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
The King's coroner and a murderer who had taken sanctuary in a
church often agreed to the penalty of confession and perpetual
banishment from the nation as follows: "Memorandum that on July
6, [1347], Henry de Roseye abjured the realm of England before
John Bernard, the King's coroner, at the church of Tendale in
the County of Kent in form following: 'Hear this, O lord the
coroner, that I, Henry de Roseye, have stolen an ox and a cow of
the widow of John Welsshe of Retherfeld; and I have stolen
eighteen beasts from divers men in the said county. And I
acknowledge that I have feloniously killed Roger le Swan in the
town of Strete in the hundred of Strete in the rape of Lewes and
that I am a felon of the lord King of England. And because I
have committed many ill deeds and thefts in his land, I abjure
the land of the Lord Edward King of England, and [I
acknowledge] that I ought to hasten to the port of Hastings,
which thou hast given me, and that I ought not to depart from
the way, and if I do so I am willing to be taken as a thief and
felon of the lord King, and that at Hastings I will diligently
seek passage, and that I will not wait there save for the flood
and one ebb if I can have passage; and if I cannot have passage
within that period, I will go up to the knees into the sea every
day, endeavoring to cross; and unless I can do so within forty
days, I will return at once to the church, as a thief and a
felon of the lord King, so help me God."
Property damage by a tenant of a London building was assessed in
a 1374 case: "John Parker, butcher, was summoned to answer
Clement Spray in a plea of trespass, wherein the latter
complained that the said John, who had hired a tavern at the
corner of St. Martin-le-Grand from him for fifteen months, had
committed waste and damage therein, although by the custom of the
city no tenant for a term of years was entitled to destroy any
portion of the buildings or fixtures let to him. He alleged that
the defendant had taken down the doorpost of the tavern and also
of the shop, the boarded door of a partition of the tavern, a
seat in the tavern, a plastered partition wall, the stone
flooring in the chamber, the hearth of the kitchen, and the
mantelpiece above it, a partition in the kitchen, two doors and
other partitions, of a total value of 21s. four pounds, 1s.
8d., and to his damage, 400s. 20 pounds. The defendant denied
the trespass and put himself on the country. Afterwards a jury
... found the defendant guilty of the aforesaid trespass to the
plaintiff's damage, 40d. Judgment was given for that amount and
a fine of 1s. to the King, which the defendant paid immediately
in court."
The innkeeper's duty to safeguard the person and property of his
lodgers was applied in this case:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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