Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776Reilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
Judicial activity encouraged the recording of royal legislation in
writing which both looked to the past and attempted to set down law
current in Henry's own day in the Leges Henrici Primi. This showed an
awareness of the ideal of written law as a statement of judicial
principles as well as of the practice of kingship. In this way,
concepts of Roman law used by the Normans found their way into English
law. The laws of Henry I in the Leges Henrici Primi have as subjects
judicial procedure, proper judging, conduct of people involved in
litigation, litigation procedure, required witnesses, evidence,
credibility, quotes from legal references, oaths, perjury, geographical
divisions of England, court sessions and attendance, order of court
proceedings, adjournments, frankpledge, strangers, types of causes and
their manner of hearing, royal jurisdiction, ecclesiastical pleas of
the king, offenses, compensations, penalties, reliefs, the king's
peace, forest pleas, exculpation, soke, jurisdiction of royal judges,
the king's judges, summons, oathhelpers, transfer of cases, trials of
pleas, unjust judgments, sureties, lords who sue, accusations, court
procedure, pleadings, postponements, record of proceedings, failure to
appear, counsel, summoning the hundred, summoning the county court,
distraints, partners of common property, rights of jurisdiction of a
lord over his man, holdings in farm, disputes between neighbors, trial
by battle, slaves, pleas between a lord's reeve and those who are
subject to him, suits by royal judges, wergelds, murdrum fine, letting
go of a thief, slaying of or by a cleric, confessions, men of ill
repute, ordeals, compensations, bondmen, intent, inheritance, dowries,
homicide by magicians, definition of homicide, killing one's lord,
foreigners, debtors, illegitimacy, foundlings, the king's peace,
homicide in the king's court, royal highways, self-defense, drinking
assemblies, mutual enemies, leading into wrong-doing, lent arms,
marauders, weapons, killing a relative, pledge, negligence, and wounds
to body parts.
A sampling of the laws of Henry I follows:
"These are the jurisdictional rights which the king of England has in
his land solely and over all men, reserved through a proper ordering of
peace and security: breach of the king's peace given by his hand or
writ; Danegeld; the pleas of contempt of his writs or commands; the
death or injury of his servants wherever occurring; breach of fealty
and treason; any contempt or slander of him; fortifications consisting
of three walls; outlawry; theft punishable by death; murdrum;
counterfeiting his coinage; arson; hamsocn [breach of the right of
security and privacy in a man's house by forcible entry into it];
forestel [attacking an enemy unexpectedly or lying in wait for him on
the road and attacking him] passenger on the king's highway]; fyrding
[action regarding the military array or land force of the whole
country]; flymenfyrm [the reception or relief of a fugitive or outlaw];
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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