Henry to hire soldiers who would be more
directly under his own control and to organize a more efficient
army.
A substantial number of barons and monasteries were heavily in
debt to the Jews. The King taxed the Jews at will.
During rivalry for the throne after Henry I's reign, the bishops
gained some independence from the Crown and strengthened their
ties with the Pope.
The Law
Henry restored the death penalty for thievery and robbery, but
maintained William I's punishment of the mutilation of blinding
and severing of limbs for other offenses.
The forest law stated that: "he that doth hunt a wild beast and
doth make him pant, shall pay 10 shillings: If he be a free man,
then he shall pay double. If he be a bound man, he shall lose
his skin." A "verderer" was responsible for enforcing this law,
which also stated that: "If anyone does offer force to a
Verderer, if he be a freeman, he shall lose his freedom, and all
that he hath. And if he be a villein, he shall lose his right
hand." Further, "If such an offender does offend so again, he
shall lose his life."
A wife's dower is one-third of all her husband's freehold land,
unless his endowment of her at their marriage was less than
one-third.
Counterfeiting law required that "If any one be caught carrying
false coin, the reeve shall give the bad money to the King
however much there is, and it shall be charged in the render of
his farm [payment] as good, and the body of the offender shall
be handed over to the King for judgment, and the serjeants who
took him shall have his clothes."
Debts to townsmen were recoverable by this law: "If a burgess has
a gage [a valuable object held as security for carrying out an
agreement] for money lent and holds this for a whole year and a
day, and the debtor will not deny the debt or deliver the gage,
and this is proved, the burgess may sell the gage before good
witnesses for as much as he can, and deduct his money from the
sum. If any money is over he shall return it to the debtor. But
if there is not enough to pay him, he shall take distress again
for the amount that is lacking."
Past due rent in a borough was punishable by payment of 10s. as
fine."
There are legal maxims which are becoming so well established and
known that there will never be a need to write them down as
statutes. As delineated by St. Germain in "Doctor and Student"
in 1518, they are:
1. If a man steals goods to the value of 12d., or above, it is
felony, and he shall die for it. If it is under the value of
12d., then it is but petit larceny, and he shall not die for it,
but shall be punished at the discretion of the judges. This not
apply to goods taken from the person, which is robbery, a felony
punishable by death.
2. If an exigent, in case of felony, is awarded against a man, he
has thereby forthwith forfeited his goods to the King.
3. If the son is attainted [convicted of treason or felony with
the death penalty and forfeiture of all lands and goods] in the
life of the father, and after he purchases his charter of pardon
of the King, and after the father dies; in this case the land
shall escheat to the lord of the fee, insomuch that though he
has a younger brother, yet the land shall not descend to him: for
by the attainder of the elder brother the blood is corrupt, and
the father-in-law died without heir.
4. A man declared outlaw forfeits his profits from land and his
goods to the King.
5. He who is arraigned upon an indictment of felony shall be
admitted, in favor of life, to challenge the number of inquirers
for three whole inquests peremptorily. With cause, he may
challenge as many as he has cause to challenge. Such peremptory
challenge shall not be admitted in a private suit because it is
a suit of the party.
6. An accessory shall not be put to answer before the principal.
7. If a man commands another to commit a trespass, and he does
it, the one who made the command is a trespasser.
8. The land of every man is in the law enclosed from other,
though it lies in the open field and a trespasser in it may be
brought to court.
9. Every man is bound to make recompense for such hurt as his
beasts do in the growing grain or grass of his neighbor, though
he didn't know that they were there.
10. He who has possession of land, though it is by disseisin, has
right against all men but against him who has right.
11. The rents, commons of pasture, of turbary [digging turf],
reversions, remainders, nor such other things which lie not in
manual occupation, may not be given or granted to another
without writing.
12. If a villein purchase lands, and the lord enter, he shall
enjoy the land as his own. But if the villein alienates before
the lord enters, he alienation is good. And the same law is of
goods.
13. Escuage [shield service for 40 days] uncertain makes knight's
service. Escuage certain makes socage.
14. He who holds by castle-guard, holds by knight's service, but
he does not hold by escuage. He that holds by 20s. to the guard
of a castle holds by socage.
15. A descent takes away an entry.
16. No prescription [assertion of a right or title to the
enjoyment of a thing, on the ground of having had the
uninterrupted and immemorial enjoyment of it] in lands makes a
right.
17. A prescription of rent and profits out of land makes a right.
18. The limitation of a prescription generally taken is from the
time that no man's mind runs to the contrary.
19. Assigns may be made upon lands given in fee, for term of
life, or for term of years, though no mention be made of
assigns; and the same law is of a rent that is granted; but
otherwise it is of a warranty, and of a covenant.
