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
The courts of the king and barons became schools of chivalry
wherein seven year old noble boys became pages or valets, wore a dagger
and waited upon the ladies of the household. At age fourteen, they were
advanced to squires and admitted into more familiar association with
the knights and ladies of the court. They perfected their skills in
dancing, riding, fencing, hawking, hunting, jousting, and engaged in
team sports in which the goal was to put the other side to rout. They
learned the knightly art of war. Enemy fighters were to be taken and
held for ransom rather than killed. Those engaging in rebellion were to
be pardoned and restored to some or all of their lands and titles.
Lords' sons could be mutually exchanged with an enemy's as security for
peace. After achieving knighthood, a man usually selected a wife from
the court at which he grew up. Parents tried to send their daughters to
a household superior in social status not only to learn manners, but to
make a good marriage. A girl who did not marry was often sent to a
nunnery; a dowry was necessary before her acceptance.
The following incidents of land tenure began (but were not
firmly established until the reign of Henry II). Each tenant, whether
baron or subtenant, was to pay an "aid" in money for ransom if his lord
was captured in war, for the knighthood of his lord's eldest son, and
for the marriage of his lord's eldest daughter. The aid was
theoretically voluntary. Land could be held by an heir only if he could
fight. The eldest son began to succeed to the whole of the lands in all
military tenures. Actually, William and his sons insisted on undivided
succession rather than a strict application of the primogeniture rule
that the eldest son inherit.Younger sons of great houses became
bishops. An heir of a tenant had to pay a heavy "relief" on succession
to his estate. The relief replaced the heriot. If there was a delay in
proving heirship or paying relief, the lord would hold the land and
receive its income in the meantime, often a year. If an heir was still
a minor or female, he or she passed into his lord's wardship, in which
the lord had guardianship of the heir and possession of the estate,
with all its profits. The mother was not made a minor's guardian. No
longer was the estate protected by the minor's kin as his birthright. A
female heir was expected to marry a man acceptable to the lord. The
estate of an heiress and her land was generally sold to the highest
bidder. If there were no heirs, the land escheated [reverted] to the
lord. If a tenant committed felony, his land escheated to his lord. The
word "felony" came from the Latin word meaning "to deceive" and
referred to the feudal crime of betraying or committing treachery
against one's lord.
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