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
Debts to townsmen were recoverable by this law: "If a burgess has a
gage [a valuable object held as security for carrying out an agreement]
for money lent and holds this for a whole year and a day, and the debtor
will not deny the debt or deliver the gage, and this is proved, the
burgess may sell the gage before good witnesses for as much as he can,
and deduct his money from the sum. If any money is over he shall return
it to the debtor. But if there is not enough to pay him, he shall take
distress again for the amount that is lacking."
Past due rent in a borough was punishable by payment of 10s. as fine.
Judicial activity encouraged the recording of royal legislation in
writing which both looked to the past and attempted to set down law
current in Henry's own day. The "Liberi Quadripartitus" aimed to include
all English law of the time. This showed an awareness of the ideal of
written law as a statement of judicial principles as well as of the
practice of kingship. In this way, concepts of Roman law used by the
Normans found their way into English law.
Church law provided that only consent between a man and woman was
necessary for marriage. There needn't be witnesses, ceremony, nor
consummation. Consent could not be coerced. Penalties in marriage
agreements for not going through with the marriage were deemed invalid.
Villeins and slaves could marry without their lords' or owners'
permission. A couple living together could be deemed married. Persons
related by blood within certain degrees, which changed over time, of
consanguinity were forbidden to marry. This was the only ground for
annulment of a marriage. A legal separation could be given for adultery,
cruelty, or heresy. Annulment, but not separation, could result in
remarriage. Fathers were usually ordered to provide some sustenance and
support for their illegitimate children. The court punished infanticide
and abortion. Counterfeiters of money, arsonists, and robbers of
pilgrims and merchants were to be excommunicated. Church sanctuary was
to be given to fugitives of violent feuds until they could be given a
fair trial.
- Judicial Procedure -
Courts extant now are the Royal Court, the King's Court of the
Exchequer, county courts, and hundred courts, which were under the
control of the King. His appointed justices administered justice in
these courts on regular circuits. The sheriff now only produced the
proper people and preserved order at the county courts and presided over
the nonroyal pleas and hundred courts. He impaneled recognitors, made
arrests, and enforced the decisions of the royal courts. Also there are
manor courts, borough courts, and ecclesiastical courts. In the manor
courts, the lord's reeve generally presided. The court consisted of the
lord's vassals and declared the customs and law concerning such offenses
as failure to perform services and trespass on manorial woods, meadow,
and pasture.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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