Our Legal Heritage: The First Thousand Years: 600 - 1600: King Aethelbert - Queen ElizabethReilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage: The First Thousand Years: 600 - 1600: King Aethelbert - Queen Elizabeth
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
Forecastles and stern castles on ships were lower and broader.
Underneath them were cabins. The English ship was still
single-masted with a single square sail. A navy was formed with
over 200 ships selected by the English admirals acting for the
King at the ports. Men were seized and pressed into service and
criminals were pardoned from crimes to become sailors in the
fleet, which was led by the King's ship. They used the superior
longbow against the French sailor's crossbow. In 1372, the Tower
of London had four mounted fortress cannon and Dover had six.
The war's disruption of shipping caused trade to decline. But the
better policing of the narrow seas made piracy almost disappear.
In 1363, Calais, a continental town held by the English, became
the staple town for lead, tin, cloth, and wool and was placed
under a group of London capitalists: the Merchants of the
Staple. All exports of these had to pass through Calais, where
customs tax was collected. Merchants who took cloth abroad to
various places to sell, personally or by agents, were called
merchant adventurers to distinguish them from the Merchant of
the Staple.
Waterpower was replacing foot power in driving the mills where
cloth was cleaned and fulled [thickened].
A boundary dispute between two barons resulted in the first true
survey map. Nine cow pastures were divided by a boundary marked
by a shield on a pole which the commission of true and sworn men
had set up.
Bethlehem Hospital was used from 1377 to house the mentally ill.
The Law
After the Black Death of 1348 these statutes were enacted:
High treason was defined by statute in 1352 as levying war
against the King, aiding the King's enemies, compassing or
imagining the death of the King, Queen, or their eldest son and
heir, or violating the Queen or the eldest unmarried daughter or
the wife of the King's eldest son and heir, making or knowingly
using counterfeits of the King's great or privy seal or coinage,
or slaying the Chancellor, Treasurer, or any justice in the
exercise of their duty. The penalty was forfeit of life and
lands. During the reign of King Richard II, who was later
disposed, high treason was extended to include making a riot and
rumor, compassing or purposing to depose the King, revoking
one's homage or liege to the King, and attempting to repeal a
statute. But these extensions were repealed after he was
deposed.
Petit treason was defined by statute and included a servant
slaying his master, a wife her husband, or a man his lord, to
whom was owed faith and obedience.
No one shall tell false news or lies about prelates, dukes,
earls, barons, and other nobles and great men or the Chancellor,
Treasurer, a Justice, Clerk of the Privy Seal, Steward of the
King's house whereby debates and discords might arise between
these lords or between the lords and the commons. Cases shall be
tried by the King's Council, which included the Chancellor,
Treasurer, and chief justices.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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