Our Legal Heritage Part 15

The Normans used the Anglo-Saxon concepts of jurisdictional powers.

Thus when the Conquerer confirmed "customs" to the abbot of Ely, these were understood to include the following: 1) sac and soke - the right to hold a court of private jurisdiction and enjoy its profits, 2) toll - a payment in towns, markets, and fairs for goods and chattel bought and sold, 3) team - persons might be vouched to warranty in the court, the grant of which made a court capable of hearing suits arising from the transfer of land, 4) infangenthef - right of trying and executing thieves on one's land, 4) hamsocne [jurisdiction over breach of the right of security and privacy in a man?s house, e.g. by forcible entry],, 5) grithbrice - violation of the grantees' special peace, for instance that of the sheriff, 6) fightwite - fine for a general breach of the peace, 7) fyrdwite - fine for failure to appear in the fyrd.

Every s.h.i.+re, now called "county", had at least one burh, or defensible town. Kings had appointed a royal moneyer in each burh to mint silver coins such as pennies for local use. On one side was the King's head in profile and on the other side was the name of the moneyer. When a new coinage was issued, all moneyers had to go to London to get the new dies. The Conquerer's head faced frontally on his dies, instead of the usual profile used by former Kings.

The Conquerer held and presided over his council three times a year, as was the custom, at Easter, Christmas, and Whitsuntide, which coincided with the great Christian festivals. This was an advisory council and consisted of the Conquerer's wife and sons, earls, barons, knights, officers of the King's household, archbishops, and bishops. It replaced the witan of wise men. It dealt with fundamental matters of law, state, war, and church. Earldoms and knighthoods were conferred and homages to the king were witnessed. Bishops were nominated. Attendance at the council, like attendance at courts, was regarded as a burden rather than a privilege. The Conquerer's will was the motive force which under lay all the council's action. When it was administering royal justice, it was called the Royal Court.

The Justiciar was the head of all legal matters and he or the Conquerer's wife represented the King at the Royal Court in his absence from the realm. The chamberlain was a financial officer of the household; his work was rather that of auditor or accountant. The Chancellor headed the Chancery and the chapel. Other household offices were steward, butler, constable, and marshall. The Treasurer was responsible for the collection and distribution of revenue and was the keeper of the royal treasure at the palace at Winchester. He was also an important member of the household and sat in the Exchequer at Westminster, where he received the accounts of the sheriffs. The Exchequer was composed of the justiciar as head, the chancellor, the constable, two chamberlains, the marshall and other experienced councilors. The word "Exchequer" came from the chequered cloth on the table used to calculate in Roman numerals the amount due and the amount paid. The word "calculate" derives from the word "calculi", meaning pebbles. It was a kind of abacus. The Exchequer received yearly from the sheriffs of the counties taxes, fines, treasure trove, goods from wrecks, deodands, and movable property of felons, of persons executed, of fugitives, and of outlaws due to the Crown. The Conqueror presided yearly over feasts involving several thousand guests at Westminster Hall, which was 250 feet by 70 feet with a high ceiling, the largest hall in England.

The Conquerer's reign was a time of tentative expedients and simple solutions. He administered by issuing writs with commands or prohibitions. These were read aloud by the sheriffs in the county courts and other locations. Administration was by the personal servants of his royal household, such as the chancellor, chamberlain, constable, marshals, steward, and butler. The language of government changed to Latin. The chancellor was from the clergy and supervised the writers and clerks, who were literate, and appended the great seal before witnesses to doc.u.ments. He also headed the staff of the royal chapel. The chamberlain was a financial officer who audited and accounted. The constable was responsible for supplies for the knights of the royal household. He also supervised the care of horses, hounds, hawks, and huntsmen, houndsmen, and foresters. The marshals came from less important families than the constable and they preserved order in the king's hall and recorded expenditures of the household officers on tallies. The steward was a great baron whose duties were chiefly ceremonial, such as placing the dishes before the king at banquets.

Sheriffs became powerful figures as the primary agents for enforcing royal edicts. There was no longer supervision of them by earls nor influence on them by bishops. They were customarily prominent barons.

