OUR LEGAL HERITAGE

S >> S. A. Reilly, Attorney >> OUR LEGAL HERITAGE

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Most men wore a knife because of the prevalence of murder and
robbery. It was an every day event for a murderer to flee to
sanctuary in a church, which would then be surrounded by his
pursuers while the coroner was summoned. Usually, the fugitive
would confess and agree to leave the nation and never return.

It had been long customary for the groom to endow his bride in
public at the church door. This was to keep her and her children
if he died first. If dower was not specified, it was understood
to be one-third of all lands and tenements.

The county offices were: sheriff, coroner, escheator, and
constable or bailiff. There were 28 sheriffs for 38 counties. No
longer did the sheriff buy his office and collect certain rents
for himself. The sheriff now was a salaried political appointee
of the King and employed a deputy or undersheriff, who was a
lawyer, and clerks. If there was civil commotion or contempt of
royal authority, the sheriff had power to raise a posse of armed
men to restore order [posse comitatus: power of the county].
There were about five coroners in each county and they served
for a number of years. They were chosen locally under the
sheriff's supervision. The escheator was appointed annually by
the Treasurer to administer the Crown's rights in feudal land in
the county. The constables and bailiffs operated at the hundred
and parish level to detect crime and keep the peace. They
assisted sheriffs and Justices of the Peace, organized "watches"
for criminals and vagrants at the village level, and raised the
"hue and cry" along the highway and from village to village in
pursuit of offenders who had committed felony or robbery in
their districts.

Shire knights performed a number of duties. They served a
sheriffs, escheators, coroners, and justices on special royal
commissions of gaol-delivery. They sat in judgment in the shire
court at its monthly meetings, attended the two great annual
assemblies when the lord, knights and freeholders of the shire
gathered to meet the justices on eyre, who came escorted by the
sheriff and weapon bearers. They served on the committees which
reviewed the presentments of the hundreds and village, and
carried the record of the shire court to Westminster when
summoned there by the kings' judges. They served on the grand
assize. As elected representatives of their fellow knights of
the shire, they assessed any taxes due from each hundred. They
investigated and reported on local abuses and grievances. The
king's judges and council often called on them to answer
questions put to them on oath. In the villages, humbler
freeholders and sokemen were elected to assess the village
taxes. Six villeins answered for the village's offenses at the
royal eyre.

Everyone was taught to read and write in English. Even obscure
villages gathered children together for this schooling. Boys of
noblemen were taught reading, writing, Latin, a musical
instrument, athletics, riding, and gentlemanly conduct. Girls
were taught reading, writing, music, dancing, and perhaps
household nursing and first aid, spinning, embroidery, and
gardening. Girls of high social position were also taught riding
and hawking. Grammar schools taught, in Latin, grammar, logic
[dialectic], and rhetoric [art of public speaking and debate].
The teacher possessed the only complete copy of the Latin text,
and most of the school work was done orally. Though books were
few and precious, the students read several Latin works. Girls
and boys of high social position usually had private teachers
for grammar school, while boys of lower classes were sponsored
at grammar schools such as those at Oxford. Discipline was
maintained by the birch or rod.

There was no examination for admission as an undergraduate to
Oxford, but a knowledge of Latin with some skill in speaking
Latin was a necessary background. The students came from all
backgrounds. Some had their expenses paid by their parents,
while others had the patronage of a churchman, a religious house,
or a wealthy layman.

A student at Oxford would become a master after graduating from a
seven year course of study of the seven liberal arts: [grammar,
rhetoric (the source of law), Aristotelian logic (which
differentiates the true from the false), arithmetic, including
fractions and ratios, (the foundation of order), geometry,
including methods of finding the length of lines, the area of
surfaces, and thevolume of solids, (the science of measurement),
astronomy (the most noble of the sciences because it is
connected with divinity and theology), music, and Aristotle's
philosophy of physics, metaphysics, and ethics; and then
lecturing and leading disputations for two years. He also had to
write a thesis on some chosen subject and defend it against the
faculty. A Master's degree gave one the right to teach. Further
study for four years led to a doctorate in one of the
professions: theology and canon or civil law.

