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
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.
Teh 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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