Book: Our Legal Heritage, 4th Ed.

S >> S. A. Reilly >> Our Legal Heritage, 4th Ed.




London extended about a mile along the Thames and about half a
mile inland. It had narrow twisting lanes, some with a ditch down
the middle for water runoff. Most of its houses were two stories,
the ground floor having booths and workshops, and the upper floor
living space. Most of the houses were wooden structures. The
richer merchants' and knights' houses were built of stone. Walls
between houses had to be stone to a height of 16 feet and thatched
roofs were banned because there had been many fires. There was
poor compliance, but some roofs were tiled with red-brick tiles.
The population was about 40,000. There were over 126 churches for
public worship, thirteen monasteries (including nunneries), and
St. Paul's Cathedral. All were built of stone. The churches gave a
place of worship for every 300 inhabitants and celebrated feast
days, gave alms and hospitality to strangers, confirmed betrothals
or agreements of marriage, celebrated weddings, conducted
funerals, and buried the dead. The synod of Westminster of 1175
prescribed that all marriages were to be performed by the church.
Church law required a warning prior to suspension or
excommunication. Monastic, cathedral, and parish schools taught
young boys grammar so they could sing and read in church services.
Nuns taught girls. Fish but no meat was eaten on Fridays. There
was dark rye bread and expensive white wheat bread. Vegetables
included onions, leeks, and cabbage. Fruits included apples,
pears, plums, cherries, and strawberries. Water was obtained from
streams running through the town to the Thames and from springs.
Only the rich, palaces, and churches could afford beeswax candles;
others had home-made tallow [cow or sheep fat] candles which
smelled and gave off smoke. Most people washed their bodies. Even
the poor had beds and bed clothes. Few babies survived childhood.
If a man reached 30, he could expect to live until age 50.
Thousands of Londoners died during a hot summer from fevers,
plague and the like.

In London, bells heralded the start and finish of all organized
business. The sellers of merchandise and hirers of labor were
distributed every morning into their several localities according
to their trade. Vendors, craftsmen, and laborers had their
customary places. Some vendors walked the streets announcing their
wares for sale. There were craft guilds of bakers, butchers,
clothworkers, and saddlers, as well as of weavers. Vendors on the
Thames River bank sold cooked fish caught from the river and wine
from ships and wine cellars. Cook shops sold roasted meats covered
with hotly spiced sauces.

London Bridge was built of stone for the first time. It was
supported by a series of stone arches standing on small man-made
islands. It had such a width that a row of wood houses and a
chapel was built on top of it. In the spring it was impassable by
ships because the flow of water under it varied in height on
either side of the bridge by several feet at half tide. The bridge
had the effect of slowing down the flow upstream, which invited
wherries and rowboats and stately barges of the nobility. In
winters in which it froze over, there was ice skating, ice
boating, and fishing through holes in the ice.

Outside each city gate were clusters of ragged buildings, small
monasteries and hostelries, groups of huntsmen's kennels, and
fencing schools. Outside one of the gates, a horse market was held
every week. Horses wore horseshoes made of iron or of a crude
steel. From the southwest gate of the city along the north river
bank toward Westminster, there was a gradually extending line of
rich men's mansions and bishops' palaces. On the southern bank of
the Thames River was growing the disorderly suburb of Southwark,
with fishermen's and boatmens' hovels, and taverns and brothels
that were frequented by drunkards, rakes, and whores. On the north
side of the city was a great forest with fields and wells where
students and other young men from the city took walks in the fresh
evening air. In some fields, countryfolk sold pigs, cows, oxen and
sheep. Mill wheels turned at various streams. Near London in the
country was a glass factory. At sunset, the gates of London were
closed for the night. All taverns had to be closed, all lights put
out, and all fires banked or covered when the bell of the church
of St. Martin le Grand rang at 9:00 pm. Anyone found on the
streets after this curfew could be arrested. Gangs of young nobles
or gangs of thieves, cutpurses, and looters roamed the streets
after dark and sometimes rioted. Offenders were often beheaded and
their heads placed on spikes on London Bridge.

