In the appeal of felony, the prosecutor was bound to offer combat with his own body, but in the writ of right, the demandant could either participate in his own behalf, or through the medium of his champions’ services.[21] But even in the Norman days, when battle was in vogue, “battle did not lie” unless there was a charge of crime and at least ten shillings’ worth of property was in dispute.[22] In civil cases, professional pugilists were commonly employed and perjury became so common that the form of the compurgator’s oath was changed to prevent the wholesale commission of this crime.[23] The commonest cause of battles were those urged by an “approver,” or convicted criminal, whose pardon was conditional upon his ridding the kingdom of some half dozen or more of his associates, by his “appeals.” This custom, however, began to decline so rapidly, that in Bracton’s day the annual average of battles did not exceed twenty.[24] The old books indicate that in appeals of felony, the custom was for the combatants to have their heads shaved, not to prevent the opponent from catching hold of the hair, but because it was an old religious custom.[25] In discussing the trial by combat, in finance, Neilson shows how, during the reign of Henry II., large sums were paid to crown officers, for the privilege of the duel; for refusal to fight, or absence, and for fines for wrongfully claiming the right to the duel, and the same thing was true in the reign of Richard I.[26] During the reign of Edward III. the trial by battle was discouraged by the legislation of the period and trial by jury was encouraged. The right of trial by battle was taken away in the case of an appeal for breaking the king’s prison, and the right was also denied to one “taken with the manner.”[27] And during the reigns of Edward V. and Richard III., the trial by battle in criminal cases had become so obnoxious to the people of England that it came to be established that if a valid indictment was pending for the offense charged, the right of trial by battle was denied.[28] In the reign of Henry VI., Priscot, Chief Justice, and Needham, one of the Justices, held that in an appeal for treason, the battle could only be had before the constable and marshal.[29] Wager of battle had been but seldom invoked in actions of debt, and in the thirteenth century, it was no longer allowed in this class of actions.[30] A generation after the Norman conquest, Henry I., by Charter to the City of London,[31] granted exemption from the trial by battle to citizens of London, or peers of the realm, in certain cases, and a woman, a priest, an infant, a man of sixty or over, or one maimed, lame, or blind, was entitled to refuse the wager of battle and insist upon a trial by jury.[32]