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
London was a walled town of one and two story houses made of mud,
twigs, and straw, with thatched roofs. It included a bundle of
communities, townships, parishes, and lordships. There were churches, a
goods market, a fish market, quays on the river, and a bridge over the
river. Streets probably named by this time include Bread Street, Milk
Street, Honey Lane, Wood Street, and Ironmonger Lane. Fairs and games
were held outside the town walls in a field called "Smithfield". The
great citizens had the land qualifications of knights and ranked as
barons on the Conquerer's council. The freemen were a small percentage
of London's population. There was a butchers' guild, a pepperers' guild,
a goldsmiths' guild, the guild of St. Lazarus, which was probably a
leper charity (of which there were many in the 1000s and 1100s), the
Pilgrims' guild, which helped people going on pilgrimages, and four
bridge guilds, probably for keeping the wooden London Bridge in repair.
Men told the time by sundials, some of which were portable and could be
carried in one's pocket. London could defend itself, and a ringing of
the bell of St. Paul's Church could shut every shop and fill the streets
with armed horsemen and soldiers led by a soldier portreeve. Across the
Thames from London on its south side was Southwark, a small trading and
fishing settlement.
The Conquerer did not interfere with landholding in London, but
recognized its independence as a borough in this writ: "William the King
greets William, Bishop of London, and Gosfrith the portreeve, and all
the burgesses [citizens] of London friendly. Know that I will that you
be worthy of all the laws you were worthy of in the time of King Edward.
And I will that every child shall be his father's heir after his
father's day. And I will not suffer any man to do you wrong. God
preserve you." The Norman word "mayor" replaced "portreeve".
So London was not subjected to the Norman feudal system. It had neither
villeins nor slaves. Whenever Kings asserted authority over it, the
citizens reacted until the king "granted" a charter reaffirming the
freedoms of the city and its independence.
Under pressure from the ecclesiastical judges, the Conquerer replaced
the death penalty by that of the mutilation of blinding, chopping off
hands, and castrating offenders. Castration was the punishment for rape.
But these mutilations usually led to a slow death by gangrene.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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