Men in London had begun weaving cloth, which formerly had been
done by women. Some of the cloth was exported. The weavers guild
of London received a charter by the King in 1155, the first
granted to any London craft: "Know that I have conceded to the
Weavers of London to hold their guild in London with all the
liberties and customs which they had in the time of King Henry
[I], my grandfather; and that none may intermeddle with the craft
within the city, nor in Southwark, nor in other places pertaining
to London except through them and except he be in their guild,
otherwise than was accustomed to be done in the time of King
Henry, my grandfather ...So that each year they render thence to
me two marks [26s.8d.] of gold at the feast of St. Michael. And I
forbid that any shall do injury or contumely to them on this
account under penalty of 10 pounds [200s.]. Witness T[homas],
Chancellor, and Warinus, son of Gerard, Chamberlain, at
Winchester." The liberties obtained were: 1) The weavers may elect
bailiffs to supervise the work of the craft, to punish defaulters,
and to collect the ferm [amount owed to the King]. The bailiffs
were chosen from year to year and swore before the mayor of London
to do and keep their office well and truly. 2) The bailiffs may
hold court from week to week on pleas of debt, agreements,
covenants [promises for certain performance], and minor
trespasses. 3) If any of the guild members are sued in any other
court on any of the above pleas, the guild may challenge that plea
to bring it to the guild court. 4) If any member is behind in his
share of the payment to the King, the bailiffs may distrain his
loom until he has paid this.

Paying an annual payment freed the weavers from liability to
inconsequent royal fines. Failure to make this payment promptly
might have led to loss of the right, hence the rigorous penalty of
distraint upon the looms of individual weavers who fell into
arrears.

The weavers' guild punished members who used bad thread in their
weaving or did defective weaving by showing the default to the
mayor, with opportunity for the workman to make entreaty, and the
mayor and twelve members of the guild then made a verdict of
amercement of 1/2 mark [6s.8d.] and the workman of the cloth was
also punished by the guild bailiffs according to guild custom.

The weavers' guild tradition of brotherliness among members meant
that injury to a fellow weaver incurred a severe penalty. If a
weaver stole or eloigned [removed them to a distance where they
were unreachable] any other weaver's goods falsely and
maliciously, then he was dismissed from the guild and his loom was
taken by the guild to fulfill his portion of the annual payment to
the King. The weavers were allowed to buy and to sell in London
freely and quietly. They had all the rights of other freemen of
the city.

Thus from the middle of the 1100s, the weavers enjoyed the
monopoly of their craft, rights of supervision which ensured a
high standard of workmanship, power to punish infractions of their
privileges, and full control of their members. In this they stand
as the prototype of English medieval guilds. These rights
represented the standard which all bodies of craftsmen desired to
attain. The right of independent jurisdiction was exceptional.

In Henry II's charter to London, London did not retain its right
to appoint its own sheriff and justice given by Henry I. London's
chief magistrate was the mayor, who was appointed by the King,
until 1191. Then the mayor was elected yearly by the aldermen of
the city wards and approved by the king. He was typically a rich
prince chosen by the barons and chief merchants of London. The
commoners had no voice in his selection, but they could still
approve or disapprove of the actions of the city government at
ward and folk motes. At certain periods, a king asserted royal
power over the selection of mayor and governance of the city.
There were three ways to become a citizen of London: being the son
of a citizen, apprenticeship in a craft for seven years, and
purchase of citizenship. London and Westminster growth led to
their replacing Winchester as the capital.

St. Barthomew infirmary was established in London for the care of
sick pilgrims traveling to the shrine of Becket in Canterbury. It
had been inspired by a monk who saw a vision of St. Barthomew
telling him to build a church and an infirmary.

Trading was facilitated by the stabilization of the amount of
silver metallic content of the English coinage, which was called
"sterling" [strong] silver. The compass, a magnetic lodestone
[leading stone] needle mounted on a cork and floated in a bowl of
water, assisted the navigation of ships. With it, one could tell
the general direction of a ship when the skies were cloudy as well
as clear. And one could generally track one's route by using the
direction and speed of travel to calculate one's new position.
London became a major trading center for foreign goods from many
lands.

About 5% of the knights were literate. Wealthy men sent their sons
to school in monasteries to prepare them for a livelihood in a
profession or in trade or to the town of Oxford, whose individual
scholars had migrated from Paris and had attracted disciples for a
long time. These schools grew up around St. Mary's Church, but had
not been started by the church as there was no cathedral school in
Oxford. Oxford had started as a burh and had a royal residence and
many tradesmen. It was given its basic charter in 1155 by the
King. This confirmed to it all the customs, laws and liberties
[rights] as those enjoyed by London. It became a model charter for
other towns.