There were about 1,500 students in Oxford. They drank, played
dice, quarreled a lot and begged at street corners. There were
mob fights between students from the north and students from the
south and between students and townsmen. But when the mayor of
Oxford hanged two students accused of being involved in the
killing of a townswoman, many masters and students left for
Cambridge. In 1214, a charter created the office of Chancellor
of the university at Oxford. He was responsible for law and
order and, through his court, could fine, imprison, and
excommunicate offenders and expel undesirables such as
prostitutes from the town. He had authority over all crimes
involving scholars, except murder and mayhem. The Chancellor
summoned and presided over meetings of the masters and came to
be elected by indirect vote by the masters who had schools,
usually no more than a room or hall with a central hearth which
was hired for lectures. Students paid for meals there. Corners
of the room were often partitioned off for private study. At
night, some students slept on the straw on the floor. Six hours
of sleep were considered sufficient.

In 1221 the Friars established their chief school at Oxford. They
were bound by oaths of poverty, obedience, and chastity, but
were not confined within the walls of a monastery. They walked
barefoot from place to lace preaching. They begged for their
food and lodgings. They replaced monks, who had become self-
indulgent, as the most vital spiritual force among the people. In
1231, the King ordered that every student must have his name on
the roll of a master and the masters had to keep a list of those
attending his lectures.

The first college was founded in 1264 by Walter de Merton, former
Chancellor to the King, at Oxford. A college had the living
arrangements of a Hall, with the addition of monastic-type
rules. A warden and about 30 scholars lived and ate meals
together in the college buildings. Merton College's founding
documents provided that: "The house shall be called the House of
the Scholars of Merton, and it shall be the residence of the
Scholars forever. . . There shall be a constant succession of
scholars devoted to the study of letters, who shall be bound to
employ themselves in the study of Arts or Philosophy, the Canons
or Theology. Let there also be one member of the collegiate
body, who shall be a grammarian, and must entirely devote
himself to the study of grammar; let him have the care of the
students in grammar, and to him also let the more advanced have
recourse without a blush, when doubts arise in their faculty. . .
There is to be one person in every chamber, where Scholars are
resident, of more mature age than the others, who is to make his
report of their morals and advancement in learning to the
Warden. . . The Scholars who are appointed to the duty of
studying in the House are to have a common table, and a dress as
nearly alike as possible. . . The members of the College must
all be present together, as far as their leisure serves, at the
canonical hours and celebration of masses on holy and other
days. . . The Scholars are to have a reader at meals, and in
eating together they are to observe silence, and to listen to
what is read. In their chambers, they must abstain from noise
and interruption of their fellows; and when they speak they must
use the Latin language. . . A Scrutiny shall be held in the
House by the Warden and the Seniors, and all the Scholars there
present, three times a year; a diligent enquiry is to be
instituted into the life, conduct, morals, and progress in
learning, of each and all; and what requires correction then is
to be corrected, and excesses are to be visited with condign
punishment. . ."

Issues frequently argued concerned the newly discovered
philosophies of Aristotle vis a vis the accepted Christian
philosophy. Aristotle emphasized the intellectual use of reason
as a road to understanding whereas the church had always taught
that understanding came from revelation by God.

Roger Bacon, an Oxford master, applied mathematical knowledge to
natural phenomena such as metal work, mineral work, the making
of weapons, agriculture, and the remedies and charms of wizards
and magicians. He studied angles of reflection in plane,
spherical, cylindrical, and conical mirrors, in both their
concave and convex aspects. He did experiments in refraction in
different media, e.g. air, water, and glass, and knew that the
human cornea refracted light and that the human eye lens was
doubly convex. (However it was another 400 years before the
discovery of the image on the retina.) He comprehended the
magnifying power of convex lenses and conceptualized the
combination of lenses which would increase the power of vision
by magnification. Soon afterwards, eyeglasses were available to
correct farsightedness.

Bacon studied gravity and the propagation of force, specifically
illustrated by the radiation of light and heat. He realized that
rays of light pass so much faster than those of sound or smell
that the time is imperceptible to humans. He knew that rays of
heat and sound penetrate all matter without our awareness and
that opaque bodies offered resistance to passage of light rays.
This was the beginning of the science of physics.

He took the empirical knowledge as to a few metals and their
oxides and some of the principal alkalis, acids, and salts to
the abstract level of metals as compound bodies the elements of
which might be separated and recomposed and the general concept
of generation of liquids, gases, and solids, which was the
beginning of the science of chemistry. He made experiments that
led the way to saltpeter being made to explode, which led the
way to the formulation of gunpowder. He believed that the
principle of explosive energy would one day carry ships across
the seas without sails and propel carriages down the streets,
and flying machines. He knew the power of parabolic concave
mirrors to cause parallel rays to converge after reflection to a
focus and was familiar with work done to produce a mirror that
would induce combustion at a fixed distance.

