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Title: Our Legal Heritage : 600-1776 King Aethelbert - King George III

Author: S. A. Reilly

Release date: October 1, 2004 [eBook #6603]
                Most recently updated: August 21, 2012

Language: English



*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR LEGAL HERITAGE : 600-1776 KING AETHELBERT - KING GEORGE III ***
















OUR LEGAL HERITAGE

King AEthelbert - King George III

600 A.D. - 1776






By

S. A. Reilly, Attorney
175 E. Delaware Place
Chicago, Illinois 60611-1724
S.A.Reilly@att.net



4th Edition


Copyright (C) 2002







Preface

This was written to appreciate what laws have been in existence
for a long time and therefore have proven their success in
maintaining a stable society. Its purpose is also to see the
historical context in which our legal doctrines developed. It
includes the inception of the common law system, which was praised
because it made law which was not handed down by an absolutist
king; the origin of the jury system; the meaning of the Magna
Carta provisions in their historical context; and the emergence of
attorneys.

This book is a primer. One may read it without prior knowledge of
history or law, although it will be more meaningful to attorneys
than to others. It can serve as an introduction on which to base
further reading in English legal history. It defines terms unique
to English legal history. However, the meaning of some terms in
King Aethelbert's code in Chapter 1 are unknown or inexact.

In the Table of Contents, the title of each chapter denotes an
important legal development in the given time period for that
chapter. Each chapter is divided into three sections: The Times,
The Law, and Judicial Procedure.

The Times section sets a background and context in which to better
understand the law of that period. The usual subject matter of
history such as battles, wars, royal intrigues, periods of
corruption, and international relations are omitted as not helping
to understand the process of civilization and development of the
law. Standard practices are described, but there are often
variations with locality. Also, change did not come abruptly, but
with vacillations, e.g. the change from pagan to Christian belief
and the change to allowance of loans for interest. The scientific
revolution was accepted only slowly. There were often many
attempts made for change before it actually occurred, e.g. gaining
Parliamentary power over the king's privileges, such as taxation.

The Law section describes the law governing the behavior and
conduct of the populace. It includes law of that time which is the
same, similar, or a building block to the law of today. In earlier
times this is both statutory law and the common law of the courts.
The Magna Carta, which is quoted in Chapter 7, is the first
statute of England and is listed first in the "Statutes of the
Realm" and the "Statutes at Large". The law sections of Chapters 7
- 18 mainly quote or paraphrase most of these statutes. Excluded
are statutes which do not help us understand the development of
our law, such as statutes governing Wales after its conquest and
statutes on succession rights to the throne.

The Judicial Procedure section describes the process of applying
the law and trying cases, and jurisdictions. It also contains some
examples of cases.

For easy comparison, amounts of money expressed in pounds or marks
[Danish denomination] have often been converted to the smaller
denominations of shillings and pence. There are twenty shillings
in a pound. A mark in silver is two-thirds of a pound. Shillings
are abbreviated: "s." There are twelve pennies or pence in a
Norman shilling. Pence are abbreviated "d." Six shillings and two
pence is denoted 6s.2d. A scaett was a coin of silver and copper
of lesser denomination than a shilling.

The sources and reference books from which information was
obtained are listed in a bibliography instead of being contained
in tedious footnotes. There is no index to pages because the
electronic text will print out its pages differently on different
computers with different computer settings. Instead, a word search
may be done on the electronic text.




Dedication and Acknowledgements

A Vassar College faculty member once dedicated her book to her
students, but for whom it would have been written much earlier.
This book "Our Legal Heritage" is dedicated to the faculty of
Vassar College, without whom it would never have been written.
Much appreciation goes to Professor Lacey Baldwin Smith of
Northwestern University's History Department and to Professor
James Curtin of Loyola Law School for their review and comments on
this book: The Tudor and Stuart periods: Chapters 11-17, and the
medieval period: Chapters 4-10, respectively.




Table of Contents

Chapters:

     1. Tort law as the first written law: to 600
     2. Oaths and perjury: 600-900
     3. Marriage law: 900-1066
     4. Martial "law": 1066-1100
     5. Criminal law and prosecution: 1100-1154
     6. Common Law for all freemen: 1154-1215
     7. Magna Carta: the first statute: 1215-1272
     8. Land law: 1272-1348
     9. Legislating the economy: 1348-1399
    10. Equity from Chancery Court: 1399-1485
    11. Use-trust of land: 1485-1509
    12. Wills and testaments of lands and goods: 1509-1558.
    13. Consideration and contract Law: 1558-1601
    14. Welfare for the poor: 1601-1625
    15. Independence of the courts: 1625-1642
    16. Freedom of religion: 1642-1660
    17. Habeas Corpus: 1660-1702
    18. Service of Process instead of arrest: 1702-1776
    19. Epilogue: 1776-2000

Appendix: Sovereigns of England

Bibliography





                         - - - Chapter 1 - - -



                     - The Times: before 600 A.D. -

The settlement of England goes back thousands of years. At first,
people hunted and gathered their food. They wore animal skins over
their bodies for warmth and around their feet for protection when
walking. These skins were sewn together with bone needles and
threads made from animal sinews. They carried small items by
hooking them onto their belts. They used bone and stone tools,
e.g. for preparing skins. Their uncombed hair was held by
thistlethorns, animal spines, or straight bone hair pins. They
wore conical hats of bound rush and lived in rush shelters.

Early clans, headed by kings, lived in huts on top of hills or
other high places and fortified by circular or contour earth
ditches and banks behind which they could gather for protection.
They were probably dug with antler picks and wood spades. The
people lived in rectangular huts with four wood posts supporting a
roof. The walls were made of saplings, and a mixture of mud and
straw. Cooking was in a clay oven inside or over an open fire on
the outside. Water was carried in animal skins or leather pouches
from springs lower on the hill up to the settlement. Forests
abounded with wolves, bears, deer, wild boars, and wild cattle.
They could more easily be seen from the hill tops. Pathways
extended through this camp of huts and for many miles beyond.

For wives, men married women of their clan or bought or captured
other women, perhaps with the help of a best man. They carried
their unwilling wives over the thresholds of their huts, which
were sometimes in places kept secret from her family. The first
month of marriage was called the honeymoon because the couple was
given mead, a drink with fermented honey and herbs, for the first
month of their marriage. A wife wore a gold wedding band on the
ring finger of her left hand to show that she was married.

Women usually stayed at home caring for children, preparing meals,
and making baskets. They also made wool felt and spun and wove
wool into a coarse cloth. Flax was grown and woven into a coarse
linen cloth. Spinning the strands into one continuous thread was
done on a stick, which the woman could carry about and spin at
anytime when her hands were free. The weaving was done on an
upright or warp-weighted loom. People of means draped the cloth
around their bodies and fastened it with a metal brooch inlayed
with gold, gems, and shell, which were glued on with glue that was
obtained from melting animal hooves. People drank from hollowed-
out animal horns, which they could carry from belts. They could
tie things with rawhide strips or rope braids they made. Kings
drank from animal horns decorated with gold or from cups of amber,
shale, or pure gold. Men and women wore pendants and necklaces of
colorful stones, shells, amber beads, bones, and deer teeth. They
skinned and cut animals with hand-axes and knives made of flint
dug up from pits and formed by hitting flakes off. The speared
fish with barbed bone prongs or wrapped bait around a flint, bone,
or shell fish hook. On the coast, they made bone harpoons for
deep-sea fish. The flint axe was used to shape wood and bone and
was just strong enough to fell a tree, although the process was
very slow.

The king, who was tall and strong, led his men in hunting groups
to kill deer and other wild animals in the forests and to fish in
the streams. Some men brought their hunting dogs on leashes to
follow scent trails to the animal. The men threw stones and spears
with flint points at the animals. They used wood clubs to beat
them, at the same time using wood shields to protect their bodies.
They watched the phases of the moon and learned to predict when it
would be full and give the most light for night hunting. This
began the concept of a month. Circles of stone like Stonehenge
were built with alignments to paths of the moon.

If hunting groups from two clans tried to follow the same deer,
there might be a fight between the clans or a blood feud. After
the battle, the clan would bring back its dead and wounded. A
priest officiated over a funeral for a dead man. His wife would
often also go on the funeral pyre with him.

The priest also officiated over sacrifices of humans, who were
usually offenders found guilty of transgressions. Sacrifices were
usually made in time of war or pestilence, and usually before the
winter made food scarce.

The clan ate deer that had been cooked on a spit over a fire, and
fruits and vegetables which had been gathered by the women. They
drank water from springs. In the spring, food was plentiful. There
were eggs of different colors in nests and many hare to eat. The
goddess Easter was celebrated at this time.

After this hunting and gathering era, there was farming and
domestication of animals such as horses, pigs, sheep, goats,
chicken, and cattle. Of these, the pig was the most important meat
supply, being killed and salted for winter use. Next in importance
were the cattle. Sheep were kept primarily for their wool. Flocks
and herds were taken to pastures. The male cattle, with wood
yokes, pulled ploughs in the fields of barley and wheat. The
female goat and cow provided milk, butter, and cheese. The
chickens provided eggs. The hoe, spade, and grinding stone were
used. Thread was spun with a hand-held spindle which one hand held
while the other hand alternately formed the thread from a mass and
then wound it around the spindle. A coarse cloth was woven and
worn as a tunic which had been cut from the cloth. Kings wore
tunics decorated with sheet gold.  Decorated pottery was made from
clay and used to hold liquids and for food preparation and
consumption. During the period of "lent" [from the word "lencten",
which means spring], it was forbidden to eat any meat or fish.
This was the season in which many animals were born and grew to
maturity. Wood carts with four wheels were used to transport
produce and manure. Horses were used for transportation of people
or goods. Wood dug-out boats and paddles were used to fish on
rivers or on the seacoast.

Clans had settlements near rivers. Each settlement had a meadow,
for the mowing of hay, and a simple mill, with round timber huts,
covered with branches or thatch or turf supported by a ring of
posts. Inside was a hearth with smoke going up through a hole in
the roof, and a cauldron for cooking food. There was an upright
loom in the darkness. The floor was swept clean. At the door were
spears or bags of slingstones ready for immediate use. The King
lived in the largest hut. Gullies outside carried off excess
water. Each hut had a garden for fruit and vegetables. A goat or
cow might be tied out of reach of the garden. There was a fence or
hedge surrounding and protecting the garden area and dwelling.
Buckets and cauldrons which had originated from the Mediterranean
were used. Querns with the top circular stone turned by hand over
the bottom stone were used for grinding grain. There were ovens to
dry and roast grain. Grain was first eaten as a porridge or
cereal. There were square wood graneries on stilts and wood racks
on which to dry hay. Grain was stored in concealed pits in the
earth which were lined with drystone or basketwork or clay and
made airtight by sealing with clay or dung. Old pits were
converted into waste dumps, burials, or latrines. Outside the
fence were an acre or two of fields of wheat and barley, and
sometimes oats and rye. Wheat and rye were sown in the fall, and
oats and barley in the spring. Sowing was by men or two oxen
drawing a simple scratch plow. The crops were all harvested in the
summer. In this two-field system, land was held by peasants in
units designed to support a single extended family. These fields
were usually enclosed with a hedge to keep animals from eating the
crop and to define the territory of the settlement from that of
its neighbors. Flax was grown and made into linen cloth. Beyond
the fields were pastures for cattle and sheep grazing. There was
often an area for beehives. This was subsistence level farming.

Pottery was given symmetry when formed with use of a wheel and
heated in increasingly hot kilns. From kilns used for pottery, it
was noticed that lumps of gold or copper ore within would melt and
assume the shape of what they had been resting on. These were the
first metals, and could be beaten into various shapes, such as
ornaments. Then the liquid ore was poured into moulds carved out
of stones to make axes and daggers, which were reheated and
hammered to become strong. Copper-tipped drills, chisels, punches
and awls were also made.

The bodies of deceased were buried far away from any village in
wood coffins, except for kings, who were placed in large stone
coffins after being wrapped in linen. Buried with them were a few
personal items, such as copper daggers, flat copper axes, and awls
[small pointed tool for piercing holes in leather, wood, or other
soft materials.]. The deceased was buried in a coffin with a stone
on top deep in the earth to keep the spirit of the dead from
coming out to haunt the living.

It was learned that tin added to the copper made a stronger metal:
bronze. Stone hammers, and bronze and iron tools, were used to
make cooking pots, weapons, breast plates, and horse bits, which
were formed from moulds and/or forged by bronze smiths and
blacksmiths from iron extracted from iron ore heated in bowl-
shaped hearths. Typically one man operated the bellows to keep the
fire hot while another did the hammering. Bronze was made into
sickles for harvesting, razors for shaving, tweezers, straight
hair pins, safety pins for clothes, armlets, neck-rings, and
mirrors. Weapons included bows and arrows, flint and copper
daggers, bronze swords and spears, stone axes, and shields of wood
with bronze mountings. The bows and arrows probably evolved from
spear throwing rods. Kings in body armor fought with chariots
drawn by two horses. The horse harnesses had bronze fittings. The
chariots had wood wheels, later with iron rims. When bronze came
into use, there was a demand for its constituent parts: copper and
tin, which were traded by rafts on waterways and the sea. When
iron came into use, there were wrought iron axes, saws, adzes [ax
with curved blade used to dress wood], files, ploughshares,
harrows [set of spikes to break clods of earth on plowed land and
also to cover seed when sewn], scythes, billhooks [thick knife
with hooked point used to prune shrubs], and spits for hearths.
Lead was mined. There was some glassmaking of beads. Wrought iron
bars were used as currency.

Hillforts now had wooden palisades on top of their banks to
protect the enclosed farmsteads and villages from stock wandering
off or being taken by rustlers, and from attacks by wild animals
or other people. Later a rampart was added from which sentries
could patrol. These were supported by timber and/or stone
structures. Timbers were probably transported by carts or dragged
by oxen. At the entrances were several openings only one of which
really allowed entry. The others went between banks into dead ends
and served as traps in which to kill the enemy from above. Gates
were of wood, some hung from hinges on posts which could be
locked. Later guard chambers were added, some with space for
hearths and beds. Sometimes further concentric circles of banks
and ditches, and perhaps a second rampart, were added around these
forts. They could reach to 14 acres. The ramparts are sufficiently
widely spaced to make sling-shotting out from them highly
effective, but to minimize the dangers from sling-shotting from
without. The additional banks and ditches could be used to create
cattle corridors or to protect against spear-thrown firebrands.
However, few forts had springs of water within them, indicating
that attacks on them were probably expected to be short. Attacks
usually began with warriors bristling with weapons and blowing war
trumpets shouting insults to the foe, while their kings dashed
about in chariots. Sometimes champions from each side fought in
single combat. The Celts took the heads of those they killed to
hang from their belts or place on wood spikes at the gates.
Prisoners, including women and children, might become slaves.
Kings sometimes lived in separate palisades where they kept their
horses and chariots.

Circles of big stones like Stonehenge were rebuilt so that the
sun's position with respect to the stones would indicate the day
of longest sunlight and the day of shortest sunlight. Between
these days there was an optimum time to harvest the crops before
fall, when plants dried up and leaves fell from the trees. The
winter solstice, when the days began to get longer was cause for
celebration. In the next season, there was an optimum time to
plant seeds so they could spring up from the ground as new growth.
So farming gave rise to the concept of a year. Certain changes of
the year were celebrated, such as Easter, named for the Goddess of
the Dawn, which occurred in the east (after lent); May Day
celebrating the revival of life; Lammas around July, when the
wheat crop was ready for harvesting; and on October 31 the Celtic
eve of Samhain, when the spirits of the dead came back to visit
homes and demand food or else cast an evil spell on the refusing
homes; and at which masked and costumed inhabitants representing
the souls of the dead paraded to the outskirts of the settlements
to lead the ghosts away from their homes; and at which animals and
humans, who might be deemed to be possessed by spirits, were
sacrificed or killed perhaps as examples, in huge bonfires
[bonefires] as those assembled looked out for spirits and evil
beings.

There was an agricultural revolution from the two-field to the
three-field system, in which there were three large fields for the
heavy and fertile land. Each field was divided into long and
narrow strips. Each strip represented a day's work with the
plough. One field had wheat, or perhaps rye, another had barley,
oats, beans, or peas, and the third was fallow. These were rotated
yearly. There was a newly invented plough that was heavy and made
of wood and later had an attached iron blade. The plough had a
mould-board which caught the soil stirred by the plough blade and
threw it into a ridge alongside the furrow dug by the plough
blade. This plough was too heavy for two oxen and was pulled by a
team of about eight to ten oxen. Each ox was owned by a different
man as was the plough, because no one peasant could afford the
complete set. Each freeman was allotted certain strips in each
field to bear crops. His strips were far from each other, which
insured some very fertile and some only fair soil, and some land
near his village dwelling and some far away. These strips he
cultivated, sowed with seed, and harvested for himself and his
family. After the harvest, they reverted to common ownership for
grazing by pigs, sheep, and geese. As soon as haymaking was over,
the meadows became common grazingland for horses, cows, and oxen.
Not just any inhabitant, but usually only those who owned a piece
of land in the parish were entitled to graze their animals on the
common land, and each owner had this right of pasture for a
definite number of animals. The faster horse replaced the ox as
the primary work animal. Other farm implements were: coulters,
which gave free passage to the plough by cutting weeds and turf,
picks, spades and shovels, reaping hooks and scythes, and sledge
hammers and anvils. Strips of land for agriculture were added from
waste land as the community grew. Waste lands were moors bristling
with brushwood, or gorse, heather and wanton weeds, reed-coated
marshes, quaking peat-bogs, or woods grown haphazard on sand or
rock. With iron axes, forests could be cleared to provide more
arable land.

Some villages had a smith, a wheelwright, and a cooper. There were
villages which had one or two market days in each week. Cattle,
sheep, pigs, poultry, calves, and hare were sold there. London was
a town on the Thames River under the protection of the Celtic
river god Lud: Lud's town. It's huts were probably built over the
water, as was Celtic custom. It was a port for foreign trade. Near
the town was Ludhill.

Flint workers mined with deer antler picks and ox shoulder blade
shovels for flint to grind into axes, spearheads, and arrowheads.
Mine shafts were up to thirty feet deep and necessitated the use
of chalk lamps fuelled by animal fat with wicks of moss. The flint
was hauled up in baskets.

Common men and women were now buried in tombs within memorial
burial mounds of earth with stone entrances and interior chambers.
A man's weapons and shield were buried with him and a woman's
spindle and weaving baton, and perhaps beads or pottery with her.
At times, mounds of earth would simply be covered over piles of
corpses and ashes in urns. In these mass graves, some corpses had
spear holes or sword cuts, indicating death by violence. The Druid
priests, the learned class of the Celts, taught the Celts to
believe in reincarnation of the soul after death of one body into
another body. They also threw prized possessions into lakes and
rivers as sacrifices to water gods. They placed images of gods and
goddesses in shrines, which were sometimes large enough to be
temples.

With the ability to grow food and the acquisition of land by
conquest by invading groups, the population grew. There were
different classes of men. The freemen were eorls [noble freemen]
or ceorls [ordinary free farmers]. Slaves were not free. Freemen
had long hair and beards. Slaves' hair was shorn from their heads
so that they were bald. Slaves were chained and often traded.
Prisoners taken in battle, especially native Britons taken by
invading groups, became slaves. A slave who was captured or
purchased was a "theow". An "esne" was a slave who worked for
hire. A "weallas" was a Welsh slave. Criminals became slaves of
the person wronged or of the king. Sometimes a father pressed by
need sold his children or his wife into bondage. Debtors, who
increased in number during famine, which occurred regularly,
became slaves by giving up the freeman's sword and spear, picking
up a slave's mattock [pick ax for the soils], and placing their
head within a lord's or lady's hands. They were called wite-
theows. The original meaning of the word lord was "loaf-giver".
Children with a slave parent were slaves. The slaves lived in huts
around the homes of big landholders, which were made of logs and
consisted on one large room or hall. An open hearth was in the
middle of the earthen floor of the hall, which was strewn with
rushes. There was a hole in the roof to let out the smoke. Here
the landholder and his men would eat meat, bread, salt, hot spiced
ale, and mead while listening to minstrels sing about the heroic
deeds of their ancestors. Richer men drank wine. There were
festivals which lasted several days, in which warriors feasted,
drank, gambled, boasted, and slept where they fell. Physical
strength and endurance in adversity were admired traits.

Slaves often were used as grain grinders, ploughmen, sowers,
haywards, woodwards, shepherds, goatherds, swineherds, oxherds,
cowherds, dairymaids, and barnmen. Slaves had no legal rights. A
lord could kill his slave at will. A wrong done to a slave was
regarded as done to his owner. If a person killed another man's
slave, he had to compensate him with the slave's purchase price.
The slave owner had to answer for the offences of his slaves
against others, as for the mischief done by his cattle. Since a
slave had no property, he could not be fined for crimes, but was
whipped, mutilated, or killed.

During famine, acorns, beans, peas, and even bark were ground down
to supplement flour when grain stocks grew low. People scoured the
hedgerows for herbs, roots, nettles, and wild grasses, which were
usually left for the pigs. Sometimes people were driven to
infanticide or group suicide by jumping together off a cliff or
into the water.

Several large kingdoms came to replace the many small ones. The
people were worshipping pagan gods when St. Augustine came to
England in 596 A.D. to Christianize them. King AEthelbert of Kent
[much later a county] and his wife, who had been raised Christian
on the continent, met him when he arrived. The King gave him land
where there were ruins of an old city. Augustine used stones from
the ruins to build a church which was later called Canterbury. He
also built the first St. Paul's church in London. Aethelbert and
his men who fought with him and ate and lived in his household
[gesiths] became Christian. A succession of princesses went out
from Kent to marry other Saxon kings and convert them to
Christianity.

Augustine knew how to write, but King AEthelbert did not. The King
announced his laws at meetings of his people and his eorls would
decide the punishments. There was a fine of 120s. for disregarding
a command of the King. He and Augustine decided to write down some
of these laws, which now included the King's new law concerning
the church.

These laws concern personal injury, killing, theft, burglary,
marriage, adultery, and inheritance. The blood feud's private
revenge for killing had been replaced by payment of compensation
to the dead man's kindred. One paid a man's "wergeld" [worth] to
his kindred for causing his wrongful death. The wergeld [wer] of a
king was an unpayable amount of about 7000s., of an aetheling [a
king-worthy man of the extended royal family] was 1500s., of an
eorl, 300s., of a ceorl, 100s., of a laet [agricultural worker in
Kent, which class was between free and slave], 40-80s., and of a
slave nothing. At this time a shilling could buy a cow in Kent or
a sheep elsewhere. If a ceorl killed an eorl, he paid three times
as much as an eorl would have paid as murderer. The penalty for
slander was tearing out of the tongue. If an aetheling was guilty
of this offense, his tongue was worth five times that of a coerl,
so he had to pay proportionately more to ransom it. The crimes of
murder, treachery to one's own lord, arson, house breaking, and
open theft, were punishable by death and forfeiture of all
property.



                              - The Law -

"THESE ARE THE DOOMS [DECREES] WHICH KING AETHELBERHT ESTABLISHED
IN THE DAYS OF AUGUSTINE

 1. [Theft of] the property of God and of the church [shall be
    compensated], twelve fold; a bishop's property, eleven fold; a
    priest's property, nine fold; a deacon's property, six fold; a
    cleric's property, three fold; church frith [breach of the peace
    of the church; right of sanctuary and protection given to those
    within its precincts], two fold [that of ordinary breach of the
    public peace]; m....frith [breach of the peace of a meeting
    place], two fold.

 2. If the King calls his leod [his people] to him, and any one
    there do them evil, [let him compensate with] a two-fold bot
    [damages for the injury], and 50 shillings to the King.

 3. If the King drink at any one's home, and any one there do any
    lyswe [evil deed], let him make two-fold bot.

 4. If a freeman steal from the King, let him repay nine fold.

 5. If a man slay another in the King's tun [enclosed dwelling
    premises], let him make bot with 50 shillings.

 6. If any one slay a freeman, 50 shillings to the King, as drihtin
    beah [payment to a lord in compensaton for killing his freeman].

 7. If the King's ambiht smith [smith or carpenter] or laad rine
    [man who walks before the King or guide or escort], slay a man,
    let him pay a half leod geld.

 8. [Offenses against anyone or anyplace under] the King's mund
    byrd [protection or patronage], 50 shillings.

 9. If a freeman steal from a freeman, let him make threefold bot;
    and let the King have the wite [fine] and all the chattels
    [necessary to pay the fine]. (Chattels was a variant of "cattle".)

10. If a man lie with the King's maiden [female servant], let him
    pay a bot of 50 shillings.

11. If she be a grinding slave, let him pay a bot of 25 shillings.
    The third [class of servant] 12 shillings.

12. Let the King's fed esl [woman who serves him food or nurse] be
    paid for with 20 shillings.

13. If a man slay another in an eorl's tun [premises], let [him]
    make bot with 12 shillings.

14. If a man lie with an eorl's birele [female cupbearer], let him
    make bot with 12 shillings.

15. [Offenses against a person or place under] a ceorl's mund byrd
    [protection], 6 shillings.

16. If a man lie with a ceorl's birele [female cupbearer], let him
    make bot with 6 shillings; with a slave of the second [class], 50
    scaetts; with one of the third, 30 scaetts.

17. If any one be the first to invade a man's tun [premises], let
    him make bot with 6 shillings; let him who follows, with 3
    shillings; after, each, a shilling.

18. If a man furnish weapons to another where there is a quarrel,
    though no injury results, let him make bot with 6 shillings.

19. If a weg reaf [highway robbery] be done [with weapons
    furnished by another], let him [the man who provided the weapons]
    make bot with 6 shillings.

20. If the man be slain, let him [the man who provided the
    weapons] make bot with 20 shillings.

21. If a [free] man slay another, let him make bot with a half
    leod geld [wergeld for manslaughter] of 100 shillings.

22. If a man slay another, at the open grave let him pay 20
    shillings, and pay the whole leod within 40 days.

23. If the slayer departs from the land, let his kindred pay a
    half leod.

24. If any one bind a freeman, let him make bot with 20 shillings.

25. If any one slay a ceorl's hlaf aeta [loaf or bread eater;
    domestic or menial servant], let him make bot with 6 shillings.

26. If [anyone] slay a laet of the highest class, let him pay 80
    shillings; of the second class, let him pay 60 shillings; of the
    third class, let him pay 40 shillings.

27. If a freeman commit edor breach [breaking through the fenced
    enclosure and forcibly entering a ceorl's dwelling], let him make
    bot with 6 shillings.

28. If any one take property from a dwelling, let him pay a three-
    fold bot.

29. If a freeman goes with hostile intent through an edor [the
    fence enclosing a dwelling], let him make bot with 4 shillings.

30. If [in so doing] a man slay another, let him pay with his own
    money, and with any sound property whatever.

31. If a freeman lie with a freeman's wife, let him pay for it
    with his wer geld, and obtain another wife with his own money, and
    bring her to the other [man's dwelling].

32. If any one thrusts through the riht ham scyld [legal means of
    protecting one's home], let him adequately compensate.

33. If there be feax fang [seizing someone by the hair], let there
    be 50 sceatts for bot.

34. If there be an exposure of the bone, let bot be made with 3
    shillings.

35. If there be an injury to the bone, let bot be made with 4
    shillings.

36. If the outer hion [outer membrane covering the brain] be
    broken, let bot be made with 10 shillings.

37. If it be both [outer and inner membranes covering the brain],
    let bot be made with 20 shillings.

38. If a shoulder be lamed, let bot be made with 30 shillings.

39. If an ear be struck off, let bot be made with 12 shillings.

40. If the other ear hear not, let bot be made with 25 shillings.

41. If an ear be pierced, let bot be made with 3 shillings.

42. If an ear be mutilated, let bot be made with 6 shillings.

43. If an eye be [struck] out, let bot be made with 50 shillings.

44. If the mouth or an eye be injured, let bot be made with 12
    shillings.

45. If the nose be pierced, let bot be made with 9 shillings.

46. If it be one ala, let bot be made with 3 shillings.

47. If both be pierced, let bot be made with 6 shillings.

48. If the nose be otherwise mutilated, for each [cut, let] bot be
    made with 6 shillings.

49. If it be pierced, let bot be made with 6 shillings.

50. Let him who breaks the jaw bone pay for it with 20 shillings.

51. For each of the four front teeth, 6 shillings; for the tooth
    which stands next to them 4 shillings; for that which stands next
    to that, 3 shillings; and then afterwards, for each a shilling.