Bachelors at Oxford studied the arts of grammar, rhetoric, and
logic, and then music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy, until
they mastered their discipline and therefore were authorized to
teach it. Teaching would then provide an income sufficient to
support a wife. The master of arts was analogous to the master
craftsman of a guild. From 1190, the civil law was studied, and
shortly thereafter, canon law. Later came the study of medicine.
The use of paper supplemented the use of parchment for writing.
Irregular edged paper was made from linen, cotton, straw, and/or
wood beaten to a pulp and then spread out over a wire mesh to dry.

Theologicians taught that the universe was made for the sake and
service of man, so man was placed at the center of the universe.
Man was made for the sake and service of God.

Every freeman holding land of a lord gave homage and fealty to
him, swearing to bear him faith of the tenement held and to
preserve his earthly honor in all things, saving the faith owed to
the king. Homage was done for lands, for free tenements, for
services, and for rents precisely fixed in money or in kind.
Homage could be done to any free person, male or female, adult or
minor, cleric or layman. A man could do several homages to
different lords for different fees, but there had to be a chief
homage to that lord of whom he held his chief tenement. Homage was
not due for dower, from the husband of a woman to whom a tenement
was given as a marriage portion, for a fee given in free alms, or
until the third heir, either for free mariatagium [a marriage
portion which is given with a daughter in marriage, that is not
bound to service] or for the fee of younger sisters holding of the
eldest. All fiefs to be inherited by the eldest son had to be
intact. Every lord could exact fealty from his servants.

In this era, the English national race and character was formed.
Only a few barons still had lands in Normandy. Stories of good
King Arthur were popular and set ideals for behavior and justice
in an otherwise barbaric age where force was supreme. His last
battle in which he lay wounded and told a kinsman to rule in his
place and uphold his laws was written in poem ("Layamon's Brut").
Romantic stories were written and read in English. The custom of
"bundling" was started by ladies with their knights, who would lie
together in bed without undressing and with one in a sack the top
of which was tied around his neck, as part of a romantic
courtship. Wealthy men often gave their daughters dowries in case
they were widowed. This might be matched by a marriage settlement
by a prospective husband.

Intermarriage had destroyed any distinction of Normans by look or
speech alone, except for the Anglo-Saxon manor villeins, who
worked the farm land and composed about two-thirds of the
population. Villeins were bound to the land and could, on flight,
be brought back to it. They could not give homage, but could give
fealty. A villein had the equipment to farm, fish, make cheese,
keep poultry, brew beer, hedge, and cut wood. Although the
villeins could not buy their freedom or be freed by their lord,
they became less numerous because of the preference of landholders
for tenants motivated to perform work by potential loss of tenure.
Also, the Crown's protection of all its subjects in criminal
matters blurred the distinction between free and unfree men.

The boroughs were dominated by lords of local manors, who usually
had a house in the borough. Similarly, burgesses usually had
farmland outside the borough. Many boroughs were granted, by the
king or manor lord, the right to have a common seal for the common
business of the town. Some boroughs were given the authority to
confer freedom on the villein by enrolling him in their guild or
allowing him to stay in the borough for a year and a day. The
guilds met frequently in their drinking halls and drew up
regulations for the management of their trade. Each borough was
represented by twelve reputable burgesses. Each vill was
represented by a reeve and four reputable men. Certain towns
sponsored great seasonal fairs for special goods, such as cloth.
About 5% of the population lived in towns.

In the early 1180s, the horizontal-axle windmill was invented,
probably in eastern England, on the analogy of the horizontal-axle
watermill. It was very useful in flat areas where streams were too
slow for a watermill unless a dam were built. But a dam often
flooded agricultural land.

London guilds of craftsmen such as weavers, fullers, bakers,
loriners (makers of bits, spurs, and metal mountings of bridles
and saddles), cordwainers (makers of leather goods such as shoes),
pepperers, and goldsmiths were licensed by the King, for which
they paid him a yearly fee. There were also five Bridge Guilds
(probably raising money for the future construction of London
Bridge in stone) and St. Lazarus' Guild. The wealthy guilds, which
included the goldsmiths, the pepperers, and three bridge guilds
had landholding members who had been thegns or knights and now
became a class of royal officials: the King's minters, his
chamberlain, his takers of wines, his collectors of taxes. The
weavers of Oxford paid 27s.[two marks] to hav ea guild. The
shoemakers paid 67s.[five marks].

In 1212, master carpenters, masons, and tilers made 3d. per day,
their servers (the journeymen of a later time) made 11/2 d., free-
stone carvers 21/2 d., plasterers and daubers, diggers and sievers
less. All received food in addition or 11/2 d. in its stead.