20. He who recovers debt or damages in the King's court when the
person charged is not in custody, may within a year after the
judgment take the body of the defendant, and commit him to
prison until he has paid the debt and damages.
21. If a release or confirmation is made to him who, at the time
of the release made, had nothing in the land, the release or
confirmation is void, except in certain cases, such as to vouch.
22. A condition to avoid a freehold cannot be pleaded without a
deed; but to avoid a gift of chattel, it may be pleaded without
deed.
23. A release or confirmation made by him, that at the time of
the release or confirmation made had no right, is void in law,
though a right comes to him after; except if it is with
warranty, and then it shall bar him to all right that he shall
have after the warranty is made.
24. If land and rent that is going out of the same land, comes
into one man's hand of like estate, and like surety of title,
the rent is extinct.
25. If land descends to him who has right to the same land
before, he shall be remitted to his better title, if he will.
26. If two titles are concurrent together, the oldest title shall
be preferred.
27. If a real action be sued against any man who has nothing in
the thing demanded, the writ shall abate at the common law.
28. If the demandant or plaintiff, hanging his writ, will enter
into the thing demanded, his writ shall abate.
29. By the alienation of the tenant, hanging the writ, or his
entry into religion, or if he is made a knight, or she is a
woman, and takes a husband hanging the writ, the writ shall not
abate.
30. A right or title of action that only depends in action,
cannot be given or granted to none other but only to the tenant
of the ground, or to him who has the reversion or remainder of
the same land.
31. In an action of debt upon an agreement, the defendant may
wage his law: but otherwise it is upon a lease of lands for term
of years, or at will.
32. The King may disseise no man and no man may disseise the
King, nor pull any reversion or remainder out of him.
33. The King's excellency is so high in the law, that no freehold
may be given to the King, nor be derived from him, but by matter
of record.
34. If an abbot or prior, an abbot's chief assistant, alienate
the lands of his house, and dies, though his successor has right
to the lands, yet he may not enter, but he must take legal
action.
35. If an abbot buys a thing that comes to the use of the house,
and dies, then his successor shall be charged.
Judicial activity encouraged the recording of royal legislation
in writing which both looked to the past and attempted to set
down law current in Henry's own day. The "Liberi Quadripartitus"
aimed to include all English law of the time. This showed an
awareness of the ideal of written law as a statement of judicial
principles as well as of the practice of kingship. In this way,
concepts of Roman law used by the Normans found their way into
English law.
Church law required that only consent between a man and woman was
necessary for marriage. There needn't be witnesses, ceremony,
nor consummation. Consent could not be coerced. Penalties in
marriage contracts were deemed invalid. Villeins and slaves
could marry without their lords' or owners' permission. A couple
living together could be deemed married. Relatives descended from
the same great great grandfather could not marry, nor could
relatives by marriage of the same degree of closeness. A legal
separation could be given for adultery, cruelty, or heresy.
Fathers were usually ordered to provide some sustenance and
support for their illegitimate children. The court punished
infanticide and abortion.
Judicial Procedure
Courts extant now are the Royal Court, the King's Court of the
Exchequer, shire courts, and hundred courts, which were under
the control of the King. His appointed justices administered
justice in these courts on regular circuits. Also there are
manor courts, borough courts, and ecclesiastical courts.
The King's Royal Court heard issues concerning the Crown and
breaches of the King's peace, which included almost all criminal
matters. The most serious offenses: murder, robbery, rape,
abduction, arson, treason, and breach of fealty, were now called
felonies. Other offenses were: housebreaking, ambush, certain
kinds of theft, premeditated assault, and harboring outlaws or
excommunicants. Henry personally presided over hearings of
important legal cases. He punished crime severely. Offenders
were brought to justice not only by the complaint of an
individual or local community action, but by official
prosecutors. A prosecutor was now at trials as well as a judge.
Trial is still by compurgation.
These offenses against the King placed merely personal property
and sometimes land at the King's mercy. Thus the Crown increased
the range of offenses subject to its jurisdiction and arrogated
to itself profits from the penalties imposed.
The Royal Court also heard these offenses against the King:
fighting in his dwelling, contempt of his writs or commands,
encompassing the death or injury of his servants, contempt or
slander of the King, and violation of his protection or his law.
It heard these offenses against royal authority: complaints of
default of justice or unjust judgment, pleas of shipwrecks,
coinage, treasure- trove [money buried when danger approached],
forest prerogatives, and control of castle building.
Henry began the use of writs to intervene in civil matters. These
writs allowed people to come to the Royal Court on certain
issues. He had some locally based justices, called justiciars.
Also, he sent justices out on eyres [journeys],with wide
responsibilities, to hear and decide all manner of Crown pleas.