52. If the speech be injured, 12 shillings. If the collar bone be
    broken, let bot be made with 6 shillings.

53. Let him who stabs [another] through an arm, make bot with 6
    shillings. If an arm be broken, let him make bot with 6 shillings.

54. If a thumb be struck off, 20 shillings. If a thumb nail be
    off, let bot be made with 3 shillings. If the shooting [fore]
    finger be struck off, let bot be made with 8 shillings. If the
    middle finger be struck off, let bot be made with 4 shillings. If
    the gold [ring]finger be struck off, let bot be made with 6
    shillings. If the little finger be struck off, let bot be made
    with 11 shillings.

55. For every nail, a shilling.

56. For the smallest disfigurement of the face, 3 shillings; and
    for the greater, 6 shillings.

57. If any one strike another with his fist on the nose, 3
    shillings.

58. If there be a bruise [on the nose], a shilling; if he receive
    a right hand bruise [from protecting his face with his arm], let
    him [the striker] pay a shilling.

59. If the bruise [on the arm] be black in a part not covered by
    the clothes, let bot be made with 30 scaetts.

60. If it be covered by the clothes, let bot for each be made with
    20 scaetts.

61. If the belly be wounded, let bot be made with 12 shillings; if
    it be pierced through, let bot be made with 20 shillings.

62. If any one be gegemed [pregnant], let bot be made with 30
    shillings.

63. If any one be cear wund [badly wounded], let bot be made with
    3 shillings.

64. If any one destroy [another's] organ of generation [penis],
    let him pay him with 3 leod gelds: if he pierce it through, let
    him make bot with 6 shillings; if it be pierced within, let him
    make bot with 6 shillings.

65. If a thigh be broken, let bot be made with 12 shillings; if
    the man become halt [lame], then friends must arbitrate.

66. If a rib be broken, let bot be made with 3 shillings.

67. If [the skin of] a thigh be pierced through, for each stab 6
    shillings; if [the wound be] above an inch [deep], a shilling;
    for two inches, 2; above three, 3 shillings.

68. If a sinew be wounded, let bot be made with 3 shillings.

69. If a foot be cut off, let 50 shillings be paid.

70. If a great toe be cut off, let 10 shillings be paid.

71. For each of the other toes, let one half that for the
    corresponding finger be paid.

72. If the nail of a great toe be cut off, 30 scaetts for bot; for
    each of the others, make bot with 10 scaetts.

73. If a freewoman loc bore [with long hair] commit any leswe
    [evil deed], let her make a bot of 30 shillings.

74. Let maiden bot [compensation for injury to an unmarried woman]
    be as that of a freeman.

75. For [breach of] the mund [protection] of a widow of the best
    class, of an eorl's degree, let the bot be 50 shillings; of the
    second, 20 shillings; of the third, 12 shillings; of the fourth, 6
    shillings.

76. If a man carry off a widow not under his own protection by
    right, let the mund be twofold.

77. If a man buy a maiden with cattle, let the bargain stand, if
    it be without fraud; but if there be fraud, let him bring her home
    again, and let his property be restored to him.

78. If she bear a live child, she shall have half the property, if
    the husband die first.

79. If she wish to go away with her children, she shall have half
    the property.

80. If the husband wish to keep them [the children], [she shall
    have the same portion] as one child.

81. If she bear no child, her paternal kindred shall have the fioh
    [her money and chattels] and the morgen gyfe [morning gift: a gift
    made to the bride by her husband on the morning following the
    consummation of the marriage].

82. If a man carry off a maiden by force, let him pay 50 shillings
    to the owner, and afterwards buy [the object of] his will from the
    owner.

83. If she be betrothed to another man in money [at a bride
    price], let him [who carried her off] make bot with 20 shillings.

84. If she become gaengang [pregnant], 35 shillings; and 15
    shillings to the King.

85. If a man lie with an esne's wife, her husband still living,
    let him make twofold bot.

86. If one esne slay another unoffending, let him pay for him at
    his full worth.

87. If an esne's eye and foot be struck out or off, let him be
    paid for at his full worth.

88. If any one bind another man's esne, let him make bot with 6
    shillings.

89. Let [compensation for] weg reaf [highway robbery] of a theow
    [slave] be 3 shillings.

90. If a theow steal, let him make twofold bot [twice the value of
    the stolen goods]."



                         - Judicial Procedure -

The King and his freemen would hear and decide cases of wrongful
behavior such as breach of the peace. Punishment would be given to
the offender by the community.

There were occasional meetings of "hundreds", which were 100
households, to settle wide-spread disputes. The chief officer was
"hundreder" or "constable". He was responsible for keeping the
peace of the hundred.

The Druid priests decided all disputes of the Celts.





                         - - - Chapter 2 - - -



                         - The Times: 600-900 -

The country was inhabited by Anglo-Saxons. The French called it
"Angleterre", which means the angle or end of the earth. It was
called "Angle land", which later became "England".

A community was usually an extended family. Its members lived a
village in which a stone church was the most prominent building.
They lived in one-room huts with walls and roofs made of wood,
mud, and straw. Hangings covered the cracks in the walls to keep
the wind out. Smoke from a fire in the middle of the room filtered
out of cracks in the roof. Grain was ground at home by rotating by
hand one stone disk on another stone disk. Some villages had a
mill powered by the flow of water or by horses. All freeholders
had the duty of watch [at night] and ward [during the day], of
following the hue and cry to chase an offender, and of taking the
oath of peace. These three duties were constant until 1195.

Farmland surrounded the villages and was farmed by the community
as a whole under the direction of a lord. There was silver,
copper, iron, tin, gold, and various types of stones from remote
lead mines and quarries in the nation. Silver pennies replaced the
smaller scaetts. Freemen paid "scot" and bore "lot" according to
their means for local purposes.

Everyone in the village went to church on Sunday and brought gifts
such as grain to the priest. Later, contributions in the form of
money became customary, and then expected. They were called
"tithes" and were spent for church repair, the clergy, and poor
and needy laborers. Local custom determined the amount. There was
also church-scot: a payment to the clergy in lieu of the first
fruits of the land. The priest was the chaplain of a landlord and
his parish was coextensive with that landlord's holding and could
include one to several villages. The priest and other men who
helped him, lived in the church building. Some churches had lead
roofs and iron hinges, latches, and locks on their doors. The land
underneath had been given to the church by former kings and
persons who wanted the church to say prayers to help their souls
go from purgatory to heaven and who also selected the first
priest. The priest conducted Christianized Easter ceremonies in
the spring and (Christ's mass) ceremonies in winter in place of
the pagan Yuletide festivities. Burning incense took the place of
pagan burnt animal offerings, which were accompanied by incense to
disguise the odor of burning flesh. Holy water replaced haunted
wells and streams. Christian incantations replaced sorcerer's
spells. Nuns assisted priests in celebrating mass and
administering the sacraments. They alone consecrated new nuns.
Vestry meetings were community meetings held for church purposes.
The people said their prayers in English, and the priest conducted
the services in English. A person joined his hands in prayer as if
to offer them for binding together in submission.

The church baptized babies and officiated or gave blessings at
marriage ceremonies. It also said prayers for the dying, gave them
funerals, and buried them. There were burial service fees, candle
dues, and plough alms. A piece of stone with the dead person's
name marked his grave. It was thought that putting the name on the
grave would assist identification of that person for being taken
to heaven. The church heard the last wish or will of the person
dying concerning who he wanted to have his property. The church
taught that it was not necessary to bury possessions with the
deceased. The church taught boys and girls.

Every man carried a horn slung on his shoulder as he went about
his work so that he could at once send out a warning to his fellow
villagers or call them in chasing a thief or other offender. The
forests were full of outlaws, so strangers who did not blow a horn
to announce themselves were presumed to be fugitive offenders who
could be shot on sight. An eorl could call upon the ceorl farmers
for about forty days to fight off an invading group.

There were several kingdoms, whose boundaries kept changing due to
warfare, which was a sin according to the church. They were each
governed by a king and witan of wise men who met at a witanegemot,
which was usually held three times a year, mostly on great church
festivals and at the end of the harvest. The king and witan chose
the witan's members of bishops, eorldormen, and thegns
[landholding farmers]. The king and hereditary claims played a
major part in the selection of the eorldormen, who were the
highest military leaders and often of the royal family. They were
also chief magistrates of large jurisdictional areas of land. The
witan included officers of the king's household and perhaps other
of his retinue. There was little distinction then between his
gesith, fighting men, guards, household companions, dependents,
and servants. The king was sometimes accompanied by his wife and
sons at the witanagemot. A king was selected by the witan
according to his worthiness, usually from among the royal family,
and could be deposed by it. The witan and king decided on laws,
taxes, and transfers of land. They made determinations of war and
peace and directed the army and the fleet. The king wore a crown
or royal helmet. He extended certain protections by the king's
peace. He could erect castles and bridges and could provide a
special protection to strangers.

A king had not only a wergeld to be paid to his family if he were
killed, but a "cynebot" of equal amount that would be paid to his
kingdom's people. A king's household had a chamberlain for the
royal bedchamber, a marshall to oversee the horses and military
equipment, a steward as head of household, and a cupbearer. The
king had income from fines for breach of his peace; fines and
forfeitures from courts dealing with criminal and civil cases;
salvage from ship wrecks; treasure trove [assets hidden or buried
in times of war]; treasures of the earht such as gold and silver;
mines; saltworks; tolls and other dues of markets, ports, and the
routes by land and by river generally; heriot from heirs of his
special dependents for possession of land (usually in kind,
principally in horses and weapons). He also had rights of
purveyance [hospitality and maintenance when traveling]. The king
had private lands, which he could dispose of by his will. He also
had crown lands, which belonged to his office and could not be
alienated without consent of the witan. Crown lands often included
palaces and their appendant farms, and burhs. It was a queen's
duty to run the royal estate. Also, a queen could possess, manage,
and dispose of lands in her name. Violent queens waged wars.
Kingdoms were often allied by marriage between their royal
families. There were also royal marriages to royalty on the
continent.

The houses of the wealthy had ornamented silk hangings on the
walls. Some had fine white ox horn shaved so thin they were
transparent for windows. Brightly colored drapery, often purple,
and fly nets surrounded their beds, which were covered with the
fur of animals. They slept in bed clothes on pillows stuffed with
straw. Tables plated with silver and gems held silver
candlesticks, gold and silver goblets and cups, and lamps of gold,
silver, or glass. They used silver mirrors and silver writing
pens. There were covered seats, benches, and footstools with the
head and feet of animals at their extremities. They ate from a
table covered with a cloth. Servants brought in food on spits,
from which they ate. Food was boiled, broiled, or baked. The
wealthy ate wheat bread and others ate barley bread. Ale made from
barley was passed around in a cup. Mead made from honey was also
drunk.

Men wore long-sleeved wool and linen garments reaching almost to
the knee, around which they wore a belt tied in a knot. Men often
wore a gold ring on the fourth finger of the right hand. Leather
shoes were fastened with leather thongs around the ankle. Their
hair was parted in the middle and combed down each side in waving
ringlets. The beard was parted in the middle of the chin, so that
it ended in two points. The clergy did not wear beards. Great men
wore gold-embroidered clothes, gilt buckles and brooches, and
drank from drinking horns mounted in silver gilt or in gold. Well-
to-do women wore brightly colored robes with waist bands,
headbands, necklaces, gem bracelets, and rings. Their long hair
was in ringlets and they put rouge on their cheeks. They had
beads, pins, needles, tweezers of bronze, and workboxes of bronze,
some highly ornamented. They were often doing needlework. Silk was
affordable only by the wealthy.

Most families kept a pig and pork was the primary meat. There were
also sheep, goats, cows, deer, hare, and fowl. Fowl was obtained
by fowlers who trapped them. The inland waters yielded eels,
salmon, and trout. In the fall, meat was salted to preserve it for
winter meals. There were orchards growing figs, nuts, grapes,
almonds, pears, and apples. Also produced were beans, lentils,
onions, eggs, cheese, and butter. Pepper and cinnamon were
imported.

Fishing from the sea yielded herrings, sturgeon, porpoise,
oysters, crabs, and other fish. Sometimes a whale was driven into
an inlet by a group of boats. Whale skins were used to make ropes.

The roads were not much more than trails. They were often so
narrow that two pack horses could hardly pass each other. The pack
horses each carried two bales or two baskets slung over their
backs, which balanced each other. The soft soil was compacted into
a deep ditch which rains, floods, and tides, if near the sea, soon
turned into a river. Traveling a far distance was unsafe as there
were robbers on the roads. Traveling strangers were distrusted. It
was usual to wash one's feet in a hot tub after traveling and to
dry them with a rough wool cloth.

There were superstitions about the content of dreams, the events
of the moon, and the flights and voices of birds were often seen
as signs or omens of future events. Herbal mixtures were drunk for
sickness and maladies. From the witch hazel plant was made a mild
alcoholic astringent, which was probably used to clean cuts and
sooth abraisons.

In the peaceful latter part of the 600s, Theodore, who had been a
monk in Rome, was appointed archbishop and visited all the island
speaking about the right rule of life and ordaining bishops to
oversee the priests. Each kingdom was split up into dioceses each
with one bishop. Thereafter, bishops were selected by the king and
his witan, usually after consulting the clergy and even the people
of the diocese. The bishops came to be the most permanent element
of society. They had their sees in villages or rural monasteries.
The bishops came to have the same wergeld as an eorldorman:
1200s., which was the price of about 500 oxen. A priest had the
wergeld as a landholding farmer [thegn], or 300s. The bishops
spoke Latin, but the priests of the local parishes spoke English.
Theodore was the first archbishop whom all the English church
obeyed. He taught sacred and secular literature, the books of holy
writ, ecclesiastical poetry, astronomy, arithmetic, and sacred
music. Theodore discouraged slavery by denying Christian burial to
the kidnapper and forbidding the sale of children over the age of
seven. A slave became entitled to two loaves a day and to his
holydays. A slave was allowed to buy his or his children's
freedom. In 673, Theodore started annual national ecclesiastical
assemblies, for instance for the witnessing of important actions.
The bishops, some abbots, the king, and the eorldormen were
usually present. From them the people learned the benefit of
common national action. There were two archbishops: one of
Canterbury in the south and one of York in the north. They
governed the bishops and could meet with them to issue canons that
would be equally valid all over the land. A bishop's house
contained some clerks, priests, monks, and nun and was a retreat
for the weary missionary and a school for the young. The bishop
had a deacon who acted as a secretary and companion in travel, and
sometimes as an interpreter. Ink was made from the outer husks of
walnuts steeped in vinegar.

The learned ecclesiastical life flourished in monastic
communities, in which both monks and nuns lived. Hilda, a noble's
daughter, became the first nun in Northumbria and abbess of one of
its monasteries. There she taught justice, piety, chastity, peace,
and charity. Several monks taught there later became bishops.
Kings and princes often asked her advice. Many abbesses came to
run monastic communities; they were from royal families. Women,
especially from royal families, fled to monasteries to obtain
shelter from unwanted marriage or to avoid their husbands. Kings
and eorldormen retired to them.

Danish Vikings made several invasions in the 800s for which a
danegeld tax on land was assessed on everyone every ten to twenty
years. The amount was determined by the witan and was typically
2s. per hide of land. (A hide was probably the amount of land
which could support a family or household for a year or as much
land as could be tilled annually by a single plow.) It was stored
in a strong box under the King's bed. King Alfred the Great, who
had lived for awhile in Rome, unified the country to defeat the
invaders. He established fortifications called "burhs", usually on
hill tops or other strategic locations on the borders to control
the main road and river routes into his realm. The burhs were
seminal towns. They were typically walled enclosures with towers
and an outer ditch and mound, instead of the hedge or fence
enclosure of a tun. Inside were several wooden thatched huts and a
couple of churches, which were lit by earthen oil lamps. The
populace met at burh-gemots. The land area protected by each burh
became known as a "shire", which means a share of a larger whole.
The shire or local landowners were responsible for repairing the
burh fortifications. There were about thirty shires.

Alfred gathered together fighting men who were at his disposal,
which included eorldormen with their hearthbands (retinues of men
each of whom had chosen to swear to fight to the death for their
eorldorman, and some of whom were of high rank), the King's
thegns, shire thegns (local landholding farmers, who were required
to bring fighting equipment such as swords, helmets, chainmail,
and horses), and ordinary freemen, i.e. ceorls (who carried food,
dug fortifications, and sometimes fought). Since the King was
compelled to call out the whole population to arms, the
distinction between the king's thegns from other landholders
disappeared. Some great lords organized men under them, whom they
provisioned. These vassals took a personal oath to their lord "on
condition that he keep me as I am willing to deserve, and fulfill
all that was agreed on when I became his man, and chose his will
as mine." Alfred had a small navy of longships with 60 oars to
fight the Viking longships.

Alfred divided his army into two parts so that one half of the men
were fighting while the other half was at home sowing and
harvesting for those fighting. Thus, any small-scale independent
farming was supplanted by the open-field system, cultivation of
common land, more large private estates headed by a lord, and a
more stratified society in which the king and important families
more powerful and the peasants more curtailed. The witan became
mere witnesses. Many free coerls of the older days became bonded.
The village community tended to become a large private estate
headed by a lord. But the lord does not have the power to encroach
upon the rights of common that exist within the community.

In 886, a treaty between Alfred and the Vikings divided the
country along the war front and made the wergeld of every free
farmer, whether English or Viking, 200s. Men of higher rank were
given a wergeld of 4 1/2 marks of pure gold. A mark was probably a
Viking denomination and a mark of gold was equal to nine marks of
silver in later times and probably in this time. The word "earl"
replaced the word "eorldormen" and the word "thegn" replaced the
word "aetheling" after the Danish settlement. The ironed pleats of
Viking clothing indicated a high status of the wearer. The Vikings
brought combs and the practice of regular hair-combing to England.

King Alfred gave land with jurisdictional powers within its
boundaries such as the following: "This is the bequest which King
Alfred make unequivocally to Shaftesbury, to the praise of God and
St. Mary and all the saints of God, for the benefit of my soul,
namely a hundred hides as they stand with their produce and their
men, and my daughter AEthelgifu to the convent along with the
inheritance, since she took the veil on account of bad health; and
the jurisdiction to the convent, which I myself possessed, namely
obstruction and attacks on a man's house and breach of protection.
And the estates which I have granted to the foundation are 40
hides at Donhead and Compton, 20 hides at Handley and Gussage 10
hides at Tarrant, 15 hides at Iwerve and 15 hides at Fontmell.

The witnesses of this are Edward my son and Archbishop AEthelred
and Bishop Ealhferth and Bishop AEthelhead and Earl Wulfhere and
Earl Eadwulf and Earl Cuthred and Abbot Tunberht and Milred my
thegn and AEthelwulf and Osric and Brihtulf and Cyma. If anyone
alters this, he shall have the curse of God and St. Mary and all
the saints of God forever to all eternity. Amen."

Sons usually succeeded their fathers on the same land as shown by
this lifetime lease: "Bishop Denewulf and the community at
Winchester lease to Alfred for his lifetime 40 hides of land at
Alresford, in accordance with the lease which Bishop Tunbriht had
granted to his parents and which had run out, on condition that he
renders every year at the autumnal equinox three pounds as rent,
and church dues, and the work connected with church dues; and when
the need arises, his men shall be ready both for harvesting and
hunting; and after his death the property shall pass undisputed to
St. Peter's.

These are the signatures of the councilors and of the members of
the community who gave their consent, namely ..."

Alfred invented a graduated candle with spaces indicating one hour
of burning, which could be used as a clock. He used a ventilated
cow's horn to put around the top of the candle to prevent its
blowing out, and then devised a wooden lantern with a horn window.
He described the world as like a yolk in the middle of an egg
whose shell moves around it. This agreed with the position of
Ptolemy Claudius of Alexandria, who showed the curvature of the
earth from north to south by observing that the Polar Star was
higher in the north and lower in the south. That it was curved
from east to west followed from the observation that two clocks
placed one west and one east would record a different time for the
same eclipse of the moon.

Alfred wrote poems on the worthiness of wisdom and knowledge in
preference to material pleasures, pride, and fame, in dealing with
life's sorrow and strife. His observations on human nature and his
proverbs include:

1.  As one sows, so will he mow.
2.  Every man's doom [judgment] returns to his door.
3.  He who will not learn while young, will repent of it when old.
4.  Weal [prosperity] without wisdom is worthless.
5.  Though a man had 70 acres sown with red gold, and the gold grew
    like grass, yet he is not a whit the worthier unless he gain
    friends for himself.
6.  Gold is but a stone unless a wise man has it.
7.  It's hard to row against the sea flood; so it is against
    misfortune.
8.  He who toils in his youth to win wealth, so that he may enjoy
    ease in his old age, has well bestowed his toil.
9.  Many a man loses his soul through silver.
10. Wealth may pass away, but wisdom will remain, and no man may
    perish who has it for his comrade.
11. Don't choose a wife for her beauty nor for wealth, but study
    her disposition.
12. Many an apple is bright without and bitter within.
13. Don't believe the man of many words.
14. With a few words a wise man can compass much.
15. Make friends at market, and at church, with poor and with
    rich.
16. Though one man wielded all the world, and all the joy that
    dwells therein, he could not therewith keep his life.
17. Don't chide with a fool.
18. A fool's bolt is soon shot.
19. If you have a child, teach it men's manners while it is
    little. If you let him have his own will, he will cause you much
    sorrow when he comes of age.
20. He who spares the rod and lets a young child rule, shall rue
    it when the child grows old.
21. Either drinking or not drinking is, with wisdom, good.
22. Be not so mad as to tell your friend all your thoughts.
23. Relatives often quarrel together.
24. The barkless dog bites ill.
25. Be wise of word and wary of speech, then all shall love you.
26. We may outride, but not outwit, the old man.
27. If you and your friend fall out, then your enemy will know
    what your friend knew before.
28. Don't choose a deceitful man as a friend, for he will do you
    harm.
29. The false one will betray you when you least expect it.
30. Don't choose a scornful false friend, for he will steal your
    goods and deny the theft.
31. Take to yourself a steadfast man who is wise in word and deed;
    he will prove a true friend in need.

To restore education and religion, Alfred disseminated the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicles; the Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History of
the English Nation; the "Consolidation of Philosophy" by Roman
philosopher Boethius, which related the use of adversity to
develop the soul, and described the goodness of God and how the
highest happiness comes from spiritual values and the soul, which
are eternal, rather than from material or earthly pursuits, which
are temporal; and Pope Gregory's Pastoral Care, which he had
translated into English and was the fundamental book on the duty
of a bishop, which included a duty to teach laymen; and Orosius'
History of the World, which he had translated into English.
Alfred's advice to pastors was to live as they had been taught
from books and to teach this manner of life to others. To be
avoided was pride, the mind's deception of seeking glory in the
name of doing good works, and the corruption of high office. Bede
was England's first scholar, first theologian, and first
historian. He wrote poetry, theological books, homilies, and
textbooks on grammar, rhetoric [public speaking and debating],
arithmetic, and astronomy. He adhered to the doctrine that death
entered the world by the sin of Adam, the first man. He began the
practice of dating years from the birth of Christ and believed
that the earth was round. Over the earth was a fiery spherical
firmament. Above this were the waters of the heavens. Above this
were the upper heavens, which contained the angels and was
tempered with ice. He declared that comets portend downfalls of
kingdoms, pestilence, war, winds, or heat. This reflected the
church's view that a comet was a ball of fire flung from the right
hand of an angry God as a warning to mankind, usually for
disbelief. Storms were begun by the devil.

A famous poem, the oral legend of Beowulf, a hero who led his men
into adventures and performed great feats and fought monsters and
dragons, was put into writing with a Christian theme. In it,
loyalty to one's lord is a paramount virtue. Also available in
writing was the story of King Arthur's twelve victorious battles
against the pagan Saxons, authored by Nennius.

There were professional story tellers attached to great men.
Others wandered from court to court, receiving gifts for their
story telling. Men usually told oral legends of their own feats
and those of their ancestors after supper.

Alfred had monasteries rebuilt with learned and moral men heading
them. He built a nunnery which was headed by his daughter as
prioress. He built a strong wall with four gates around London,
which he had taken into his control. He appointed his son-in-law,
who was one of his eorldormen, to be alderman [older man] to
govern London and to be the shire's earl. A later king built a
palace in London, although Winchester was still the royal capital
town. When the king traveled, he and his retinue were fed by the
local people at their expense.

After Alfred's death, his daughter Aethelflared ruled the country
for seven years. She had more fortified burhs built and led
soldiers to victories.

Under the royalty were the nobles. An earl headed each shire as
representative of the King. The term  "earl" came to denote an
office instead of a nobleman. He led the array of his shire to do
battle if the shire was attacked. He executed all royal commands.
An earl received grants of land and could claim hospitality and
maintenance for himself, his officers, and his servants. He
presided over the shire court. He received one-third of the fines
from the profits of justice and collected as well a third of the
revenues derived from tolls and duties levied in the boroughs of
his shire. The office tended to be hereditary. Royal
representatives called "reeves" started to assist them. The reeve
took security from every person for the maintenance of the public
peace. He also tracked cattle thieves, brought suspects to court,
gave judgments according to the doom books, and delivered
offenders to punishment.

Under the earls were the thegns. By service to the King, it was
possible for a coerl to rise to become a thegn and to be given
land by the King. Other thegns performed functions of magistrates.
A thegn was later identified as a person with five hides of land,
a kitchen, a church, a bell house, a judicial place at the burh-
gemot [a right of magistracy], and an appointment in the King's
hall. He was bound to to service in war by virtue of his
landholding instead of by his relationship to the king. Nobility
was now a territorial attribute, rather than one of birth. The
wergeld of a thegn was 1200s. when that of a ceorl or ordinary
freeman was 200s. The wergeld of an earl or bishop was four times
that of a thegn: 5800s. The wergeld of a king or archbishop was
six times that of a thegn: 7200s. The higher a man's wergeld, the
higher was his legal status in the scale of punishment, giving
credible evidence, and participation in legal proceedings. The
sokemen were freemen who had inherited their own land, chose their
own lord, and attended and were subject to their lord's court.
That is, their lord has soke [soc] jurisdiction over them. A ceorl
typically had a single hide of land. A smallholder rented land of
about 30 acres from a landlord, which he paid by doing work on the
lord's demesne [household or messuage] land, paying money rent, or
paying a food rent such as in eggs or chickens. Smallholders made
up about two fifths of the population. A cottager had one to five
acres of land and depended on others for his living. Among these
were shepherds, ploughmen, swineherds, and blacksmiths. They also
participated in the agricultural work, especially at harvest time.

It was possible for a thegn to become an earl, probably by the
possession of forty hides. He might even acquire enough land to
qualify him for the witan. Women could be present at the
witenagemot and shire-gemot [meeting of the people of the shire].
They could sue and be sued in the courts. They could independently
inherit, possess, and dispose of property. A wife's inheritance
was her own and under no control of her husband.

Marriage required the consent of the lady and her friends. The man
also had to arrange for the foster lean, that is, remuneration for
rearing and support of expected children. He also declared the
amount of money or land he would give the lady for her consent,
that is, the morgengift, and what he would bequeath her in case of
his death. It was given to her on the morning after the wedding
night. The family of the bride was paid a "mund" for transferring
the rightful protection they possessed over her to the family of
the husband. If the husband died and his kindred did not accept
the terms sanctioned by law, her kindred could repurchase the
rightful protection. If she remarried within a year of his death,
she had to forfeit the morgengift and his nearest kin received the
lands and possessions she had. The word for man was "waepnedmenn"
or weaponed person. A woman was "wifmenn" or wife person, with
"wif" being derived from the word for weaving.

