Our Legal Heritage, King AEthelbert, 596 to King George III, 1775Reilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage, King AEthelbert, 596 to King George III, 1775
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
Regulation of trade became national instead of local. Trade was
relatively free; almost the only internal transportation tolls
were petty portages and viages levied to recoup the expense of a
bridge or road which had been built by private enterprise.
Responsibility for the coinage was transferred from the individual
moneyers working in different boroughs to a central official who
was to become Master of the Mint. The round half penny and
farthing [1/4 penny] were created so that the penny needn't be cut
into halves and quarters anymore.
Edward I called meetings of representatives from all social and
geographic sectors of the nation at one Parliament to determine
taxes due to the Crown. He declared that "what touches all, should
be approved by all". He wanted taxes from the burgesses in the
towns and the clergy's ecclesiastical property as well as from
landholders. He argued to the clergy that if barons had to both
fight and pay, they who could do no fighting must at least pay.
When the clergy refused to pay, he put them outside the royal
protection and threatened outlawry and confiscation of their
lands. Then they agreed to pay and to renounce all papal orders
contrary to the King's authority.
The Model Parliament of 1295 was composed of the three
communities. The first were the lords, which included seven earls
and forty-one barons. Because of the increase of lesser barons due
to a long national peace and prosperity, the lords attending were
reduced in numbers and peerage became dependent not on land
tenure, but on royal writ of summons. The great barons were chosen
by the king and received a special summons in their own names to
the council or Parliament. Others were called by a general
summons. The second community was the clergy, represented by the
two archbishops, bishops from each of eighteen dioceses, and
sixty-seven abbots. The third community was the commons. It was
composed of two knights elected by the suitors who were then
present at the county court, two burgesses elected by principal
burgesses of each borough, and two representatives from each city.
The country knights had a natural affinity with the towns in part
because their younger sons sought their occupation, wife, and
estate there. Also, great lords recruited younger brothers of
yeoman families for servants and fighting men, who ultimately
settled down as tradesmen in the towns. The country people and the
town people also had a community of interest by both being
encompassed by the county courts. The peasants were not
represented in the county courts nor in Parliament. One had to
have land to be entitled to vote because the landowner had a stake
in the country, a material security for his good behavior.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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