Our Legal Heritage Part 48

Coroners' inquest procedures were delineated by statute and included describing in detail in the coroner's rolls every wound of a dead body, how many may be culpable, and people claiming to have found treasure who might be suspects.

The precedent for punishment for treason was established by the conviction of a knight, David ab Gruffydd, who had turned traitor to the Welsh enemy, after fighting with Edward and being rewarded with land, during the conquest of Wales. He had plotted to kill the King. He was found guilty of treason by Parliament and condemned to be dragged at the heels of horses for being a traitor to his knightly vows, hanged by the neck for his murders, cut down before consciousness left him to have his entrails cut out for committing his crimes during the holy week of Easter, and his head cut off and his body divided into four parts for plotting against the King's life. The head was placed on the Tower of London and his body sections were placed in public view at various other locations in England. This came to be known as "hanging, drawing, and quartering". Prior to this the penalty had been imprisonment, usually followed by ransom.

Trial by combat is now limited to certain claims of enfeoffment of large land holding and is barred for land held in socage, burgage, or by marriage. a.s.size is the usual manner of trial, but compurgation remains in the borough court long after it becomes obsolete in the royal courts.

It came to be that defendants no longer request a.s.sizes but are automatically put to them.

Numerous statutes protect the integrity of the courts and King's offices by double and treble damages and imprisonment for offenses such as bribery, false informers, conspiracy to falsely move or maintain pleas, champerty [covenant between a litigant and another for the other to have a part or profit in the award in return for maintaining the suit], conflict of interest by court officers taking part in a quarrel pending in court or working any fraud whereby common right may be delayed or disturbed. There had been many abuses, the most common of which was extortion by sheriffs, who gaoled people without cause to make them pay to be released. The 1275 prohibition of maintenance of a quarrel of a party in court by a nonparty was extended in 1327 to all persons, including the king's councilors and ministers, and great men, e.g. by sending letters. In 1346, this prohibition specifically included prelates, earls, barons taking in hand quarrels other than their own, or maintaining them for gift, promise, amity, favor, doubt, or fear, in disturbance of law and hindrance of right. The reason given was that there had been persons disinherited, delayed or disturbed in their rights, and not guilty persons convicted or otherwise oppressed. All great men were required to put out of their service all maintainers who had been retained, and void their fees and robes, without giving them aid, favor, or comfort. This law was not obeyed.

The king reserved to himself and his council in its judicial capacity the correction of all breaches of the law which the lower courts had failed to remedy, whether from weakness, partiality, corruption, or jury timidity, and especially when the powerful barons defied the courts. The Chancery also sought to address causes which were impeded in their regular course, which often involved a.s.saults, batteries, and forcible dispossessions.

Disputes within the royal household were administered by the King's steward. He received and determined complaints about acts or breaches of the peace within twelve miles around the King's person or "verge". He was a.s.sisted by the marshall in the "court of the hall" and by the clerk of the market when imposing fines for trading regulation violations in the "court of the market".

Ecclesiastical courts were successful in their compet.i.tion with the secular courts for jurisdiction over testamentary matters [concerning wills] and succession [no will] to chattels.

There were local courts of the vill, borough, manor, hundred, county, sheriff, escheator, and royal bailiff, with overlapping jurisdictions.

The county court in its full session, that is, as it attended the itinerant justices on their visitation, contained the archbishops, bishops, priors, earls, barons, knights, and freeholders, and from each township four men and the reeve, and from each borough twelve burgesses.

It was still the folkmote, the general a.s.sembly of the people. In 1293, suitors who could not spend 40s. a year within their county were not required to attend their county court.

The most common plea in the hundred court was trespa.s.s. It also heard issues concerning services arising out of land, detention of chattels, small debts, wounding or maiming of animals, and personal a.s.saults and brawls not amounting to felony. It met every three weeks. The sheriff held his turn twice a year and viewed frankpledge once a year.

When Edward I came to the throne, over half of the approximately 600 hundred courts had gone under the jurisdiction of a private lord owing to royal charter, prescriptive right, and usurpation. The sheriff's powers in these hundreds varied. In some, the sheriff had no right of entry.

In the manor courts, actions of debt, detinue, and covenant were frequent. Sometimes there are questions of a breach of warranty of t.i.tle in agreements of sale of land. Accusations of defamation were frequent; this offense could not be taken to the King's court, but it had been recognized as an offense in the Anglo-Saxon laws. In some cases, the damages caused are specifically stated. For instance, defamation of a lord's grain would cause other purchasers to forbear buying it. There are frequent cases of ordinary thefts, trespa.s.ses, and a.s.saults. The courts did rough but substantial justice without distinction between concepts such as tort and contract. In fact, the action of covenant was the only form of agreement enforceable at common law. It required a writing under seal and awarded damages. Manor court law was not technical, but elastic, and remedies could include injunctions, salary attachment, and performance of acts. The steward holding the manor court was often a lawyer.

Some pleas in the manors of the abbey of Bec were:

1. Hugh le Pee in mercy (fine, 12d.) for concealing a sheep for half a year. Pledges, Simon of Newmere, John of Senholt

2. William Ketelburn in mercy (fine, 13s.4d.) for divers trespa.s.ses.

Pledge, Henry Ketelburn.

3. Hugh Derwin for pasture, 6d. Richard Hulle for divers trespa.s.ses, 12d. Henry Stanhard for pasture, 6d.

4. William Derwin for a trespa.s.s, 6d.; pledge, William Sperling.

5. Hugh Hall gives the lord 12d. that he may have the judgment of the court as to a tenement and two acres of land, which he demands as of right, so he says. And it being a.s.serted that the said land is not free[hold] let the court say its say. And the court says that the tenement and one of the two acres are of servile condition and that the other acre is of free condition. The case is reserved for the lord's presence. Pledge, John Brian.

6. John Palmer is put in seisin of his father's tenement and gives the lord 53s.4d. as entry money.

7. William Ketelburn gives the lord 6s.8d. that he may be removed from the office of reeve. Pledge, Robert Serjeant.

8. William Frith for subtraction of work, 6d. John Reginald for the same, 6d. John of Senholt, 12d. William Ketelburn, 12d.

9. For the common fine to be paid on S. Andrew's day, 100s.

10. It is presented by the chief pledges that G.o.dfrey Serjeant has made default; also that John le Pee has unlawfully thrown up a bank; therefore let it be set to rights.

11. Robert Smith is put in seisin of his father's tenement and gives the lord four pounds for entry money. Pledge, Robert Serjeant.

12. William Ketelburn for a trespa.s.s, 13s.4d.