Our Legal Heritage : 600-1776 King Aethelbert - King George IIIReilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage : 600-1776 King Aethelbert - King George III
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
Anyone may ship or carry grain out of the nation, except to
enemies, after paying duties. But the council may restrain this
passage when necessary for the good of the nation. Any merchant,
privy or stranger, who was robbed of goods on the sea or lost his
ship by tempest or other misfortune on the sea banks, his goods
coming to shore could not be declared Wreck, but were to be
delivered to the merchant after he proves ownership in court by
his marks on the goods or by good and lawful merchants.
All stakes and obstacles set up in rivers impeding the passage of
boats shall be removed.
Waterpower was replacing foot power in driving the mills where
cloth was cleaned and fulled.
A boundary dispute between two barons resulted in the first true
survey map. Nine cow pastures were divided by a boundary marked by
a shield on a pole which the commission of true and sworn men had
set up.
King Richard II, an irresponsible sovereign, asserted an absolute
supremacy of the king over Parliament and declared certain
statutes which he claimed to have been forced on him to be
revoked. He interfered with county elections of knights to
Parliament by directing sheriffs to return certain named persons.
He wanted to dispense altogether with Parliament and instead have
a committee of representatives. He claimed that the goods of his
subjects were his own and illegally taxed the counties. There were
many disputes as to who should be his ministers. High treason was
extended to include making a riot and rumor, compassing or
purposing to depose the King, revoking one's homage or liege to
the King, or attempting to repeal a statute. When Henry
Bolingbroke reported to Parliament that another lord had cast
doubt on the king's trustworthiness, a duel between them was
arranged. But Richard, probably fearing the gain of power of the
lord who won, instead exiled the two lords. He took possession of
the Lancaster estates to which Henry was heir and forbade this
inheritance. This made all propertied men anxious and they united
behind Bolingbroke in taking up arms against Richard. Richard was
not a warrior king and offered to resign the crown. The "Merciless
Parliament" of 1388 swept out Richard's friends. Parliament
deposed and imprisoned Richard. It revoked the extensions to the
definition of high treason. It elected Bolingbroke, who claimed to
be a descendant of Henry III, to be King Henry IV. This action
established clearly that royal decrees were subordinate to
parliamentary statutes, that Parliament was the ultimate legal
arbiter of the realm, and that the consent of Parliament was
necessary in determining kingship. The House of Commons became
very powerful. It was responsible for the major part of
legislation. It's members began to assert the privilege of free
speech. That is, they wanted to discuss other matters than what
was on the king's agenda and they opposed punishment for what they
said unless it was treasonable. Henry IV agreed to their request
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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