Great men and monasteries had millers, smiths, carpenters,
architects, agriculturists, fishermen, weavers, embroiders, dyers,
and illuminators.

For entertainment, minstrels sang ballads about heroes or Bible
stories, harpers played, jesters joked, and tumblers threw and
caught balls and knives. There was gambling, dice games, and
chasing deer with hounds.

Fraternal guilds were established for mutual advantage and
protection. A guild imposed fines for any injury of one member by
another member. It assisted in paying any murder fine imposed on a
member. It avenged the murder of a member and abided by the
consequences. It buried its members and purchased masses for his
soul.

Mercantile guilds in seaports carried out commercial speculations
not possible by the capital of only one person.

There were some ale houses, probably part of certain dwellings.



                              - The Law -

Alfred issued a set of laws to cover the whole country, which were
drawn from the best laws of each region. There was no real
distinction between the concepts of law, morals, and religion.

The importance of telling the truth and keeping one's word are
expressed by this law: "1. At the first we teach that it is most
needful that every man warily keep his oath and his wed. If any
one be constrained to either of these wrongfully, either to
treason against his lord, or to any unlawful aid; then it is
juster to belie than to fulfil. But if he pledge himself to that
which is lawful to fulfil, and in that belie himself, let him
submissively deliver up his weapon and his goods to the keeping of
his friends, and be in prison forty days in a King's tun: let him
there suffer whatever the bishop may prescribe to him
" Let his
kinsmen feed him, if he has no food. If he escapes, let him be
held a fugitive and be excommunicate of the church.

The word of a bishop and of the king were incontrovertible without
an oath.

The Ten Commandments were written down as this law:

"The Lord spake these words to Moses, and thus said: I am the Lord
thy God. I led thee out of the land of the Egyptians, and of their
bondage.

1.  Love thou not other strange gods above me.

2.  Utter thou not my name idly, for thou shalt not be guiltless
    towards me if thou utter my name idly.

3.  Remember that thou hallow the rest day. Work for yourselves six
    days, and on the seventh rest. For in six days, Christ wrought the
    heavens and the earth, the seas, and all creatures that are in
    them, and rested on the seventh day: and therefore the Lord
    hallowed it.

4.  Honor thy father and thy mother whom the Lord hath given thee,
    that thou mayst be the longer living on earth.

5.  Slay thou not.

6.  Commit thou not adultery.

7.  Steal thou not.

8.  Say thou not false witness.

9.  Covet thou not thy neighbor's goods unjustly.

10. Make thou not to thyself golden or silver gods."

If any one fights in the king's hall, or draws his weapon, and
he be taken; be it in the king's doom, either death, or life, as
he may be willing to grant him. If he escape, and be taken
again, let him pay for himself according to his wergeld, and
make bot for the offence, as well wer as wite, according as he
may have wrought.

If a man fights before a king's ealdorman in the gemot, let him
make bot with wer and wite as it may be right; and before this
120s. to the ealdorman as wite. If he disturbs the folkmote by
drawing his weapon, 120s. to the ealdorman as wite. If any of
this happens before a king's ealdorman's junior, or a king's
priest, 30s. as wite.

If any one fights in a ceorlish man's dwelling, let him make bot
of 6s.to the ceorl. If he draws his weapon but doesn't fight,
let it be half of that. If, however, either of these happens to
a man with a wergeld of 600s., let it increase threefold of the
ceorlish bot; and if to a man with a wergeld of 1200s., let it
increase twofold of the bot of the man with a wergeld of 600s.
Breach of the king's dwelling [breaking and entering] shall be
120s.; an archbishop's, 90s.; any other bishop's, and an
ealdorman's, 60s.;. a 1200s. wergeld man's, 30s.; a 600s.
wergeld man's, 15s.; and a ceorl's 5s.

If any one plot against the king's life, of himself, or by
harbouring of exiles, or of his men; let him be liable with his
life and in all that he has; or let him prove himself according
to his lord's wer.

If any one with a band or gang of men slays an unoffending man,
let him who acknowledges the death-blow pay wer and wite. If the
slain man had a wergeld of  200s, let every one who was of the
gang pay 30s. as gang-bot. If he had a wergeld of 600s., let
every one pay 60s. as gang-bot.  If he had  a wergeld of 1200s.,
let every one pay 120s. If a gang does this, and afterwards
denies it on oath, let them all be accused, and let them then
all pay the wer in common; and all, one wite, such as shall
belong to the wer.

If any one lends his weapon to another so he may kill some one
with it, they may join together if they will in the wer. If they
will not join together, let him who lent the weapon pay of the
wer a third part, and of the wite a third part.

With his lord a man may fight free of liability for homicide, if
any one attack the lord: thus may the lord fight for his man.
Likewise, a man may fight with his born kinsman, if a man attack
him wrongfully, except against his lord. And a man may fight
free of liability for homicide, if he finds another with his
lawful wife, within closed doors, or under one covering, or with
his lawfully-born daughter, or with his lawfully-born sister, or
with his mother, who was given to his father as his lawful wife.
If a man knows his foe is sitting at his home, he may not fight
with him before he demands justice of him. If he has such power
that he can beset his foe, and besiege him within, let him keep
him within for seven days, and not attack him if he will remains
within. And, then, after seven days, if he surrenders, and gives
up his weapons, let him be kept safe for thirty days, and let
notice of him be given to his kinsmen and his friends. But if he
does not have sufficient power to besiege him within, let him
ride to the ealdorman, and beg aid of him. If he will not aid
him, let him ride to the king before he fights. In like manner
also, if a man come upon his foe, and he did not know
beforehand that he was staying at his home; if he is willing to
give up his weapons, let him be kept for thirty days, and let
notice of him be given to his friends; if he will not give up
his weapons, then he may attack him. If he is willing to
surrender, and to give up his weapons, and any one after that
attack him, let him pay as well wer as wound, as he may do, and
wite, and let him have forfeited his compensation to his kin.
Every church shall have this peace: if a fugitive flee to one
for sanctuary, no one may drag him out for seven days. If he is
willing to give up his weapons to his foes, let him stay thirty
days, and then let notice of him be given to his kinsmen. If any
man confess in church any offences which had not been before
revealed, let him be half forgiven.

If a man from one holdgetael wishs to seek a lord in another
holdgetael, let him do it with the knowledge of the ealdorman
whom he before followed in his shire. If he does it without his
knowledge, let him who treats him as his man pay 120s. as wite,
one-half to the king in the shire where he before followed and
one-half in that into which he comes. If he has done anything
wrong where he was before, let him make bot for it who has there
received him as his man; and to the king 120s. as wite.

"If any one steals so that his wife and children don't know it,
he shall pay 60 shillings as wite. But if he steals with the
knowledge of all his household, they shall all go into slavery.
A boy of ten years may be privy to a theft."

"If one who takes a thief, or holds him for the person who took
him, lets the thief go, or conceals the theft, he shall pay for
the thief according to his wer. If he is an eorldormen, he shall
forfeit his shire, unless the king is willing to be merciful to
him."

If any one steal in a church, let him pay the lawful penalty and
the wite,  and let the hand be struck off with which he did it.
If he will redeem the hand, and that be allowed him, let him pay
as may belong to his wer.

If a man slanders another, the penalty is no lighter thing than
that his tongue be cut out; which must not be redeemed at any
cheaper rate than it is estimated at according to his wer.

If one deceives an unbetrothed woman and sleep with her, he must
pay for her and have her afterwards to wife. But if her father not
approve, he should pay money according to her dowry.

"If a man seize hold of the breast of a ceorlish woman, let him
make bot to her with 5 shillings. If he throw her down and do not
lie with her, let him make bot with 10 shillings. If he lie with
her, let him make bot with 60 shillings. If another man had before
lain with her, then let the bot be half that. ... If this befall a
woman more nobly born, let the bot increase according to the wer."

"If any one, with libidinous intent, seize a nun either by her
raiment or by her breast without her leave, let the bot be
twofold, as we have before ordained concerning a laywoman."

"If a man commit a rape upon a ceorl's female slave, he must pay
bot to the ceorl of 5 shillings and a wite [fine to the King] of
60 shillings. If a male theow rape a female theow, let him make
bot with his testicles."

For the first dog bite, the owner pays 6 shillings, for the
second, 12 shillings, for the third, 30 shillings.

An ox which gores someone to death shall be stoned.

If one steals or slays another's ox, he must give two oxen for it.

The man who has land left to him by his kindred must not give it
away from his kindred, if there is a writing or witness that
such was forbidden by those men who at first acquired it, and by
those who gave it to him; and then let that be declared in the
presence of the king and of the bishop, before his kinsmen.



                         - Judicial Procedure -

Cases were held at monthly meetings of the hundred court. The king
or one of his reeves, conducted the trial by compurgation.

In compurgation, the one complaining, called the "plaintiff", and
the one defending, called the "defendant", each told their story
and put his hand on the Bible and swore "By God this oath is clean
and true". A slip or a stammer would mean he lost the case.
Otherwise, community members would stand up to swear on behalf of
the plaintiff or the defendant as to their reputation for
veracity. The value of a man's oath was commensurate with his
value or wergeld. A man's brothers were usually his compurgators.
If these "compurgators" were too few, usually twelve in number, or
recited poorly, their party lost. If this process was
inconclusive, the parties could bring witnesses to declare such
knowledge as they had as neighbors. These witnesses, male and
female, swore to particular points determined by the court.

If the witnesses failed, the defendant was told to go to church
and to take the sacrament only if he or she were innocent. If he
or she took the sacrament, he or she was tried by the process of
"ordeal", which was administered by the church. In the ordeal by
cold water, he was given a drink of holy water and then bound hand
and foot and thrown into water. If he floated, he was guilty. If
he sank, he was innocent. It was not necessary to drown to be
deemed innocent. In the ordeal by hot water, he had to pick up a
stone from inside a boiling cauldron. If his hand was healing in
three days, he was innocent. If it was festering, he was guilty. A
similar ordeal was that of hot iron, in which one had to carry in
his hands a hot iron for a certain distance. The results of the
ordeal were taken to indicate the will of God. Presumably a person
convicted of murder, i.e. killing by stealth, or robbery [taking
from a person's robe, that is, his person or breaking into his
home to steal] would be hung and his possessions confiscated. A
bishop's oath was incontrovertible. Accused archbishops and
bishops could clear themselves with an oath that they were
guiltless. Lesser ranks could clear themselves with the oaths of
three compurgators of their rank or, for more serious offenses,
undergo the ordeal of the consecrated morsel. For this, one would
swallow a morsel; if he choked on it, he was guilty.

Any inanimate or animate object or personal chattel which was
found by a court to be the immediate cause of death was forfeited
as "deodand", for instance, a tree from which a man fell to his
death, a beast which killed a man, a sword of a third party not
the slayer that was used to kill a man. The deodand was to go to
the dead man's kin so they could wreak their vengeance on it,
which in turn would cause the dead man to lie in peace.

This is a lawsuit regarding rights to feed pigs in a certain
woodland:

"In the year 825 which had passed since the birth of Christ, and
in the course of the second Indiction, and during the reign of
Beornwulf, King of Mercia, a council meeting was held in the
famous place called Clofesho, and there the said King Beornwulf
and his bishops and his earls and all the councilors of this
nation were assembled. Then there was a very noteworthy suit about
wood pasture at Sinton, towards the west in Scirhylte. The reeves
in charge of the pigherds wished to extend the pasture farther,
and take in more of the wood than the ancient rights permitted.
Then the bishop and the advisors of the community said that they
would not admit liability for more than had been appointed in
AEthelbald's day, namely mast for 300 swine, and that the bishop
and the community should have two thirds of the wood and of the
mast. The Archbishop Wulfred and all the councilors determined
that the bishop and the community might declare on oath that it
was so appointed in AEthelbald's time and that they were not
trying to obtain more, and the bishop immediately gave security to
Earl Eadwulf to furnish the oath before all the councilors, and it
was produced in 30 days at the bishop's see at Worcester. At that
time Hama was the reeve in charge of the pigherds at Sinton, and
he rode until he reached Worcester, and watched and observed the
oath, as Earl Eadwulf bade him, but did not challenge it.
Here are the names and designations of those who were assembled at
the council meeting ..."





                         - - - Chapter 3 - - -



                        - The Times: 900-1066 -

There were many large landholders such as the King, earls, and
bishops. Earls were noblemen by birth, and often relatives of the
King. They were his army commanders and the highest civil
officials, each responsible for a shire. A breach of the public
peace of an earl would occasion a fine. Lower in social status
were freemen: sokemen, and then, in decreasing order, villani
[villeins], bordarii, and cottarii. The servi were the slaves.
Probably all who were not slaves were freemen.

Kings typically granted land in exchange for services of military
duties, maintaining fortresses, and repairing bridges. Less common
services required by landlords include equipping a guard ship and
guarding the coast, guarding the lord, military watch, maintaining
the deer fence at the King's residence, alms giving, and church
dues. Since this land was granted in return for service, there
were limitations on its heritability and often an heir had to pay
a heriot to the landlord to obtain the land. A heriot was
originally the armor of a man killed, which went to the King. The
heriot of a thegn who had soken came to be about 80s.; of a kings'
thegn about four lances, two coats of mail, two swords, and 125s.;
of an earl about eight horses, four saddled and four unsaddled,
eight lances, four coats of mail, four swords, and 500s.

There were several thousand thegns, rich and poor, who held land
directly of the King. Some thegns had soken or jurisdiction over
their own lands and others did not. Free farmers who had sought
protection from thegns in time of war now took them as their
lords. A freeman could chose his lord, following him in war and
working his land in peace. All able-bodied freemen were liable to
military service in the fyrd [national militia], but not in a
lord's private wars. In return, the lord would protect him against
encroaching neighbors, back him in the courts of law, and feed him
in times of famine. But often, lords raided each other's farmers,
who fled into the hills or woods for safety. Often a lord's
fighting men stayed with him at his large house, but later were
given land with inhabitants on it, who became his tenants. The
lords were the ruling class and the greatest of them sat in the
King's council along with bishops, abbots, and officers of the
King's household. The lesser lords were local magnates, who
officiated at the shire and hundred courts.

Stag-hunting, fox-hunting, and hawking were reserved for lords who
did not work with their hands. Every free born person had the
right to hunt other game.

There was a great expansion of arable land. Some land had been
specifically allocated to certain individuals. Some was common
land, held by communities. If a family came to pay the dues and
fines on certain common land, it could become personal to that
family and was then known as heir-land. Most land came to be
privately held from community-witnessed allotments or inheritance.
Book-land was those holdings written down in books. This land was
usually land that had been given to the church or monasteries
because church clerics could write. So many thegns gave land to
the church, usually a hide, that the church held 1/3 of the land
of the realm. Folk-land was that land that was left over after
allotments had been made to the freemen and which was not common
land. It was public land and a national asset and could be
converted to heir-land or book-land only by action of the king and
witan. It could also be rented by services to the state via
charter. A holder of folk-land might express a wish, e.g. by
testamentary action, for a certain disposition of it, such as an
estate for life or lives for a certain individual. But a distinct
act by the king and witan was necessary for this wish to take
effect. Small private transactions of land could be done by
"livery of seisin" in the presence of neighbors. All estates in
land could be let, lent, or leased by its holders, and was then
known as "loenland".

Ploughs and wagons could be drawn by four or more oxen or horses
in sets of two behind each other. Oxenshoes and horseshoes
prevented lameness due to cracked hooves. Horse collars especially
fitted for horses, replaced oxen yoke that had been used on
horses.

A free holder's house was wood, perhaps with a stone foundation,
and roofed with thatch or tiles. There was a main room or hall,
with bed chambers around it. Beyond was the kitchen, perhaps
outside under a lean-to. These buildings were surrounded by a bank
or stiff hedge.

Simple people lived in huts made from wood and mud, with one door
and no windows. They slept around a wood-burning fire in the
middle of the earthen floor. They wore shapeless clothes of goat
hair and unprocessed wool from their sheep. They ate rough brown
bread, vegetable and grain broth, ale from barley, bacon, beans,
milk, cabbage, onion, apples, plums, cherries, and honey for
sweetening or mead. Vegetables grown in the country included
onions, leeks, celery, lettuce, radish, carrots, garlic, shallots,
parsnip, dill, chevil, marigold, coriander, and poppy. In the
summer, they ate boiled or raw veal and wild fowl such as ducks,
geese, or pigeons, and game snared in the forest. Poultry was a
luxury food, but recognized as therapeutic for invalids,
especially in broth form [chicken soup]. Venison was highly
prized. There were still some wild boar, which were hunted with
long spears, a greyhound dog, and hunting horns. They sometimes
mated with the domestic pigs which roamed the woodlands. In
September, the old and infirm pigs were slaughtered and their
sides of bacon smoked in the rafters for about a month. Their
intestines provided skin for sausages. In the fall, cattle were
slaughtered and salted for food during the winter because there
was no more pasture for them. However, some cows and breed animals
were kept through the winter.

For their meals, people used wooden platters, sometimes
earthenware plates, drinking horns, drinking cups from ash or
alderwood turned on a foot-peddled pole lathe, and bottles made of
leather. Their bowls, pans, and pitchers were made by the potter's
wheel. Water could be boiled in pots made of iron, brass, lead, or
clay. Water could be carried in leather bags because leather
working preservative techniques improved so that tanning prevented
stretching or decaying. At the back of each hut was a hole in the
ground used as a latrine, which flies frequented. Moss was used
for toilet-paper. Parasitical worms in the stool were ubiquitous.

Most of the simple people lived in villages of about 20 homes
circling a village green or lining a single winding lane. There
were only first names, and these were usually passed down family
lines. To grind their grain, the villagers used hand mills with
crank and gear, or a communal mill, usually built of oak, driven
by power transmitted through a solid oak shaft, banded with iron
as reinforcement, to internal gear wheels of elm. Almost every
village had a watermill. It might be run by water shooting over or
flowing under the wheel.

Clothing for men and women was made from coarse wool, silk, and
linen and was usually brown in color. Only the wealthy could
afford to wear linen or silk. Men also wore leather clothing, such
as neckpieces, breeches, ankle leathers, shoes, and boots. Boots
were worn when fighting. They carried knives or axes under metal
belts. They could carry items by tying leather pouches onto their
belts with their drawstrings. They wore leather gloves for warmth
and for heavy working with their hands.

People were as tall, strong and healthy as in the late 1900s, not
having yet endured the later malnourishment and overcrowding that
was its worst in the 1700s and 1800s. Their teeth were very
healthy. Most adults died in their 40s, after becoming arthritic
from hard labor. People in their 50s were deemed venerable. Boys
of twelve were considered old enough to swear an oath of
allegiance to the king. Girls married in their early teens, often
to men significantly older.

The lands of the large landholding lords were administered by
freemen. They had wheat, barley, oats, and rye fields, orchards,
vineyards for wine, and bee-keeping areas for honey. On this land
lived not only farm laborers, cattle herders, shepherds,
goatherds, and pigherds, but craftsmen such as goldsmiths,
hawkkeepers, dogkeepers, horsekeepers, huntsmen, foresters,
builders, weaponsmiths, embroiders, bronze smiths, blacksmiths,
watermill wrights, wheelwrights, wagon wrights, iron nail makers,
potters, soap makers, tailors, shoemakers, salters (made salt at
the "wyches", which later became towns ending with '-wich'),
bakers, cooks, and gardeners. Most men did carpentry work. Master
carpenters worked with ax, hammer, and saw to make houses, doors,
bridges, milk buckets, washtubs, and trunks. Blacksmiths made
gates, huge door hinges, locks, latches, bolts, and horseshoes.
The lord loaned these people land on which to live for their life,
called a "life estate", in return for their services. The loan
could continue to their widows or children who took up the craft.
Mills were usually powered by water. Candles were made from
beeswax, which exuded a bright and steady light and pleasant
smell, or from mutton fat, which had an unpleasant odor. The
wheeled plough and iron-bladed plough made the furrows. One man
hald the plough and another walked with the oxen, coaxing them
forward with a stick and shouts. Seeds were held in an apron for
seeding. Farm implements included spades, shovels, rakes, hoes,
buckets, barrels, flails, and sieves. Plants were pruned to direct
their growth and to increase their yield. Everyone got together
for feasts at key stages of the farming, such as the harvest.
Easter was the biggest feast. When the lord was in the field, his
lady held their estate. There were common lands of these estates
as well as of communities. Any proposed new settler had to be
admitted at the court of this estate.

The land of some lords included fishing villages along the coasts.
From the sea were caught herrings, salmon, porpoises, sturgeon,
oysters, crabs, mussels, cockels, winkeles, plaice, flounder, and
lobsters. Sometimes whales were driven into an inlet by many
boats. River fish included eels, pike, minnows, burbo, trout, and
lampreys. They were caught by brushwood weirs, net, bait, hooks,
and baskets. Oysters were so numerous that they were eaten by the
poor. The king's peace extended over the waterways. If mills,
fisheries, weirs, or other structures were set up to block them,
they were to be destroyed and a penalty paid to the king.

Other lords had land with iron-mining industries. Ore was dug from
the ground and combined with wood charcoal in a shaft furnace to
be smelted into liquid form. Wood charcoal was derived from
controlled charring of the wood at high temperatures without using
oxygen. This burned impurities from it and left a purer carbon,
which burned better than wood. The pure iron was extracted from
this liquid and formed into bars. To keep the fire hot, the
furnaces were frequently placed at windswept crossings of valleys
or on the tops of hills.

Some lords had markets on their land, for which they charged a
toll [like a sales tax] for participation. There were about
fifty markets in the nation. Cattle and slaves (from the word
"slav") were the usual medium of exchange. An ox still was worth
about 30d. Shaking hands was symbolic of an agreement for a
sale, which had to be carried out in front of witnesses at the
market for any property worth over 20d. The higher the value of
the property, the more witnesses were required. Witnesses were
also required for the exchange of property and to vouch for
cattle having being born on the property of a person claiming
them. People traveled to markets on deep, sunken roads and
narrow bridges kept in repair by certain men who did this work
as their service to the King. The king's peace extended to a
couple of high roads, i.e. highways, running the length of the
country and a couple running its width.

Salt was used throughout the nation to preserve meat over the
winter. Inland saltworks had an elaborate and specialized
organization. The chief one used saltpans and furnaces to extract
salt from natural brine springs. They formed little manufacturing
enclaves in the midst of agricultural land, and they were
considered to be neither large private estates headed by a lord
nor appurtenant to such. They belonged jointly to the king and the
local earl, who shared, at a proportion of two to one, the
proceeds of the tolls upon the sale of salt and methods of
carriage on the ancient salt ways according to cartload, horse
load, or man load. Sometimes there were investors in a portion of
the works who lived quite at distance away. The sales of salt were
mostly retail, but some bought to resell. Peddlers carried salt to
sell from village to village.

Some smiths traveled for their work, for instance, stonewrights
building arches and windows in churches, and lead workers putting
lead roofs on churches.

An example of a grant of hides of land is: "[God has endowed King
Edred with England], wherefore he enriches and honors men, both
ecclesiastic and lay, who can justly deserve it. The truth of this
can be acknowledged by the thegn AElfsige Hunlafing through his
acquisition of the estate of 5 hides at Alwalton for himself and
his heirs, free from every burden except the repair of
fortifications, the building of bridges and military service; a
prudent landowner church dues, burial fees and tithes. [This land]
is to be held for all time and granted along with the things both
great and small belonging to it."

A Bishop gave land to a faithful attendant for his life and two
other lives as follows: "In 904 A.D., I, Bishop Werfrith, with the
permission and leave of my honorable community in Worcester, grant
to Wulfsige, my reeve, for his loyal efficiency and humble
obedience, one hide of land at Aston as Herred held it, that is,
surrounded by a dyke, for three lives and then after three lives
the estate shall be given back without any controversy to
Worcester."

At seaports on the coast, goods were loaded onto vessels owned by
English merchants to be transported to other English seaports.
London was a market town on the north side of the Thames River and
the primary port and trading center for foreign merchants. Streets
that probably date from this time include Milk, Bread, and Wood
Streets, and Honey Lane. There were open-air markets such as
Billingsgate. There were wooden quays over much of the riverfront.
Houses were made of wood, with one sunken floor, or a ground floor
with a cellar beneath. Some had central stone hearths and earth
latrines. There were crude pottery cooking pots, beakers and
lamps, wool cloth, a little silk, simple leather shoes, pewter
jewelry, looms, and quernstones (for grinding flour). Wool, skins,
hides, wheat, meal, beer, lead, cheese, salt, and honey were
exported. Wine (mostly for the church), fish, timber, pitch,
pepper, garlic, spices, copper, gems, gold, silk, dyes, oil,
brass, sulphur, glass, slaves, and elephant and walrus ivory were
imported. Goods from the continent were sold at open stalls in
certain streets. Furs and slaves were traded. There was a royal
levy on exports by foreigners merchants. Southwark was reachable
by a bridge. It contained sleazy docks, prisons, gaming houses,
and brothels.

Guilds in London were first associations of neighbors for the
purposes of mutual assistance. They were fraternities of persons
by voluntary compact to assist each other in poverty, including
their widows or orphans and the portioning of poor maids, and to
protect each other from injury. Their essential features are and
continue to be in the future: 1) oath of initiation, 2) entrance
fee in money or in kind and a common fund, 3) annual feast and
mass, 4) meetings at least three times yearly for guild business,
5), obligation to attend all funerals of members, to bear the body
if need be from a distance, and to provide masses for the dead, 6)
the duty of friendly help in cases of sickness, imprisonment,
house burning, shipwreck, or robbery, 7) rules for decent behavior
at meetings, and 8) provisions for settling disputes without
recourse to the law. Both the masses and the feast were attended
by the women. Frequently the guilds also had a religious
ceremonial to affirm their bonds of fidelity. They readily became
connected with the exercise of trades and with the training of
apprentices. They promoted and took on public purposes such as the
repairing of roads and bridges, the relief of pilgrims, the
maintenance of schools and almshouses, and the periodic
performance of pageants and miracle plays telling scriptural
history, which could last for several days. The devil often was
prominent in miracle plays.

Many of these London guilds were known by the name of their
founding member. There were also Frith Guilds (peace guilds) and a
Knights' Guild. The Frith Guild's main object was to enforce the
King's laws, especially the prevalent problem of theft. They were
especially established by bishops and reeves. Members met monthly
and contributed about 4d. to a common fund, which paid a
compensation for items stolen. They each paid 1s. towards the
pursuit of the thief. The members were grouped in tens. Members
with horses were to track the thief. Members without horses worked
in the place of the absent horseowners until their return. When
caught, the thief was tried and executed. Overwhelming force was
used if his kindred tried to protect him. His property was used to
compensate the victim for his loss and then divided between the
thief's wife, if she was innocent, the King, and the guild. Owners
of slaves paid into a fund to give one half compensation to those
who lost slaves by theft or escape, and recaptured slaves were to
be stoned to death or hanged. The members of the peace guild also
feasted and drank together. When one died, the others each sang a
song or paid for the singing of fifty psalms for his soul and gave
a loaf.

The Knights' Guild was composed of thirteen military persons to
whom King Edgar granted certain waste land in the east of London,
toward Aldgate, and also Portsoken, which ran outside the eastern
wall of the city to the Thames, for prescribed services performed,
probably defense of the vulnerable east side of the city. This
concession was confirmed by King Edward the Confessor in a charter
at the suit of certain citizens of London, the successors of these
knights. Edward granted them sac and soke [cause and suit]
jurisdiction over their men.

Edward the Confessor made these rules for London:

1.  Be it known that within the space of three miles from
    all parts outside of the city a man ought not to hold or
    hinder another, and also should not do business with him if
    he wish to come to the city under its peace. But when he
    arrives in the city, then let the market be the same to the
    rich man as to the poor.

