The Angevins and the Charter (1154-1216): The Beginning of English Law, the Invasion of Ireland and the Crusades — John Shaqi
The Angevins and the Charter (1154-1216): The Beginning of English Law, the Invasion of Ireland and the Crusades
History
The Angevins and the Charter (1154-1216): The Beginning of English Law, the Invasion of Ireland and the Crusades
Great Britain -- History -- Angevin period, 1154-1216 -- Sources; Magna Carta
24. No sheriff, constable, coroners or other bailiffs of ours shall hold
the pleas of our crown.
25. All counties, hundreds, wapentakes, and trithings--our demesne
manors being excepted--shall continue according to the old farms,
without any increase at all.
26. If any one holding from us a lay fee shall die, and our sheriff or
bailiff can show our letters patent containing our summons for the debt
which the dead man owed to us,--our sheriff or bailiff may be allowed to
attach and enroll the chattels of the dead man to the value of that
debt, through view of lawful men; in such way, however, that nothing
shall be moved thence until the debt is paid which was plainly owed to
us. And the residue shall be left to the executors that they may carry
out the will of the dead man. And if nothing is owed to us by him, all
the chattels shall go to the use prescribed by the deceased, saving
their reasonable portions to his wife and children.
27. If any freeman shall have died intestate, his chattels shall be
distributed through the hands of his near relatives and friends, by view
of the church; saving to any one the debts which the dead man owed him.
28. No constable or other bailiff of ours shall take the corn or other
chattels of any one except he straightway give money for them, or can be
allowed a respite in that regard by the will of the seller.
29. No constable shall force any knight to pay money for castle-ward, if
he be willing to perform that ward in person, or--he for a reasonable
cause not being able to perform it himself--through another proper man.
And if we shall have led or sent him on a military expedition, he shall
be quit of ward according to the amount of time during which, through
us, he shall have been in military service.
30. No sheriff nor bailiff of ours, nor any one else, shall take the
horses or carts of any freeman for transport, unless by the will of that
freeman.
31. Neither we nor our bailiffs shall take another's wood for castles or
for other private uses, unless by the will of him to whom the wood
belongs.
32. We shall not hold the lands of those convicted of felony longer than
a year and a day; and then the lands shall be restored to the lords of
the fiefs.
33. Henceforth all the weirs in the Thames and Medway, and throughout
all England, save on the sea-coast, shall be done away with entirely.
34. Henceforth the writ which is called "Praecipe" shall not be served
on any one for any holding, so as to cause a free man to lose his court.
35. There shall be one measure of wine throughout our whole realm, and
one measure of ale, and one measure of corn--namely, the London
quart;--and one width of dyed and russet and hauberk cloths--namely, two
ells below the selvage. And with weights, moreover, it shall be as with
measures.
36. Henceforth nothing shall be given or taken for a writ of inquest in
a matter concerning life or limb; but it shall be conceded gratis, and
shall not be denied.
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