English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages (XIVth Century)Jusserand, J. J. (Jean Jules)
History
English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages (XIVth Century)
Jusserand, J. J. (Jean Jules)
Christian pilgrims and pilgrimages -- England; England -- Social life and customs -- 1066-1485; Travel, Medieval
Overtopping all the rest, there was, moreover, the king’s seneschal
or steward, first officer of his household, and his great justiciary.
Wherever the king went the apparatus of justice was transported
with him; when he was about to start the steward gave to the
sheriff notice of the place where the Court would stop, in order
that he might bring his prisoners to the town where the prince was
to be stationed.[103] All the cases amenable to the jurisdiction
of the justices in eyre were then determined by the steward, as
the king’s justiciary, who prescribed, if necessary, the judicial
duel, pronounced sentences of outlawry, and judged in criminal
and civil cases.[104] This {108} right of criminal justice even
accompanied the king abroad, but he only exercised it when the
criminal had been arrested in his own royal place of abode. One such
case happened in the fourteenth year of the reign of Edward I. This
sovereign being at Paris, Ingelram de Nogent came into his house
to steal, and was caught in the act. After some discussion it was
acknowledged that Edward, by his royal privilege, should remain judge
in the matter; he delivered the robber over to Robert Fitz-John,
his steward, who caused Ingelram to be hung from the gibbet of St.
Germain-des-Prés.[105]
For a long time the chancellor himself, and the clerks who made out
the writs, followed the king on his journeys, and Palgrave notes
that frequently a strong horse was requisitioned from the nearest
convent to carry the rolls;[106] but this custom came to a close in
the fourth year of Edward III, when the Chancery was permanently
established at Westminster.
The tribunal moving on, a crowd of suitors moved with it. No matter
though they were not inscribed on the rolls, they followed without
losing patience, as gulls follow the ship, hoping that something may
come their way. Parties with a lawsuit, petitioners of every kind,
women “of ill life” (_de fole vie_), a whole herd of individuals
with no one to vouch for them, persisted in escorting the prince
and his courtiers. They quarrelled among each other, robbed by the
way, sometimes committed murders, and, as may be imagined, did not
contribute to render the news of the king’s arrival welcome to his
subjects.
[Illustration 23. A FAMILY DINNER AMONG THE GREAT, WITH DOGS,
MUSICIANS, CARVER, CUPBEARER, MARSHAL OF THE HALL (EXPELLING A LAZAR).
(_From the MS. Addit. 28162 in the British Museum. Fourteenth
Century._)]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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