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 Court of the Exchequer reviewed the accounts of
sheriffs, including receipts and expenditures on the Crown's
behalf as well as sums due to the Treasury, located still at
Winchester. These sums included rent from royal estates, the
Danegeld land tax, the fines from local courts, and aid from
baronial estates. It was called the "Exchequer" because it used a
chequered cloth on the table to facilitate calculation in Roman
numerals of the amount due and the amount paid. It's records
were the "Pipe Rolls", so named because sheets of parchment were
fastened at the top, each of which dropped into a roll at the
bottom and so assumed the shape of a pipe.
The shire and hundred courts assessed the personal property of
individuals and their taxes due to the King. The shire court
decided land disputes between people who had different barons as
their respective lords.
The Crown used its superior coercive power to enforce the legal
decisions of other courts.
The shire courts heard cases of theft, brawling, beating, and
wounding, for which the penalties could be exposure in the
pillory or stocks where the public could scorn and hit the
offender. It met twice yearly. If an accused failed to appear
after four successive shire courts, he was declared outlaw at the
fifth and forfeited his civil rights and all his property. He
could be slain by anyone at will.
The hundred court heard neighborhood disputes, for instance
concerning pastures, meadows and harvests. It policed the duty
of frankpledge, which was required for those who did not have a
lord to answer for him. It met once a month.
The free landholders were expected to attend shire, hundred, and
baronage courts. They owed "suit" to it. The suitors found the
dooms [laws] by which the presiding officer pronounced the
sentence.
The barons held court on their manors for issues arising between
people living on the manor, such as bad ploughing on the lord's
land or letting a cow get loose on the lord's land, and land
disputes. They also made the decision of whether or not a person
was a villein or free. The manor court took over issues which
had once been heard in the vill or hundred court. The baron
charged a fee for hearing a case and received any fines he
imposed, which amounted to significant "profits of justice".
Boroughs held court on trading and marketing issues in their
towns such as measures and weights, as well as issues between
people who lived in the borough. The borough court was presided
over by a reeve who was a burgess as well as a royal official.
Wealthy men could employ professional pleaders to advise them and
to speak for them in a court.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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