2.  Be it also known that a man who is from the court of the
    king or the barons ought not to lodge in the house of any
    citizen of London for three nights, either by privilege or
    by custom, except by consent of the host. For if he force
    the host to lodge him in his house and there be killed by
    the host, let the host choose six from his relatives and let
    him as the seventh swear that he killed him for the said
    cause. And thus he will remain quit of the murder of the
    deceased towards the king and relatives and lords of the
    deceased.

3.  And after he has entered the city, let a foreign
    merchant be lodged wherever it please him. But if he bring
    dyed cloth, let him see to it that he does not sell his
    merchandise at retail, but that he sell not less than a
    dozen pieces at a time. And if he bring pepper, or cumin, or
    ginger, or alum, or brasil wood, or resin, or incense, let
    him sell not less than fifteen pounds at a time. But if he
    bring belts, let him sell not less than a thousand at a
    time. And if he bring cloths of silk, or wool or linen, let
    him see that he cut them not, but sell them whole. But if he
    bring wax, let him sell not less than one quartanum. Also a
    foreign merchant may not buy dyed cloth, nor make the dye in
    the city, nor do any work which belongs by right to the
    citizens.

4.  Also no foreign merchant with his partner may set up any
    market within the city for reselling goods in the city, nor
    may he approach a citizen for making a bargain, nor may he
    stop longer in the City.

Every week in London there was a folkmote at St. Paul's
churchyard, where majority decision was a tradition. By 1032, it
had lost much of its power to the husting [household assembly in
Danish] court. The folkmoot then had responsibility for order and
was the sole authority for proclaiming outlaws. It met three times
a year at St. Paul's churchyard and there acclaimed the sheriff
and justiciar, or if the king had chosen his officer, heard who
was chosen and listened to his charge. It also yearly arranged the
watch and dealt with risks of fire. It was divided into wards,
each governed by an alderman who presided over the ward-mote, and
represented his ward at the folk-mote. Each guild became a ward.
The chief alderman was the portreeve. London paid one-eighth of
all the taxes of England.

Later in the towns, merchant guilds grew out of charity
associations whose members were bound by oath to each other and
got together for a guild feast every month. Some traders of these
merchant guilds became so prosperous that they became landholders.
Many market places were dominated by a merchant guild, which had a
monopoly of the local trade. In the great mercantile towns all the
land and houses would be held by merchants and their dependents,
all freeholders were connected with a trade, and everyone who had
a claim on public office or magistry would be a member of the
guild. The merchant guild could admit into their guild country
villeins, who became freemen if unclaimed by their lords for a
year and a day. Every merchant who had made three long voyages on
his own behalf and at his own cost ranked as a thegn. There were
also some craft guilds composed of handicraftsmen or artisans.
Escaped bonded agricultural workers, poor people, and traders
without land migrated to towns to live, but were not citizens.

Towns were largely self-sufficient, but salt and iron came from a
distance. The King's established in every shire at least one town
with a market place where purchases would be witnessed and a mint
where reliable money was coined by a moneyer. There were eight
moneyers in London. Coins were issued to be of value for only a
couple of years. Then one had to exchange them for newly issued
ones at a rate of about 10 old for 8 or 9 new. The difference
constituted a tax. Roughly 10% of the people lived in towns. Some
took surnames such as Tanner, Weaver, or Carpenter. Some had
affectionate or derisive nicknames such as clear-hand, fresh
friend, soft bread, foul beard, money taker, or penny purse.
Craftsmen in the 1000s included goldsmiths, embroiderers,
illuminators of manuscripts, and armorers.

Edward the Confessor, named such for his piety, was a king of 24
years who was widely respected for his intelligence,
resourcefulness, good judgment, and wisdom. His educated Queen
Edith, whom he relied on for advice and cheerful courage, was a
stabilizing influence on him. They were served by a number of
thegns, who had duties in the household, which was composed of the
hall, the courtyard, and the bedchamber. They were important men -
thegns by rank. They were landholders, often in several areas, and
held leading positions in the shires. They were also priests and
clerics, who maintained the religious services and performed tasks
for which literacy was necessary. Edward was the first king to
have a "Chancellor". He kept a royal seal and was the chief royal
chaplain. He did all the secretarial work of the household and
court, drew up and sealed the royal writs, conducted the king's
correspondence, and kept all the royal accounts. The word
"chancellor" signified a screen behind which the secretarial work
of the household was done. He had the special duty of securing and
administering the royal revenue from vacant benefices. The most
important royal officers were the chamberlains, who took care of
the royal bedchamber and adjoining wardrobe used for dressing and
storage of valuables, and the priests. These royal officers had at
first been responsible only for domestic duties, but gradually
came to assume public administrative tasks.

Edward wanted to avoid the pressures and dangers of living in the
rich and powerful City of London. So he rebuilt a monastic church,
an abbey, and a palace at Westminster about two miles upstream. He
started the growth of Westminster as a center of royal and
political power; kings' councils met there. Royal coronations took
place at the abbey. Since Edward traveled a lot, he established a
storehouse-treasury at Winchester to supplement his traveling
wardrobe. At this time, Spanish stallions were imported to improve
English horses. London came to have the largest and best-trained
army in England.

The court invited many of the greatest magnates and prelates
[highest ecclesiastical officials, such as bishops] of the land to
the great ecclesiastical festivals, when the king held more solemn
courts and feasted with his vassals for several days. These
included all the great earls, the majority of bishops, some
abbots, and a number of thegns and clerics. Edward had a witan of
wise men to advise him, but sometimes the King would speak in the
hall after dinner and listen to what comments were made from the
mead-benches. As the court moved about the country, many men came
to pay their respects and attend to local business. Edward started
the practice of King's touching people to cure them of scrofula, a
disease which affected the glands, especially in the head and
neck. It was done in the context of a religious ceremony.

The main governmental activities were: war, collection of revenue,
religious education, and administration of justice. For war, the
shires had to provide a certain number of men and the ports quotas
of ships with crews. The king was the patron of the English
church. He gave the church peace and protection. He presided over
church councils and appointed bishops. As for the administration
of justice, the public courts were almost all under members of
Edward's court, bishops, earls, and reeves. Edward's mind was
often troubled and disturbed by the threat that law and justice
would be overthrown, by the pervasiveness of disputes and discord,
by the raging of wicked presumption, by money interfering with
right and justice, and by avarice kindling all of these. He saw it
as his duty to courageously oppose the wicked by taking good men
as models, by enriching the churches of God, by relieving those
oppressed by wicked judges, and by judging equitably between the
powerful and the humble. He was so greatly revered that a comet
was thought to accompany his death.

The king established the office of the Chancery to draft documents
and keep records. It created the writ, which was a small piece of
parchment addressed to a royal official or dependent commanding
him to perform some task for the King. By the 1000s A.D., the writ
contained a seal: a lump of wax with the impress of the Great Seal
of England which hung from the bottom of the document. Writing was
done with a sharpened goose-wing quill. Ink was obtained from
mixing fluid from the galls made by wasps for their eggs on oak
trees, rainwater or vinegar, gum arabic, and iron salts for color.

A King's grant of land entailed two documents: a charter giving
boundaries and conditions and a writ, usually addressed to the
shire court, listing the judicial and financial privileges
conveyed with the land. These were usually sac and soke
[possession of jurisdiction of a private court of a noble or
institution to execute the laws and administer justice over
inhabitants and tenants of the estate], toll [right to have a
market and to collect a payment on the sale of cattle and other
property on the estate] and team [probably the right to hold a
court to determine the honesty of a man accused of illegal
possession of cattle or of buying stolen cattle by inquiring of
the alleged seller or a warrantor, even if an outsider], and
infangenetheof  [the authority to hang and take the chattels of a
thief caught on the estate].

The town of Coventry consisted of a large monastery estate and a
large private estate headed by a lord. The monastery was granted
by Edward the Confessor full freedom and these jurisdictions: sac
and soke, toll and team, hamsocne [the authority to fine a person
for breaking into and making entry by force into the dwelling of
another], forestall [the authority to fine a person for robbing
others on the road], bloodwite [the authority to impose a
forfeiture for assault involving bloodshed], fightwite [the
authority to fine for fighting], weordwite [the authority to fine
for manslaughter, but not for willful murder], and mundbryce [the
authority to fine for any breach of the peace, such as trespass on
lands].

Every man was expected to have a lord to whom he gave fealty. He
swore by this fealty oath: "By the Lord, before whom this relic is
holy, I will be to ------ faithful and true, and love all that he
loves, and shun all that he shuns, according to God's law, and
according to the world's principle, and never, by will nor by
force, by word nor by work, do ought of  what is loathful to him;
on condition that he keep me as I am willing to deserve, and all
that fulfill that our agreement was, when I to him submitted and
chose his will."  If a man was homeless or lordless, his brothers
were expected to find him such, e.g. in the folkmote. Otherwise,
he as to be treated as a fugitive, and could be slain as for a
thief, and anyone who had harbored him would pay a penalty.
Brothers were also expected to protect their minor kinsmen.

Marriages were determined by men asking women to marry them. If a
woman said yes, he paid a sum to her kin for her "mund"
[jurisdiction or protection over her] and gave his oath to them to
maintain and support the woman and any children born. As security
for this oath, he gave a valuable object or "wed". The couple were
then betrothed. Marriage ceremonies were performed by priests in
churches. The groom had to bring friends to his wedding as
sureties to guarantee his oath to maintain and support his wife
and children. Those who swore to take care of the children were
called their "godfathers". The marriage was written into church
records. After witnessing the wedding, friends ate the great loaf,
or first bread made by the bride. This was the forerunner of the
wedding cake. They drank special ale, the "bride ale" (from hence
the work "bridal"), to the health of the couple.

Women could own land, houses, and furniture and other property.
They could even make wills that disinherited their sons. This
marriage agreement with an Archbishop's sister provides her with
land, money, and horsemen:

"Here in this document is stated the agreement which Wulfric and
the archbishop made when he obtained the archbishop's sister as
his wife, namely he promised her the estates at Orleton and
Ribbesford for her lifetime, and promised her that he would obtain
the estate at Knightwick for her for three lives from the
community at Winchcombe, and gave her the estate at Alton to grant
and bestow upon whomsoever she pleased during her lifetime or at
her death, as she preferred, and promised her 50 mancuses of gold
and 30 men and 30 horses.

The witnesses that this agreement was made as stated were
Archbishop Wulfstan and Earl Leofwine and Bishop AEthelstan and
Abbot AElfweard and the monk Brihtheah and many good men in
addition to them, both ecclesiastics and laymen. There are two
copies of this agreement, one in the possession of the archbishop
at Worcester and the other in the possession of Bishop AEthelstan
at Hereford."

This marriage agreement provided the wife with money, land, farm
animals and farm laborers; it also names sureties, the survivor of
whom would receive all this property:

"Here is declared in this document the agreement which Godwine
made with Brihtric when he wooed his daughter. In the first place
he gave her a pound's weight of gold, to induce her to accept his
suit, and he granted her the estate at Street with all that
belongs to it, and 150 acres at Burmarsh and in addition 30 oxen
and 20 cows and 10 horses and 10 slaves.

This agreement was made at Kingston before King Cnut, with the
cognizance of Archbishop Lyfing and the community at Christchurch,
and Abbot AElfmaer and the community at St. Augustine's, and the
sheriff AEthelwine and Sired the old and Godwine, Wulfheah's son,
and AElfsige cild and Eadmaer of Burham and Godwine, Wulfstan's
son, and Carl, the King's cniht. And when the maiden was brought
from Brightling AElfgar, Sired's son, and Frerth, the priest of
Forlstone, and the priests Leofwine and Wulfsige from Dover, and
Edred, Eadhelm's son, and Leofwine, Waerhelm's son, and Cenwold
rust and Leofwine, son of Godwine of Horton, and Leofwine the Red
and Godwine, Eadgifu's son, and Leofsunu his brother acted as
security for all this. And whichever of them lives the longer
shall succeed to all the property both in land and everything else
which I have given them. Every trustworthy man in Kent and Sussex,
whether thegn or commoner, is cognizant of these terms.

There are three of these documents; one is at Christchurch,
another at St. Augustine's, and Brihtric himself has the third."

Nuns and monks lived in segregated nunneries and monasteries on
church land and grew their own food. The local bishop usually was
also an abbot of a monastery. The priests and nuns wore long robes
with loose belts and did not carry weapons. Their life was ordered
by the ringing of the bell to start certain activities, such as
prayer; meals; meetings; work in the fields, gardens, or
workshops; and copying and illuminating books. They chanted to pay
homage and to communicate with God or his saints. They taught
justice, piety, chastity, peace, and charity; and cared for the
sick. Caring for the sick entailed mostly praying to God as it was
thought that only God could cure. They bathed a few times a year.
They got their drinking water from upstream of where they had
located their latrines over running water. The large monasteries
had libraries, dormitories, guesthouses, kitchens, butteries to
store wine, bakehouses, breweries, dairies, granaries, barns,
fishponds, orchards, vineyards, gardens, workshops, laundries,
lavatories with long stone or marble washing troughs, and towels.
Slavery was diminished by the church by excommunication for the
sale of a child over seven. The clergy taught that manumission of
slaves was good for the soul of the dead, so it became frequent in
wills. The clergy were to abstain from red meat and wine and were
to be celibate. But there were periods of laxity. Punishment was
by the cane or scourge.

The Archbishop of Canterbury began anointing new kings at the time
of coronation to emphasize that the king was ruler by the grace of
God. As God's minister, the king could only do right. From 973,
the new king swore to protect the Christian church, to prevent
inequities to all subjects, and to render good justice, which
became a standard oath.

There was a celestial hierarchy, with heavenly hosts in specific
places. God intervened in daily life, especially if worshipped.
Saints such as Bede and Hilda performed miracles, especially ones
of curing. Their spirits could be contacted through their relics,
which rested at the altars of churches. When someone was said to
have the devil in him, people took it quite literally. A real Jack
Frost nipped noses and fingers and made the ground too hard to
work. Little people, elves, trolls, and fairies inhabited the
fears and imaginings of people. The forest was the mysterious home
of spirits. People prayed to God to help them in their troubles
and from the work of the devil. Since natural causes of events
were unknown, people attributed events to wills like their own.
Illness was thought to be caused by demons. People hung charms
around their neck for cure and treatments of magic and herbs were
given. Some had hallucinogenic effects, which were probably useful
for pain. For instance, the remedy for "mental vacancy and folly"
was a drink of "fennel, agrimony, cockle, and marche". Blood-
letting by leeches and cautery were used for most maladies, which
were thought to be caused by imbalance of the four bodily humors:
sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, and melancholic. These four humors
reflected the four basic elements of the world articulated by
Aristotle: air, water, fire, and earth. Blood was hot and moist
like air; phlegm was cold and moist like water; choler or yellow
bile was hot and dry like fire; and melancholy or black bile was
cold and dry like earth. Bede had explained that when blood
predominates, it makes people joyful and glad, sociable, laughing,
and talking a great deal. Phlegm renders them slow, sleepy, and
forgetful. Red cholic makes them thin, though eating much, swift,
bold, wrathful, and agile. Black cholic makes them serious of
settled disposition, even sad. To relieve brain pressure and/or
maybe to exorcise evil spirits, holes were drilled into skulls by
a drill with a metal tip that was caused to turn back and forth by
a strap wrapped around a wooden handle. A king's daughter Edith
inspired a cult of holy wells, whose waters were thought to
alleviate eye conditions. Warmth and rest were also used for
illness. Agrimony boiled in milk was thought to relieve impotence
in men.

It was known that the liver casted out impurities in the blood.
The stages of fetal growth were known. The soul was not thought to
enter a fetus until after the third month, so presumably abortions
within three months were allowable.

The days of the week were Sun day, Moon day, Tiw's day (Viking god
of war), Woden's day (Viking god of victory, master magician,
calmer of storms, and raiser of the dead), Thor's day (Viking god
of thunder), Frig's day (Viking goddess of fertility and growing
things), and Saturn's day (Roman god). Special days of the year
were celebrated: Christmas, the birthday of Jesus Christ; the
twelve days of Yuletide (a Viking tradition) when candles were lit
and houses decorated with evergreen and there were festivities
around the burning of the biggest log available; Plough Monday for
resumption of work after Yuletide; February 14th with a feast
celebrating Saint Valentinus, a Roman bishop martyr who had
married young lovers in secret when marriage was forbidden to
encourage men to fight in war; New Year's Day on March 25th when
seed was sown and people banged on drums and blew horns to banish
spirits who destroy crops with disease; Easter, the day of the
resurrection of Jesus Christ; Whitsunday, celebrating the descent
of the Holy Spirit on the apostles of  Jesus and named for the
white worn by baptismal candidates; May Day when flowers and
greenery was gathered from the woods to decorate houses and
churches, Morris dancers leapt through their villages with bells,
hobby horses, and waving scarves, and people danced around a May
pole holding colorful ribbons tied at the top so they became
entwined around the pole; Lammas on August 1st, when the first
bread baked from the wheat harvest was consecrated; Harvest Home
when the last harvest load was brought home while an effigy of a
goddess was carried with reapers singing and piping behind, and
October 31st, the eve of the Christian designated All Hallow Day,
which then became known as All Hallow Even, or Halloween. People
dressed as demons, hobgoblins, and witches to keep spirits away
from possessing them. Trick or treating began with Christian
beggars asking for "soul cake" biscuits in return for praying for
dead relatives. Ticktacktoe and backgammon were played. There were
riddles such as:

    I am a strange creature, for I satisfy women ...
    I grow very tall, erect in a bed.
    I'm hairy underneath. From time to time
    A beautiful girl, the brave daughter
    Of some fellow dares to hold me
    Grips my reddish skin, robs me of my head
    And puts me in the pantry. At once that girl
    With plaited hair who has confined me
    Remembers our meeting. Her eye moistens.
    What am I?
    An onion.

    A man came walking where he knew
    She stood in a corner, stepped forwards;
    The bold fellow plucked up his own
    Skirt by hand, stuck something stiff
    Beneath her belt as she stood,
    Worked his will. They both wiggled.
    The man hurried; his trusty helper
    Plied a handy task, but tired
    At length, less strong than she,
    Weary of the work. Thick beneath
    Her belt swelled the thing good men
    Praise with their hearts and purses.
    What am I?
    A milk churn.

The languages of invaders had produced a hybrid language that was
roughly understood throughout the country. The existence of
Europe, Africa, Asia, and India were known. Jerusalem was thought
to be at the center of the world. There was an annual tax of a
penny on every hearth, Peter's pence, to be collected and sent to
the pope in Rome. Ecclesiastical benefices were to pay church-
scot, a payment in lieu of first fruits of the land, to the pope.



                              - The Law -

The king and witan deliberated on the making of new laws, both
secular and spiritual, at the regularly held witanagemot. There
was a standard legal requirement of holding every man accountable,
though expressed in different ways, such as the following three:

Every freeman who does not hold land must find a lord to answer
for him. The act of homage was symbolized by holding his hands
together between those of his lord. Every lord shall be personally
responsible as surety for the men of his household. [This included
female lords.] (King Athelstan)

"And every man shall see that he has a surety, and this surety
shall bring and keep him to [the performance of] every lawful
duty.

1.  And if anyone does wrong and escapes, his surety shall incur
    what the other should have incurred.

2.  If the case be that of a thief and his surety can lay hold of
    him within twelve months, he shall deliver him up to justice,
    and what he has paid shall be returned to him." (King Edgar)

Every freeman who holds land, except lords with considerable
landed property, must be in a local tithing, usually ten to twelve
men, in which they serve as personal sureties for each other's
peaceful behavior. If one of the ten landholders in a tithing is
accused of an offense, the others have to produce him in court or
pay a fine plus pay the injured party for the offense, unless they
could prove that they had no complicity in it. If the man is found
guilty but can not pay, his tithing must pay his fine. The chief
officer is the "tithing man" or "capital pledge". There were
probably ten tithings in a hundred. (King Edward the Confessor).

Everyone was to take an oath not to steal, which one's surety
would compel one to keep.

No one may receive another lord's man without the permission of
this lord and only if the man is blameless towards every hand. The
penalty is the bot for disobedience. No lord was to dismiss any of
his men who had been accused, until he had made compensation and
done right.

"No woman or maiden shall be forced to marry a man she dislikes or
given for money."

"Violence to a widow or maiden is punishable by payment of one's
wergeld."

No man may have more wives than one.

No man may marry among his own kin within six degrees of
relationship or with the widow of a man as nearly related to him
as that, or with a near relative of his first wife's, or his god-
mother, or a divorced woman. Incest is punishable by payment of
one's wergeld or a fine or forfeiture of all his possessions.

Grounds for divorce were mutual consent or adultery or desertion.
Adultery was prohibited for men as well as for women. The penalty
was payment of a bot or denial of burial in consecrated ground. A
law of Canute provided that if a wife was guilty of adultery, she
forfeited all her property to her husband and her nose and ears,
but this law did not survive him.

Laymen may marry a second time, and a young widow may again take a
husband, but they will not receive a blessing and must do penance
for their incontinence.

Prostitutes were to be driven out of the land or destroyed in the
land, unless they cease from their wickedness and make amends to
the utmost of their ability.

Neither husband nor wife could sell family property without the
other's consent.

If there was a marriage agreement, it determined the wife's
"dower", which would be hers upon his death. Otherwise, if a man
who held his land in socage [owned it freely and not subject to a
larger landholder] died before his wife, she got half this
property. If there were minor children, she received all this
property.

Inheritance of land to adult children was by the custom of the
land held. In some places, the custom was for the oldest son to
take it and in other places, the custom was for the youngest son
to take it. Usually, the sons each took an equal portion by
partition, but the eldest son had the right to buy out the others
as to the chief messuage [manor; dwelling and supporting land and
buildings] as long as he compensated them with property of equal
value. If there were no legitimate sons, then each daughter took
an equal share when she married.

In London, one-third of the personal property of a decedent went
to his wife, one-third went to his children in equal shares, and
one-third he could bequeath as he wished.

"If a man dies intestate [without a will], his lord shall have
heriot [horses, weapons, shields, and helmets] of his property
according to the deceased's rank and [the rest of] the property
shall be divided among his wife, children, and near kinsmen."

A man could justifiably kill an adulterer in the act with the
man's wife, daughter, sister, or mother. In Kent, a lord could
fine any bondswoman of his who had become pregnant without his
permission [childwyte].

A man could kill in defense of his own life, the life of his
kinsmen, his lord, or a man whose lord he was. The offender was
"caught red-handed" if the blood of his victim was still on him.
Self-help was available for hamsocne [breaking into a man's house
to assault him].

Murder is punished by death as follows: "If any man break the
King's peace given by hand or seal, so that he slay the man to
whom the peace was given, both his life and lands shall be in the
King's power if he be taken, and if he cannot be taken he shall be
held an outlaw by all, and if anyone shall be able to slay him he
shall have his spoils by law." The king's peace usually extended
to important designated individuals, churches, assemblies, those
traveling to courts or assemblies, and particular times and
places. Often a king would extend his peace to fugitives from
violent feuds if they asked the king, earls, and bishops for time
to pay compensation for their misdeeds. From this came the
practice of giving a portion of the "profits of justice" to such
men who tried the fugitive. The king's peace came to be extended
to those most vulnerable to violence: foreigners, strangers, and
kinless persons.

"If anyone by force break or enter any man's court or house to
slay or wound or assault a man, he shall pay 100s. to the King as
fine."

"If anyone slay a man within his court or his house, himself and
all his substance are at the King's will, save the dower of his
wife if he have endowed her."

If a person fights and wounds anyone, he is liable for his wer. If
he fells a man to death,  he is then an outlaw and is to be seized
by raising the hue and cry. And if anyone kills him for resisting
God's law or the king's, there will be no compensation for his
death.

A man could  kill a thief over twelve years in the act of carrying
off his property over 8d., e.g. the thief hand-habbende [a thief
found with the stolen goods in his hand] or the thief back-berend
[a thief found carrying stolen goods on his back].

Cattle theft could be dealt with only by speedy pursuit. A person
who had involuntarily lost possession of cattle is to at once
raise the hue and cry. He was to inform the hundred-man, who then
called the tithing-men. All these neighbors had to then follow the
trail of the cow to its taker, or pay 30d. to the hundred for the
first offense, and 60d. for the second offense, half to the
hundred and half to the lord, and half a pound [10s.] for the
third offense, and forfeiture of all his property and declared
outlaw for the fourth offense. If the hundred pursued a track into
another hundred, notice was to be given to that hundred-man. If he
did not go with them, he had to pay 30s. to the king.

If a thief was brought into prison, he was to be released after 40
days if he paid his fine of 120s. His kindred could become his
sureties, to pay according to his wer if he stole again. If a
thief forfeited his freedom and gave himself up, but his kindred
forsook him, and he does not know of anyone who will make bot for
him; let him then do theow-work, and let the wer abate for the
kindred.

Measures and weights of goods for sale shall be correct.

Every man shall have a warrantor to his market transactions and no
one shall buy and sell except in a market town; but he shall have
the witness of the portreeve or of other men of credit, who can be
trusted.

Moneyers accused of  minting money outside a designated market
were to go to the ordeal of the hot iron with the hand that was
accused of doing the fraud. If he was found guilty, his hand that
did the offense was to be struck off and be set up on the money-
smithy.

No marketing, business, or hunting may be done on Sundays.

No one may bind a freeman, shave his head in derision, or shave
off his beard. Shaving was a sign of enslavement, which could be
incurred by not paying one's fines for offenses committed.

No clergy may gamble or participate in games of chance.

The Laws for London were:

"1. The gates called Aldersgate and Cripplegate were in charge of
    guards.

2.  If a small ship came to Billingsgate, one half-penny was paid
    as toll; if a larger ship with sails, one penny was paid.

    1) If a hulk or merchantman arrives and lies there, four pence
       is paid as toll.

    2) From a ship with a cargo of planks, one plank is given as
       toll.

    3) On three days of the week toll for cloth [is paid] on Sunday
       and Tuesday and Thursday.

    4) A merchant who came to the bridge with a boat containing fish
       paid one half-penny as toll, and for a larger ship one penny."

    5 - 8) Foreigners with wine or blubber fish or other goods and
       their tolls.

Foreigners were allowed to buy wool, melted sheep fat [tallow],
and three live pigs for their ships.

"3. If the town-reeve or the village reeve or any other official
    accuses anyone of having withheld toll, and the man replies that
    he has kept back no toll which it was his legal duty to pay, he
    shall swear to this with six others and shall be quit of the
    charge.

    1) If he declares that he has paid toll, he shall produce the
       man to whom he paid it, and shall be quit of the charge.

    2) If, however, he cannot produce the man to whom he paid it, he
       shall pay the actual toll and as much again and five pounds to
       the King.

    3) If he vouches the tax-gatherer to warranty [asserting] that
       he paid toll to him, and the latter denies it, he shall clear
       himself by the ordeal and by no other means of proof.

4.  And we [the king and his counselors] have decreed that a man
    who, within the town, makes forcible entry into another man's
    house without permission and commits a breach of the peace of the
    worst kind ... and he who assaults an innocent person on the
    King's highway, if he is slain, shall lie in an unhonored grave.

    1) If, before demanding justice, he has recourse to violence,
       but does not lose his life thereby, he shall pay five pounds
       for breach of the King's peace.

    2) If he values the good-will of the town itself, he shall pay
       us thirty shillings as compensation, if the King will grant us
       this concession."

5. No base coin or coin defective in quality or weight, foreign or
English, may be used by a foreigner or an Englishman. (In 956, a
person found guilty of illicit coining was punished by loss of a
hand.)



                         - Judicial Procedure -

There were courts for different geographical communities. The
arrangement of the whole kingdom into shires was completed by 975
after being united under King Edgar.

