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
When the land was all divided out, the barons had about 3/7 of it and
the church about 2/7. Most of the barons had been royal servants. The
king retained about 2/7, including forests for hunting, for himself and
his family and household, on which he built many royal castles and
hundreds of manor [large private estate headed by a lord] houses
throughout the nation. He built the massive White Tower in London. It
was tall with four turrets on top, and commanded a view of the river and
bridge, the city and the surrounding countryside. The only windows were
slits from which arrows could be shot. On the fourth and top floor was
the council chamber and the gallery of the chapel. On the third floor
was the banqueting hall, the sword room, and the chapel. The king and
his household slept in apartments on these upper floors. Stairs went up
to the gateway entrance on the second floor, which were hidden by a
wall. The garrison's barracks were on the first floor (ground floor).
Any prisoners were kept in cells at a level below the first floor. The
other castles were often built at the old fortification burhs of Alfred.
Each had a constable in charge, who was a baron. Barons and earls had
castle-guard duty in the king's castles. The Conquerer was constantly
moving about the land among his and his barons' castles, where he met
with his magnates and conducted public business, such as deciding
disputes about holding of land. Near his own castles and other of his
property, he designated many areas as royal hunting forests. Anyone who
killed a deer in these forests was mutilated, for instance by blinding.
People living within the boundaries of the designated forestland could
no longer go into nearby woods to get meat or honey, dead wood for
firing, or live wood for building. Swineherds could no longer drive pigs
into these woods to eat acorns they beat down from oak trees. Making
clearings and grazing livestock in the designated forestland were
prohibited. Most of the nation was either wooded or bog at this time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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