Sandwich was confirmed in its port rights by this charter: "Henry
II to his sheriff and bailiffs of Kent, greeting. I will and order
that the monks of the Holy Trinity of Canterbury shall have fully
all those liberties and customs in Sandwich which they had in the
time of King Henry my grandfather, as it was adjudged in pursuance
of his command by the oath of twelve men of Dover and twelve men
of Sandwich, to wit, that the aforesaid monks ought to have the
port and the toll and all maritime customs in the same port, on
either side of the water from Eadburge-gate as far as markesfliete
and a ferry-boat for passage. And no man has there any right
except they and their ministers. Wherefore I will and firmly
command you and the men of Sandwich that ye cause the aforesaid
monks to have all their customs both in the port and in the town
of Sandwich, and I forbid any from vexing them on this account."
"And they shall have my firm peace."

Henry gave this charter to the town of Bristol in 1164: "Know ye,
that I have granted to my burgesses of Bristol, that they shall be
quit both of toll [a reasonable sum of money or portion of the
thing sold, due to the owner of the fair or market on the sale of
things tollable therein. It was claimed by the lord of the fee
where the fair or market was held, by virtue of a grant from the
Crown either ostensible or presumed] and passage [money paid for
crossing a river or for crossing the sea as might be due to the
Crown] and all custom [customary payments] throughout my whole
land of England, Normandy, and Wales, wherever they shall come,
they and their goods. Wherefore I will and strictly command, that
they shall have all their liberties and acquittances and free
customs fully and honorable, as my free and faithful men, and that
they shall be quit of toll and passage and of every other customs:
and I forbid any one to disturb them on this account contrary to
this my charter, on forfeiture of ten pounds [200s.]."

John, when he was an earl and before he became King, granted these
liberties to Bristol about 1188:

1) No burgess may sue or be sued out of Bristol.

2) The burgesses are excused from the murder fine (imposed by the
king or lord from the hundred or town where the murder was
committed when the murderer had not been apprehended).

3) No burgess may wage duel [trial by combat], unless sued for
death of a stranger.

4) No one may take possession of a lodging house by assignment or
by livery of the Marshall of the Earl of Gloucester against the
will of the burgesses (so that the town would not be responsible
for the good behavior of a stranger lodging in the town without
first accepting the possessor of the lodging house).

5) No one shall be condemned in a matter of money, unless
according to the law of the hundred, that is, forfeiture of 40s.

6) The hundred court shall be held only once a week.

7) No one in any plea may argue his cause in miskenning.

8) They may lawfully have their lands and tenures and mortgages
and debts throughout my whole land, [from] whoever owes them
[anything].

9) With regard to debts which have been lent in Bristol, and
mortgages there made, pleas shall be held in the town according to
the custom of the town.

10) If any one in any other place in my land shall take toll of
the men of Bristol, if he does not restore it after he is required
to, the Prepositor of Bristol may take from him a distress at
Bristol, and force him to restore it.

11) No stranger-tradesman may buy within the town from a man who
is a stranger, leather, grain, or wool, but only from a burgess.

12) No stranger may have a shop, including one for selling wine,
unless in a ship, nor shall sell cloth for cutting except at the
fair.

13) No stranger may remain in the town with his goods for the
purpose of selling his goods, but for forty days.

14) No burgess may be confined or distrained any where else within
my land or power for any debt, unless he is a debtor or surety (to
avoid a person owed a debt from distraining another person of the
town of the debtor).

15) They shall be able to marry themselves, their sons, their
daughters and their widows, without the license of their lords. (A
lord had the right of preventing his tenants and their families
from marrying without his consent.)

16) No one of their lords shall have the wardship or the disposal
of their sons or daughters on account of their lands out of the
town, but only the wardship of their tenements which belong to
their own fee, until they become of age.

17) There shall be no recognition [acknowledgement that something
done by another person in one's name had one's authority] in the
town.

18) No one shall take tyne [wooden barrel with a certain quantity
of ale, payable by the townsmen to the constable for the use of
the castle] unless for the use of the lord Earl, and that
according to the custom of the town.

19) They may grind their grain wherever they may choose.

20) They may have their reasonable guilds, as well or better than
they had them in the time of Robert and his son William [John's
wife's grandfather and father, who were earls of Gloucester when
the town and castle of Bristol were part of the honor of
Gloucester].

21) No burgess may be compelled to bail any man, unless he himself
chooses it, although he may be dwelling on his land.

