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
[12.] I establish a firm peace in all my kingdom, and I order that this
peace shall henceforth be kept.
[13.] I restore to you the law of King Edward together with such
emendations to it as my father [William I] made with the counsel of his
barons.
[14.] If since the death of my brother, King William [II], anyone shall
have seized any of my property, or the property of any other man, let
him speedily return the whole of it. If he does this no penalty will be
exacted, but if he retains any part of it he shall, when discovered, pay
a heavy penalty to me.
Witness: Maurice, bishop of London; William, bishop-elect of
Winchester; Gerard, bishop of Herefore; Henry the earl; Simon the earl;
Walter Giffard; Robert of Montfort-sur-Risle; Roger Bigot; Eudo the
steward; Robert, son of Haimo; and Robert Malet.
At London when I was crowned. Farewell."
Henry took these promises seriously, which resulted in peace and
justice. Royal justice became a force to be reckoned with by the
multiplication of justices. Henry had a great respect for legality and
the forms of judicial action. He became known as the "Lion of Justice".
The payment of queen's gold, that is of a mark of gold to the queen out
of every hundred marks of silver paid, in the way of fine or other
feudal incident, to the king, probably dates from Henry I's reign.
A woman could inherit a fief if she married. The primary way for a man
to acquire control of land was to marry an heiress. If a man were in a
lower station than she was, he had to pay for his new social status as
well as have royal permission. A man could also be awarded land which
had escheated to the King. If a noble woman wanted to hold land in her
own right, she had to make a payment to the King. Many widows bought
their freedom from guardianship or remarriage from the King. Women whose
husbands were at war also ran the land of their husbands.
Barons were lords of large holdings of farmland called "manors". Many
of the lesser barons left their dark castles to live in semi- fortified
stone houses, which usually were of two rooms with rug hangings for
drafts, as well as the sparse furniture that had been common to the
castle. There were shuttered windows to allow in light, but which also
let in the wind and rain when open. The roof was of thatch or narrow
overlapping wood shingles. The stone floor was strewn with hay and there
was a hearth near the center of the floor, with a louvered smoke hole in
the timber roof for escape of smoke. There were barns for grain and
animals. Beyond this area was a garden, orchard, and sometimes a
vineyard. The area was circumscribed by a moat over which there was a
drawbridge to a gatehouse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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