A shire was a larger area of land, headed by an earl. A shire
reeve or "sheriff" represented the royal interests in the shires
and in the shire courts. This officer came to be selected by the
king and earl of the shire to be a judicial and financial deputy
of the earl and to execute the law. The office of sheriff, which
was not hereditary, was also responsible for the administration of
royal lands and royal accounts. The sheriff summoned the freemen
holding land in the shire, four men selected by each community or
township, and all public officers to meet twice a year at their
"shire-mote". Actually only the great lords - the bishops, earls,
and thegns - attended. The shire court was primarily concerned
with issues of the larger landholders. Here the freemen
interpreted the customary law of the locality. The earl declared
the secular law and the bishop declared the spiritual law. They
also declared the sentence of the judges. The earl usually took a
third of the profits, such as fines and forfeits, of the shire
court, and the bishop took a share. In time, the earls each came
to supervise several shires and the sheriff became head of the
shire and assumed the earl's duties there, such as heading the
county fyrd. The shire court also heard cases which had been
refused justice at the hundred-mote and cases of keeping the peace
of the shire.

The hundred was a division of the shire, having come to refer to a
geographical area rather than a number of households. The monthly
hundred-mote could be attended by any freeman holding land (or a
lord's steward), but was usually attended only by reeve, thegns,
parish priest, and four representatives selected by each agrarian
community or village - usually villeins. Here transfers of land
were witnessed. A reeve, sometimes the sheriff, presided over
local criminal and peace and order issues ["leet jurisdiction",
which derived from sac and soc jurisdiction] and civil cases at
the hundred court. All residents were expected to attend the leet
court. The sheriff usually held each hundred court in turn. The
suitors to these courts were the same as those of the shire
courts. They were the judges who declared the law and ordered the
form of proof, such as compurgatory oath and ordeal. They were
customarily thegns, often twelve in number. They, as well as the
king and the earl, received part of the profits of justice.
Summary procedure was followed when a criminal was caught in the
act or seized after a hue and cry. Every freeman over age twelve
had to be in a hundred and had to follow the hue and cry.

"No one shall make distraint [seizure of personal property out of
the possession of an alleged wrong-doer into the custody of the
party injured, to procure a satisfaction for a wrong committed] of
property until he has appealed for justice in the hundred court
and shire court".

In 997, King Ethelred in a law code ordered the sheriff and twelve
leading magnates of each shire to swear to accuse no innocent man,
nor conceal any guilty one. This was the germ of the later assize,
and later still the jury.

The integrity of the judicial system was protected by certain
penalties: for swearing a false oath, bot as determined by a
cleric who has heard his confession, or, if he has not confessed,
denial of burial in consecrated ground. Also a perjurer lost his
oath-worthiness. Swearing a false oath or perjury was also
punishable by loss of one's hand or half one's wergeld. A lord
denying justice, as by upholding an evil-doing thegn of his,  had
to pay 120s. to the king for his disobedience. Furthermore, if a
lord protected a theow of his who had stolen, he had to forfeit
the theow and pay his wer, for the first offense, and he was
liable for all he property, for subsequent offenses. There was a
bot for anyone harboring a convicted offender. If anyone failed to
attend the gemot thrice after being summoned, he was to pay the
king a fine for his disobedience. If he did not pay this fine or
do right, the chief men of the burh were to ride to him, and take
all his property to put into surety. If he did not know of a
person who would be his surety, he was to be imprisoned. Failing
that, he was to be killed. But if he escaped, anyone who harbored
him, knowing him to be a fugitive, would be liable pay his wer.
Anyone who avenged a thief without wounding anyone, had to pay the
king 120s. as wite for the assault.

"And if anyone is so rich or belongs to so powerful a kindred,
that he cannot be restrained from crime or from protecting and
harboring criminals, he shall be led out of his native district
with his wife and children, and all his goods, to any part of the
kingdom which the King chooses, be he noble or commoner, whoever
he may be - with the provision that he shall never return to his
native district. And henceforth, let him never be encountered by
anyone in that district; otherwise he shall be treated as a thief
caught in the act."

This lawsuit between a son and his mother over land was heard at a
shire-meeting: "Here it is declared in this document that a shire-
meeting sat at Aylton in King Cnut's time. There were present
Bishop AEthelstan and Earl Ranig and Edwin, the Earl's son, and
Leofwine, Wulfsige's son, and Thurkil the White; and Tofi the
Proud came there on the King's business, and Bryning the sheriff
was present, and AEthelweard of Frome and Leofwine of Frome and
Godric of Stoke and all the thegns of Herefordshire. Then Edwin,
Enneawnes son, came traveling to the meeting and sued his own
mother for a certain piece of land, namely Wellington and Cradley.
Then the bishop asked whose business it was to answer for his
mother, and Thurkil the White replied that it was his business to
do so, if he knew the claim. As he did not know the claim, three
thegns were chosen from the meeting [to ride] to the place where
she was, namely at Fawley, and these were Leofwine of Frome and
AEthelsige the Red and Winsige the seaman, and when they came to
her they asked her what claim she had to the lands for which her
son was suing her. Then she said that she had no land that in any
way belonged to him, and was strongly incensed against her son,
and summoned to her kinswoman, Leofflaed, Thurkil's wife, and in
front of them said to her as follows: 'Here sits Leofflaed, my
kinswoman, to whom, after my death, I grant my land and my gold,
my clothing and my raiment and all that I possess.' And then she
said to the thegns: 'Act like thegns, and duly announce my message
to the meeting before all the worthy men, and tell them to whom I
have granted my land and all my property, and not a thing to my
own son, and ask them to be witnesses of this.' And they did so;
they rode to the meeting and informed all the worthy men of the
charge that she had laid upon them. Then Thurkil the White stood
up in the meeting and asked all the thegns to give his wife the
lands unreservedly which her kinswoman had granted her, and they
did so. Then Thurkil rode to St. AEthelbert's minister, with the
consent and cognizance of the whole assembly, and had it recorded
in a gospel book."

Courts controlled by lords of large private estates had various
kinds of jurisdiction recognized by the King: sac and soke
[possession of legal powers of execution and profits of justice
held by a noble or institution over inhabitants and tenants of the
estate, exercised through a private court], toll [right to collect
a payment on the sale of cattle and property] and team [right to
hold a court to determine the honesty of a man accused of illegal
possession of cattle], infangenetheof [the authority to judge and
to hang and take the chattels of a thief caught on the property],
and utfangenetheof [the authority to judge and to hand and take
the chattels of a thief dwelling out of his liberty, and
committing theft without the same, if he were caught within the
lord's property]. Some lords were even given jurisdiction over
breach of the royal peace, ambush and treacherous manslaughter,
harboring of outlaws, forced entry into a residence, and failure
to answer a military summons. Often this court's jurisdiction
overlapped that of the hundred court and sometimes a whole hundred
had passed under the jurisdiction of an abbot, bishop, or earl.

A lord and his noble lady, or his steward, presided at this court.
The law was administered here on the same principles as at the
hundred court. Judges of the leet of the court of a large private
estate were chosen from the constables and four representatives
selected from each community, village, or town.

Before a dispute went to the hundred court, it might be taken care
of by the head tithing man, e;.g. cases between vills, between
neighbors, and some compensations and settlements, namely
concerning pastures, meadows, harvests, and contests between
neighbors.

The vill [similar to village] was the smallest community for
judicial purposes. There were several vills in a hundred.

In London, the Hustings Court met weekly and decided such issues
as wills and bequests and commerce matters. The folk-mote of all
citizens met three times a year. Each ward had a leet court [for
minor criminal matters].

The king and his witan decided the complaints and issues of the
nobility and those cases which had not received justice in the
hundred or shire court. The witan had a criminal jurisdiction and
could imprison or outlaw a person. The witan could even compel the
king to return any land he might have unjustly taken. Specially
punishable by the king was "oferhyrnesse": contempt of the king's
law. It covered refusal of justice, neglect of summons to gemot or
pursuit of thieves, disobedience to the king's offiers, sounding
the king's coin, accepting another man's dependent without his
leave, buying outside markets, and refusing to pay Peter's pence.

The forests were peculiarly subject to the absolute will of the
king. They were outside the common law. Their unique customs and
laws protected the peace of the animals rather than the king's
subjects. Only special officials on special commissions heard
their cases.

The form of oaths for compurgation were specified for theft of
cattle, unsoundness of property bought, and money owed for a sale.
The defendant denied the accusation by sweating that "By the Lord,
I am guiltless, both in deed and counsel, and of the charge of
which 
 accuses me." A compurgator swore that "By the Lord, the
oath is clean and unperjured which 
 has sworn.". A witness swore
that "In the name of Almighty God, as I here for 
 in true witness
stand, unbidden and unbought, so I with my eyes over-saw, and with
my ears over-heard, that which I with him say."

If a theow man was guilty at the ordeal, he was not only to give
compensation, but was to be scourged thrice, or a second geld be
given; and be the wite of half value for theows.





                         - - - Chapter 4 - - -



                        - The Times: 1066-1100 -

William came from Normandy to conquer England. He claimed that the
former King, Edward, the Confessor, had promised the throne to him
when they were growing up together in Normandy, if Edward became
King of England and had no children. The Conquerer's men and
horses came in boats powered by oars and sails. The conquest did
not take long because of the superiority of his military expertise
to that of the English. He organized his army into three groups:
archers with bows and arrows, horsemen with swords and stirrups,
and footmen with hand weapons. Each group played a specific role
in a strategy planned in advance. The English army was only
composed of footmen with hand weapons such as spears and shields.
They fought in a line holding up their shields to overlap each
other ane form a shieldwall. The defeat of the English was thought
to have been presaged by a comet.

At Westminster, he made an oath to defend God's holy churches and
their rulers, to rule the whole people subject to him with
righteousness and royal providence, to enact and hold fast right
law, and to utterly forbid rapine and unrighteous judgments. This
was in keeping with the traditional oath of a new king.

Declaring the English who fought against him to be traitors, the
Conquerer declared their land confiscated. But he allowed those
who were willing to acknowledge him to redeem their land by a
payment of money. As William conquered the land of the realm, he
parceled it out among the barons who fought with him so that each
baron was given the holdings of an Anglo-Saxon predecessor,
scattered though they were. The barons again made oaths of
personal loyalty to him [fealty]. They agreed to hold the land as
his vassals with future military services to him and receipt of
his protection. They gave him homage by placing their hands within
his and saying "I become your man for the tenement I hold of you,
and I will bear you faith in life and member [limb] and earthly
honor against all men". They held their land "of their lord", the
King, by knight's service. The king had "enfeoffed" them [given
them a fief: a source of income] with land. The theory that by
right all land was the King's and that land was held by others
only at his gift and in return for specified service was new to
English thought. The original duration of a knight's fee until
about 1100 was for his life; thereafter it was heritable. The word
"knight" came to replace the word "thegn" as a person who received
his position and land by fighting for the King. The exact
obligation of knight's service was to furnish a fully-armed
horseman to serve at his own expense for forty days in the year.
This service was not limited to defense of the country, but
included fighting abroad. The baron led his own knights under his
banner. The foot soldiers were from the fyrd or were mercenaries.
Every free man was sworn to join in the defense of the king, his
lands and his honor, within England and without.

The Saxon governing class was destroyed. The independent power of
earls, who had been drawn from three great family houses, was
curtailed. Most died or fled the country. Some men were allowed to
redeem their land by money payment if they showed loyalty to the
Conquerer. Well-born women crowded into nunneries to escape Norman
violence. The people were deprived of their most popular leaders,
who were excluded from all positions of trust and profit,
especially all the clergy. The earldoms became fiefs instead of
magistracies.

The Conquerer was a stern and fierce man and ruled as an autocrat
by terror. Whenever the people revolted or resisted his mandates,
he seized their lands or destroyed the crops and laid waste the
countryside and so that they starved to death. His rule was
strong, resolute, wise, and wary because he had learned to command
himself as well as other men. He was not arbitrary or oppressive.
The Conquerer had a strict system of policing the nation. Instead
of the Anglo-Saxon self-government throughout the districts and
hundreds of resident authorities in local courts, he aimed at
substituting for it the absolute rule of the barons under military
rule so favorable to the centralizing power of the Crown. He used
secret police and spies and the terrorism this system involved.
This especially curbed the minor barons and preserved the public
peace.

The English people, who outnumbered the Normans by 300 to 1, were
disarmed. Curfew bells were rung at 7:00 PM when everyone had to
remain in their own dwellings on pain of death and all fires and
candles were to be put out. This prevented any nightly gatherings,
assassinations, or seditions. Order was brought to the kingdom so
that no man dare kill another, no matter how great the injury he
had received. The Conquerer extended the King's peace on the
highways, i.e. roads on high ground, to include the whole nation.
Any individual of any rank could travel from end to end of the
land unharmed. Before, prudent travelers would travel only in
groups of twenty.

The barons subjugated the English who were on their newly acquired
land. There began a hierarchy of seisin [rightful occupation] of
land so that there could be no land without its lord. Also, every
lord had a superior lord with the king as the overlord or supreme
landlord. One piece of land may be held by several tenures. For
instance, A, holding by barons's service of the King, may enfeoff
B, a church, to hold of him on the terms of praying for the souls
of his ancestors, and B may enfeoff a freeman C to hold of the
church by giving it a certain percentage of his crops every year.
There were about 200 barons who held land directly of the King.
Other fighting men were the knights, who were tenants or
subtenants of a baron. Knighthood began as a reward for valor on
the field of battle by the king or a noble. The value of a
knight's fee was 400s. [20 pounds] per year. Altogether there were
about 5000 fighting men holding land.

The essence of Norman feudalism was that the land remained under
the lord, whatever the vassal might do. The lord had the duty to
defend the vassals on his land. The vassal owed military service
to the lord and also the service of attending the courts of the
hundred and the county [formerly "shire"], which were courts of
the King, administering old customary law. They were the King's
courts on the principle that a crime anywhere was a breach of the
King's peace. The King's peace that had covered his residence and
household had extended to places where he might travel, such as
highways, rivers, bridges, churches, monasteries, markets, and
towns, and then encompassed every place, replacing the general
public peace. Infraction of the King's peace incurred fines to
the King.

This feudal bond based on occupancy of land rather than on
personal ties was uniform throughout the realm. No longer could a
man choose his lord and transfer his land with him to a new lord.
He held his land at the will of his lord, to be terminated anytime
the lord decided to do so. A tenant could not alienate his land
without permission of his lord. In later eras, tenancies would be
held for the life of the tenant, and even later, for his life and
those of his heirs.

This uniformity of land organization plus the new requirement that
every freeman take an oath of loyalty directly to the king to
assist him in preserving his lands and honor and defending him
against his enemies, which oath would supersede any oath to any
other man, gave the nation a new unity. The king could call men
directly to the fyrd, summon them to his court, and tax them
without intervention of their lords. And the people learned to
look to the king for protection from abuse by their lords.

English villani, bordarii, cottarii, and servi on the land of the
barons were subjugated into a condition of "villeinage" servitude
and became "tied to the land" so that they could not leave the
land without their lord's permission, except to go on a
pilgrimage. The villeins formed a new bottom class as the
population's percentage of slaves declined dramatically. They held
their land of their lord, the baron. To guard against uprisings of
the conquered people, the barons used villein labor to build about
a hundred great stone castles, with moats and walls with towers
around them, at easily defensible positions such as hilltops all
over the nation.

A castle could be built only with permission of the King. A
typical castle had a stone building of about four floors [a keep]
on a small, steep hill. Later it also had an open area surrounded
by a stone curtain-wall with towers at the corners. Around the
outside of the wall were ditches and banks and perhaps a moat. One
traveled over these via a drawbridge let down at the gatehouse of
the enclosing wall. On either side of the gatehouse were chambers
for the guards. Arrows could be shot through slits in the
enclosing walls. Inside the enclosed area might be stables, a
granary, barracks for the soldiers, and workshops. The only winter
feed was hay, for which the horses, breeding animals, milk-cow,
and work-oxen had a priority over other animals. The bulk of the
cattle were usually slaughtered and salted.

The castle building typically was entered by an outer wood
staircase to the guard room on the second floor. The first
[ground] floor had a well and was used as a storehouse and/or
dungeons for prisoners. The second floor had a two-storied great
hall, with small rooms and aisles around it within the thick
walls. There was also a chapel area on the second floor. There
were small areas of the third floor which could be used for
sleeping. The floors were wood and were reached by a spiral stone
staircase in one corner of the building. Sometimes there was a
reservoir of water on an upper level with pipes carrying the water
to floors below. Each floor had a fireplace with a slanted flue
going through the wall to the outside. There were latrines in the
corner walls with a pit or shaft down the exterior of the wall,
sometimes to the moat. Furs and wool clothes were hung on the
walls there in the summer to deter the moths. The first floor had
only arrow slits in the walls, but the higher floors had small
windows.

Some curtain-wall castles did not have a central building. In
these, the hall was built along the inside of the walls, as were
other continuous buildings. The kitchens and chapels were in the
towers. Lodgings were in buildings along the curtain-walls, or on
several floors of the towers.

The great hall was the main room of the castle. The hall was used
for meals and meetings at which the lord received homages,
recovered fees, and held the view of frankpledge [free pledge in
Latin], in which freemen agreed to be sureties for each other. At
the main table, the lord and his lady sat on benches with backs or
chairs. The table was covered first with a wool cloth that reached
to the floor, and then by a smaller white linen cloth. Everyone
else sat on benches at trestle tables, which could be folded up,
e.g. at night. Over the main door were the family arms. On the
upper parts of the walls could be foxskins and perhaps a polecat
skin, and keepers' and huntsmen's poles. There were often hawk
perches overhead. At the midday dinner, courses were ceremonially
brought in to music, and ritual bows were made to the lord. The
food at the head table was often tasted first by a servant as a
precaution against poison. Hounds, spaniels, and terriers lay near
the hearth and cats, often with litters, nestled nearby. They
might share in dinner, but the lord may keep a short stick near
him to defend morsels he meant for himself. Hunting, dove cotes,
and carp pools provided fresh meat. Fish was compulsory eating on
Fridays, on fast days, and during Lent. Cooking was done outside
on an open fire, roasting on spits and boiling in pots. Some spits
were mechanized with a cogged wheel and a weight at the end of a
string. Other spits were turned by a small boy shielded from the
heat by a wet blanket, or by dogs on a treadmill, or by a long
handle. Underneath the spit was a dripping pan to hold the falling
juices and fat. Mutton fat was used for candles. Bread, pies, and
pastry dishes were baked in an oven: a hole in a fireproof stone
wall fitted with an iron door, in which wood was first burnt to
heat the oven walls. It could also be used for drying fruit or
melting tallow. Fruits were also preserved in honey. Salt was
stored in a niche in the wall near the hearth and put on the table
in a salt cellar which became more elaborate over the years. Salt
was very valuable and gave rise to the praise of a man as the salt
of the earth. Costly imported spices such as cinnamon, cloves,
nutmeg, ginger, pepper, and a small quantity of sugar were kept in
chests. Pepper was always on the table to disguise the taste of
tainted meat. Drinks included wine, ale, cider from apples, perry
from pears, and mead. People carried and used their own knives.
There were no forks. Spoons were of silver or wood. People also
ate with their fingers and washed their hands before and after
meals. It was impolite to dig into the salt bowl with a knife not
previously wiped on bread or napkin, which was linen. It was
unmannerly to wipe one's knife or one's greasy fingers on the
tablecloth or, to use the tablecloth to blow one's nose. Feasts
were stately occasions with costly tables and splendid apparel.
There were practical jokes, innocent frolics, and witty verbal
debating with repartee. They played chess, checkers, and various
games with cards and dice. Most people could sing and some could
play the lute.

Lighting of the hall at night was by oil lamps or candles on
stands or on wall fixtures. For outside activities, a lantern [a
candle shielded by a metal cage with panels of finely shaved horn:
lant horn] was used. The residence of the lord's family and guests
was at a screened off area at the extreme end of the hall or on a
higher floor. Chests stored garments and jewels. Iron keys and
locks were used for chests and doors. The great bed had a wooden
frame and springs made of interlaced rope or strips of leather. It
was covered with a feather mattress, sheets, quilts, fur covers,
and pillows. Drapery around the bed kept out cold drafts and
provided privacy. There was a water bowl for washing in the
morning. A chamber pot was kept under the bed for nighttime use.
Hay was used as toilet-paper. The lord's personal servants slept
nearby on benches or trundle beds. Most of the gentlemen servants
slept communially in a "knight's chamber". The floor of the hall
was strewn with straw, on which common folk could sleep at night.
There were stools on which to sit. Cup boards (boards on which to
store cups) and chests stored spices and plate. One-piece iron
shears were available to cut cloth. Hand-held spindles were used
for weaving; one hand held the spindle [a small stick weighted at
one end] while the other hand alternately formed the thread and
wound it around the spindle. On the roofs there were rampart walks
for sentry patrols and parapets from which to shoot arrows or
throw things at besiegers. Each tenant of the demesne of the king
where he had a castle had to perform a certain amount of castle-
guard duty for its continuing defense. These knights performing
castle-guard duty slept at their posts. Bathing was done in a
wooden tub located in the garden in the summer and indoors near
the fire in winter. The great bed and tub for bathing were taken
on trips with the lord. The entire household was of men, except
for the lord's lady with a few lady companions; otherwise the
entire household was of men. The ladies rode pillion [on a cushion
behind the saddle] or in litters suspended between two horses.

Markets grew up outside castle walls. Any trade on a lord's land
was subject to "passage", a payment on goods passing through,
"stallage", a payment for setting up a stall or booth in a market,
and "pontage", a payment for taking goods across a bridge.

The Norman man was clean-shaven on his face and around his ears
and at the nape of the neck. His hair was short. He wore a long-
sleeved under-tunic of linen or wool that reached to his ankles.
Over this the Norman noble wore a tunic without sleeves, open at
the sides, and fastened with a belt. Over one shoulder was his
cloak, which was fastened on the opposite shoulder by being drawn
through a ring brooch and knotted. He wore tight thick cloth
stockings to protect him from the mud and leather shoes. Common
men wore durable, but drab, wool tunics to the knee so as not to
impede them in their work. They could roll up their stockings when
working in the fields. A lady also wore a high-necked, long-
sleeved linen or wool tunic fitted at the waist and laced at the
side, but full in the skirt, which reached to her toes. She wore a
jeweled belt, passed twice around her waist and knotted in front.
Her hair was often in two long braids, and her head and ears
covered with a white round cloth held in place by a metal circlet
like a small crown. Its ends were wound around her neck. In
winter, she wore over her tunic a cloak edged or lined with fur
and fastened at the front with a cord. Clothes of both men and
ladies were brightly colored by dyes or embroidery. The Norman
knight wore an over-tunic of leather or heavy linen on which were
sewn flat rings of iron and a conical iron helmet with nose cover.
He wore a sword at his waist and a metal shield on his back, or he
wore his sword and his accompanying retainers carried spear and
shield.

Norman customs were adopted by the nation. As a whole, Anglo-Saxon
men shaved their beards and whiskers from their faces, but they
kept their custom of long hair flowing from their heads. But a few
kept their whiskers and beards in protest of the Normans. Everyone
had a permanent surname indicating parentage, place of birth, or
residence, such as Field, Pitt, Lane, Bridge, Ford, Stone, Burn,
Church, Hill, Brook, Green. Other names came from occupations such
as Shepherd, Carter, Parker, Fowler, Hunter, Forester, Smith.
Still other came from personal characteristics such as Black,
Brown, and White, Short, Round, and Long. Some took their names
from animals such as Wolf, Fox, Lamb, Bull, Hogg, Sparrow, Crow,
and Swan. Others were called after the men they served, such as
King, Bishop, Abbot, Prior, Knight. A man's surname was passed on
to his son.

Those few coerls whose land was not taken by a baron remained free
and held their land "in socage" and became known as sokemen. They
were not fighting men, and did not give homage, but might give
fealty, i.e. fidelity. Many free sokemen were caught up in the
subjugation by baron landlords and were reduced almost to the
condition of the unfree villein. The services they performed for
their lords were often indistinguishable. They might also hold
their land by villein tenure, although free as a person with the
legal rights of a freeman. The freeman still had a place in court
proceedings which the unfree villein did not.

Great stone cathedrals were built in fortified towns for the
Conquerer's Norman bishops, who replaced the English bishops. Most
of the existing and new monasteries functioned as training grounds
for scholars, bishops, and statesmen rather than as retreats from
the world's problems to the security of religious observance. The
number of monks grew as the best minds were recruited into the
monasteries.

The Conquerer made the church subordinate to him. Bishops were
elected only subject to the King's consent. The bishops had to
accept the status of barons. Homage was exacted from them before
they were consecrated, and fealty and an oath afterward. The
Conquerer imposed knight's service on bishoprics, abbeys, and
monasteries, which was usually commuted to a monetary amount.
Bishops had to attend the King's court. Bishops could not leave
the realm without the King's consent. No royal tenant or royal
servant could be excommunicated, nor his lands be placed under
interdict, without the King's consent. Interdict could demand, for
instance, that the church be closed and the dead buried in
unconsecrated ground. No church rules could be made without his
agreement to their terms. No letters from the pope could be
received without the King's permission. The Archbishop of
Canterbury was still recognized as a primary advisor to the king.
Over the years, the selection for this office frequently became a
source of contention among king, pope, and clergy.

Men continued to give land to the church for their souls, such as
this grant which started the town of Sandwich: "William, King of
the English, to Lanfranc the Archbishop and Hugoni de Montfort and
Richard son of Earl Gilbert and Haimo the sheriff and all the
thegns of Kent, French and English, greeting. Know ye that the
Bishop of Bayeux my brother for the love of God and for the
salvation of my soul and his own, has given to St. Trinity all
houses with their appurtenances which he has at Sandwich and that
he has given what he has given by my license." Many private owners
of churches gave them to cathedrals or monastic communities,
partly to ensure their long-term survival, and partly because of
church pressure.

When the land was all divided out, the barons had about 3/7 of it
and the church about 2/7. Most of the barons had been royal
servants. The king retained about 2/7, including forests for
hunting, for himself and his family and household, on which he
built many royal castles and hundreds of manor [large private
estate headed by a lord] houses throughout the nation. He built
the massive White Tower in London. It was tall with four turrets
on top, and commanded a view of the river and bridge, the city and
the surrounding countryside. The only windows were slits from
which arrows could be shot. On the fourth and top floor was the
council chamber and the gallery of the chapel. On the third floor
was the banqueting hall, the sword room, and the chapel. The king
and his household slept in apartments on these upper floors.
Stairs went up to the gateway entrance on the second floor, which
were hidden by a wall. The garrison's barracks were on the first
floor (ground floor). Any prisoners were kept in cells at a level
below the first floor. The other castles were often built at the
old fortification burhs of Alfred. Each had a constable in charge,
who was a baron. Barons and earls had castle-guard duty in the
king's castles. The Conquerer was constantly moving about the land
among his and his barons' castles, where he met with his magnates
and conducted public business, such as deciding disputes about
holding of land. Near his own castles and other of his property,
he designated many areas as royal hunting forests. Anyone who
killed a deer in these forests was mutilated, for instance by
blinding. People living within the boundaries of the designated
forestland could no longer go into nearby woods to get meat or
honey, dead wood for firing, or live wood for building. Swineherds
could no longer drive pigs into these woods to eat acorns they
beat down from oak trees. Making clearings and grazing livestock
in the designated forestland were prohibited. Most of the nation
was either wooded or bog at this time.

London was a walled town of one and two story houses made of mud,
twigs, and straw, with thatched roofs. It included a bundle of
communities, townships, parishes, and lordships. There were
churches, a goods market, a fish market, quays on the river, and a
bridge over the river. Streets probably named by this time include
Bread Street, Milk Street, Honey Lane, Wood Street, and Ironmonger
Lane. Fairs and games were held outside the town walls in a field
called "Smithfield". The great citizens had the land
qualifications of knights and ranked as barons on the Conquerer's
council. The freemen were a small percentage of London's
population. There was a butchers' guild, a pepperers' guild, a
goldsmiths' guild, the guild of St. Lazarus, which was probably a
leper charity (of which there were many in the 1000s and 1100s),
the Pilgrims' guild, which helped people going on pilgrimages, and
four bridge guilds, probably for keeping the wooden London Bridge
in repair. Men told the time by sundials, some of which were
portable and could be carried in one's pocket. London could defend
itself, and a ringing of the bell of St. Paul's Church could shut
every shop and fill the streets with armed horsemen and soldiers
led by a soldier portreeve. Across the Thames from London on its
south side was Southwark, a small trading and fishing settlement.

