Our Legal Heritage Part 23

St. Barthomew infirmary was established in London for the care of sick pilgrims traveling to the shrine of Becket in Canterbury. It had been inspired by a monk who saw a vision of St. Barthomew telling him to build a church and an infirmary.

Trading was facilitated by the stabilization of the amount of silver metallic content of the English coinage, which was called "sterling"

[strong] silver. The compa.s.s, a magnetic lodestone [leading stone]

needle mounted on a cork and floated in a bowl of water, a.s.sisted the navigation of s.h.i.+ps. With it, one could tell the general direction of a s.h.i.+p when the skies were cloudy as well as clear. And one could generally track one's route by using the direction and speed of travel to calculate one's new position. London became a major trading center for foreign goods from many lands.

About 5% of the knights were literate. Wealthy men sent their sons to school in monasteries to prepare them for a livelihood in a profession or in trade or to the town of Oxford, whose individual scholars had migrated from Paris and had attracted disciples for a long time. These schools grew up around St. Mary's Church, but had not been started by the church as there was no cathedral school in Oxford. Oxford had started as a burh and had a royal residence and many tradesmen. It was given its basic charter in 1155 by the King. This confirmed to it all the customs, laws and liberties [rights] as those enjoyed by London. It became a model charter for other towns.

Bachelors at Oxford studied the arts of grammar, rhetoric, and logic, and then music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy, until they mastered their discipline and therefore were authorized to teach it. Teaching would then provide an income sufficient to support a wife. The master of arts was a.n.a.logous to the master craftsman of a guild. From 1190, the civil law was studied, and shortly thereafter, canon law. Later came the study of medicine. The use of paper supplemented the use of parchment for writing. Irregular edged paper was made from linen, cotton, straw, and/or wood beaten to a pulp and then spread out over a wire mesh to dry.

Theologicians taught that the universe was made for the sake and service of man, so man was placed at the center of the universe. Man was made for the sake and service of G.o.d.

Every freeman holding land of a lord gave homage and fealty to him, swearing to bear him faith of the tenement held and to preserve his earthly honor in all things, saving the faith owed to the king. Homage was done for lands, for free tenements, for services, and for rents precisely fixed in money or in kind. Homage could be done to any free person, male or female, adult or minor, cleric or layman. A man could do several homages to different lords for different fees, but there had to be a chief homage to that lord of whom he held his chief tenement.

Homage was not due for dower, from the husband of a woman to whom a tenement was given as a marriage portion, for a fee given in free alms, or until the third heir, either for free maritagium [a marriage portion which is given with a daughter in marriage, that is not bound to service] or for the fee of younger sisters holding of the eldest. All fiefs to be inherited by the eldest son had to be intact. Every lord could exact fealty from his servants.

In this era, the English national race and character was formed. Only a few barons still had lands in Normandy. Stories of good King Arthur were popular and set ideals for behavior and justice in an otherwise barbaric age where force was supreme. His last battle in which he lay wounded and told a kinsman to rule in his place and uphold his laws was written in poem ("Layamon's Brut"). Romantic stories were written and read in English. The custom of "bundling" was started by ladies with their knights, who would lie together in bed without undressing and with one in a sack the top of which was tied around his neck, as part of a romantic courts.h.i.+p. Wealthy men often gave their daughters dowries in case they were widowed. This might be matched by a marriage settlement by a prospective husband.

Intermarriage had destroyed any distinction of Normans by look or speech alone, except for the Anglo-Saxon manor villeins, who worked the farm land and composed about two-thirds of the population. Villeins were bound to the land and could, on flight, be brought back to it. They could not give homage, but could give fealty. A villein had the equipment to farm, fish, make cheese, keep poultry, brew beer, hedge, and cut wood. Although the villeins could not buy their freedom or be freed by their lord, they became less numerous because of the preference of landholders for tenants motivated to perform work by potential loss of tenure. Also, the Crown's protection of all its subjects in criminal matters blurred the distinction between free and unfree men.

