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
The courts of the king and barons became schools of chivalry wherein
seven year old noble boys became pages or valets, wore a dagger and
waited upon the ladies of the household. At age fourteen, they were
advanced to squires and admitted into more familiar association with the
knights and ladies of the court. They perfected their skills in dancing,
riding, fencing, hawking, hunting, jousting, and engaged in team sports
in which the goal was to put the other side to rout. They learned the
knightly art of war. Enemy fighters were to be taken and held for ransom
rather than killed. Those engaging in rebellion were to be pardoned and
restored to some or all of their lands and titles. Lords' sons could be
mutually exchanged with an enemy's as security for peace. After
achieving knighthood, a man usually selected a wife from the court at
which he grew up. Parents tried to send their daughters to a household
superior in social status not only to learn manners, but to make a good
marriage. A girl who did not marry was often sent to a nunnery; a dowry
was necessary before her acceptance.
The following incidents of land tenure began (but were not firmly
established until the reign of Henry II). Each tenant, whether baron or
subtenant, was to pay an "aid" in money for ransom if his lord was
captured in war, for the knighthood of his lord's eldest son, and for
the marriage of his lord's eldest daughter. The aid was theoretically
voluntary. Land could be held by an heir only if he could fight. The
eldest son began to succeed to the whole of the lands in all military
tenures. Younger sons of great houses became bishops. An heir of a
tenant had to pay a heavy "relief" on succession to his estate. The
relief replaced the heriot. If there was a delay in proving heirship or
paying relief, the lord would hold the land and receive its income in
the meantime, often a year. If an heir was still a minor or female, he
or she passed into his lord's wardship, in which the lord had
guardianship of the heir and possession of the estate, with all its
profits. The mother was not made a minor's guardian. No longer was the
estate protected by the minor's kin as his birthright. A female heir was
expected to marry a man acceptable to the lord. The estate of an heiress
and her land was generally sold to the highest bidder. If there were no
heirs, the land escheated to the lord. If a tenant committed felony, his
land escheated to his lord. The word "felony" came from the Latin word
meaning "to deceive" and referred to the feudal crime of betraying or
committing treachery against one's lord.
Astrologers resided with the families of the barons. People went to
fortune tellers' shops. There was horse racing, steeple races, and chess
for recreation. Girls had dolls; boys had toy soldiers, spinning tops,
toy horses, ships, and wooden models.
The state of medicine is indicated by this medical advice brought to
the nation by William's son after treatment on the continent:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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