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 Commons established an exclusive right to originate all money
grants to the King in 1407. The commons announced its money
grant only on the last day of the parliamentary session, after
the answers to its petitions had been declared. It tied its
grants by rule rather than just practice to certain
appropriations. For instance, tonnage and poundage were
appropriated for naval defenses. Wool customs went to the
maintenance of Calais, a port on the continent, and defense of
the nation. It also put the petitions in statutory form, called
"bills", to be enacted without alteration. It forced the King's
council appointees to be approved by Parliament, and auditors to
be appointed to audit the King's account to ensure past grants
had been spent according to their purpose.
This was the first encroachment on the King's right to summon,
prorogue, or dismiss a Parliament at his pleasure, determine an
agenda of Parliament, veto or amend its bills, exercise his
discretion as to which lords he summoned to Parliament, and
create new peers by letters patent [official public letters].
The King lost Parliamentary power. The magnates asserted that
their attendance at one Parliament established a hereditary
right to attend the others. The consent of the Commons to
legislation became so usual that the judges declared that it was
necessary. In 1426, the retainers of the barons in Parliament
were forbidden to bear arms, so they appeared with clubs on
their shoulders. The clubs were forbidden and they brought in
stones concealed in their clothing.
The authority of the King's privy seal had become a great office
of state which transmitted the King's wishes to the Chancery and
Exchequer, rather than the King's personal instrument for
sealing documents. Now the King used a signet kept by his
secretary as his personal seal. The position of secretary rose in
power under Edward IV.
King Edward IV introduced an elaborate spy system, the use of the
rack to torture people to confess, and other interferences with
justice, all of which the Tudors later used.
King Richard III prohibited the seizure of goods before
conviction of felony. He also liberated the unfree villeins on
royal estates.
It was declared under Parliamentary authority that there was a
preference for the Crown to pass to a King's eldest son, and to
his male issue after him. Formerly, a man could ascend to the
throne through his female ancestry as well.
The Law
The forcible entry statute is expanded to include peaceful entry
with forcible holding afterwards and to forcible holding with
departure before the justices arrived. Penalties are triple
damages, fine, and ransom to the King. A forceful possession
lasting three years is exempt.
Women of age fourteen or over shall have livery of their lands
and tenements by inheritance without question or difficulty.
Purposely cutting out another's tongue or putting out another's
eyes is a felony [penalty of loss of all property].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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