The Conquerer did not interfere with landholding in London, but
recognized its independence as a borough in this writ: "William
the King greets William, Bishop of London, and Gosfrith the
portreeve, and all the burgesses [citizens] of London friendly.
Know that I will that you be worthy of all the laws you were
worthy of in the time of King Edward. And I will that every child
shall be his father's heir after his father's day. And I will not
suffer any man to do you wrong. God preserve you." The Norman word
"mayor" replaced "portreeve".

So London was not subjected to the Norman feudal system. It had
neither villeins nor slaves. Whenever Kings asserted authority
over it, the citizens reacted until the king "granted" a charter
reaffirming the freedoms of the city and its independence.

Under pressure from the ecclesiastical judges, the Conquerer
replaced the death penalty by that of the mutilation of blinding,
chopping off hands, and castrating offenders. Castration was the
punishment for rape. But these mutilations usually led to a slow
death by gangrene.

The Normans used the Anglo-Saxon concepts of jurisdictional
powers. Thus when the Conquerer confirmed "customs" to the abbot
of Ely, these were understood to include the following: 1) sac and
soke - the right to hold a court of private jurisdiction and enjoy
its profits, 2) toll - a payment in towns, markets, and fairs for
goods and chattel bought and sold, 3) team - persons might be
vouched to warranty in the court, the grant of which made a court
capable of hearing suits arising from the transfer of land, 4)
infangenthef - right of trying and executing thieves on one's
land, 4) hamsocne, 5) grithbrice - violation of the grantees'
special peace, for instance that of the sheriff, 6) fightwite -
fine for a general breach of the peace, 7) fyrdwite - fine for
failure to appear in the fyrd.

Every shire, now called "county", had at least one burh, or
defensible town. Kings had appointed a royal moneyer in each to
mint silver coins such as pennies for local use. On one side was
the King's head in profile and on the other side was the name of
the moneyer. When a new coinage was issued, all moneyers had to go
to London to get the new dies. The Conquerer's head faced
frontally on his dies, instead of the usual profile used by former
Kings.

The Conquerer held and presided over his council three times a
year, as was the custom, at Easter, Christmas, and Whitsuntide,
which coincided with the great Christian festivals. This was an
advisory council and consisted of the Conquerer's wife and sons,
earls, barons, knights, officers of the King's household,
archbishops, and bishops. It replaced the witen of wise men. It
dealt with fundamental matters of law, state, war, and church. Its
functions were largely ceremonial. Earldoms and knighthoods were
conferred and homages to the king were witnessed. Bishops were
nominated. Attendance at the council, like attendance at courts,
was regarded as a burden rather than a privilege. The Conquerer's
will was the motive force which under lay all the council's
action. When it was administering royal justice, it was called the
Royal Court..

The Justiciar was the head of all legal matters and he or the
Conquerer's wife represented the King at the Royal Court in his
absence from the realm. The chamberlain was a financial officer of
the household; his work was rather that of auditor or accountant.
The Chancellor headed the Chancery and the chapel. Other household
offices were steward, butler, constable, and marshall. The
Treasurer was responsible for the collection and distribution of
revenue and was the keeper of the royal treasure at the palace at
Winchester. He was also an important member of the household and
sat in the Exchequer at Westminster, where he received the
accounts of the sheriffs. The Exchequer was composed of the
justiciar as head, the chancellor, the constable, two
chamberlains, the marshall and other experienced councilors. The
word "Exchequer" came from the chequered cloth on the table used
to calculate in Roman numerals the amount due and the amount paid.
The word "calculate" derives from the word "calculi", meaning
peebles. It was a kind of abacus. The Exchequer received yearly
from the sheriffs of the counties taxes, fines, treasure trove,
goods from wrecks, deodands, and movable property of felons, of
persons executed, of fugitives, and of outlaws due to the Crown.
The Conqueror presided yearly over feasts involving several
thousand guests at Westminster Hall, which was 250 feet by 70 feet
with a high ceiling, the largest hall in England.

The Conquerer's reign was a time of tentative expedients and
simple solutions. He administered by issuing writs with commands
or prohibitions. These were read aloud by the sheriffs in the
county courts and other locations. Administration was by the
personal servants of his royal household, such as the chancellor,
chamberlain, constable, marshalls, steward, and butler. The
language of government changed to Latin. The chancellor was from
the clergy and supervised the writers and clerks, who were
literate, and appended the great seal before witnesses to
documents. He also headed the staff of the royal chapel. The
chamberlain was a financial officer who audited and accounted. The
constable was responsible for supplies for the knights of the
royal household. He also supervised the care of horses, hounds,
hawks, and huntsmen, houndsmen, and foresters. The marshalls came
from less important families than the constable and they preserved
order in the king's hall and recorded expenditures of the
household officers on tallies. The steward was a great baron whose
duties were chiefly ceremonial, such as placing the dishes before
the king at banquets.

Sheriffs became powerful figures as the primary agents for
enforcing royal edicts. There was no longer supervision of them by
earls nor influence on them by bishops. They were customarily
prominent barons. They collected the royal taxes, executed royal
justice, and presided over and controlled the hundred and county
courts. They were responsible for remitting a certain sum
annually. If a sheriff received more than necessary, he retained
the difference as his lawful profit of office. If he received less
than necessary, he had to make up the difference from his own
pocket. Before rendering theis account, he paid the royal
benefactions to religious houses, provided for the maintenance of
stock on crown lands, paid for the costs of provisions supplied to
the court, and paid for travelling expenses of the king and his
visitors. The payments were initially paid in kind: e.g. grain,
cattle, horses, hounds, and hawks. Sheriffs also took part in the
keeping of castles and often managed the estates of the King. Most
royal writs were addressed to the sheriff and county courts. They
also led the county militia in time of war or rebellion. At times,
a sheriff usurped royal rights, used royal estates for his own
purposes, encroached on private land and rights, extorted money,
and collected revenues only for his own pockets. Over the
centuries, there was much competition for the authority to select
the king, e.g. by the king, the county court, the barons, and the
Exchequer. There was also much pressure to limit his term to one
year. Also, the powers of the sheriffs slowly declined.

Royal income came from customary dues, profits of coinage and of
justice, and revenues from the King's own estates. For war, there
was no change in the custom that a man with five hides of land was
required to furnish one heavy-armed horseman for forty days
service in a year. The fyrd was retained. A threat of a Viking
invasion caused the Conquerer to reinstate the danegeld tax at 6s.
per hide, which was three times its old rate. (The price of an ox
was still about 30d.) To impose this tax uniformly, he sent
commissioners to conduct surveys by sworn verdicts of appointed
groups of local men. A detailed survey of land holdings and the
productive worth of each was made in 1086. The English called it
the "Doomsday Book" because there was no appeal from it.

The survey revealed, for instance, that one estate had "on the
home farm five plough teams: there are also 25 villeins and 6
cotters with 14 teams among them. There is a mill worth 2s. a year
and one fishery, a church and four acres of meadow, wood for 150
pigs and two stone quarries, each worth 2s. a year, and two nests
of hawks in the wood and 10 slaves." This estate was deemed to be
worth 480s. a year.

Laxton "had 2 carucates of land [assessed] to the geld. [There is]
land for 6 ploughs. There Walter, a man of [the lord] Geoffrey
Alselin's has 1 plough and 22 villeins and 7 bordars [a bordar had
a cottage and a small amount land in return for supplying small
provisions to his lord] having 5 ploughs and 5 serfs and 1 female
serf and 40 acres of meadow. Wood [land] for pannage [foraging by
pigs] 1 league in length and half a league in breadth. In King
Edward's time it was worth 9 pounds; now [it is worth] 6 pounds."

Ilbert de Laci has now this land, where he has twelve ploughs in
the demesne; and forty-eight villani, and twelve bordars with
fifteen ploughs, and three churches and three priests, and three
mills of ten shillings. Wood pastures two miles long, and one
broad. The whole manor five miles long and two broad. Value in
King Edward's time sixteen pounds, the same now.

That manor of the town of Coventry which was individually held was
that of the Countess of Coventry, who was the wife of the earl of
Mercia. "The Countess held in Coventry. There are 5 hides. The
arable land employs 20 ploughs. In the demesne lands there are 3
ploughs and 7 bondmen. There are 50 villeins and 12 bordars with
20 ploughs. The mill there pay[s] 3 shillings. The woodlands are 2
miles long and the same broad. In King Edward's time and
afterwards, it was worth 22 pounds [440 s.], now only 11 pounds by
weight. These lands of the Countess Godiva Nicholas holds to farm
of the King."

The survey shows a few manors and monasteries owned a salt-house
or salt-pit in the local saltworks, from which they were entitled
to obtain salt.

In total there were about 110,000 villani [former coerls regarded
as customary, irremovable cultivator tenants]; 82,000 bordarii;
7,000 cotarii and cotseti [held land by service of labor or rent
paid in produce], and 25,000 servi [landless laborers]. There are
no more theows.

In the nation, there was a total of about 25,000 servi [landless
laborers], over 82,000 borderii, nearly 7,000 coatarii and cotseti
[held land or houses by service of labor or rent paid in produce],
and nearly 110,000 villani. This survey resulted in the first
national tax system of about 6s. per hide of land.

The survey also provided the Conquerer with a summary of customs
of areas. For instance, in Oxfordshire, "Anyone breaking the
King's peace given under his hand and seal to the extent of
committing homicide shall be at the King's mercy in respect of his
life and members. That is if he be captured. And if he cannot be
captured, he shall be considered as an outlaw, and anyone who
kills him shall have all his possessions. The king shall take the
possessions of any stranger who has elected to live in Oxford and
who dies in possession of a house in that town, and without any
kinfolk. The king shall be entitled to the body and the
possessions of any man who kills another within his own court or
house excepting always the dower of his wife, if he has a wife who
has received dower.

The courts of the king and barons became schools of chivalry
wherein seven year old noble boys became as pages or valets, wore
a dagger and waited upon the ladies of the household. At age
fourteen, they were advanced to squires and admitted into more
familiar association with the knights and ladies of the court.
They perfected their skills in dancing, riding, fencing, hawking,
hunting, jousting, and engaged in team sports in which the goal
was to put the other side to rout. They learned the knightly art
of war. Enemy fighters were to be taken and held for ransom rather
than killed. Those engaging in rebellion were to be pardoned and
restored to some or all of their lands and titles. Lords' sons
could be mutually exchanged with an enemy's as security for peace.
After achieving knighthood, a man usually selected a wife from the
court at which he grew up. Parents tried to send their daughters
to a household superior in social status not only to learn
manners, but to make a good marriage. A girl who did not marry was
often sent to a nunnery; a dowry was necessary before her
acceptance.

The following incidents of land tenure began (but were not firmly
established until the reign of Henry II). Each tenant, whether
baron or subtenant, was to pay an "aid" in money for ransom if his
lord was captured in war, for the knighthood of his lord's eldest
son, and for the marriage of his lord's eldest daughter. The aid
was theoretically voluntary. Land could be held by an heir only if
he could fight. The eldest son began to succeed to the whole of
the lands in all military tenures. Younger sons of great houses
became bishops. An heir of a tenant had to pay a heavy "relief" on
succession to his estate. The relief replaced the heriot. If there
was a delay in proving heirship or paying relief, the lord would
hold the land and receive its income in the meantime, often a
year. If an heir was still a minor or female, he or she passed
into his lord's wardship, in which the lord had guardianship of
the heir and possession of the estate, with all its profits. The
mother was not made a minor's guardian. No longer was the estate
protected by the minor's kin as his birthright. A female heir was
expected to marry a man acceptable to the lord. The estate of an
heiress and her land was generally sold to the highest bidder. If
there were no heirs, the land escheated to the lord. If a tenant
committed felony, his land escheated to his lord. The word
"felony" came from the Latin word meaning "to deceive" and
referred to the feudal crime of betraying or committing treachery
against one's lord.

Astrologers resided with the families of the barons. People went
to fortune tellers' shops. There was horse racing, steeple races,
and chess for recreation. Girls had dolls; boys had toy soldiers,
spinning tops, toy horses, ships, and wooden models.

The state of medicine is indicated by this medical advice brought
to the nation by William's son after treatment on the continent:

"If thou would have health and vigor Shun cares and avoid anger.
Be temperate in eating And in the use of wine. After a heavy meal
Rise and take the air Sleep not with an overloaded stomach And
above all thou must Respond to Nature when she calls."

The Conquerer allowed Jewish traders to follow him from Normandy
and settle in separate sections of the main towns. Then engaged in
long-distance trade, money-changing, and money-lending. They
loaned money for interest for the building of castles and
cathedrals. Christians were not allowed by the church to engage in
this usury. The Jews could not become citizens nor could they have
standing in the local courts. Instead, a royal justiciar secured
justice for them. They could practice their own religion.

William the Conquerer was succeeded as king by his son William II
(Rufus), who transgressed many of the customs of the nation to get
more money for himself. He was killed by an arrow of a fellow
hunter while they and William's younger brother Henry were hunting
together in a crown forest. Henry then became king.



                              - The Law -

The Norman conquerors brought no written law, but affirmed the
laws of the nation. Two they especially enforced were:

Anyone caught in the act of digging up the King's road, felling a
tree across it, or attacking someone so that his blood spilled on
it shall pay a fine to the King.

All freemen shall have a surety who would hand him over to justice
for his offenses or pay the damages or fines due. If an accused
man fled, his surety would have a year to find him to obtain
reimbursement.

The Conquerer proclaimed that:

No cattle shall be sold except in towns and before three
witnesses.

For the sale of ancient chattels, there must be a surety and a
warrantor.

No man shall be sold over the sea. (This ended the slave trade at
the port of Bristol.)

The death penalty for persons tried by court is abolished.



                         - Judicial Procedure -

"Ecclesiastical" courts were created for bishops to preside over
cases concerning the cure of souls and criminal cases, in which
the ordeal was used. When the Conquerer did not preside over this
court, an appeal could be made to him.

The hundred and county courts now sat without clergy and handled
only "civil" cases. They were conducted by the King's own
appointed sheriff. Only freemen and not bound villeins had
standing in this court. They continued to transact their business
in the English language.

The local jurisdictions of thegns who had grants of sac and soke
or who exercised judicial functions among their free neighbors
were now called "manors" under their new owners, who conducted a
manor court.

The Conquerer's Royal Court was called the "Curia Regis". When the
Conquerer wished to determine the national laws, he summoned
twelve elected representatives of each county to declare on oath
the ancient lawful customs and law as they existed in the time of
the popular King Edward the Confessor. The recording of this law
was begun. A person could spend months trying to catch up with the
Royal Court to present a case. Sometimes the Conquerer sent the
justiciar or commissioners to hold his Royal Court in the various
districts. The commissioner appointed groups of local men to give
a collective verdict upon oath for each trial he conducted. The
Conquerer allowed, on an ad hoc basis, certain high-level people
such as bishops and abbots and those who made a large payment, to
have land disputes decided by an inquiry of recognitors. Besides
royal issues, the Curia Regis heard appeals from lower court
decisions. It used English, Norman, feudal, Roman, and canon law
legal principles to reach a decision, and was flexible and
expeditious.

A dispute between a Norman and an English man over land or a
criminal act could be decided by trial by combat [battle]. Each
combatant first swore to the truth of his cause and undertook to
prove by his body the truth of his cause by making the other
surrender by crying "craven" [craving forgiveness]. The combatants
used weapons like pick-axes and shields. Presumably the man in the
wrong would not fight as well because he was burdened with a
guilty conscience. Although this trial was thought to reflect
God's will, it favored the physically fit and adept person. After
losing the trial by combat, the guilty person would be punished
appropriately.

London had its own traditions. All London citizens met at its
folkmoot, which was held three times a year to determine its
public officers, to raise matters of public concern, and to make
ordinances. Its criminal court had the power of outlawry as did
the county courts. Trade, land, and other civil issues were dealt
with by the Hustings Court, which met every Monday in the
Guildhall. The city was divided into wards, each of which was
under the charge of an elected alderman [elder man]. (The election
was by a small governing body and the most wealthy and reputable
men and not a popular election.) The aldermen had special
knowledge of the law and a duty to declare it at the Hustings
Court. Each alderman also conducted wardmoots in his ward and
decided criminal and civil issues between its residents. Within
the wards were the guilds of the city.

The Normans, as foreigners, were protected by the king's peace.
The entire hundred was the ultimate surety for murder and would
have to pay a "murdrum" fine of 31 pounds [46 marks] for the
murder of any Norman, if the murderer was not apprehended by his
lord within a few days. The reaction to this was that the murderer
mutilated the corpse to make identification of ethnicity
impossible. So the Conquerer ordered that every murder victim was
assumed to be Norman unless proven English. This began a court
custom in murder cases of first proving the victim to be English.

The Royal Court decided this case: "At length both parties were
summoned before the King's court, in which there sat many of the
nobles of the land of whom Geoffrey, bishop of Coutances, was
delegated by the King's authority as judge of the dispute, with
Ranulf the Vicomte, Neel, son of Neel, Robert de Usepont, and many
other capable judges who diligently and fully examined the origin
of the dispute, and delivered judgment that the mill ought to
belong to St. Michael and his monks forever. The most victorious
King William approved and confirmed this decision."





                         - - - Chapter 5 - - -



                        - The Times: 1100-1154 -

King Henry I, son of William the Conquerer, furthered peace
between the Normans and native English by his marriage to a niece
of King Edward the Confessor called Matilda. She married him on
condition that he grant a charter of rights undoing some practices
of the past reigns of William I and William II. Peace was also
furthered by the fact that Henry I had been born in England and
English was his native tongue. The private wars of lords were now
replaced by less serious mock battles.

Henry was a shrewd judge of character and of the course of events,
cautious before taking action, but decisive in carrying out his
plans. He was faithful and generous to his friends. He showed a
strong practical element of calculation and foresight. Although
illiterate, he was intelligent and a good administrator. He had an
efficient intelligence gathering network and an uncanny knack of
detecting hidden plans before they became conspiratorial action.
He made many able men of inferior social position nobles, thus
creating a class of career judges and administrators in opposition
to the extant hereditary aristocracy. He loved books and built a
palace at Oxford to which he invited scholars for lively
discussion.

Queen Matilda served as regent of the kingdom in Henry's absence,
as William's queen had for him. Both queens received special
coronation apart from their husbands; they held considerable
estates which they administered through their own officers, and
were frequently composed of escheated honors. Matilda was learned
and a literary patron. She founded an important literary and
scholastic center. Her compassion was great and her charities
extensive. In London she founded several almshouses and a care-
giving infirmary for lepers. These were next to small monastic
communities. She also had new roads and bridges built.

Henry issued charters restoring customs which had been
subordinated to royal impositions by previous Kings, which set a
precedent for later Kings. His coronation charter describes
certain property rights he restored after the oppressive reign of
his brother.

"Henry, King of the English, to Samson the bishop, and Urse of
Abbetot, and to all his barons and faithful vassals, both French
and English, in Worcestershire, greeting.

[1.]  Know that by the mercy of God and by the common
      counsel of the barons of the whole kingdom of England I have
      been crowned king of this realm. And because the kingdom has
      been oppressed by unjust exactions, I now, being moved by
      reverence towards God and by the love I bear you all, make
      free the Church of God; so that I will neither sell nor
      lease its property; nor on the death of an archbishop or a
      bishop or an abbot will I take anything from the demesne of
      the Church or from its vassals during the period which
      elapses before a successor is installed. I abolish all the
      evil customs by which the kingdom of England has been
      unjustly oppressed. Some of those evil customs are here set
      forth.

[2.]  If any of my barons or of my earls or of any other of
      my tenants shall die his heir shall not redeem his land as
      he was wont to do in the time of my brother [William II
      (Rufus)], but he shall henceforth redeem it by means of a
      just and lawful 'relief`. Similarly the men of my barons
      shall redeem their lands from their lords by means of a just
      and lawful 'relief`.

[3.]  If any of my barons or of my tenants shall wish to give
      in marriage his daughter or his sister or his niece or his
      cousin, he shall consult me about the matter; but I will
      neither seek payment for my consent, nor will I refuse my
      permission, unless he wishes to give her in marriage to one
      of my enemies. And if, on the death of one of my barons or
      of one of my tenants, a daughter should be his heir, I will
      dispose of her in marriage and of her lands according to the
      counsel given me by my barons. And if the wife of one of my
      tenants shall survive her husband and be without children,
      she shall have her dower and her marriage portion [that
      given to her by her father], and I will not give her in
      marriage unless she herself consents.

[4.]  If a widow survives with children under age, she shall
      have her dower and her marriage portion, so long as she
      keeps her body chaste; and I will not give her in marriage
      except with her consent. And the guardian of the land, and
      of the children, shall be either the widow or another of
      their relations, as may seem more proper. And I order that
      my barons shall act likewise towards the sons and daughters
      and widows of their men.

[5.]  I utterly forbid that the common mintage [a forced levy
      to prevent loss to the King from depreciation of the
      coinage], which has been taken from the towns and counties,
      shall henceforth be levied, since it was not so levied in
      the time of King Edward [the Confessor]. If any moneyer or
      other person be taken with false money in his possession,
      let true justice be visited upon him.

[6.]  I forgive all pleas and all debts which were owing to
      my brother [William II], except my own proper dues, and
      except those things which were agreed to belong to the
      inheritance of others, or to concern the property which
      justly belonged to others. And if anyone had promised
      anything for his heritage, I remit it, and I also remit all
      'reliefs' which were promised for direct inheritance.

[7.]  If any of my barons or of my men, being ill, shall give
      away or bequeath his movable property, I will allow that it
      shall be bestowed according to his desires. But if,
      prevented either by violence or through sickness, he shall
      die intestate as far as concerns his movable property, his
      widow or his children, or his relatives or one his true men
      shall make such division for the sake of his soul, as may
      seem best to them.

[8.]  If any of my barons or of my men shall incur a forfeit,
      he shall not be compelled to pledge his movable property to
      an unlimited amount, as was done in the time of my father
      [William I] and my brother; but he shall only make payment
      according to the extent of his legal forfeiture, as was done
      before the time of my father and in the time of my earlier
      predecessors. Nevertheless, if he be convicted of breach of
      faith or of crime, he shall suffer such penalty as is just.

[9.]  I remit all murder-fines which were incurred before the
      day on which I was crowned King; and such murder-fines as
      shall now be incurred shall be paid justly according to the
      law of King Edward [by sureties].

[10.] By the common counsel of my barons I have retained the
      forests in my own hands as my father did before me.

[11.] The knights, who in return for their estates perform
      military service equipped with a hauberk [long coat] of
      mail, shall hold their demesne lands quit of all gelds
      [money payments] and all work; I make this concession as my
      own free gift in order that, being thus relieved of so great
      a burden, they may furnish themselves so well with horses
      and arms that they may be properly equipped to discharge my
      service and to defend my kingdom.

[12.] I establish a firm peace in all my kingdom, and I
      order that this peace shall henceforth be kept.

[13.] I restore to you the law of King Edward together with
      such emendations to it as my father [William I] made with
      the counsel of his barons.

[14.] If since the death of my brother, King William [II],
      anyone shall have seized any of my property, or the property
      of any other man, let him speedily return the whole of it.
      If he does this no penalty will be exacted, but if he
      retains any part of it he shall, when discovered, pay a
      heavy penalty to me.

    Witness: Maurice, bishop of London; William, bishop-elect of
    Winchester; Gerard, bishop of Herefore; Henry the earl; Simon the
    earl; Walter Giffard; Robert of Montfort-sur-Risle; Roger Bigot;
    Eudo the steward; Robert, son of Haimo; and Robert Malet.

  At London when I was crowned. Farewell."

Henry took these promises seriously, which resulted in peace and
justice. Royal justice became a force to be reckoned with by the
multiplication of justices. Henry had a great respect for legality
and the forms of judicial action. He became known as the "Lion of
Justice".

The payment of queen's gold, that is of a mark of gold to the
queen out of every hundred marks of silver paid, in the way of
fine or other feudal incident, to the king, probably dates from
Henry I's reign.

A woman could inherit a fief if she married. The primary way for a
man to acquire control of land was to marry an heiress. If a man
were in a lower station than she was, he had to pay for his new
social status as well as have royal permission. A man could also
be awarded land which had escheated to the King. If a noble woman
wanted to hold land in her own right, she had to make a payment to
the King. Many widows bought their freedom from guardianship or
remarriage from the King. Women whose husbands were at war also
ran the land of their husbands.

Barons were lords of large holdings of farmland called "manors".
Many of the lesser barons left their dark castles to live in semi-
fortified stone houses, which usually were of two rooms with rug
hangings for drafts, as well as the sparse furniture that had been
common to the castle. There were shuttered windows to allow in
light, but which also let in the wind and rain when open. The roof
was of thatch or narrow overlapping wood shingles. The stone floor
was strewn with hay and there was a hearth near the center of the
floor, with a louvered smoke hole in the timber roof for escape of
smoke. There were barns for grain and animals. Beyond this area
was a garden, orchard, and sometimes a vineyard. The area was
circumscribed by a moat over which there was a drawbridge to a
gatehouse.

The smaller room was the lord and lady's bedroom. It had a
canopied bed, chests for clothing, and wood frames on which
clothes could be hung. Life on the manor revolved around the
larger room, or hall, where the public life of the household was
passed. There, meals were served. The daily diet typically
consisted of milk, soup, porridge, fish, vegetables, and bread.
Open hospitality accompanied this communal living. There was
little privacy. Manor household villeins carried the lord's
sheaves of grain to the manor barn, shore his sheep, malted his
grain, and chopped wood for his fire. At night some slept on the
floor of the hall. Others, who were cottars and bordars, had their
own dwellings nearby.

The manor house of lesser lords or knights was still built of
wood, although it often had a stone foundation.

About 35% of the land was arable land, about 25% was common
pasture land (for grazing only) or meadow land (near a stream or
river and used for hay or grazing), and about 15% was woodland.
There were these types of land and wasteland on each manor. The
arable land was allotted to the villeins in strips to equalize the
best and worst land and their distance from the village where the
villeins lived. There was three-way rotation of wheat or rye, oats
or barley, and fallow land. Cows, pigs, sheep, and fowl were kept.
The meadow was allocated for hay for the lord's household and each
villein's. The villeins held land of their lord for various
services such as agricultural labor or raising domestic animals.
The villeins worked about half of their time on their lord's
fields [his demesne land], which was about a third of the
farmland. This work was primarily to gather the harvest and to
plough with oxen, using a yoke over their shoulders, and to sow in
autumn and Lent. They threshed grain on barn floors with flails
cut from holly or thorn, and removed the kernels from the shafts
by hand. Work lasted from sunrise to sunset and included women and
children. The older children could herd geese and pigs, and set
snares for rabbits. The young children could gather nuts and
berries in season and other wild edibles, and could pick up little
tufts of wool shed by sheep. The old could stay in the hut and
mind the children, keep the fire going and the black pot boiling,
sew, spin, patch clothes, and cobble shoes. The old often suffered
from rheumatism. Many people had bronchitis. Many children died of
croup [inflammation of the respiratory passages]. Life expectancy
was probably below thirty-five.

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.

The intellectual world included art, secular literature, law, and
medicine. There were about 90 physicians.

