INTRODUCTION-continued. Uncertainty as to the time and authority by which a court sat in the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, 29, 30 Witena-gemot absolute in ecclesiastical regulations, 29, 30 Saxon princes accustomed to forward a charitable donation called Gregory interpreted the present of Peter's pence, as a badge of sub- William I. refuses to do homage to the pope for his kingdom, 30 Royal assent required to enforce the decisions of national or provincial Separation of the ecclesiastical courts from those of the hundred, 30 Domesday, 30-34 Objects sought to be attained, from the compilation of, 30, 31 The manner in which the inquisition was to be taken, 31 Mode in which the returns were entered, 32 Returns framed of greater length than were requisite, 32 Instances of purchases and mortgage, 32 Owners not oppressed for the formation of the valuation, 32 Forged Saxon charters and seals may be ascribed to the period of the Number of places described in Domesday as boroughs, 33 Burgess-ship did not depend on tenure, 33 Those who paid "scot," and bore "lot," alone entitled to the borough Ancient manners and customs illustrated by Domesday (in not.), 33 Castles and merchant guilds distinct from boroughs, 34 Reeves and pledges mentioned in Domesday, 34 Privileges exclusively granted to the burgesses, 34 Sac and Soc, 34, 35 Gave only a civil jurisdiction, 34 The "court baron" had no criminal jurisdiction, 35 The "tourn" related to pleas of the crown, 33 Duties of the suitors at these courts, 35 Privileges of, were at first only granted to the ecclesiastical bodies, 35 No records to establish the component parts and authority of the legis- Powers of legislation exercised by the crown and a selected council, 36 Appellations of the assemblies convened by William I., and his imme- Designations of the members who were convened to the legislative 99.66 Rank of archbishops and earls distinct from that of barons, 37 99.66 mag Title of the "barones," to act legislatively has been undiscovered, 37 of William I., 38 No lay persons included except earls and barons, 38 Non-existence of legislative assemblies, 38 No record to prove that William I. obtained any general aid from his William I. did not require an aid from any legislative assembly, 39 INDEX. INDEX. INTRODUCTION-continued. Government of William II. a series of hypocrisy, trouble, and deso- No records to illustrate the legislative assemblies, 40 HENRY I., REIGN OF, 40-42 Laws of Henry I., 40, 41 Borough privileges, 41 Feudal tenures partly abolished, 41 Descent of lands, 41 Ecclesiastical regulations, 41 Assemblage of councils, 41 Legislative powers of the king, 42 Component members of the councils, 42 STEPHEN, REIGN OF, 43 Charters of Stephen, 43 From the desolation of the country during the reign of, records illus- Introduction of the Roman canon and civil laws, 43 HOUSE OF PLANTAGENET, 44-128 HENRY II., REIGN OF, 44-48 Constitutions of Clarendon, 44-46 Evil consequences from the separation of the clergy from the laity, 44 Criminal process against clerks, 45 Appeals in spiritual causes, 45 Excommunication of inhabitants in demesne, 45 Appointment of justices in eyre, 46 Instructions to the judges, 47 Introduction of the grand assize, 47 RICHARD I., REIGN OF, 48-50 Tyrannical government of Richard I., 48 Forest laws were renewed, and enforced with severity, 48 Uniformity of weights and measures, 48 Law of wrecks mitigated, 48 Assemblage of councils, 48 No representative body existed in the reign of Richard I., analogous to Richard, to answer his exigences, raised moneys by legal and illegal Demesnes of the crown granted in fee-farm to burgesses, 49 The lands of the kingdom fell into the hands of a larger number of pro- A new state of property arose, and another character was given to a JOHN, REIGN OF, 50-65 Magna Charta, 50-54 The character of John, 50 The barons demand a restoration of their constitutional rights, 50 Clerical rights and privileges secured, 51 The barons received abatements in the rigour of the feudal law, or determinations upon points which had been left by that law, 51 Reliefs of heirs, 51 Estates of minors, 51 Marriages of heirs and widows, 51, 52 Wardship of minors holding by military tenure of a baron, 52 INDEX. INTRODUCTION-continued. Imposition of scutages, 52 Common council of the kingdom to assess an aid, 52 Regulations respecting amercements and pre-emption, 52 Privileges granted to the barons, were to be by them extended to their inferior vassals, 52 Uniformity of weights and measures, 53 Commercial transactions protected, 53 Confirmation of borough privileges, 53 Testamentary rights, 53 Purveyance prohibited, 53 Justice to be openly administered to every one, and not to be sold, Sheriffs incapacitated from holding pleas of the crown, 53 No man to suffer in body or estate, unless by the legal judgment of his Object of political contests is party aggrandizement, 54 Legislative Assemblies, 54-58 First attempt to assemble a general representative body, 54 Magna Charta affords no information as to the legislative councils, 55 The persons who were specified by name in the Charter, as those by Articles containing the demands of the barons, 55 The Charter affected the whole body of the people, 55 Assembly at Runimede not a regular legislative assembly, 56 Election of knights to inquire of the bad customs to be abolished accord- No allusion made in the Charter of an appeal to a legislative assembly, 56 No article in the Charter refers to a previous legislative assembly, 56 The Charter of John refers to