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
Bachelors at Oxford studied the arts of grammar, rhetoric, and
logic, and then music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy, until they
mastered their discipline and therefore were authorized to teach it.
Teaching would then provide an income sufficient to support a wife. The
master of arts was analogous to the master craftsman of a guild. From
1190, the civil law was studied, and shortly thereafter, canon law.
Later came the study of medicine. The use of paper supplemented the use
of parchment for writing. Irregular edged paper was made from linen,
cotton, straw, and/or wood beaten to a pulp and then spread out over a
wire mesh to dry.
Theologicians taught that the universe was made for the sake
and service of man, so man was placed at the center of the universe.
Man was made for the sake and service of God.
Every freeman holding land of a lord gave homage and fealty to
him, swearing to bear him faith of the tenement held and to preserve
his earthly honor in all things, saving the faith owed to the king.
Homage was done for lands, for free tenements [including meadows,
pastures, woods, and wastes], for services, and for rents precisely
fixed in money or in kind. Homage could be done to any free person,
male or female, adult or minor, cleric or layman. A man could do
several homages to different lords for different fees, but there had to
be a chief homage to that lord of whom he held his chief tenement.
Homage was not due for dower, from the husband of a woman to whom a
tenement was given as a marriage portion, for a fee given in free alms,
or until the third heir, either for free maritagium [a marriage portion
of land which is given with a daughter in marriage, that is not bound
to service and passes to the daughter's heirs in whatever way had been
stipulated by her family when the grant was made] or for the fee of
younger sisters holding of the eldest. All fiefs to be inherited by the
eldest son had to be intact. Every lord could exact fealty from his
servants.
In this era, the English national race and character was
formed. Only a few barons still had lands in Normandy. Stories of good
King Arthur were popular and set ideals for behavior and justice in an
otherwise barbaric age where force was supreme. His last battle in
which he lay wounded and told a kinsman to rule in his place and uphold
his laws was written in poem ("Layamon's Brut"). Romantic stories were
written and read in English. The custom of "bundling" was started by
ladies with their knights, who would lie together in bed without
undressing and with one in a sack the top of which was tied around his
neck, as part of a romantic courtship. Wealthy men often gave their
daughters dowries in case they were widowed. This might be matched by a
marriage settlement by a prospective husband.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account