He studied man's physical nature, health, and disease, the
beginning of the science of biology and medicine. He opined that
the use of a talisman was not to bring about a change, but to
bring the patient into a frame of mind more conducive to
physical healing.

Bacon studied different kinds of plants and the differences
between arable land, forest land, pasture land, and garden land.

Like other educated men of his day (and those of the 1200s
through the 1500s), he believed that the earth was the center of
the universe and in astrology, that is, that the position of the
stars and planets influenced man and other earthly things. For
instance, the position of the stars at a person's birth
determined his character. The angle and therefore potency of the
sun's rays influenced climate, temperament, and changes of
mortal life such as disease and revolutions. There was a
propitious time to have a marriage, go on a journey, make war,
and take herbal medicine or be bled by leeches, the latter of
which was accompanied by religious ceremony. Cure was by God,
with medical practitioners only relieving suffering. Pressure
and binding were applied to bleeding. Arrow and sword wounds to
the skin or to any protruding intestine were washed with warm
water and sewn up with needle and silk thread. Ribs were spread
apart by a wedge to remove arrow heads. Fractured bones were
splinted or encased in plaster. Dislocations were remedied.
Hernias were trussed. Bladder stones blocking urination were
pushed back into the bladder or removed through an artificial
opening in the bladder.

Bacon studied the planetary motions and astronomical tables to
forecast future events. He did calculations on days in a month
and days in a year which later contributed to the legal
definition of a leap year. He knew about magnetic poles
attracting if different and repelling if the same and the
relation of magnets' poles to those of the heavens and earth. He
calculated the circumference of the world and the latitude and
longitude of terrestrial positions, which was the beginning of
the study of geography. He foresaw sailing around the world and
pointed the way to the Copernican astronomy, which was founded on
the concept of the earth and planets revolving around the sun.

His contribution to the development of science was abstracting
the method of experiment from the concrete problem to see its
bearing and importance as a universal method of research. He
advocated changing education to include studies of the natural
world using observation, exact measurement, and experiments.

The making and selling of goods diverged e.g. as the cloth
merchant severed from the tailor and the leather merchant
severed from the butcher. These craftsmen formed themselves into
guilds. They sought charters to require all craftsmen to belong
to the guild of their craft, to have legal control of the craft
work, and be able to expel any craftsman for disobedience. These
guilds determined the wages and working conditions of the
craftsmen and petitioned the borough authorities for ordinances
restraining trade, for instance by controlling the admission of
outsiders to the craft, preventing foreigners from selling in the
town except at fairs, limiting purchases of raw materials to
suppliers within the town, forbidding night work, restricting
the number of apprentices to each master craftsmen, and
requiring a minimum number of years for apprenticeships. In
return, these guilds assured quality control. In some boroughs,
they did work for the town, such as maintaining certain
defensive towers or walls of the town near their respective
wards. In some boroughs, fines for infractions of these
regulations were split between the guild and the government.

This jurisdiction was sought from the towns governments, which
were controlled by the merchant guilds, with great difficulty.
In London, this power was broken in 1261 by the craftsmen
forcing their way into the town-mote. By this brute show of
strength, they set aside the opinion of the magnates and selected
their own candidate to be mayor.

The citizens of London had a common seal for the city. London
merchants traveled throughout the nation with goods to sell
exempt from tolls. Most of the London aldermen were woolmongers,
vintners, skinners, and grocers by turns or carried on all these
branches of commerce at once. There are three inns in London.
Care- giving hospitals such as "Bethleham Hospital" were
established in London. Only tiles were used for roofing in
London, because wood shingles were fire hazards and fires in
London had been frequent. Some areas near London are disclaimed
by the King to be royal forest land, so all citizens could hunt
there and till their land there without interference by the
royal foresters.

A gold penny was minted, which was worth 2s. of silver. Jews were
allowed to make loans with interest up to 2d. a week for 20s.
lent.

English ships had one mast with a square sail. The hulls were
made of planks overlapping each other. There was a high
forecastle on the bow, a top castle on the mast, and a high
stern castle from which to shoot arrows down on other ships.
There were no rowing oars, but steering was still by an oar on
the starboard side of the ship. The usual carrying capacity was
30 tuns [big casks of wine each with about 250 gallons]. On the
coasts there were lights and beacons. Harbors at river mouths
were kept from silting up. Ships were loaded from piers. The
construction of London Bridge had just been finished. Coal was
mined. Bricks began to be imported for building.

Churches had stained glass windows.

Newcastle-on-Tyne received these new rights:

1. And that they shall justly have their lands and tenures and
mortgages and debts, whoever owes them to them.

2. Concerning their lands and tenures within the town, right
shall be done to them according to the custom of the city
Winton.

