Book: Our Legal Heritage, 4th Ed.

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




The villein retained his customary rights, his house and land and
rights of wood and hay, and his right in the common land of his
township. Customary ways were maintained. The villeins of a manor
elected a reeve to communicate their interests to their lord,
usually through a bailiff, who directed the labor. Sometimes there
was a steward in charge of several of a lord's manors, who also
held the manorial court for the lord. The steward held his land of
the lord by serjeanty, which was a specific service to the lord.
Other serjeanty services were carrying the lord's shield and arms,
finding attendants and esquires for knights, helping in the lord's
hunting expeditions, looking after his hounds, bringing fuel,
doing carpentry, and forging irons for ploughs. The Woodward
preserved the timber. The Messer supervised the harvesting. The
Hayward removed any fences from the fields after harvest to allow
grazing by cattle and sheep. The Coward, Bullard, and Calvert
tended the cows, bulls, and calves; the Shepherd, the sheep; and
the Swineherds the pigs. The Ponder impounded stray stock. There
were varieties of horses: war horses, riding horses, courier
horses, pack horses, and plough horses.

The majority of manors were co-extensive with a single village.
The villeins lived in the village in one-room huts enclosed by a
wood fence, hedge, or stone wall. In this yard was a garden of
onions, leeks, mustard, peas, beans, parsley, garlic, herbs, and
cabbage and apple, pear, cherry, quince, and plum trees, and bee-
hives. The hut had a high-pitched roof thatched with reeds or
straw and low eaves reaching almost to the ground. The walls are
built of wood-framing overlaid with mud or plaster. Narrow slits
in the walls serve as windows, which have shutters and are
sometimes covered with coarse cloth. The floor is dirt and may be
covered with straw or rushes for warmth, but usually no hearth. In
the middle is a wood fire burning on a hearthstone, which was lit
by making a spark by striking flint and iron together. The smoke
rose through a hole in the roof. At one end of the hut was the
family living area, where the family ate on a collapsible trestle
table with stools or benches. Their usual food was beans and peas,
oatmeal gruel, butter, cheese, vegetables, honey, rough bread made
from a mixture of wheat, barley, and rye flour, herrings or other
salt fish, and some salted or smoked bacon. Butter had first been
used for cooking and as a medicine to cure constipation and for
puny children it could be salted down for the winter. The bread
had been roasted on the stones of the fire; later there were
communal ovens set up in villages. Cooking was done over the fire
by boiling in iron pots hung from an iron tripod, or sitting on
the hot stones of the fire. They ate from wood bowls using a wood
spoon. When they had fresh meat, it could be roasted on a spit.
Liquids were heated in a kettle. With drinking horns, they drank
water, milk, buttermilk, apple cider, mead, ale made from barley
malt, and bean and vegetable broth. They used jars and other
earthenware, e.g. for storage of salt. They slept on straw
mattresses or sacks on the floor or on benches. The villein
regarded his bed area as the safest place in the house, as did
people of all ranks, and kept his treasures there, which included
his farm implements, as well as hens on the beams, roaming pigs,
and stalled oxen, cattle, and horses, which were at the other end
of the hut. Fires were put out at night to guard against fire
burning down the huts. The warmth of the animals then helped make
the hut warm. Around the room are a couple of chests to store
salt, meal, flour, a broom made of birch twigs, some woven
baskets, the distaff and spindle for spinning, and a simple loom
for weaving. All clothes were homemade. They were often coarse,
greasy wool and leather made from their own animals. The man wore
a tunic of coarse linen embroidered on the sleeves and breast,
around with he wore a girdle of rope, leather, or folded cloth.
Sometimes he also wore breeches reaching below the knee. The woman
wore a loose short-sleeved gown, under which was a tight fitting
garment with long loose sleeves, and which was short enough to be
clear of the mud. If they wore shoes, they were clumsy and
patched. Some wore a hood-like cap. For really bad weather, a man
wore on his head a hood with a very elongated point which could be
wrapped around his neck. Sometimes a short cape over the shoulders
was attached. Linen was too expensive for commoners.

The absence of fresh food during the winter made scurvy prevalent;
in the spring, people eagerly sought "scurvy grass" to eat.
Occasionally there would be an outbreak of a nervous disorder due
to the ergot fungus growing in the rye used for bread. This
manifested itself in apparent madness, frightening hallucinations,
incoherent shouting, hysterical laughing, and constant scratching
of itching and burning sensations.

