Our Legal Heritage Part 95

The Court of High Commission was abolished by the Long Parliament.

Justices of the Peace had general and quarter sessions, the latter of which were held four times a year with all Justices of the Peace attending. It was primarily a court of appeal from penal sentences. But it was also an administrative body to determine taxes and make appointments of officials and grant licenses for businesses.

In 1638, in distributing a deceased person's estate, the Chancery court upheld a trust designed to hold the property for an heiress so that it did not become her husband's property.

At the request of Parliament, the King had all justices serve during their good behavior instead of serving at the King's will, which had been the practice for ages. This increased the independence of the judiciary.

The rack was used for the last time in 1640 before the Long Parliament met. It was used to torture a rioter before hanging.

Men were still pressed to death for failure to plead, pickpockets still executed for the first offense, and husband murderers still burned.

- - - Chapter 16 - - -

- The Times: 1642-1660 -

For four years, there was civil war between the King, backed generally by the upper cla.s.s, the established church, and most of the gentry, against the Parliamentarians, backed generally by middle cla.s.s yeomen, town dwellers, some of the gentry, most of the great corporations, the City of London, the ports, the seamen, and the Navy. Oxford University was royalist, and Cambridge University was Puritan in sympathy. Archery was not used in the war, having become just sport by 1633. Flint-lock pistols, which relied on flint striking steel to ignite the powder, as well as swords were used by hors.e.m.e.n in the civil war. Footmen were musketeers using a match lock with a cord boiled in vinegar as the match, and dressed in leather doublets and an iron-pot headpiece; or pikemen with long wooden poles with spearheads of iron or steel and short swords, and dressed in armor. This was the last time armor was used. The Parliamentarians wore orange scarves to distinguish themselves from their enemy. Cromwell, who had a natural apt.i.tude for military matters, selected for his troops, Puritan zealots with a Puritan code of behavior which included no drinking or swearing. He selected hors.e.m.e.n based on ability rather than social cla.s.s. He was regarded as one of the leaders of the Independents, who wanted total abolition of the monarchy and of the aristocracy. When made a leader of the New Model Army, Cromwell dressed all his foot men in red with only the facings being regimental colors. The New Model Army had been a.s.sembled because there had been disagreement about policy among the members of Parliament who held commissions. Almost all members gave up their commissions. For their continued support, many wives and also prost.i.tutes put on men's clothing and followed the troops. They nursed the wounded. Those many wives who stayed at home pleaded and answered in court; pet.i.tioned to the House of Commons, e.g. for release of debtors from prison, high taxes, lack of work, and arbitrary government; and made other public appearances. Puritan and royalist newspapers printed the news at least once weekly. Poet John Milton pled for civil and religious freedom, freedom of social life, and freedom of the press. He stated: "Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely, according to conscience, above all liberties."

The Mayor and citizens of London were given authority in 1642 to fortify all highways leading to the city and levy a tax on inhabitants for this purpose. When London was deprived of coal during the war, trees and flowers again flourished there.

Officers and seamen in navy ships were authorized in 1642 to take one-third of all prize goods captured, the other two-thirds going to the state.

Parliament approved certain persons to set forth ships at their own expense to defend the realm in 1643. They were allowed to keep any ships, goods, ammunition, or moneys they seized.

Saltpeter men were appointed by Parliament in 1643 and later times to search and dig for saltpeter in pigeon houses, stables, and outhouses, but not dwelling, shops, or milkhouses. They had to repair any damage done to the contentment of the owners.

Complaints were made to Parliament that there were scandalous and ill-affected fomenters of the civil war and disobeyers of the ordinaries of Parliament and deserters of their ordinary places of residence. These complaints were made by members of the University of Cambridge, students, clergy in surrounding counties, and schoolmasters. So a committee was established in 1643 to investigate and sequester their lands and goods, excepting one- fifth of the estate for the wife and children.

When Charles was captured in 1646, the episcopacy of the bishops was abolished. When Parliament was about to reinstate Charles as king with weakened powers and establish a Presbyterian state church, the soldiers, who were religious Independents and who still had not been fully paid (the infantry pay was 18 weeks in arrears and the cavalry 43 weeks) despite plans to disband them, spontaneously took the King by force.

They demanded liberty of conscience to practice their own religion and their pay. Cromwell sided with the army and then became leader of the House of Commons. Charles dissembled in his negotiations with the army generals. He felt freed from his promises as soon as the pressure was removed. The army could not forgive Charles' duplicity and deceitfulness and insisted upon his death as the only way to bring peace. Cromwell gave up hope on negotiations with Charles when he intercepted a letter by Charles to his Queen decreeing the final doom of the army adherents in favor of the Scottish Presbyterians. During protracted negotiations over months between the army and Parliament over a new const.i.tution, a renewed support for the King, which was inspired by him, necessitated a second civil war to put down this revolt and subdue its Scot supporters.

Eventually the army took control of Parliament by force, only allowing the few members who agreed with them on the trial of the King into Parliamentary meetings. So Charles was tried in 1649, found guilty of "an unlimited and tyrannical power to rule according to his will, and to overthrow the rights and liberties of the people ... which by the fundamental const.i.tutions of this kingdom were reserved on the peoples'

behalf in the right and power of frequent and successive parliaments or national meetings in council", and maintaining a war against his subjects, which amounted to treason. To prevent his adherents from trying to reinstate him, he was condemned to death and beheaded in January 1649.

To pay for the civil war, an a.s.sessment tax on the yearly value of rents, annuities, and offices was often levied. The main burden of this tax fell on the gentry rather than the merchants and smaller men of property, as previous taxes had. An excise tax, a tax on consumption, was begun on ale and beer and then extended to meat, salt, starch, soap, and paper. It was gradually extended to many goods. The excise taxes were paid, as was the customs tax, by manufacturers on goods made in England and by foreign manufacturers on goods at the ports.

Parishes had to give maintenance to maimed soldiers and provision for the livelihood to the wives and children of killed soldiers. Masters of apprentices who became soldiers had to take them back as apprentices without loss for their absence in defense of the Commonwealth. Masters who received considerable loss by the absence of their apprentices received reasonable satisfaction from the public stock.

From 1640-60, Royalists were purged from Oxford and a group of Baconians moved into the university behind Parliamentary armies. At the two universities, books were no longer chained to the bookcases. The universities were freed from taxation.

After the civil wars, Cromwell led the country. He was a military, political, and religious leader. He had become a Puritan zealot after a youth of gambling, drinking, debauchery, and rioting. He believed that military success was a reflection of divine favor and he regarded himself as one the few elect preordained for salvation. Those in power in the new Commonwealth tended to explain their regime in terms of popular consent, and the takeover from Charles I as due to his breaking of a contract with the people.

Most people dressed in Puritan fashion. A Puritan's favorite readings were the Old Testament, Epistles of St. Paul, and writings of John Calvin.

Wealth and prosperity steadily increased in spite of the civil wars.

During Cromwell's tenure, there was a marked revival of economic prosperity. By the mid-1600s, landlords had been able to shorten their leases so that a lease of twenty-one years was the predominant form of landholding.

Patent protection was given in 1642 for seven years to the inventors of a device for salvaging ships' goods and cannons from the seas. With it they could convert to their own use one half of the items retrieved, the other half going to the Navy and Parliament. Patent protection was given in 1650 to George Manby on his new invention for boiling liquors and making salt with less coal and wood and iron, lead, and copper for fourteen years. Patent protection was given in 1651 for fourteen years to Jeromy Buck for melting iron, lead, tin, copper, bra.s.s, and other metals with coal without burning charcoal.