The center of government was a collection of tenants-in-chief,
whose feudal duty included attendance when summoned, and certain
selected household servants of the King. The Exchequer became a
separate body. The payments in kind, such as grain or manual
services, from the royal demesnes had been turned into money
payments. The great barons made their payments directly to the
Exchequer. The income from royal estates was received by the
Exchequer and then commingled with the other funds. Each payment
was indicated by notches on a stick, which was then split so that
the payer and the receiver each had a half showing the notches.
The Exchequer was the great school for training statesmen,
justices, and bishops. The Chancellor managed the domestic matters
of the Crown's castles and lands. The great offices of state were
sold for thousands of pounds, which caused their holders to be on
their best behavior for fear of losing their money by being
discharged from office. One chancellor paid Henry about 3000
pounds for the office. Henry brought sheriffs under his strict
control, free from influence by the barons. He maintained order
with a strong hand, but was no more severe than his security
demanded.

Forests were still retained by Kings for their hunting of boars
and stags. A master-forester maintained them. The boundaries of
the Royal Forests were enlarged. They comprised almost one-third
of the kingdom. Certain inhabitants thereof supplied the royal
foresters with meat and drink and received certain easements and
rights of common therein. The forest law reached the extreme of
severity and cruelty under Henry I. Punishments given included
blinding, emasculation, and execution. Offenders were rarely
allowed to substitute a money payment. When fines were imposed
they were heavy.

A substantial number of barons and monasteries were heavily in
debt to the Jews. The interest rate was 43% (2d. per pound per
week). The king taxed the Jews at will.



                              - The Law -

Henry restored the death penalty (by hanging) for theft and
robbery, but maintained William I's punishment of mutilation by
blinding and severing of limbs for other offenses, for example,
bad money. He decreed in 1108 that false and bad money should be
amended, so that he who was caught passing bad denarii should not
escape by redeeming himself but should lose his eyes and members.
And since denarii were often picked out, bent, broken, and
refused, he decreed that no denarius or obol, which he said were
to be round, or even a quadrans, if it were whole, should be
refused. (Money then reached a higher level of perfection, which
was maintained for the next century.)

The forest law stated that: "he that doth hunt a wild beast and
doth make him pant, shall pay 10 shillings: If he be a freeman,
then he shall pay double. If he be a bound man, he shall lose his
skin." A "verderer" was responsible for enforcing this law, which
also stated that: "If anyone does offer force to a Verderer, if he
be a freeman, he shall lose his freedom, and all that he hath. And
if he be a villein, he shall lose his right hand." Further, "If
such an offender does offend so again, he shall lose his life."

A wife's dower is one-third of all her husband's freehold land,
unless his endowment of her at their marriage was less than one-
third.

Counterfeiting law required that "If any one be caught carrying
false coin, the reeve shall give the bad money to the King however
much there is, and it shall be charged in the render of his farm
[payment] as good, and the body of the offender shall be handed
over to the King for judgment, and the serjeants who took him
shall have his clothes."

Debts to townsmen were recoverable by this law: "If a burgess has
a gage [a valuable object held as security for carrying out an
agreement] for money lent and holds this for a whole year and a
day, and the debtor will not deny the debt or deliver the gage,
and this is proved, the burgess may sell the gage before good
witnesses for as much as he can, and deduct his money from the
sum. If any money is over he shall return it to the debtor. But if
there is not enough to pay him, he shall take distress again for
the amount that is lacking."

Past due rent in a borough was punishable by payment of 10s. as
fine.

Judicial activity encouraged the recording of royal legislation in
writing which both looked to the past and attempted to set down
law current in Henry's own day. The "Liberi Quadripartitus" aimed
to include all English law of the time. This showed an awareness
of the ideal of written law as a statement of judicial principles
as well as of the practice of kingship. In this way, concepts of
Roman law used by the Normans found their way into English law.

Church law provided that only consent between a man and woman was
necessary for marriage. There needn't be witnesses, ceremony, nor
consummation. Consent could not be coerced. Penalties in marriage
agreements for not going through with the marriage were deemed
invalid. Villeins and slaves could marry without their lords' or
owners' permission. A couple living together could be deemed
married. Persons related by blood within certain degrees, which
changed over time, of consanguinity were forbidden to marry. This
was the only ground for annulment of a marriage. A legal
separation could be given for adultery, cruelty, or heresy.
Annulment, but not separation, could result in remarriage. Fathers
were usually ordered to provide some sustenance and support for
their illegitimate children. The court punished infanticide and
abortion. Counterfeiters of money, arsonists, and robbers of
pilgrims and merchants were to be excommunicated. Church sanctuary
was to be given to fugitives of violent feuds until they could be
given a fair trial.



                         - Judicial Procedure -

Courts extant now are the Royal Court, the King's Court of the
Exchequer, county courts, and hundred courts, which were under the
control of the King. His appointed justices administered justice
in these courts on regular circuits. The sheriff now only produced
the proper people and preserved order at the county courts and
presided over the nonroyal pleas and hundred courts. He empaneled
recognitors, made arrests, and enforced the decisions of the royal
courts. Also there are manor courts, borough courts, and
ecclesiastical courts. In the manor courts, the lord's reeve
generally presided. The court consisted of the lord's vassals and
declared the customs and law concerning such offenses as failure
to perform services and trespass on manorial woods, meadow, and
pasture.

The King's Royal Court heard issues concerning the Crown and
breaches of the King's peace, which included almost all criminal
matters. The most serious offenses: murder, robbery, rape,
abduction, arson, treason, and breach of fealty, were now called
felonies. Other offenses were: housebreaking, ambush, certain
kinds of theft, premeditated assault, and harboring outlaws or
excommunicants. Henry personally presided over hearings of
important legal cases. He punished crime severely. Offenders were
brought to justice not only by the complaint of an individual or
local community action, but by official prosecutors. A prosecutor
was now at trials as well as a justice. Trial is still by
compurgation. Trial by combat was relatively common.

These offenses against the king placed merely personal property
and sometimes land at the king's mercy. Thus the Crown increased
the range of offenses subject to its jurisdiction and arrogated to
itself profits from the penalties imposed. A murderer could be
given royal pardon from the death penalty so that he could pay
compensation to the relatives.

The Royal Court also heard these offenses against the king:
fighting in his dwelling, contempt of his writs or commands,
encompassing the death or injury of his servants, contempt or
slander of the King, and violation of his protection or his law.
It heard these offenses against royal authority: complaints of
default of justice or unjust judgment, pleas of shipwrecks,
coinage, treasure-trove [money buried when danger approached],
forest prerogatives, and control of castle building.

Slander of the king, the government, or high officials was
punishable as treason, felony, misprison of treason, or contempt,
depending on the rank and office of the person slandered and the
degree of guilt.

Henry began the use of writs to intervene in civil matters, such
as inquiry by oath and recogniton of rights as to land, the
obligations of tenure, the legitimacy of heirs, and the
enforcement of local justice. The Crown used its superior coercive
power to enforce the legal decisions of other courts. These writs
allowed people to come to the Royal Court on certain issues. There
was a vigorous interventionism in the land law subsequent to
appeals to the king in landlord-tenant relations, brought by a
lord or by an undertenant. Assizes [those who sit together] of
local people who knew relevant facts were put together to assist
the court. Henry appointed some locally based justices, called
justiciars. Also, he sent justices out on eyres [journeys] to hold
assizes. This was done at special sessions of the county courts,
hundred courts, and manor courts. Records of the verdicts of the
Royal Court were sent with these itinerant justices for use as
precedent in these courts. Thus royal authority was brought into
the localities and served to check baronial power over the common
people. These itinerant justices also transacted the local
business of the Exchequer in each county. Henry created the office
of chief justiciar, which carried out judicial and administrative
functions.

The Royal Court retained cases of gaol delivery [arrested person
who had been held in gaol was delivered to the court] and
amercements. It also decided cases in which the powers of the
popular courts had been exhausted or had failed to do justice. The
Royal Court also decided land disputes between barons who were too
strong to submit to the county courts.

The King's Court of the Exchequer reviewed the accounts of
sheriffs, including receipts and expenditures on the Crown's
behalf as well as sums due to the Treasury, located still at
Winchester. These sums included rent from royal estates, the
Danegeld land tax, the fines from local courts, and aid from
baronial estates. Its records were the "Pipe Rolls", so named
because sheets of parchment were fastened at the top, each of
which dropped into a roll at the bottom and so assumed the shape
of a pipe.

The county and hundred courts assessed the personal property of
individuals and their taxes due to the King. The county court
decided land disputes between people who had different barons as
their respective lords.

The free landholders were expected to attend county, hundred, and
manor courts. They owed "suit" to it. The suitors found the dooms
[laws] by which the presiding officer pronounced the sentence.

The county courts heard cases of theft, brawling, beating, and
wounding, for which the penalties could be exposure in the pillory
or stocks. The pillory held an offender's head and hands in holes
in boards, and the stocks held one's hands and feet. Here the
public could scorn and hit the offender or throw fruit, mud, and
dead cats at him. For sex offenders and informers, stones were
usually thrown. Sometimes a person was stoned to death. The county
courts met twice yearly. If an accused failed to appear after four
successive county courts, he was declared outlaw at the fifth and
forfeited his civil rights and all his property. He could be slain
by anyone at will.

The hundred court met once a month to hear neighborhood disputes,
for instance concerning pastures, meadows and harvests. Usually
present was a priest, the reeve, four representative men, and
sometimes the lord or his steward in his place. Sometimes the
chief pledges were present to represent all the men in their
respective frankpledges. The bailiff presided over all these
sessions except two, in which the sheriff presided over the full
hundred court to take the view of frankpledge, which was required
for those who did not have a lord to answer for him.

The barons held court on their manors at a "hall-mote" for issues
arising between people living on the manor, such as bad ploughing
on the lord's land or letting a cow get loose on the lord's land,
and land disputes. This court also made the decision of whether a
certain person was a villein or freeman. The manor court took over
issues which had once been heard in the vill or hundred court. The
baron charged a fee for hearing a case and received any fines he
imposed, which amounted to significant "profits of justice".

Boroughs held court on trading and marketing issues in their towns
such as measures and weights, as well as issues between people who
lived in the borough. The borough court was presided over by a
reeve who was a burgess as well as a royal official.

Wealthy men could employ professional pleader-attorneys to advise
them and to speak for them in a court.

The ecclesiastical courts dealt, until the time of Henry VIII,
with family matters such as marriage, annulments, marriage
portions, legitimacy, undue wife-beating, child abuse, orphans,
bigamy, adultery, incest, fornication, personal possessions,
defamation, slander which did not cause material loss (and
therefore had no remedy in the temporal courts), libel, perjury,
usury, mortuaries, sacrilege, blasphemy, heresy, tithe payments,
church fees, certain offences on consecrated ground, and breaches
of promises under oath, e.g. to pay a debt, provide services, or
deliver goods. They decided inheritance and will issues which did
not concern land, but only personal property. This developed from
the practice of a priest usually hearing a dying person's will as
to the disposition of his goods and chattel when he made his last
confession. It provided guardianship of infants during probate of
their personal property. Trial was basically by compurgation, with
oath-helpers swearing to or against the veracity of the alleged
offender's oath. An alleged offender could be required to answer
questions under oath, thus giving evidence against himself. The
ecclesiastical court's penalties were intended to reform and
determined on a case-by-case basis. The canon law of Christendom
was followed, without much change by the English church or nation.
Penalties could include confession and public repentance of the
sin before the parish, making apologies and reparation to persons
affected, public embarrassment such as being dunked in water (e.g.
for women scolds), walking a route barefoot and clad only in one's
underwear, whippings, extra work, fines, and imprisonment in a
"penitentiary" to do penance. The ultimate punishment was
excommunication with social ostracism. Then no one could give the
person drink, food, or shelter and he could speak only to his
spouse and servants. Excommunication included denial of the
sacraments of baptism, penance, mass, and extreme unction [prayers
for spiritual healing] at death; which were necessary for
salvation of the soul; and the sacrament of confirmation of one's
belief in the tenets of Christianity. A person could also be
denied a Christian burial in consecrated ground. However, the
person could still marry and make a will. The king's court could
order a recalcitrant excommunicant imprisoned until he satisfied
the claims of the church. Excommunication was usually imposed for
failure to obey an order or showing contempt of the law or of the
courts. It required a hearing and a written reason. If this
measure failed, it was possible to turn the offender over to the
state for punishment, e.g. for blasphemy or heresy. Blasphemy
[speaking ill of God] was thought to cause God's wrath expressed
in famine, pestilence, and earthquake and was usually punished by
a fine or corporal punishment, e.g. perforation or amputation of
the tongue. It was tacitly understood that the punishment for
heresy was death by burning. There were no heresy cases up to 1400
and few after that. The state usually assured itself the sentence
was just before imposing it. The court of the rural dean was the
ecclesiastical parallel of the hundred court of secular
jurisdiction and usually had the same land boundaries. The
archdeacons, who had been ministers of the bishop in all parts of
his diocese alike, were now each assigned to one district, which
usually had the same boundaries as the county. Henry acknowledged
occasional appellate authority of the pope, but expected his
clergy to elect bishops of his choice.

There was a separate judicial system for the laws of the forest.
There were itinerant justices of the forests and four verderers of
each forest county, who were elected by the votes of the full
county court, twelve knights appointed to keep vert [everything
bearing green leaves] and venison, and foresters of the king and
of the lords who had lands within the limits of the forests. Every
three years, the officers visited the forests in preparation for
the courts of the forest held by the itinerant justices. The
inferior courts were the wood-mote, held every forty days, and the
swein [freeman or freeholder within the forest]-mote, held three
times yearly before the verderers as justices, in which all who
were obliged to attend as suitors of the county court to serve on
juries and inquests were to be present.





                         - - - Chapter 6 - - -



                        - The Times: 1154-1215 -

King Henry II and Queen Eleanor, who was twelve years older, were
both intelligent, educated, energetic, well-traveled, and
experienced in affairs of state. Henry was the first Norman king
to be fully literate and he learned Latin. He had many books and
maintained a school. Eleanor often served as regent during Henry's
reign and the reigns of their two sons: Richard I, the Lion-
Hearted, and John. She herself headed armies. Henry II was a
modest, courteous, and patient man with an astonishing memory and
strong personality. He was indifferent to rank and impatient of
pomp to the point of being careless about his appearance. He
usually dressed in riding clothes and was often unkempt. He was
thrifty, but generous to the poor. He was an outstanding
legislator and administrator.

Henry II took the same coronation oath as Edward the Confessor
regarding the church, laws, and justice. Not only did he confirm
the charter of his grandfather Henry I, but he revived and
augmented the laws and institutions of his grandfather and
developed them to a new perfection. Almost all legal and fiscal
institutions appear in their first effective form during his
reign. For instance, he institutionalized the assize for a
specific function in judicial proceedings, whereas before it had
been an ad hoc body used for various purposes. The term "assize"
here means the sitting of a court or council. It came to denote
the decisions, enactments, or instructions made at such.

Henry's government practiced a strict economy and he never
exploited the growing wealth of the nation. He abhorred bloodshed
and the sacrifice of men's lives. So he strove diligently to keep
the peace, when possible by gifts of money, but otherwise with
armed force. Robbers were hanged and any man who raped a woman was
castrated. Foreign merchants with precious goods could journey
safely through the land from fair to fair. These fairs were
usually held in the early fall, after sheep-shearing and
harvesting. Foreign merchants bought wool cloth and hides.
Frankpledge was revived, now applying to the unfree and villeins.
No stranger could stay overnight (except for one night in a
borough), unless sureties were given for his good behavior. A list
of such strangers was to be given to itinerant justices.

Henry had character and the foresight to build up a centralized
system of government that would survive him. He learned about the
counties' and villages' varying laws and customs. Then, using the
model of Roman law, he gave to English institutions that unity and
system which in their casual patch-work development had been
lacking. Henry's government and courts forged permanent direct
links between the king and his subjects which cut through the
feudal structure of lords and vassals.

He developed the methods and structure of government so that there
was a great increase in the scope of administrative activity
without a concurrent increase of personal power of the officials
who discharged it. The government was self-regulating, with
methods of accounting and control which meant that no official,
however exalted, could entirely escape the surveillance of his
colleagues and the King. At the same time, administrative and
judicial procedures were perfected so that much which had
previously required the King's personal attention was reduced to
routine.

The royal household translated the royal will into action. In the
early 1100s, there had been very little machinery of central
government that was not closely associated with the royal
household. There was a Chief Justiciar for legal matters and a
Treasurer. Royal government was largely built upon what had once
been purely domestic offices. Kings had called upon their
chaplains to pen letters for them. By Henry II's reign, the
Chancery was a highly efficient writing office through which the
King's will was expressed in a flow of writs, and the Chancellor
an important and highly rewarded official, but he was still
responsible for organizing the services in the royal chapel.
Similarly, the chamberlains ran the household's financial
departments. They arranged to have money brought in from a
convenient castle treasury, collected money from sheriffs or the
King's debtors, arranged loans with the usurers, and supervised
the spending of it. It was spent for daily domestic needs, the
King's alms-giving, and the mounting of a military campaign. But
they were still responsible for personal attendance upon the king
in his privy chamber, taking care of his valuable furs, jewels,
and documents, and changing his bedlinens. There were four other
departments of the household. The steward presided over the hall
and kitchens and was responsible for supplying the household and
guests with food supplies. The butler had duties in the hall and
cellars and was responsible for the supply of wine and ale. The
marshall arranged lodgings for the King's court as it moved about
from palaces to hunting lodges, arranged the pay of the household
servants, and supervised the work of ushers, watchmen, fire
tenders, messengers and huntsmen. The constable organized the
bodyguard and escorts, arranged for the supply of castles, and
mustered the royal army. The offices of steward, constable,
chamberlain, butler were becoming confined to the household and
hereditary. The Justiciar, Chancellor, and Treasurer are becoming
purely state offices and are simply sold or rented, until public
pressure resulted in a requirement of ability.

Henry's council included all his tenants-in-chief, which included
archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, earls, barons, knights and
socage tenants of the crown, whether they made payments directly
to him or through a sheriff. The higher ones were served with a
writ addressed to them personally. Knights and below were summoned
by a general writ to the sheriff.

Henry brought order and unity by making the King's Royal Court the
common court of the land. Its purpose was to guard the King's
peace by protecting all people of free status throughout the
nation and correct the disparity in punishments given by local
courts. Heretofore, the scope of the King's peace had varied to
cover as little as the King's presence, his land, and his highway.
The royal demesne had shrunk to about 5% of the land. The Common
Law for all the nation was established by example of the King's
Royal Court. Henry erected a basic, rational framework for legal
processes which drew from tradition but lent itself to continuous
expansion and adaptation.

A system of writs originated well-defined actions in the royal
courts. Each court writ had to satisfy specific conditions for
this court to have jurisdiction over an action or event. This
system determined the Royal Court's jurisdiction over the church,
lords, and sheriffs. It limited the jurisdiction of all other
courts and subordinated them to the Royal Court. Inquests into any
misdeeds of sheriffs were held, which could result in their
dismissal.

Henry and Eleanor spoke many languages and liked discussing law,
philosophy, and history. So they gathered wise and learned men
about them, who became known as courtiers, rather than people of
social rank. They lived in the great and strong Tower of London,
which had been extended beyond the original White Tower, as had
other castles, so that the whole castle and grounds were defended
instead of just the main building. The Tower of London was in the
custody of one of the two justiciars. On the west were two
strongly fortified castles surrounded by a high and deeply
entrenched wall, which had seven double gates. Towers were spaced
along the north wall and the Thames River flowed below the south
wall. To the west was the city, where royal friends had residences
with adjoining gardens near the royal palace at Westminster. The
court was a center of culture as well as of government. The game
of backgammon was played. People wore belts with buckles, usually
brass, instead of knotting their belts.

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.

Mercantile privileges were granted to the shoemakers in Oxford
thus: "Know ye that I have granted and confirmed to the corvesars
of Oxford all the liberties and customs which they had in the time
of King Henry my grandfather, and that they have their guild, so
that none carry on their trade in the town of Oxford, except he be
of that guild. I grant also that the cordwainers who afterwards
may come into the town of Oxford shall be of the same guild and
shall have the same liberties and customs which the corvesars have
and ought to have. For this grant and confirmation, however, the
corvesars and cordwainers ought to pay me every year an ounce of
gold."

A guild merchant for wool dominated and regulated the wool trade
in many boroughs. In Leicester, only guildsmen were permitted to
buy and sell wool wholesale to whom they pleased or to wash their
fells in borough waters. Certain properties, such as those near
running water, essential to the manufacture of wool were
maintained for the use of guild members. The waterwheel was a
technological advance replacing human labor whereby the cloth was
fulled. The waterwheel turned a shaft which lifted hammers to
pound the wet cloth in a trough. Wool packers and washers could
work only for guild members. The guild fixed wages, for instance
to wool wrappers and flock pullers. Strangers who brought wool to
the town for sale could sell only to guild members. A guildsman
could not sell wool retail to strangers nor go into partnership
with a man outside the guild. Each guild member had to swear the
guildsman's oath, pay an entrance fee, and subject himself to the
judgment of the guild in the guild court, which could fine or
suspend a man from practicing his trade for a year. The advantages
of guild membership extended beyond profit in the wool trade.
Members were free from the tolls that strangers paid. They alone
were free to sell certain goods retail. They had the right to
share in any bargain made in the presence of a guildsman, whether
the transaction took place in Leicester or in a distant market. In
the general interest, the guild forbade the use of false weights
and measures and the production of shoddy goods. It maintained a
wool-beam for weighing wool. It also forbade middlemen from
profiting at the expense of the public. For instance, butchers'
wives were forbidden from buying meat to sell again in the same
market unless they cooked it. The moneys due to the king from the
guilds of a town were collected by the town reeve.

When the king wanted to raise an army, he summoned his major baron
tenants-in-chief, who commanded their own armed dependent vassals,
and he directed the sheriffs to command the minor tenants-in-chief
and supply them with equipment. A baron could assemble an army in
a day, but might use it to resist any perceived misgovernment by a
king. Armed conflict did not interfere much with daily life
because the national wealth was still composed mostly of flocks
and herds and simple buildings. Machinery, furniture, and the
stock of shops were still sparse. Life would be back to normal
within a week.

Henry wanted to check this power of the barons. So he took over or
demolished their adulterine castles and restored the older
obligation of every freeman to serve in defense of the realm, the
fyrd, which was a military draft. At the King's call, barons were
to appear in mail suit and helmet with sword and horse, knights
and freeholders with 213s.[16 marks] of rent or chattels in coat
of mail with shield and lance, freeholders of 133s.[10 marks] with
lance and hauberk [coat of armor] and iron headpiece, burgesses
and poorer freemen with lance and headpiece and wambais, and such
as millers with pike and leather shirt. The spiritual and other
baronies paid a commutation for personal service, called
"scutage", at the rate of 27s. per knight's fee. Barons and
knights paid according to their knight's fee a scutage ranging
from 10s. to 27s. As of 1181, the military obligations of villeins
were defined. The master of a household was responsible for every
villein in his household. Others had to form groups of ten and
swear obedience to the chief of the group. The sheriff was
responsible for maintaining lists of men liable for military
service and procuring supplies. This national militia could be
used to maintain the peace. The sheriff could call upon the
military array of the county as a posse comitatus to take a band
of thieves into custody or to quell disorder. For foreign wars,
Henry decided to use a mercenary army and a mercenary fleet.

However, the nobility who were on the borders of the realm had to
maintain their private armies for frequent border clashes. The
other nobility now tended towards tournaments with mock foot
battles between two sides. Although subject to knightly rules,
serious injury and death often resulted. For this reason, the
church opposed them, but unsuccessfully.

New taxes replaced the Danegeld tax. Freeholders of land paid
taxes according to their plowable land ("hidage", by the hide, and
later "carucage", by the smaller Norman carucate). The smaller
measure curtailed estates and increased taxation. It was assessed
from 2-5s. per carcuate [100 acres] and collected for the king by
knights with little or no remuneration, and later by inquest of
neighbors. The towns and demesne lands of the crown paid a tax
based on their produce that was collected by the itinerant
justices. Merchants were taxed on their personal property, which
was determined by an inquest of neighbors. Clergy were also taxed.
This new system of taxation increased the royal income about
threefold. There was a standard for reliefs paid of 100s. [5
pounds] for a knight's fee and 2,000s. [100 pounds] for a barony.
At the end of Henry's reign, his treasure was over 900,000 pounds.
Every hide of land paid the sheriff 2s. annually for his services
in the administration and defense of the county. This was probably
the old Danegeld.

Barons and their tenants and sub-tenants were offered an
alternative of paying shield money ["scutage"] of 26s.8d. per fee
in commutation for and instead of military service for their
fiefs. This enabled Henry to hire soldiers who would be more
directly under his own control and to organize a more efficient
army.

Henry II restored the silver coinage to its standard of purity.
The first great inflation in England occurred between 1180 and
1220. Most goods and services increased threefold over these forty
years.

Great households, whether of baron, prelate, monastery, or college
gave their officers and servants allowances of provisions and
clothing called "liveries". The officer of such departments as the
buttery [cellar storing butts of wine], the kitchen, the napery
[for linen cloth], and the chandlery had his fixed allowances for
every day and his livery of clothing at fixed times of the year or
intervals of years.

The administration of a great estate is indicated by the Pipe Roll
of the Bishopric of Winchester, 1208-1209, as follows:

"Downton: William FitzGilbert, and Joselyn the reeve, and Aylward
the cellarer render account of 7 pounds 12s.11d. for arrears of
the previous year. They paid and are quit. And of 3 pounds 2s.2d.
for landgafol. And of 12d. by increment of tax for a park which
William of Witherington held for nothing. And of 2s.6d. by
increment of tax for half a virgate of land which James Oisel held
without service. And of 19s. for 19 assize pleas in the new
market. And of 10s. by increment of tax for 10 other assize pleas
in the market this year. Sum of the whole tax 36 pounds 14s.8d.
In quittance of one reeve, 5s. In quittance for repairing the
bridge, 5s.; of one forester, 4s.; of two haywards from Downton
and Wick, 4s.; of one hayward from Witherington, 20d.; of fourteen
drivers from Downton, Wick, and Nunton, for the year, 28s.; of two
drivers from Witherington for the year, 4s.4d.; of two drivers for
half the year, 2s.; of one swineherd, of one neaterd, of one
cowherd, for the year, 6s.; of three shepherds from Wick, Barford,
and Nunton, for the year, 6s.; of one shepherd from Witherington,
for the year, 20d.; of four customary tenants, for the year, 8s.
Sum of the quittances, 74s.8d. Remainder 33 pounds.

Livery: For livery to John the dean, for Christmas tax, 7 pounds
10s. by one tally. To the same for Easter tax, 8 pounds by one
tally. To the same for St. John's tax, 8 pounds by one tally. To
the same for St. Michael's tax, 8 pounds 10s. by one tally. To the
same for corn [grain] sold in the field 26 pounds by two tallies.
To the same for standing corn [growing crops of grain], purchases,
and cheeses, 20 pounds 16s.10d. To the same for wool, 6 pounds
13s.4d. by one tally. To the same for tallage 39 pounds by one
tally. Sum: 134 pounds 10s.2d.