The villein and his wife and children worked from daybreak to dusk
in the fields, except for Sundays and holydays. He had certain
land to farm for his own family, but had to have his grain milled
at his lord's mill at the lord's price. He had to retrieve his
wandering cattle from his lord's pound at the lord's price. He was
expected to give a certain portion of his own produce, whether
grain or livestock, to his lord. However, if he fell short, he was
not put off his land. The villein, who worked the farm land as his
ancestor ceorl had, now was so bound to the land that he could not
leave or marry or sell an ox without his lord's consent. If the
manor was sold, the villein was sold as a part of the manor. When
his daughter or son married, he had to pay a "merchet" to his
lord. He could not have a son educated without the lord's
permission, and this usually involved a fee to the lord. His best
beast at his death, or "heriot", went to his lord. If he wanted
permission to live outside the manor, he paid "chevage" yearly.
Woodpenny was a yearly payment for gathering dead wood. Sometimes
a "tallage" payment was taken at the lord's will. The villein's
oldest son usually took his place on his land and followed the
same customs with respect to the lord. For an heir to take his
dead ancestor's land, the lord demanded payment of a "relief",
which was usually the amount of a year's income but sometimes as
much as the heir was willing to pay to have the land. The usual
aids were also expected to be paid.

A large village also had a smith, a wheelwright, a millwright, a
tiler and thatcher, a shoemaker and tanner, a carpenter wainwright
and carter.

Markets were about twenty miles apart because a farmer from the
outlying area could then carry his produce to the nearest town and
walk back again in the daylight hours of one day. In this local
market he could buy foodstuffs, livestock, household goods, fuels,
skins, and certain varieties of cloth.

The cloth was crafted by local weavers, dyers, and fullers. The
weaver lived in a cottage with few and narrow windows with little
furniture. He worked in the main, and sometimes the only, room.
First the raw wool was washed with water at the front door to
remove the grease. Then its fibers were disentangled and made fine
with hand cards with thistle teeth, usually by the children. Then
it was spun by a spinning wheel into thread, usually by the wife.
The threads forming the warp of the fabric were fastened parallel
on a double frame, of which the two ends rose and fell alternately
and were worked by two pedals. To make the weft, the weaver threw
a shuttle between them, from one hand to the other. Since one loom
could provide work for about six spinners, he had his wool spun by
other spinners in their cottages. Sometimes the master weaver had
an apprentice or workman working and living with him, who had free
board and lodging and an annual wage. Then a fuller made the cloth
thick and dense by washing, soaping, beating, and agitating it,
with the use of a community watermill which could be used by
anyone for a fixed payment. The cloth dried through the night on a
rack outside the cottage. The weaver then took his cloth, usually
only one piece, to the weekly market to sell. The weavers stood at
the market holding up their cloth. The cloth merchant who bought
the cloth then had it dyed or dressed according to his
requirements. Its surface could be raised with teazleheads and
cropped or sheared to make a nap. Some cloth was sold to tailors
to make into clothes. Often a weaver had a horse for travel, a cow
for milk, chickens for eggs, perhaps a few cattle, and some
grazing land. Butchers bought, slaughtered, and cut up animals to
sell as meat. Some was sold to cooks, who sold prepared foods. The
hide was bought by the tanner to make into leather. The leather
was sold to shoemakers and glovemakers. Millers bought harvested
grain to make into flour. Flour was sold to bakers to make into
breads. Wood was bought by carpenters and by coopers, who made
barrels, buckets, tubs, and pails. Tilers, oil-makers and rope-
makers also bought raw material to make into finished goods for
sale. Wheelwrights made ploughs, harrows, carts, and later wagons.
Smiths and locksmiths worked over their hot fires.

Games with dice were sometimes played. In winter, youths ice-
skated with bones fastened to their shoes. They propelled
themselves by striking the ice with staves shod with iron. On
summer holydays, they exercised in leaping, shooting with the bow,
wrestling, throwing stones, and darting a thrown spear. The
maidens danced with timbrels. Since at least 1133, children's toys
included dolls, drums, hobby horses, pop guns, trumpets, and
kites.