This brought royal authority into the localities and served to
check baronial power over the common people. He created the
office of chief justiciar, which carried out judicial and
administrative functions.
The Royal Court also decided land disputes between barons. There
was a vigorous interventionism in the land law subsequent to
appeals to the King in landlord- tenant relations, brought by a
lord or by an undertenant. Assizes [those who sit together] of
local people who knew relevant facts were put together to assist
the court.
Records of the verdicts of the Royal Court were sent with
traveling justices for use as precedent in shire and hundred
courts.
The King's Court of the Exchequer reviewed the accounts of
sheriffs, including receipts and expenditures on the Crown's
behalf as well as sums due to the Treasury, located still at
Winchester. These sums included rent from royal estates, the
Danegeld land tax, the fines from local courts, and aid from
baronial estates. It was called the "Exchequer" because it used a
chequered cloth on the table to facilitate calculation in Roman
numerals of the amount due and the amount paid. It's records
were the "Pipe Rolls", so named because sheets of parchment were
fastened at the top, each of which dropped into a roll at the
bottom and so assumed the shape of a pipe.
The shire and hundred courts assessed the personal property of
individuals and their taxes due to the King. The shire court
decided land disputes between people who had different barons as
their respective lords.
The Crown used its superior coercive power to enforce the legal
decisions of other courts.
The shire courts heard cases of theft, brawling, beating, and
wounding, for which the penalties could be exposure in the
pillory or stocks where the public could scorn and hit the
offender. It met twice yearly. If an accused failed to appear
after four successive shire courts, he was declared outlaw at the
fifth and forfeited his civil rights and all his property. He
could be slain by anyone at will.
The hundred court heard neighborhood disputes, for instance
concerning pastures, meadows and harvests. It policed the duty
of frankpledge, which was required for those who did not have a
lord to answer for him. It met once a month.
The free landholders were expected to attend shire, hundred, and
baronage courts. They owed "suit" to it. The suitors found the
dooms [laws] by which the presiding officer pronounced the
sentence.
The barons held court on their manors for issues arising between
people living on the manor, such as bad ploughing on the lord's
land or letting a cow get loose on the lord's land, and land
disputes. They also made the decision of whether or not a person
was a villein or free. The manor court took over issues which
had once been heard in the vill or hundred court. The baron
charged a fee for hearing a case and received any fines he
imposed, which amounted to significant "profits of justice".
Boroughs held court on trading and marketing issues in their
towns such as measures and weights, as well as issues between
people who lived in the borough. The borough court was presided
over by a reeve who was a burgess as well as a royal official.
Wealthy men could employ professional pleaders to advise them and
to speak for them in a court.
The ecclesiastical courts dealt with family matters such as
marriage, annulments, marriage portions, legitimacy,
wife-beating, child abuse, orphans, bigamy, adultery, incest,
fornication, personal possessions, slander, usury, mortuaries,
sanctuary, sacrilege, blasphemy, heresy, tithe payments, church
fees, certain offences on consecrated ground, and breaches of
promises under oath, e.g. to pay a debt, provide services, or
deliver goods. It decided inheritance and will issues which did
not concern land, but only personal property. This developed
from the practice of a priest usually hearing a dying person's
will as to the disposition of his goods and chattel when he made
his last confession. It provided guardianship of infants during
probate of their personal property. Trial was by compurgation.
An alleged offender could be required to answer questions under
oath, thus giving evidence against himself. The ecclesiastical
court's penalties were intended to reform and determined on a
case-by-case basis. They could include confession and public
repentance of the sin before the parish, making apologies and
reparation to persons affected, public embarrassment such as
being dunked in water (e.g. for women scolds), walking a route
barefoot and clad only in one's underwear, whippings, extra
work, fines, and imprisonment in a "penitentiary" to do penance.
The ultimate punishment was excommunication with social
ostracism. Then no one could give the person drink, food, or
shelter and the only people he could speak to were his spouse
and servants. Excommunication included denial of the sacraments
of baptism, penance, eucharist, and extreme unction at death;
which were necessary for salvation of the soul; and the
sacrament of confirmation. However, the person could still marry
and make a will. Excommunication was usually imposed for failure
to obey an order or showing contempt of the law or of the courts.
It required a due process hearing and a written reason. If this
measure failed, it was possible to turn the offender over to the
state for punishment, e.g. for blasphemy or heresy. Blasphemy
[speaking ill of God] was thought to cause God's wrath expressed
in famine, pestilence, and earthquake and was usually punished
by a fine or corporal punishment, e.g. perforation or amputation
of the tongue. It was tacitly understood that the punishment for
heresy was death by burning. The state usually assured itself
the sentence was just before imposing it. The court of the rural
dean was the ecclesiastical parallel of the hundred court of
secular jurisdiction and usually had the same land boundaries.