3. And of all their debts which are lent in Newcastle-on-Tyne and
of mortgages there made, pleas shall be held at
Newcastle-on-Tyne.

4. None of them shall plead outside the walls of the City of
Newcastle-on-Tyne on any plea, except pleas of tenures outside
the city and except the minters and my ministers.

5. That none of them be distrained by any without the said city
for the repayment of any debt to any person for which he is not
capital debtor or surety.

6. That the burgesses shall be quit of toll and lastage [duty on
a ship's cargo] and pontage [tax for repairing bridges] and have
passage back and forth.

7. Moreover, for the improvement of the city, I have granted them
that they shall be quit of year's gift and of scotale [pressure
to buy ale at the sheriff's tavern], so that my sheriff of
Newcastle-on-Tyne or any other minister shall not make a
scotale.

8. And whosoever shall seek that city with his merchandise,
whether foreigners or others, of whatever place they may be,
they may come sojourn and depart in my safe peace, on paying the
due customs and debts, and any impediment to these rights is
prohibited.

9. We have granted them also a merchant guild.

10. And that none of them [in the merchant guild] shall fight a
duel.

The King no longer lives on his own from income from his own
lands, but takes money from the treasury. Elected men from the
baronage met with the King and his council in several
conferences called Parliaments to discuss the levying of taxes
and the solution of difficult legal cases, and to receive
petitions. Statutes were enacted. Landholders were given the
duty of electing four of their members in every shire to ensure
that the sheriff observed the law and to report his
misdemeanors to the justiciar. They were also given the duty of
electing four men from the shire from whom the exchequer was to
choose the sheriff of the year. Earl Montfort and certain barons
forced King Henry III to summon a Parliament in 1265 in which
the common people were represented officially by four knights
from every shire [county] and two burgesses from every borough.
This seems to be the time that the legend of Robin Hood robbing
the rich to give to the poor arose.

The Law

The barons forced successive Kings to sign the Magna Carta until
it became the law of the land. It became the first statute of
the official statute book. It's provisions express the principle
that a King is bound by the law and is not above it. However,
there is no redress if the King breaches the law.

The Magna Carta was issued by John in 1215. A revised version was
issued by Henry III in 1225 with the forest clauses separated
out into a forest charter. The two versions are replicated
together, with the formatting of each indicated in the titles
below.

{Magna Carta - 1215}
Magna Carta - 1215 & 1225
MAGNA CARTA - 1225

{John, by the grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland,
Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and Count of Anjou: To the
Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Earls, Barons, Justiciaries,
Foresters, Sheriffs, Reeves, Ministers, and all Bailiffs and
others, his faithful subjects, Greeting. Know ye that in the
presence of God, and for the health of our soul, and the souls
of our ancestors and heirs, to the honor of God, and the
exaltation of Holy Church, and amendment of our realm, by the
advice of our reverend Fathers, Stephen, Archbishop of
Canterbury, Primate of all England, and Cardinal of the Holy
Roman Church; Henry, Archbishop of Dublin; William of London,
Peter of Winchester, Jocelin of Bath and Glastonbury, Hugh of
Lincoln, Walter of Worcester, William of Coventry, and Benedict
of Rochester, Bishops; Master Pandulph, the Pope's subdeacon and
familiar; Brother Aymeric, Master of the Knights of the Temple in
England; and the noble persons, William Marshall, Earl of
Pembroke; William, Earl of Salisbury; William, Earl of Warren;
William, Earl of Arundel; Alan de Galloway, Constable of
Scotland; Warin Fitz-Gerald, Peter Fitz-Herbert, Hubert de
Burgh, Seneshal of Poitou, Hugh de Neville, Matthew
Fitz-Herbert, Thomas Basset, Alan Basset, Philip Daubeny, Robert
de Roppelay, John Marshall, John Fitz-Hugh, and others, our
liegemen:}

HENRY BY THE GRACE OF GOD, KING OF ENGLAND, LORD OF IRELAND, DUKE
OF NORMANDY AND GUYAN AND EARL OF ANJOU, TO ALL ARCHBISHOPS,
BISHOPS, ABBOTS, PRIORS, EARLS, BARONS, SHERIFFS, PROVOSTS,
OFFICERS AND TO ALL BAILIFFS AND OTHER OUR FAITHFUL SUBJECTS
WHICH SHALL SEE THIS PRESENT CHARTER, GREETING.