The cold, indoors as well as outdoors, necessitated that people
wear ample and warm garments. Men and women of position dressed in
long full cloaks reaching to their feet, sometimes having short
full sleeves. The cloak generally had a hood and was fastened at
the neck with a brooch. Underneath the cloak was a simple gown
with sleeves tight at the wrist but full at the arm-hole, as if
cut from the same piece of cloth. A girdle or belt was worn at the
waist. When the men were hunting or working, they wore gown and
cloak of knee length. Men wore stockings to the knee and shoes.
The fashion of long hair on men returned.

The nation grew with the increase of population, the development
of towns, and the growing mechanization of craft industries. There
were watermills for crafts and for supplying and draining water in
all parts of the nation. In flat areas, slow rivers could be
supplemented by creating artifical waterfalls, for which water was
raised to the level of reservoirs. There were also some iron-
smelting furnaces. Coal mining underground began as a family
enterprise. Stone bridges over rivers could accommodate one person
traveling by foot or by horseback and were steep and narrow. The
wheelbarrow came into use to cart materials for building castles
and cathedrals.

Merchants, who had come from the low end of the knightly class or
high end of the villein class, settled around the open market
areas, where main roads joined. They had plots narrow in frontage
along the road and deep. Their shops faced the road, with living
space behind or above their stores. Town buildings were typically
part stone and part timber as a compromise between fire
precautions and expense.

Towns, as distinct from villages, had permanent markets. As towns
grew, they paid a fee to obtain a charter for self-government from
the king giving the town judicial and commercial freedom. They
were literate enough to do accounts. So they did their own
valuation of the sum due to the crown so as not to pay the sheriff
any more than that. These various rights were typically expanded
in future times, and the towns received authority to collect the
sum due to the crown rather than the sheriff. This they did by
obtaining a charter renting the town to the burghers at a fee farm
rent equal to the sum thus deducted from the amount due from the
county. Such a town was called a "borough" and its citizens or
landholding freemen "burgesses". To be free of something meant to
have exclusive rights and privileges with respect to it. Selling
wholesale could take place only in a borough. Burgesses were free
to marry. They were not subject to defense except of the borough.
They were exempt from attendance at county and hundred courts. The
king assessed a tallage [ad hoc tax] usually at ten per cent of
property or income. In the boroughs, merchant and manufacturing
guilds controlled prices and assured quality. The head officer of
the guild usually controlled the borough, which excluded rival
merchant guilds. A man might belong to more than one guild, e.g.
one for his trade and another for religion.

Craft guilds grew up in the towns, such as the tanners at Oxford,
which later merged with the shoemakers into a cordwainers' guild.
There were weavers' guilds in several towns, including London,
which were given royal sanction and protection for annual payments
(twelve pounds of silver for London. They paid an annual tribute
and were given a monopoly of weaving cloth within a radius of
several miles. Guild rules covered attendance of the members at
church services, the promotion of pilgrimages, celebration of
masses for the dead, common meals, relief of poor brethren and
sisters, the hours of labor, the process of manufacture, the wages
of workmen, and technical education. Henry standardized the yard
as the length of his own arm.

Trades and crafts, each of which had to be licensed, grouped
together by specialty in the town. Cloth-makers, dyers, tanners,
and fullers were near an accessible supply of running water, upon
which their trade depended. Streets were often named by the trade
located there, such as Butcher Row, Pot Row, Cordwainer Row,
Ironmonger Row, Wheeler Row, and Fish Row. Hirers of labor and
sellers of wheat, hay, livestock, dairy products, apples and wine,
meat, poultry, fish and pies, timber and cloth all had a distinct
location. Some young men were apprenticed to craftsmen to assist
them and learn their craft.

London had at least twenty wards, each governed by its own
alderman. Most of them were named after people. London was ruled
by sixteen families linked by business and marriage ties. These
businesses supplied luxury goods to the rich and included the
goldsmiths [sold cups, dishes, girdles, mirrors, purses knives,
and metal wine containers with handle and spout], vintners [wine
merchants], mercers [sold textiles, haberdashery, combs, mirrors,
knives, toys, spices, ointments, and potions], drapers, and
pepperers, which later merged with the spicers to become the
"grocers", skinners, tanners, shoemakers, woolmen, weavers,
fishmongers, armorers, and swordsmiths. There were bakehouses at
which one could leave raw joints of meat to be cooked and picked
up later. These businesses had in common four fears: royal
interference, foreign competition, displacement by new crafts, and
violence by the poor and escaped villeins who found their way to
the city. When a non-freeholder stayed in London he had to find
for frankpledge, three sureties for good behavior. Failure to do
so was a felony and the ward would eject him to avoid the charge
of harboring him with its heavy fine. The arrival of ships with
cargoes from continental ports and their departure with English
exports was the regular waterside life below London Bridge. Many
foreign merchants lived in London. Imports included timber, hemp,
fish, and furs. There was a fraternal organization of citizens who
had possessed their own lands with sac and soke and other customs
in the days of King Edward. There were public bath-houses, but
they were disreputable. A lady would take an occasional bath in a
half cask in her home. The church warned of evils of exposing the
flesh, even to bathe.