They collected the royal taxes, executed royal justice, and presided over and controlled the hundred and county courts. They were responsible for remitting a certain sum annually. If a sheriff received more than necessary, he retained the difference as his lawful profit of office. If he received less than necessary, he had to make up the difference from his own pocket. Before rendering this account, he paid the royal benefactions to religious houses, provided for the maintenance of stock on crown lands, paid for the costs of provisions supplied to the court, and paid for traveling expenses of the king and his visitors. The payments were initially paid in kind: e.g. grain, cattle, horses, hounds, and hawks. Sheriffs also took part in the keeping of castles and often managed the estates of the King. Most royal writs were addressed to the sheriff and county courts. They also led the county militia in time of war or rebellion. At times, a sheriff usurped royal rights, used royal estates for his own purposes, encroached on private land and rights, extorted money, and collected revenues only for his own pockets.

Over the centuries, there was much compet.i.tion for the authority to select the sheriff, e.g. by the king, the county court, the barons, and the Exchequer. There was also much pressure to limit his term to one year. Over time, the powers of the sheriffs slowly declined.

Royal income came from customary dues, profits of coinage and of justice, and revenues from the King's own estates. For war, there was no change in the custom that a man with five hides of land was required to furnish one heavy armed horseman for forty days service in a year. The fyrd was retained. A threat of a Viking invasion caused the Conquerer to reinstate the danegeld tax at 6s. per hide, which was three times its old rate. (The price of an ox was still about 30d.) To impose this tax uniformly, he sent commissioners to conduct surveys by sworn verdicts of appointed groups of local men. A detailed survey of land holdings and the productive worth of each was made in 1086. The English called it the "Doomsday Book" because there was no appeal from it.

The survey revealed, for instance, that one estate had "on the home farm five plough teams: there are also 25 villeins and 6 cotters with 14 teams among them. There is a mill worth 2s. a year and one fishery, a church and four acres of meadow, wood for 150 pigs and two stone quarries, each worth 2s. a year, and two nests of hawks in the wood and 10 slaves." This estate was deemed to be worth 480s. a year.

Laxton "had 2 carucates of land [a.s.sessed] to the geld. [There is] land for 6 ploughs. There Walter, a man of [the lord] Geoffrey Alselin's has 1 plough and 22 villeins and 7 bordars [a bordar had a cottage and a small amount land in return for supplying small provisions to his lord]

having 5 ploughs and 5 serfs and 1 female serf and 40 acres of meadow.

Wood [land] for pannage [foraging by pigs] 1 league in length and half a league in breadth. In King Edward's time it was worth 9 pounds; now [it is worth] 6 pounds."

Ilbert de Laci has now this land, where he has twelve ploughs in the demesne; and forty-eight villani, and twelve bordars with fifteen ploughs, and three churches and three priests, and three mills of ten s.h.i.+llings. Wood pastures two miles long, and one broad. The whole manor five miles long and two broad. Value in King Edward's time sixteen pounds, the same now.

That manor of the town of Coventry which was individually held was that of the Countess of Coventry, who was the wife of the earl of Mercia.

"The Countess held in Coventry. There are 5 hides. The arable land employs 20 ploughs. In the demesne lands there are 3 ploughs and 7 bondmen. There are 50 villeins and 12 bordars with 20 ploughs. The mill there pay[s] 3 s.h.i.+llings. The woodlands are 2 miles long and the same broad. In King Edward's time and afterwards, it was worth 22 pounds [440 s.], now only 11 pounds by weight. These lands of the Countess G.o.diva Nicholas holds to farm of the King."

The survey shows a few manors and monasteries owned a salthouse or saltpit in the local saltworks, from which they were ent.i.tled to obtain salt.

In total there were about 110,000 villani [former coerls regarded as customary, irremovable cultivator tenants]; 82,000 bordarii; 7,000 cotarii and cotseti [held land by service of labor or rent paid in produce], and 25,000 servi [landless laborers]. There are no more theows. This survey resulted in the first national tax system of about 6s. per hide of land.