the convention of an assembly for the Citizens and burgesses held by a tenure, of which homage was not a Citizens and burgesses were tenants in chief from the crown of their The burgesses, as individuals, were liable to tallage, 57 In the assembly to be convened under the Charter of John, citizens There are no records to prove that any city or borough appeared by John repudiates the Great Charter, 58 No legislative assemblies under the Charter, held during the reign of Borough Institutions, 58–65 Immunities to boroughs and individuals were numerous during the reign Ancient borough privileges were not, in the slightest degree, encroached Prerogative of the crown to create boroughs defined, 58 Early records proceed on the assumption that all boroughs were essen- Grants in the Carta Antiquæ and Charter and Patent Rolls are vari- None of the early charters define or provide for the creation of bur- Essential requisites for the constitution of a freeman, 59 INDEX. INTRODUCTION-continued. Mode in which burgesses were admitted to freedom, 61, 62 62 The leet jury had the power of rejecting a freeman, 62 Inhabitants of cities and boroughs compelled to bear the local burdens Origin of fines for the admission to burgess-ship, 62 Principal liberties granted in the early borough-charters, could not have Franchises in charters could not have extended to non-residents, 63 The term "guild" defined, 63 Partial enjoyment of borough franchises by strangers, 64 Freedom of apprentices had not their origin from corporate principles, 64 A villain could enter into no contract with his lord, 64 Leet juries bound to present apprentices as freemen, 65 Borough privileges exclusively applied to local permanent residence, 65 General Observations, 65-67 Distracted state of the country, 65 Misconduct of Henry, 65 Publication of legislative acts, 66 Prerogative of the crown, 66 Continued existence of councils, 66 Situation of Henry different from that of his predecessors, 66 Loss of Normandy made the crown dependant on England, 66 The Great Charters, 67-69 First charter of Henry III., 67 Word "magnates," included prelates, earis, and barons (Note 3), 67 Second charter of Henry III., 68 Charter of forests, 68 Third charter of Henry III., 68 Grant of a fifteenth, 68 Charter does not express the manner by which the enacting parties gave Legislative Assemblies, 69–79 First actual appearance, by elected representatives, of bodies of men, 69 Subsidy collected under the inspection of the judges, 70 Component members of the parliament of 1246, p. 70 Portuum maris habitatores, 70 Citizens and burgesses not requisite to compose a parliament, 71 Barons and knights summoned to grant an aid, but no mention of citizens Unpopularity of the king, 71 Barons demand redress of grievances, 72 Assembly of proceres et fideles regni, 72 Appointment of "twenty-four" to redress grievances, 72 Fideles, persons of the first rank, 72 Regular constitution of lords spiritual and temporal not in existence, 72 Component members of the parliament of Oxford, 73 Faction assumes the semblance of virtue and public spirit, 73 Grievances redressed by the twenty-four, 73 Tyranny of the barons, 74 Subjects sworn to obey all ordinances known or unknown, 74 Delegation by parliament of all their powers, 74 INDEX. INTRODUCTION-continued. Distinction between a spirit of liberty and faction, 74 Barons assume the royal and legislative functions, 75 Summons of three knights from each county, 75 The king disclaims the Provisions of Oxford, 75, 76 Mise of Lewes, 76 Summons of four knights for certain counties, 76 Parliament of 49 Henry III., 76, 77 Number of lay lords and ecclesiastics, 77 Knights, citizens, and burgesses, 77 Writs to the Cinque Ports, 77 The king assumes arbitrary powers, 77 Dictum de Kenilworth, 78 Statute of Marleberge, 78 Component members of the assembly at Marlborough, 78 State of the country, 49 Henry III., 79 Violence of the king and his adherents, 79 Administration of Justice, 79-81 Improvements in the common law, 79, 80 Jurisprudence of the country protected individual interests, 80 Question of bastardy, 80 Spiritual courts object to the practice of the common law courts, 80 Open traffic of injustice, 81 EDWARD I., REIGN OF, 82-102 Improvements in the Law, 82, 83 Laws must be accommodated to the condition of society, 82 The very scheme and model of the administration of common justice Forms of writs were perfected, 82 Legal treatises that were then written, are authorities at the present Fiction of common recoveries, 83 No statute rolls prior to the reign of Edward I., 83 Legislative Assemblies, 83-102 Legislative institutions acquired their present form, 83 Only writs for the election of representatives to parliament, previous to the reign of Edward I., is the imperfect record of 49 Henry III., p. 83 Increased influence of the boroughs, 84 Power of the king to levy tallages, 84 All classes perceived the necessity of restricting the authority of the Levy of a tallage, 85 Exportation of wool prohibited, 85 Power of legislation, 85 Statute of Westminster I., 85 Writ for levying the fifteenth, 86 Statute Officium Coronatoris, 86 Statute de Bigamis, 86 Statute concerning justices being assigned, 86 Statutes of Gloucester, 87 Statute de Viris religiosis, 87 Legislative acts without the concurrence of "knights" or "bur- gesses," 87 Convocation of assemblies at York and Northampton, 11 Edward I., 87 Four knights for each county, and two burgesses from each borough, summoned for taxation, 88 Precepts to the clergy to attend at Northampton and York, 88 |