Middlesex County was London's territory for hunting and farming.
All London craft work was suspended for one month at harvest time.
London received this charter for self-government and freedom from
the financial and judicial organization of the county:

"Henry, by the grace of God, King of England, to the Archbishop of
Canterbury and the bishops, abbots, earls, barons, justiciars,
sheriffs and all his loyal subjects, both French and English,
throughout the whole of England - greeting.

1. Be it known to you that I have granted Middlesex to my
citizens of London to be held on lease by them and their
heirs of me and my heirs for 300 pounds paid by tale
[yearly], upon these terms: that the citizens themselves
[may] appoint a sheriff, such as they desire, from among
themselves, and a justiciar, such as they desire, from among
themselves, to safeguard the pleas of my Crown [criminal
cases] and to conduct such pleas. And there shall be no
other justiciar over the men of London.

2. And the citizens shall not take part in any [civil] case
whatsoever outside the City walls.

1) And they shall be exempt from the payment of scot and
danegeld and the murder fine.

2) And none of them shall take part in trial by combat.

3) And if any of the citizens has become involved in a
plea of the Crown, he shall clear himself, as a citizen of
London, by an oath which has been decreed in the city.

4) And no one shall be billeted [lodged in a person's
house by order of the King] within the walls of the city
nor shall hospitality be forcibly exacted for anyone
belonging to my household or to any other.

5) And all the citizens of London and all their effects
[goods] shall be exempt and free, both throughout England
and in the seaports, from toll and fees for transit and
market fees and all other dues.

6) And the churches and barons and citizens shall have and
hold in peace and security their rights of jurisdiction
[in civil and criminal matters] along with all their dues,
in such a way that lessees who occupy property in
districts under private jurisdiction shall pay dues to no
one except the man to whom the jurisdiction belongs, or to
the official whom he has placed there.

7) And a citizen of London shall not be amerced [fined by
a court when the penalty for an offense is not designated
by statute] to forfeiture of a sum greater than his
wergeld, [hereby assessed as] 100 shillings, in a case
involving money.

8) And further there shall be no miskenning [false plea
causing a person to be summoned to court] in a husting
[weekly court] or in a folkmoot [meeting of the
community], or in any other court within the City.

9) And the Hustings [court] shall sit once a week on
Monday.

10) And I assure to my citizens their lands and the
property mortgaged to them and the debts due to them both
within the City and without.

11) And with regard to lands about which they have pled in
suit before me, I shall maintain justice on their behalf,
according to the law of the City.

12) And if anyone has exacted toll or tax from citizens of
London, the citizens of London within the city shall [have
the right to] seize [by process of law] from the town or
village where the toll or tax was exacted a sum equivalent
to that which the citizen of London gave as toll and hence
sustained as loss.

13) And all those who owe debts to citizens shall pay them
or shall clear themselves in London from the charge of
being in debt to them.

14) But if they have refused to pay or to come to clear
themselves, then the citizens to whom they are in debt
shall [have the right to] seize [by process of law] their
goods [including those in the hands of a third party, and
bring them] into the city from the [town, village or]
county in which the debtor lives [as pledges to compel
appearance in court].

15) And the citizens shall enjoy as good and full hunting
rights as their ancestors ever did, namely, in the
Chilterns, in Middlesex, and in Surrey.

Witnessed at Westminster."

The above right not to take part in any case outside the city
relieved London citizens from the burden of traveling to wherever
the King's court happened to be, the disadvantage of not knowing
local customs, and the difficulty of speaking in the language of
the King's court rather than in English. The right of redress for
tolls exacted was new because the state of the law was that the
property of the inhabitants was liable to the king or superior
lord for the common debt.

Newcastle-on-Tyne was recognized by the king as having certain
customs, so the following was not called a grant:

"These are the laws and customs which the burgesses of Newcastle
upon Tyne had in the time of Henry King of England and ought to
have.

