Week 10: Law and Order

Tuesday:

Music:

Video:

Robert Bartlett, Inside the Medieval Mind: Power (Part 2 of 6)
(9:46 minutes : Forest Law (0:00-3:20); outlaws (3:20-4:39); castles; aristocratic priorities)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K90WtgQnPU&playnext=1&list=PL1B541A2FC215B9BC

Readings:

Bartlett, England under the Norman and Angevin Kings, pp. 177-193 (Courts and Judgments)

Carlin and Crouch, Lost Letters of Medieval Life, pp. 111-115 (Documents 27-28), pp. 137-144 (Documents 39-41), pp. 149-158 (Documents 44-46)

Maps:

The Angevin “Empire”:
http://www.heritage-history.com/maps/philips/phil035.jpg

Henry III’s territories:
http://www.heritage-history.com/maps/gardiner/gard012.jpg

Medieval England and Wales:
http://www.heritage-history.com/maps/philips/phil034.jpg

Wales and the Marches in the Thirteenth Century:
http://www.heritage-history.com/maps/philips/phil036c.jpg

Map of England by Matthew Paris
http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/takingliberties/images/319matthewparismapbig.jpg

Topics:

Courts:

Hundred courts (held monthly by sheriff for civil cases, inc. pleas of land, debt, and trespass; also criminal cases during eyres,
and twice-yearly views of frankpledge to check tithings)
County courts (held every 4 weeks by lord’s steward or sheriff’s bailiff for civil cases only, esp. pleas of debt and trespass,
but not pleas of land; outlawries proclaimed)
Borough courts
Seignorial or feudal courts (convened by lord to settle disputes among vassals or between lord and vassal(s))
Manor courts (typically held every 3 weeks by lord’s steward)
Church courts (held by archbishops, bishops, and archdeacons, or their deputy [“official”]; or by panels of 3 judges delegate appointed by the pope)
Royal courts (held by royal justices at the Westminster-based courts of Exchequer or Common Bench [Common Pleas]; at
King’s Bench (est. 1233-4), which followed the king wherever he was; or at the General Eyres held in circuits by panels of itinerant justices)

Oath and compurgation (by aid of oath-helpers or compurgators)
Ordeal by hot iron (usually for free men and women) or by cold water (usually for serfs); ended by Lateran IV in 1215
Trial by battle

Punishments:

Execution (esp. by hanging; sometimes burning or boiling or other)
Mutilation (e.g., blinding, castration, loss of right hand)
Confiscation of lands or goods
Fines
Exile
Imprisonment (there was one royal gaol [jail] per county)

Lawsuits and court procedures
Development of the eyre
Development of possessory assizes, e.g., novel disseisin and mort d’ancestor (“Has X been dispossessed of property of which X had been in peaceful possession?”), and grand assize (“Who has the greater right to the property?”)

Officers:

Sheriff (chief royal officer in each county)
Constable of the hundred; high constable of the county (an office subsequently annexed by sheriff): system created by John in 1205
Bailiffs or serjeants (village or town constables, under direction of hundred constable)

Writ
Approver

Images:

Ordeal by hot iron (Bamberg Cathedral, 1513) and by cold water (chronicle, 1513)
Trial by battle (England, 1249)

Thursday:

[STUDY DAY: NO CLASS]