The boroughs were dominated by lords of local manors, who usually had a house in the borough. Similarly, burgesses usually had farmland outside the borough. Many boroughs were granted, by the king or manor lord, the right to have a common seal for the common business of the town. Some boroughs were given the authority to confer freedom on the villein by enrolling him in their guild or allowing him to stay in the borough for a year and a day. The guilds met frequently in their drinking halls and drew up regulations for the management of their trade. Each borough was represented by twelve reputable burgesses. Each vill was represented by a reeve and four reputable men. Certain towns sponsored great seasonal fairs for special goods, such as cloth. About 5% of the population lived in towns.

In the early 1180s, the horizontal-axle windmill was invented, probably in eastern England, on the a.n.a.logy of the horizontal-axle watermill. It was very useful in flat areas where streams were too slow for a watermill unless a dam were built. But a dam often flooded agricultural land. Some watermill wheels were moved by tidal currents.

London guilds of craftsmen such as weavers, fullers, bakers, loriners (makers of bits, spurs, and metal mountings of bridles and saddles), cordwainers (makers of leather goods such as shoes), pepperers, and goldsmiths were licensed by the King, for which they paid him a yearly fee. There were also five Bridge Guilds (probably raising money for the future construction of London Bridge in stone) and St. Lazarus' Guild.

The wealthy guilds, which included the goldsmiths, the pepperers, and three bridge guilds had landholding members who had been thegns or knights and now became a cla.s.s of royal officials: the King's minters, his chamberlain, his takers of wines, his collectors of taxes. The weavers of Oxford paid 27s. [two marks] to have a guild. The shoemakers paid 67s. [five marks].

In 1212, master carpenters, masons, and tilers made 3d. per day, their servers (the journeymen of a later time) made 1 1/2 d., free stone carvers 2 1/2 d., plasterers and daubers, diggers and sievers less. All received food in addition or 1 1/2 d. in its stead.

Sandwich was confirmed in its port rights by this charter: "Henry II to his sheriff and bailiffs of Kent, greeting. I will and order that the monks of the Holy Trinity of Canterbury shall have fully all those liberties and customs in Sandwich which they had in the time of King Henry my grandfather, as it was adjudged in pursuance of his command by the oath of twelve men of Dover and twelve men of Sandwich, to wit, that the aforesaid monks ought to have the port and the toll and all maritime customs in the same port, on either side of the water from Eadburge gate as far as markesfliete and a ferryboat for pa.s.sage. And no man has there any right except they and their ministers. Wherefore I will and firmly command you and the men of Sandwich that ye cause the aforesaid monks to have all their customs both in the port and in the town of Sandwich, and I forbid any from vexing them on this account.And they shall have my firm peace."

Henry gave this charter to the town of Bristol in 1164: "Know ye, that I have granted to my burgesses of Bristol, that they shall be quit both of toll [a reasonable sum of money or portion of the thing sold, due to the owner of the fair or market on the sale of things tollable therein.

It was claimed by the lord of the fee where the fair or market was held, by virtue of a grant from the Crown either ostensible or presumed] and pa.s.sage [money paid for crossing a river or for crossing the sea as might be due to the Crown] and all custom [customary payments]

throughout my whole land of England, Normandy, and Wales, wherever they shall come, they and their goods. Wherefore I will and strictly command, that they shall have all their liberties and acquittances and free customs fully and honorable, as my free and faithful men, and that they shall be quit of toll and pa.s.sage and of every other customs: and I forbid any one to disturb them on this account contrary to this my charter, on forfeiture of ten pounds [200s.]."

John, when he was an earl and before he became King, granted these liberties to Bristol about 1188:

1) No burgess may sue or be sued out of Bristol.

2) The burgesses are excused from the murder fine (imposed by the king or lord from the hundred or town where the murder was committed when the murderer had not been apprehended).

3) No burgess may wage duel [trial by combat], unless sued for death of a stranger.

4) No one may take possession of a lodging house by a.s.signment or by livery of the Marshall of the Earl of Gloucester against the will of the burgesses (so that the town would not be responsible for the good behavior of a stranger lodging in the town without first accepting the possessor of the lodging house).

5) No one shall be condemned in a matter of money, unless according to the law of the hundred, that is, forfeiture of 40s.

6) The hundred court shall be held only once a week.

7) No one in any plea may argue his cause in miskenning.

8) They may lawfully have their lands and tenures and mortgages and debts throughout my whole land, [from] whoever owes them [anything].

9) With regard to debts which have been lent in Bristol, and mortgages there made, pleas shall be held in the town according to the custom of the town.