Week 12

LORDSHIP AND JUSTICE

Tuesday:

Video:

Monty Python and the Holy Grail: trial of the witch (film, 1975; 2:57 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxcyYOODXmw

Readings:

Riché, pp. 67-71 (estate administration), 257-8 (the poor), 259-68 (royal justice and lay protectors)

The law of the Salian Franks
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/salic-law.html

Judgment by ordeal
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/ordeals1.html

Schematic view of manorial and feudal relationships

Essential qualities of a “good king” or “good lord”:

• Keeping the peace
• Maintaining justice
• Protecting the weak

Limitations of Germanic jurisprudence include reliance on forms of judgement by God:

• Compurgation (oath-helping by compurgators/co-jurors)
• Ordeal (e.g., hot iron or hot or cold water)
  • Click here for a depictions of ordeal by hot iron (Bamberg Cathedral, 1513) and by cold water (chronicle, 1513)
• Battle/judicial duel
  • Click here for a depiction of trial by battle (England, 1249)

Attempts by Charlemagne to centralize power and justice include:

• 789 Oath of loyalty to king required of males over age 12
• 801 Oath to uphold the law added to loyalty oath

Signs of decentralization of power after Charlemagne’s death include:

• Proliferation of guilds (mutual-assistance and religious associations)
• Proliferation of vassalage

Primary sources include:

• Laws of the Salian Franks
• Carolingian capitularies
• Formulas (instructions to clergy and judges) for the performance of ordeals

Thursday:

THANKSGIVING