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
"A parent or other who forcefully leads away and withholds, or marries
off, an heir who is a minor (under 14), shall yield the value of the
marriage and be imprisoned until he has satisfied the king for the
trespass. If an heir 14 years or older marries without his Lord's
permission to defraud him of the marriage and the Lord offers him
reasonable and convenient marriage, without disparagement, then the Lord
shall hold his land beyond the term of his age, that, of twenty one
years, so long that he may receive double the value of the marriage as
estimated by lawful men, or after as it has been offered before without
fraud or collusion, and after as it may be proved in the King's Court.
Any Lord who marries off a ward of his who is a minor and cannot consent
to marriage, to a villain or other, such as a burgess, whereby the ward
is disparaged, shall lose the wardship and all its profits if the ward's
friends complain of the Lord. The wardship and profit shall be converted
to the use of the heir, for the shame done to him, after the disposition
and provision of his friends." (The "marriage" could be annulled by the
church.)
"If an heir of whatever age will not marry at the request of his Lord,
he shall not be compelled thereunto; but when he comes of age, he shall
pay to his Lord the value of the marriage before receiving his land,
whether or not he himself marries."
"Interest shall not run against any minor, from the time of death of
his ancestor until his lawful age; so nevertheless, that the payment of
the principal debt, with the interest that was before the death of his
ancestor shall not remain."
The value of debts to be repaid to the king or to any man shall be
reasonably determined by the debtor's neighbors and not by strangers. A
debtors' plough cattle or sheep cannot be taken to satisfy a debt.
The wards and escheats of the king shall be surveyed yearly by three
people assigned by the King. The sheriffs, by their counsel, shall
approve and let to farm such wards and escheats as they think most
profitable for the King. The Sheriffs shall be answerable for the issues
thereof in the Exchequer at designated times. The collectors of the
customs on wool exports shall pay this money at the two designated times
and shall make yearly accounts of all parcels in ports and all ships.
By statute leap year was standardized throughout the nation, "the day
increasing in the leap year shall be accounted in that year", "but it
shall be taken and reckoned in the same month wherein it grew and that
day and the preceding day shall be counted as one day."
"An English penny [1 d.], called a sterling, round and without any
clipping, shall weigh 32 wheat grains dry in the middle of the ear."
Measurements of distance were standardized to twelve inches to a foot,
three feet to a yard, and so forth up to an acre of land.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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