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
In 1297, Edward I confirmed the Magna Carta and other items.
Judgments contrary to Magna Carta were nullified. The documents were to
be read in cathedral churches as grants of Edward and all violators
were to be excommunicated. He also agreed not to impose taxes without
the consent of Parliament after baronial pressure had forced him to
retreat from trying to increase, for a war in France, the customs tax
on every exported sack of wool to 40s. from the 6s. 8d. per sack it had
been since 1275. The customs tax was finally fixed at 10s. for every
sack of wool, 2s. for each tun [casket] of wine, and 6d. for every
pound's worth of other goods. The "tenths and fifteenths" tax levied on
income from movables or chattels became regular every year. Edward also
confirmed the Forest Charter, which called for its earlier boundaries.
And he agreed not to impound any grain or wool or and like against the
will of the owners, as had been done before to collect taxes. Also, the
special prises or requisitions of goods for national emergency were not
to be a precedent. Lastly, he agreed not to impose penalties on two
earls and their supporters for refusing to serve in the war in France
when the king did not go.
The Magna Carta is the first statute. From 1299, statutes were
recorded in a Statute Roll as they were enacted.
By the end of the 1200s, the King's wardrobe, where
confidential matters such as military affairs were discussed in his
bedroom, became a department of state with the King's privy seal. The
keeper of the privy seal was established as a new office by Edward I in
1318. The wardrobe paid and provisioned the knights, squires, and
sergeants of the king and was composed mostly of civil servants. It
traveled with the King. The Crown's treasure, plate, tents, hangings,
beds, cooking utensils, wine, and legal and financial rolls were
carried on pack horses or in two-wheeled carts drawn by oxen, donkeys,
or dogs. The people in the entourage rode horses or walked. The other
two specialized administrative bodies were the Exchequer, which
received most of the royal revenue and kept accounts at Westminster,
and the Chancery, which wrote royal writs, charters, and letters, and
kept records.
The chief functions of administration in the 1300s were
performed by the council, chancery, wardrobe, chamber [room off
wardrobe for dressing and for storage], and exchequer. Many of the
chancellors had come from the wardrobe and chamber. In time, the
chancellor ceased to be a part of the king's personal retinue and to
follow the court. The chancery became primarily a department of central
administration rather than a secretariat and record-keeping part of the
royal household. The king used a privy seal to issue directives to the
chancery. Edward III made some merchants earls and appointed them to be
his ministers. He did not summon anyone to his council who did not have
the confidence of the magnates [barons, earls, bishops, and abbots].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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