KNOW YE THAT WE, UNTO THE HONOR OF ALMIGHTY GOD, AND FOR THE
SALVATION OF THE SOULS OF OUR PROGENITORS AND SUCCESSORS KINGS
OF ENGLAND, TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF HOLY CHURCH AND AMENDMENT OF
OUR REALM, OF OUR MEER AND FREE WILL, HAVE GIVEN AND GRANTED TO
ALL ARCHBISHOPS, BISHOPS, ABBOTS, PRIORS, EARLS, BARONS, AND TO
ALL FREE MEN OF THIS OUR REALM, THESE LIBERTIES FOLLOWING, TO BE
KEPT IN OUR KINGDOM OF ENGLAND FOREVER.

[I. A CONFIRMATION OF LIBERTIES]

First, we have granted to God, and by this our present Charter
confirmed, for us and our heirs forever, that the English Church
shall be free and enjoy her whole rights and her liberties
inviolable. {And that we will this so to be observed appears
from the fact that we of our own free will, before the outbreak
of the dissensions between us and our barons, granted,
confirmed, and procured to be confirmed by Pope Innocent III the
freedom of elections, which is considered most important and
necessary to the English Church, which Charter we will both keep
ourself and will it to be kept with good faith by our heirs
forever.} We have also granted to all the free men of our
realm, for us and our heirs forever, all the liberties
underwritten, to have and to hold to them and their heirs of us
and our heirs.

[II. THE RELIEF OF THE KING'S TENANT OF FULL AGE]

If any of our earls, barons, or others who hold of us in chief by
knight's service dies, and at the time of his death his heir is
of full age and owes to us a relief, he shall have his
inheritance on payment of [no more than] the old relief; to wit,
the heir or heirs of an earl, for an entire earldom, 100 pounds
[2,000s.]; the heir or heirs of a baron of an entire barony, {100
pounds} 100 MARKS [67 POUNDS OR 1340s.]; the heir or heirs of an
entire knight's fee, 100s. at the most [about 1/3 of a knight's
annual income]; and he who owes less shall give less, according
to the old custom of fees.

[III. THE WARDSHIP OF AN HEIR WITHIN AGE. THE HEIR A KNIGHT]

BUT IF THE HEIR OF SUCH BE UNDER AGE, HIS LORD SHALL NOT HAVE THE
WARD OF HIM, NOR OF HIS LAND, BEFORE THAT HE HAS TAKEN OF HIM
HOMAGE. If, however, any such heir is under age and in ward, he
shall have his inheritance without relief or fine when he comes
of age, THAT IS, TWENTY-ONE YEARS OF AGE. SO THAT IF SUCH AN
HEIR NOT OF AGE IS MADE A KNIGHT, YET NEVERTHELESS HIS LAND SHALL
REMAIN IN THE KEEPING OF HIS LORD UNTO THE AFORESAID TERM.

[IV. NO WASTE SHALL BE MADE BY A GUARDIAN IN WARD'S LANDS]

The guardian of the land of any heir thus under age shall take
therefrom only reasonable issues, customs, and services, without
destruction or waste of men or goods. And if we commit the
custody of any such land to the sheriff or any other person
answerable to us for the issues of the same land, and he commits
destruction or waste, we will take an amends from him and
recompense therefore. And the land shall be committed to two
lawful and discreet men of that fee, who shall be answerable for
the issues of the same land to us or to whomsoever we shall have
assigned them. And if we give or sell the custody of any such
land to any man, and he commits destruction or waste, he shall
lose the custody, which shall be committed to two lawful and
discreet men of that fee, who shall, in like manner, be
answerable to us as has been aforesaid.

[V. GUARDIANS SHALL MAINTAIN THE INHERITANCE OF THEIR WARDS AND
OF BISHOPRICKS, ETC.]

The guardian, so long as he shall have the custody of the land,
shall keep up and maintain the houses, parks, fishponds, pools,
mills, and other things pertaining thereto, out of the issues of
the same, and shall restore to the heir when he comes of age,
all his land stocked with {ploughs and tillage, according as the
season may require and the issues of the land can reasonable
bear} PLOUGHS AND ALL OTHER THINGS, AT THE LEAST AS HE RECEIVED
IT. ALL THESE THINGS SHALL BE OBSERVED IN THE CUSTODIES OF
VACANT ARCHBISHOPRICKS, BISHOPRICKS, ABBEYS, PRIORIES, CHURCHES,
AND DIGNITIES, WHICH APPERTAIN TO US; EXCEPT THIS, THAT SUCH
CUSTODY SHALL NOT BE SOLD.

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