We have also granted to them all their tenures, messuages
[dwelling house with adjoining land and adjacent buildings], in
copses [thicket from which wood was cut], in buildings on the
water or elsewhere to be held in free burgage [tenant to pay only
certain fixed services or payments to his lord, but not military
service (like free socage)]. We have granted also that any of them
may make improvements as much as he can in erecting buildings
anywhere on the bank and elsewhere, as long as the borough and
town are not damaged thereby. Also, they shall have and possess
all waste land and void grounds and places, to be built on at
their pleasure.

Newcastle-on-Tyne's taxes were simplified in 1175 as follows:

"Know ye that I have granted and by this present charter have
confirmed to my burgesses of Newcastle upon Tyne, and to all their
things which they can assure to be their own, acquittance from
toll and passage and pontage and from the Hanse and from all other
customs throughout all my land. And I prohibit all persons from
vexing or disturbing them therein upon forfeiture to me."

We grant to our upright men on Newcastle-on-Tyne and their heirs
our town of Newcastle-on-Tyne with all its appurtenances at fee
farm for 100 pounds to be rendered yearly to us and our heirs at
our Exchequer by their own hand at the two terms, to wit, at
Easter 50 pounds and at Michaelmas 50 pounds, saving to us our
rents and prizes and assizes in the port of the same town.

Ranulph, earl of Chester, made grants to his burgesses of Coventry
by this charter: "That the aforesaid burgesses and their heirs may
well and honorably quietly and in free burgage hold of me and my
heirs as ever in the time of my father and others of my ancestors
they have held better more firmly and freer. In the second place I
grant to them all the free and good laws which the burgesses of
Lincoln have better and freer. I prohibit and forbid my constables
to draw them into the castle to plead for any cause, but they may
freely have their portimoot [leet court] in which all pleas
belonging to me and them may be justly treated of. Moreover they
may choose from themselves one to act for me whom I approve, who a
justice under me and over them may know the laws and customs, and
keep them to my counsel in all things reasonable, every excuse put
away, and may faithfully perform to me my rights. If any one
happen to fall into my amercement he may be reasonably fined by my
bailiff and the faithful burgesses of the court. Furthermore,
whatever merchants they have brought with them for the improvement
of the town, I command that they have peace, and that none do them
injury or unjustly send them into court. But if any foreign
merchant shall have done anything improper in the town that same
may be regulated in the portimoot before the aforesaid justice
without a suit at law."

Henry confirmed this charter of the earl's by 1189 as follows: I
have confirmed all the liberties and free customs the earl of
Chester granted to them, namely, that the same burgesses may well
and honorably hold in free burgage, as ever in the time of the
father of the beforesaid earl, or other of his ancestors, they may
have better or more firmly held; and they may have all the laws
and customs which the citizens of Lincoln have better and freer
[e.g. their merchant guilds; all men brought to trade may be
subject to the guild customs and assize of the town; those who
lawfully hold land in the town for a year and a day without
question and are able to prove that an accuser has been in the
kingdom within the year without finding fault with them, from
thence may hold the land well and in peace without pleading; those
who have remained in the town a year and a day without question,
and have submitted to the customs of the town and the citizens of
the town are able to show through the laws and customs of the town
that the accuser stood forth in the kingdom, and not a fault is
found of them, then they may remain in peace in the town without
question]; and that the constable of the aforesaid earl shall not
bring them into the castle to plead in any case. But they may
freely have their own portmanmoot in which all pleas appertaining
to the earl and to them may be justly treated of. Moreover they
may choose one from themselves to act for the earl, whom I
approve, who may be a justice under the earl and over them, and
who to the earl may faithfully perform his rights, and if anyone
happen to fall into the earl's forfeiture he shall be acquit for
12 pence. If by the testimony of his neighbors he cannot pay 12
pence coins, by their advice it shall be so settled as he is able
to pay, and besides, with other acquittances, that the burgesses
shall not provide anything in corrody [allowance in food] or
otherwise whether for the said earl or his men, unless upon
condition that their chattels shall be safe, and so rendered to
them. Furthermore, whatever merchants they have brought with them
for the improvement of the town they may have peace, and none
shall do them injury or unjustly send them into suit at law. But
if any foreign merchant has done anything improper in the town
that shall be amended [or tried] in the portmanmoot before the
aforesaid justice without a suit. And they who may be newcomers
into the town, from the day on which they began to build in the
town for the space of two years shall be acquit of all charges.

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