The survey also provided the Conquerer with a summary of customs of areas. For instance, in Oxfords.h.i.+re, "Anyone breaking the King's peace given under his hand and seal to the extent of committing homicide shall be at the King's mercy in respect of his life and members. That is if he be captured. And if he cannot be captured, he shall be considered as an outlaw, and anyone who kills him shall have all his possessions. The king shall take the possessions of any stranger who has elected to live in Oxford and who dies in possession of a house in that town, and without any kinfolk. The king shall be ent.i.tled to the body and the possessions of any man who kills another within his own court or house excepting always the dower of his wife, if he has a wife who has received dower.

The courts of the king and barons became schools of chivalry wherein seven year old n.o.ble boys became pages or valets, wore a dagger and waited upon the ladies of the household. At age fourteen, they were advanced to squires and admitted into more familiar a.s.sociation with the knights and ladies of the court. They perfected their skills in dancing, riding, fencing, hawking, hunting, jousting, and engaged in team sports in which the goal was to put the other side to rout. They learned the knightly art of war. Enemy fighters were to be taken and held for ransom rather than killed. Those engaging in rebellion were to be pardoned and restored to some or all of their lands and t.i.tles. Lords' sons could be mutually exchanged with an enemy's as security for peace. After achieving knighthood, a man usually selected a wife from the court at which he grew up. Parents tried to send their daughters to a household superior in social status not only to learn manners, but to make a good marriage. A girl who did not marry was often sent to a nunnery; a dowry was necessary before her acceptance.

The following incidents of land tenure began (but were not firmly established until the reign of Henry II). Each tenant, whether baron or subtenant, was to pay an "aid" in money for ransom if his lord was captured in war, for the knighthood of his lord's eldest son, and for the marriage of his lord's eldest daughter. The aid was theoretically voluntary. Land could be held by an heir only if he could fight. The eldest son began to succeed to the whole of the lands in all military tenures. Younger sons of great houses became bishops. An heir of a tenant had to pay a heavy "relief" on succession to his estate. The relief replaced the heriot. If there was a delay in proving heirs.h.i.+p or paying relief, the lord would hold the land and receive its income in the meantime, often a year. If an heir was still a minor or female, he or she pa.s.sed into his lord's wards.h.i.+p, in which the lord had guardians.h.i.+p of the heir and possession of the estate, with all its profits. The mother was not made a minor's guardian. No longer was the estate protected by the minor's kin as his birthright. A female heir was expected to marry a man acceptable to the lord. The estate of an heiress and her land was generally sold to the highest bidder. If there were no heirs, the land escheated to the lord. If a tenant committed felony, his land escheated to his lord. The word "felony" came from the Latin word meaning "to deceive" and referred to the feudal crime of betraying or committing treachery against one's lord.

Astrologers resided with the families of the barons. People went to fortune tellers' shops. There was horse racing, steeple races, and chess for recreation. Girls had dolls; boys had toy soldiers, spinning tops, toy horses, s.h.i.+ps, and wooden models.

The state of medicine is indicated by this medical advice brought to the nation by William's son after treatment on the continent:

"If thou would have health and vigor Shun cares and avoid anger. Be temperate in eating And in the use of wine. After a heavy meal Rise and take the air Sleep not with an overloaded stomach And above all thou must Respond to Nature when she calls."

The Conquerer allowed Jewish traders to follow him from Normandy and settle in separate sections of the main towns. Then engaged in long distance trade, money changing, and money lending. They loaned money for interest for the building of castles and cathedrals. Christians were not allowed by the church to engage in this usury. The Jews could not become citizens nor could they have standing in the local courts. Instead, a royal justiciar secured justice for them. They could practice their own religion.

William the Conquerer was succeeded as king by his son William II (Rufus), who transgressed many of the customs of the nation to get more money for himself. He was killed by an arrow of a fellow hunter while they and William's younger brother Henry were hunting together in a crown forest. Henry then became king.

- The Law -

The Norman conquerors brought no written law, but affirmed the laws of the nation. Two they especially enforced were:

1. Anyone caught in the act of digging up the King's road, felling a tree across it, or attacking someone so that his blood spilled on it shall pay a fine to the King.