[1] Burgesses can distrain [take property of another until
the other performs his obligation] upon foreigners within,
or without their own market, within or without their own
houses, and within or without their own borough without the
leave of the reeve, unless the county court is being held in
the borough, and unless [the foreigners are] on military
service or guarding the castle.

[2] A burgess cannot distrain upon a burgess without the
leave of the reeve.

[3] If a burgess have lent anything of his to a foreigner,
let the debtor restore it in the borough if he admits the
debt, if he denies it, let him justify himself in the
borough.

[4] Pleas which arise in the borough shall be held and
concluded there, except pleas of the Crown.

[5] If any burgess be appealed [sued] of any plaint, he
shall not plead without the borough, unless for default of
[the borough] court.

[6] Nor ought he to answer without day and term, unless he
have fallen into 'miskenning'[error in pleading], except in
matters which pertain to the Crown.

[7] If a ship have put in at Tynemouth and wishes to depart,
the burgesses may buy what they will [from it].

[8] If a plea arise between a burgess and a merchant, it
shall be concluded before the third ebb of the tide.

[9] Whatever merchandise a ship has brought by sea must be
landed, except salt; and herring ought to be sold in the
ship.

[10] If any man have held land in burgage for a year and a
day, lawfully and without claim, he shall not answer a
claimant, unless the claimant have been without the realm of
England, or a child not of age to plead.

[11] If a burgess have a son, he shall be included in his
father's freedom if he be with his father.

[12] If a villein come to dwell in the borough, and dwell
there a year and a day as a burgess, he shall abide
altogether, unless notice has been given by him or by his
master that he is dwelling for a term.

[13] If any man appeal [sue] a burgess of any thing, he
cannot do [trial by] battle with the burgess, but the
burgess shall defend himself by his law, unless it be of
treason, whereof he is bound to defend himself by [trial by]
battle.

[14] Neither can a burgess do [trial by] battle against a
foreigner, unless he first go out of the borough.

[15] No merchant, unless he be a burgess, may buy [outside]
the town either wool or leather or other merchandise, nor
within the borough except [from] burgesses.

[16] If a burgess incur forfeit, he shall give six ounces
[10s.] to the reeve.

[17] In the borough there is no merchet [payment for
marrying off a daughter] nor heriot nor bloodwite [fine for
drawing blood] nor stengesdint [fine for striking with a
stick].

[18] Every burgess may have his own oven and hand-mill if he
will, saving the right of the King's oven.

[19] If a woman be in forfeit for bread or beer, no one
ought to interfere but the reeve. If she forfeit twice,
she shall be chastised by her forfeit. If three times,
let justice be done on her.

[20] No one but a burgess may buy webs [woven fabrics just
taken off the loom] to dye, nor make nor cut them.

[21] A burgess may give and sell his land and go whither he
will freely and quietly unless there be a claim against
him."

The nation produced sufficient iron, but a primitive steel [iron
with carbon added] was imported. It was scarce and expensive.
Steel was used for tools, instruments, weapons and armor. Ships
could carry about 300 people. Navigation was by simple charts that
included wind direction for different seasons and the direction of
north. The direction of the ship could be generally determined
when the sky was clear by the position of the sun during the day
or the north star during the night.

Plays about miracles wrought by holy men or saints or the
sufferings and fortitude of martyrs were performed, usually at the
great church festivals. Most nobles could read, though writing was
still a specialized craft. There were books on animals, plants,
and stones. The lives of the saints as told in the book "The
Golden Legend" were popular. The story of the early King Arthur
was told in the book "The History of the Kings of England". The
story at this time stressed Arthur as a hero and went as follows:
Arthur became king at age 15. He had an inborn goodness and
generosity as well as courage. He and his knights won battles
against foreign settlers and neighboring clans. Once, he and his
men surrounded a camp of foreigners until they gave up their gold
and silver rather than starve. Arthur married Guenevere and
established a court and retinue. Leaving Britain in the charge of
his nephew Modred, he fought battles on the continent for land to
give to his noblemen who did him service in his household and
fought with him. When Arthur returned to Britain, he made battle
with his nephew Modred who had crowned himself King. Arthur's
knight Gawain, the son of his sister, and the enemy Modred were
killed and Arthur was severely wounded. Arthur told his kinsman
Constantine to rule Britain as king in his place.

Copyright (c) 2007. knowncrafts.net. All rights reserved.