Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776: June 2011 (Sixth) EditionReilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776: June 2011 (Sixth) Edition
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
As before, the land of any person who had been outlawed or convicted of
a felony escheated to his lord. His moveable goods and chattels became
the King's. If he was executed, his heirs received nothing because they
were of the same blood as the felon, which was corrupt: "corruption of
the blood". The loss of civil rights and capacities after a sentence of
death for felony or treason, which resulted in forfeiture of property
and corruption of the blood, was called "attainder".
The manor court heard cases arising out of the unfree tenures of the
lord's vassals. It also heard distraint, also called "distress", issues.
Distraint was a landlord's method of forcing a tenant to perform the
services of his fief. To distrain by the fief, a lord first obtained a
judgment of his court. Otherwise, he distrained only by goods and
chattels without judgment of his court. A distraint was merely a
security to secure a person's services, if he agreed he owed them, or
his attendance in court, if he did not agree that he owed them. Law and
custom restricted the type of goods and chattels distrainable, and the
time and manner of distraint. For instance, neither clothes, household
utensils, nor a riding horse was distrainable. The lord could not use
the chattels taken while they were in his custody. If cattle in custody
were not accessible to the tenant, the lord had to feed them at his
expense. The lord, if he were not the King, could not sell the chattel.
This court also determined inheritance and dower issues.
The court of the vill enforced the village ordinances. The hundred
court met twice a month and dealt with the petty crimes of lowly men in
the neighborhood of a few vills. The county and borough courts heard
cases of felonies, accusations against freemen, tort, and debts. The
knights make the county courts work as legal and administrative agencies
of the Crown.
The peace of the sheriff still exists for his county. The King's peace
may still be specially given, but it will cease upon the death of the
King. Law required every good and lawful man to be bound to follow the
hue and cry when it was raised against an offender who was fleeing. The
village reeve was expected to lead the chase to the boundary of the next
jurisdiction, which would then take the responsibility to catch the man.
Admiralty issues (since no assize could be summoned on the high seas),
and tenement issues of land held in frankalmoin ["free alms" for the
poor to relieve the king of this burden], where the tenant was a cleric
were heard in the ecclesiastical courts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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