Expenses: For ironwork of 8 carts for year and one cart for half
the year, 32s.10d. For shoeing of 2 plough-horses for the year,
2s.8d. For wheels for carts, 2s.9d. For 6 carts made over, 12d.
before the arrival of the carpenter. For wages of the smith for
the year, 8s.6d. For one cart bound in iron bought new, 5s.7d. For
wheels purchased for one cart to haul dung, 12d. For leather
harness and trappings, iron links, plates, halters, 14d. For
purchase of 2 ropes, 3d. For purchase of 2 sacks, 8d. For purchase
of 5 locks for the granary, 11d. For making 2 gates for the
sheepfold, 2s. For one gate for the farm yard, 12d. For an axe and
tallow purchased and for repairing the spindles of the mill for
the year, 6s.10d. For one millstone purchased for the mill 24s.
For making one gate near the mill, 12d. For meat prepared in the
larder, 3s. For beer bought for cleaning carcasses, 2s.1d. For
digging 158 perches of land around the pasture in the marsh,
32s.11d.; for each perch 2d.1ob. For the dovecote newly made,
22s.11d.1ob. For cutting 100 thick planks for flooring both
dispensary and butlery, 6s.3d. For nails or pegs bought for
planking beyond the cellar, 16d. For enclosing the garden by
making 2 gates, 6s.7d.1ob. For digging in the gardens, 8s.5d. For
the winter work of 55 carts, 9s.2d. For the Lent work of 49 carts,
8s.6d. For spreading 6 acres with dung, 6d. For threshing 24
quarters of wheat at Mardon for seed, 5s. For winnowing the same,
7d. For winnowing 36 quarters of grain for seed, 3s.9d. For
threshing 192 quarters of grain 32s.; for each quarter 2d. For
threshing 20 quarters of mixed corn [grain], 2s.6d. For threshing
42 quarters of barley, 3s.6d. For threshing 53 quarters of oats,
2s.2d.1ob. For hauling gravel to the bridge and causeway, 4d. For
cost of dairy, viz., 3 tines of salt, cloth, and pots, 6s.10d. For
purchase of 17 oxen, 5 pounds 13s. For hoeing 140 acres, 5s.10d.
For wages of two carters, one neatherd, for the year, 9s. For
wages of one carpenter for the year, 6s.8d. For wages of one dairy
woman, 2s.6d. For payment of mowers of the meadow at Nunton, 6d.
For 8 sheep purchased, 8s. For wages of one neatherd from Nunton,
12d. For carrying 2 casks of wine by Walter Locard, in the time of
Martinmas, 8s.2d. For the carrying of 2 casks of wine from
Southampton to Downton by the seneschal, 3s.6d. at the feast of
St. Lawrence. For digging 22 perches in the farmyard, 6s.5d.; for
each perch 3d.1ob. For allowance of food of Robert of Lurdon, who
was sick for 21 days, with his man, 5s.3d. For allowance of food
to Sewal who was caring for 2 horses of the lord bishop for 3
weeks, 21d. For allowance of food for Roger Walselin, for the two
times he made gifts to the lord king at Clarendon, 4s.9d. by two
tallies. For allowance of food of Master Robert Basset, for 3
journeys, 9s.3d.1ob. For livery of William FitzGilbert, 60s.10d.
For 30 ells of canvas purchased for laying over the wool, and 2
cushions prepared for the court, 5s. For 8 sheep purchased, with
lambs, 8s. Sum: 2 pounds.23d. Sum of livery and expenses: 159
pounds 12s.1d. And there is owing: 5 pounds 9s.4d.1ob.

Produce of Granary: The same render account of 221 and a half
quarters and 1 strike from all the produce of grain; and of 24
quarters brought from Mardon. Sum: 245 and a half quarters and 1
strike. For sowing 351 acres, 127 quarters. For bread for the lord
bishop, 18 and a half quarters delivered to John de Dispensa by
three tallies. For the balance sold, 110 quarters and 1 strike.
The same render account of 38 and a half quarters from all the
produce of small corn [grain]. For the balance sold, all. The same
render account of 29 quarters and 1 strike from all the produce of
mixed corn [grain]. For seeding 156 acres, 53 quarters and 1
strike. For bread for 3 autumnal works, 9 quarters. For the
balance sold, 27 quarters. The same render account of 178 and a
half quarters from all the produce of barley. For sowing 102 and a
half acres, 49 and a half quarters. For payment for carts, 1
quarter. For payment for hauling dung, 2 quarters. For allowance
of food of two carters, one carpenter, one neatherd, one dairy
woman, for the year, 32 and a half quarters. For feeding hogs in
the winter, 2 quarters. For the balance sold, 91 and a half
quarters. It is quit.

The same render account of 311 quarters and 2 bushels from all the
produce of oats. In sowing 221 and a half acres, 110 and a half
quarters. For prebends of the lord bishop and lord king, on many
occasions, 131 and a half quarters and 2 bushels, by five tallies.
For prebends of Roger Wakelin, 2 and a half quarters and 3
bushels. For prebends of Master Robert Basset, 3 and a half
quarters and 1 bushel. For provender of 2 horses of the lord
bishop and 1 horse of Richard Marsh, for 5 weeks, 5 and a half
quarters and 2 bushels. For provender of 2 horses of the lord
bishop who stayed 16 nights at Downton, 4 quarters. For that sent
to Knoyle, 18 quarters. For provender of 1 horse of Robert of
Lurdon for 3 weeks, 1 and a half quarters. For prebends of two
carters 7 quarters and 2 bushels. For the balance sold, 12
quarters. And there remains 14 quarters and 1 strike. The same
render account of 6 and a half quarters from the whole produce of
beans. For planting in the garden half a quarter. For the balance
sold, 6 quarters. It is quit.

The same render account of 4 quarters and 1 strike from all the
produce of peas. For sowing 6 acres, 1 and a half quarters. For
the balance sold 2 and a half quarters and 1 strike. It is quit.
The same render account of 4 quarters from all the produce of
vetches [pea plants used for animal fodder]. For feeding pigs in
the winter, all. It is quit.

Beasts of Burden: The same render account of 104 oxen remaining
from the previous year. And of 2 yoked from useless animals. And
of 1 from the will of Robert Copp. And of 17 purchased. Sum: 124.
Of living ones sold, 12. Of dead, 21. Sum: 33. And there remain 91
oxen. The same render account of 2 goats remaining from the
previous year. All remain.

The same render account of 19 cows remaining from the previous
year. And of 7 yoked from useless animals, and of 1 found. Sum:
27. By death, 1. By killing, brought for the need of the lord
bishop at Cranbourne, 2. Sum: 3. And there remain 24 cows. The
same render account of 7 heifers and 2 steers remaining from the
previous year. In yoked cows, 7 heifers. In yoked oxen, 2 bulls.
Sum: 9.

The same render account of 12 yearlings remaining from the
previous year. By death, 1. There remain 11, of which 5 are
female, 6 male.

The same render account of 13 calves born this year from cows,
because the rest were sterile. In tithes, 1. There remain 12.
The same render account of 858 sheep remaining from the previous
year. And of 47 sheep for the payment of herbage, after birth, and
before clipping. And of 8 bought before birth. And of 137 young
ewes mixed with two-year-olds. Sum: 1050. In live ones sold at the
time of Martinmas, 46. In those dead before birth, 20. In those
dead after birth and before shearing, 12. Sum: 78. And there
remain 972 sheep.

The same render account of 584 wethers [castrated rams] remaining
from the previous year. And of 163 wethers mixed with two-year-
olds. And of 16 rams from Lindsey, which came by brother Walter
before shearing. Sum: 763. In living ones sold at the time of
Martinmas, 27 wethers, 10 rams. Paid to the men of Bishopton
before shearing by writ of the seneschal, 20. By death, before
shearing, 14. Sum: 71. And there remain 692 sheep.
The same render account of 322 old sheep remaining, with lambs
from the previous year. By death before shearing, 22. And there
remain 300; whence 137 are young ewes, mixed with sheep, and 163
males, mixed with wethers.

The same render account of 750 lambs born from sheep this year
because 20 were sterile, and 30 aborted. In payment of the smith,
2; of shepherds, 3. In tithes, 73. In those dead before shearing,
105. Sum: 181. And there remain 569 lambs.

The same render account of 1664 large sheep-skins whence 16 were
from the rams of Lindsey. In tithes, 164. In payment of three
shepherds, 3. In the balance sold 1497 skins with 16 skins from
Lindsey which made 11 pondera.

The same render account of 569 lamb skins. In the balance sold,
all, which made 1 and a half pondera.

The same render account of 138 cheeses from arrears of the
previous year. And of 19 small cheeses. And of 5 larger ones from
the arrears of the previous year. And of 273 cheeses which were
begun the 6th of April and finished on the feast of St. Michael,
both days being counted. And they made cheeses two by two for 96
days, viz. from the 27th April to the vigil of the feast of St.
Peter in Chains, both days being counted. Sum: 435 cheeses. In
tithes 27. In payment of a shepherd, and mowers of the meadow from
Nunton, 2. In duty of a carter, 3. In autumnal work, 10. In
expenses of the bishop in the kitchen, 2 by one tally. In the
balance sold, 133 cheeses, which made 10 heads, from arrears of
the previous year. In the balance sold, 177 cheeses, which made 18
heads in this year. In expenses of the lord king and lord bishop
on the feasts of St. Leonard and St. Martin, 19 small cheeses, and
5 larger ones from the arrears of the previous year. And there
remain 52 small cheeses which make one head.

The same render account of 124 hogs remaining from the previous
year. And of 29 that were born of sows. Sum: 153 pigs. In tithes,
2. By death, 9. In those killed for the larder, 83. Sum: 95 pigs.
And there remain 58 pigs. Also 19 suckling pigs. Sum of the whole:
77 pigs.

The same render account of 48 chickens from arrears of the
previous year. And of 258 chickens for cheriset. Sum: 306. In
expenses of the lord bishop on the feast of St. Martin, 36 by one
tally. In expenses of the same on the feast of St. Leonard, 106,
by one tally. In expenses of the lord king and bishop on the feast
of the Apostles Peter and Paul, 131 chickens, by two tallies. In
allowance for food for Roger Wakelin, 8. In allowance of food for
Master Robert Basset, 4. By death, 21. Sum: 306 chickens. It is
quit.

The same render account of 273 chickens, 27 sticae of eels, 4
suckling pigs, freed for the expenses of the lord king and bishop.
From the Larder: The same freed for the expenses of the lord
bishop meat of 2 cows taken to Cranbourne.

The same render account of 13 sides of bacon, arrears of the
previous year. And of 5 oxen and 1 quarter of old beef from
arrears of the previous year. And of 84 hogs from Downton. And of
71 hogs from Mardon. And of 10 hogs from Overton. And of 9 hogs
from High-Clere. And of 14 hogs from Harwell. And of 7 hogs from
Knoyle. Sum: 203 hogs, and meat of 5 oxen and one quarter. In
expenses of the lord bishop at the feast of St. Martin, 8 sides of
bacon. In expenses of the same at the feast of St. Leonard, 17
sides of bacon, the meat of 5 oxen, and 1 quarter of an ox. In
expenses of the same on the morrow of the feast of the Holy Cross,
delivered to Nicolas the cook, 27 sides of bacon. In expenses of
the lord bishop delivered to the same cook at Knoyle on the
Saturday before the feast of St. Michael, 15 sides of bacon. In
expenses of the same and of the lord king on the feast of the
Apostles Peter and Paul, 50 sides of bacon. In allowance of food
to Master Robert Basset on the feast of All Saints, half a side of
bacon. In allowance of food to the same on Wednesday and Thursday
before Pentecost, 1 side of bacon. In those sent to Knoyle for
autumnal work, 6 sides of bacon. In three autumnal festivals at
Downton, 9 and a half sides of bacon. Sum: 134 sides of bacon. And
there remain 74 sides of bacon.

The same render account of skins, sausages, and offal of the said
hogs. In expenses of the lord king and lord bishop at the feast of
St. Leonard, all. Nothing remains."

King Richard the Lion-hearted, unlike his father, was interested
in warfare. He spent most of his term on crusade to recover
Jerusalem. For his expenses, he imposed a tax of one-tenth of
rents and income from moveable goods. He also sold town charters,
heiresses and heirs, widows, sheriffdoms, justiceships, earldoms,
and licenses for tournaments. The crusades' contact with Arabs
brought to England arabic numerals, which greatly facilitated
arithmetic, Arab horses, and an expansion of trade. The church
decreed that those who went on these crusades would be remitted of
his sins.

At the end of this period was the reign of King John, a short man.
After his mother Eleanor's death in 1204, John ruled without her
influence. He had no conscience and his oaths were no good. He
trusted and was trusted by no one. He had a huge appetite for
money. He imposed 2,000 pounds [3,000 marks] on London for
confirmation of its charter. He imposed levies on the capital
value of all personal and moveable goods. It began the occasional
subsidies called "tenths and fifteenths" from all people on
incomes from movables: one-tenth from boroughs and royal demesne
land, and one-fifteenth elsewhere. He sold the wardships of minors
and the marriages of heiresses to the highest bidder, no matter
how base. He appointed unprincipled men to be both sheriff and
justice, enabling them to blackmail property holders with
vexatious writs and false accusations. Writs were withheld or sold
at exorbitant prices. Crushing penalties were imposed to increase
the profits of justice. He asserted over fowls of the air the same
exclusive right as over beasts of the forest. The story of Robin
Hood portrays John's attempt to gain the crown prematurely while
Richard was on the Crusades to recover Jerusalem for Christendom.
(In 1198, the bishop barons had refused to pay for a campaign of
Richard's war in Normandy arguing that military service was only
due within the kingdom of England. When Richard was captured,
every person in the realm was required to pay a part of his ransom
of 100,000 pounds, which was double the whole revenue of the
crown. Aids, tallages, and carucage were imposed. The heaviest
impost was one-fourth of revenue or of goods from every person.)
In 1213, strong northern barons refused a royal demand for service
in France or scutage, arguing that the amount was not within
custom or otherwise justified. John had private and public
enemies. No one trusted him and he trusted no one. His heavy-
handed and arbitrary rule quickly alienated all sectors of the
population: other barons, bishops, London, and the commons. They
joined the barons to pressure him to sign the Magna Carta
correcting his abuses. For instance, since John had extracted many
heavy fines from barons by personally adjudging them blameworthy
in disputes with others, the barons wanted judgment by their peers
under the established law of the courts. In arms, the barons
forced John to sign the Magna Carta correcting his abuses.



                              - The Law -

No one, including the lord of a manor, may take land from anyone
else, for instance, by the customary process of distress, without
a judgment from the Royal Court. This did not apply to London,
where a landlord leasing or renting land could take distress in
his fee.

No one, including the lord of a manor, shall deprive an heir of
the land possessed by his father, i.e. his birthright.

A tenant may marry off a daughter unless his lord shows some just
cause for refusing to consent to the marriage. A tenant had to pay
an "aid" to his lord when the lord's daughter married, when the
lord's son was knighted, or when the lord's person was ransomed.

A man [or woman] may not will away his land, but he may sell it
during his lifetime.

The land of a knight or other tenant of a military fee is
inherited by his eldest son. The socage land of a free sokeman
goes by its ancient custom before the Norman Conquest.

If a man purchased land after his marriage, his wife's dower is
still one-third of the land he had when they married, or less if
he had endowed her with less. But he could then enlarge her dower
to one-third of all of his lands. The same rule applied if the man
had no land, but endowed his wife with chattel or money instead.

Dower law prevented a woman from selling her dower during the life
of her husband. But he could sell it or give it away. On his
death, its possessor had to give the widow the equivalent worth of
the property.

A widower had all his wife's lands by curtesy of the nation for
his lifetime to the exclusion of her heirs.

The Capital Messuage [Chief Manor] could not be given in dower or
divided, but went in its entirety to its heir.

Heirs were firstly sons, then daughters, then grandsons per
stirpes, then granddaughters per stirpes, then brothers, and then
sisters of the decedent. [By taking "per stirpes" instead of "per
capita", a person's share goes to that person's heirs if that
person predeceases the ancestor-decedent.] Male heirs of land held
by military service or sons of knights who were under the age of
twenty-one were considered to be in custody of their lords. The
lord had wardship over the heir's land, excluding the third that
was the widow's dower for her life. He had to maintain the heir in
a manner suitable to his dignity and restore to him when he came
of age his inheritance in good condition discharged from debts.
Male heirs of sokemen who were under the age of fifteen were in
the custody of their nearest kindred. The son of a burgess came of
age when he could count money, measure cloth, and manage his
father's concerns.

Female heirs remained in the custody of their lords until they
married. The lord was bound to find a marriage for his ward when
she became fourteen years of age and then deliver her inheritance
to her. She could not marry without her lord's consent, because
her husband was expected to be the lord's ally and to do homage to
him. But if a female heir lost her virginity, her inheritance
escheated to her lord. A woman with property could not do homage
because she could not perform military service, but she generally
swore fealty. She could receive homage from men.

Bastards were not heirs, even if their father married their mother
after birth.

Any adult inheriting land had to pay a "relief" to the lord of the
land. For a knight's fee, this was 100s. For socage land, this was
one year's value. The amount for a barony depended upon the King's
pleasure.

Heirs (but not widows) were bound to pay the debts of their
fathers and ancestors. A man who married a woman who had inherited
land could not sell this land without the consent of its heirs.

When a man dies, his wife shall take one-third and his heirs shall
take one-third of his chattels [movables or personal property].
The other third he may dispose of by will. If he had no heirs and
no will [intestate], all his chattels would escheat to his lord.
Any distribution of chattels would take place after all the
decedent's debts were paid from the property.

A will required two witnesses. The testator could name an
executor, but if he did not, the next of kin was the executor. A
will could not be made by a man on his death bed because he may
well have lost his memory and reason. Also, he could not give to a
younger son if in so doing, he would deprive his lawful heir. But
he could give a marriage gift to a daughter regardless of the
lawful heir.

Usury was receiving back more than what was lent, such as interest
on a loan of money. When a usurer died, all his movables went to
the King.

A villein may not buy his own freedom (because all that he has is
his lord's), but may be set free by his lord or by someone else
who buys his freedom for him. He shall also be freed if the lord
seduced his wife, drew his blood, or refused to bail him either in
a civil or criminal action in which he was afterwards cleared. But
a freed villein did not have status to plead in court, even if he
had been knighted. If his free status were tried in court, only a
freeman who was a witness to his being set free could avail
himself of trial by combat to decide the issue. However, if the
villein remained peacefully in a privileged town a year and a day
and was received into its guild as a citizen, then he was freed
from villeinage in every way.

A freeman who married a villein lost his freedom. If any parent of
a child was a villein, then the child was also a villein.

All shipwrecked persons shall be treated with kindness and none of
their goods or merchandise shall be taken from them.

If one kills another on a vessel, he shall be fastened to the dead
body and thrown with it into the sea.

If one steals from another on a vessel, he shall be shaven, tarred
and feathered, and turned ashore at the first land.

Passage on the Thames River may not be obstructed by damming up
the river on each side leaving a narrow outlet to net fish. All
such weirs shall be removed.



                         - Judicial Procedure -

Henry II wanted all freemen to be equally protected by one system
of law and government. So he opened his court, the Royal Court, to
all people of free tenure. A court of five justices professionally
expert in the law, traveled with the King, and on points of
difficulty consulted with him. Justices began to be more than
presiding officers; they, instead of those attending, rendered the
judgments. The chief court was in Westminster, where the
weightiest decisions were made. Other professional itinerant
justices appeared periodically in all counties of the nation to
hear certain criminal and civil cases and to hear citizens'
private civil suits [common pleas]. They came to perform many
other tasks, including promulgating and enforcing new legislation,
seeking out encroachments on royal rights, reviewing the local
communities' and officials' performance of their public duties,
imposing penalties for failure to do them or for corruption,
gathering information about outlaws and non-performance of homage,
and assessing feudal escheats to the crown, wardships to which the
king was entitled, royal advowsons, feudal aids owed to the King,
tallages of the burgesses, and debts owed to the Jews. The
decision-making of itinerant justices on circuits begins the
process which makes the custom of the Royal Court the common law
of the nation. The county courts, where the travelling justices
heard all manner of business in the counties, adopted the
doctrines of the Royal Court, which then acquired an appellate
jurisdiction. The itinerant justices came from the same small
group of royal justices who were on the Royal Court and the
Exchequer, which was headed by the justiciar. Difficult cases were
decided by the king and wise men of his council.

Tenants of manors and of escheats in royal hands, who had been
excused from the monthly county court, were required to appear.
Side by side with the reeve and four men of the rural townships
appeared the twelve legal men of each of the chartered boroughs
which owed no suit to the ordinary county court. In the formation
of the jury of presentment for criminal cases, each hundred sent
twelve legal men and each township four to make report to the
justices. Women did not serve on juries. Compurgation was not
used; accused persons were sent directly to the ordeal. In 1194,
twelve knights or legal men from each hundred answer before any
itinerant justice for their hundred in all criminal, civil, and
fiscal cases. All who are bound to attend before the itinerant
justices are, in the forest counties, compelled to attend the
forest courts.

The Royal Court was chiefly concerned with 1) the due regulation
and supervision of the conduct of local government, 2) the
ownership and possession of land held by free tenure ("free
tenement" was decided by justices to be one held for life or one
held heritably [a fee]), 3) the repression of serious crime, and
4) the relations between the lay and the ecclesiastical courts.

The doctrine of tenure applied universally to the land law formed
the basis for judicial procedure in determining land rights. Those
who held lands "in fee" from the king in turn subinfeudated their
land to men of lesser rank. The concept of tenure covered the
earl, the knight (knight's service), the church (frank-almoin
[free alms]), the tenant who performed labor services, and the
tenant who paid a rent (socage). Other tenures were: serjeanty
[providing an implement of war or performing a nonmilitary office]
and burgage. All hold the land of some lord and ultimately of the
King.

Henry was determined to protect lawful seisin of land and issued
assizes giving the Royal Court authority to decide land law issues
which had not been given justice in the county or lord's court.
But he did not ordain that all litigation respecting free
tenements, e.g. right of seisin, should take place in the king's
court. Rather he gave protection to mere possession of land, which
could be justified because possession was intimately associated
with the maintenance of the king's peace. These assizes included
issues of novel disseisin [recent ejectment] of a person's free
tenement or of his common of pasture which belonged to his
freehold. Though the petty assize of disseisin only provided a
swift preliminary action to protect possession pending the lengthy
and involved grand assize on the issue of which party had the more
just claim or ultimate right of seisin, the latter action was only
infrequently invoked. The temptation of a strong man to seize a
neighbor's land to reap its profits for a long time until the
neighbor could prove and enforce his right was deterred. Any such
claim of recent dispossession [novel disseisin] had to be made
within three years of the disseisin.

An example of a writ of novel disseisin is: The king to the
sheriff, greeting. N has complained to me that R unjustly and
without a judgment has disseised him of his free tenement in
[Houndsditch] since my last voyage to Normandy. Therefore I
command you that, if N gives you security for prosecuting his
claim, you are to see that the chattels which were taken from the
tenement are restored to it, and that the tenement and the
chattels remain in peace until Sunday after Easter. And meanwhile
you are to see that the tenement is viewed by twelve free and
lawfulmen of the neighborhood, and their names endorsed on this
writ. And summon them by good summoners to be before me or my
justices on the Sunday after Easter, ready to make the
recognition. And summon R. or his bailiff if he himself cannot be
found, on the security of gage and reliable securities to be there
then to hear the recognition. And have there the summoners, and
this writ and the names of the sureties. Witness etc.

Then an assize panel of recognition summoned concurrently with the
defendant and before he had pleaded, viewed the land in question
and answered, from their knowledge, these questions of fact: 1)
Was the plaintiff disseised of the freehold in question, unjustly
and without judgment? 2) Did the defendant commit the disseisin?
Testimony of a warrantor (or an attorney sent by him in his place)
or a charter of warranty served to prove seisin by gift, sale, or
exchange. No pleadings were necessary and the action could proceed
and judgment given even without the presence of the defendant. The
justices amerced the losing party with a monetary penalty. A
successful plaintiff might be awarded damages to compensate for
the loss of revenue.

There was also a writ for issues of inheritance of land called
"mort d'ancestor". By law the tenure of a person who died seised
of a tenure in a lord's demesne which was hereditary [seisin of
fee] returned to the lord, who had to give it to the heir of the
decedent. If the lord refused and kept it for himself or gave it
to someone else, the heir could sue in the Royal Court, which used
an similar assize panel of twelve men to decide whether the
ancestor was seised as of fee in his demesne, if the plaintiff was
the nearest heir, and whether the ancestor had died, gone on a
crusade but not returned, or had become a monk. Then it could give
possession to the heir. Since about 1150, heiresses divided the
land of their father if there was no son. The widow, of course,
retained her dower rights. As of 1176, the widow held her dower
from the heir instead of from the husband's lord. If the heir was
a minor, the guardian lord would be in actual control of the land.
A national policy was implemented that in the case of the death of
a freeholder, the rights of the family, his will, and his debts
were to be provided for before relief was paid to his lord.

Eventually royal justices acquired authority to decide the
ultimate question of right to land using the grand assize as an
alternative to the traditional procedures which ended in trial by
combat. Issues of the ultimate right of seisin were brought to the
Royal Court by a contestant in a local court who "put himself [or
herself] upon the King's grand assize". The assize consisted of
twelve knights from the county or neighborhood who were elected by
four knights of the same county or neighborhood (selected by the
sheriff or the suitors) and who were known as truthful men and
were likely to possess knowledge of the facts, either from
personal seeing or hearing, or from statements which their fathers
had made to them from their personal knowledge. The avenue by
which a person who felt he had not had justice in the manor court
on his claim for certain freehold land appealed to the king was by
writ of right after the manor court's decision or by a writ
praecipe during the manor court's proceeding. An example of a writ
praecipe is: "The king to the sheriff greeting. Command [praecipe]
N. to render to R. justly and without delay one hide of land in a
certain vill, which the said R. complains that the aforesaid N. is
withholding from him. If he does not do so, summon him by good
summoners to be before me or my justices on the day after the
octaves of Easter, to show why he has not done so. And have the
summoners and this writ. Witness." When the parties appeared in
court, the claimant states his suit such as: "I claim against this
N. the fee of half a knight and two carucates of land in a certain
vill as my right and my inheritance, of which my father (or
grandfather) was seized in his demesne as of fee in the time of
King Henry the First, and from which he took the profits to the
value of five shillings at least, in grain and hay and other
profits; and this I am ready to prove by this freeman of mine, H.,
and if any evil befalls him them by this other man or by this
third man, who saw and heard it". Then the defendant chose to deny
the claim word for word with proof by combat or to put himself
upon the grand assize of the king. If he chose trial by combat,
the parties or their champions fought. The party losing, usually
by crying craven, had to pay a fine of 60s. If the grand assize
was chosen, the action was removed to the Royal Court. A writ of
grand assize was issued as follows: "The king to the sheriff,
greeting. Summon by good summoners the following twelve, namely,
A. B. ..., to be before me or my justices at a certain place on a
certain day, ready to declare on oath whether N. or R. has the
greater right in one hide of land (or other things claimed) which
the aforesaid R. claims against the aforesaid N., who is tenant,
and in respect of which the aforesaid N., who is tenant, has put
himself upon my assize and has sought a recogniton to determine
which of them has the greater right in the things claimed. And
meanwhile the twelve shall view the land (or tenements from which
the services are demanded). And summon by good summoners N., who
is tenant, to be there to hear the recogniton. Witness..." The
claimant could object to any of the twelve knights for just cause
as determined by the court. Each of the twelve gave an oath as to
whether the plaintiff's or the defendant's position was correct.
This oath was not to speak falsehood nor conceal truth according
to knowledge gained by eye-witness or "by the words of their
fathers and by such words as they are bound to have such
confidence in as if they were their own". If any did not know the
truth of the matter, others were found until twelve agreed [the
recognitors] on which party had the greater right. Perjury was
punished by forfeiture of all one's goods and chattels to the king
and at least one year's imprisonment. If the tenant in court
vouched another to warranty, such as the lord to whom he paid
homage, that warrantor would stand in his place in the
proceedings. If the warrantor lost, he would have to give to his
vassal equivalent land in exchange. Burgage tenure was not usually
decided by assize. Also, if the parties were relatives, neither
the assize nor the combat was available to them, but the matter
had to be decided by the law of inheritance.

Itinerant justices could conduct these assizes: petty and grand.
In 1198, the hundred is empowered to act on all the business of
the session, including all recognitions and petty assizes ordered
by the king's writ, where the property in dispute was worth no
more than 200s. [ten pounds] a year. The four knights came to be
selected by the suitors of the county court rather than by the
sheriff.

This assize procedure extended in time to all other types of civil
actions.

Also removable to the Royal Court from the county courts were
issues of a lord's claim to a person as his villein (combat not
available), service or relief due to a lord, dower rights, a
creditor's refusal to restore a gage [something given as security]
to a debtor who offered payment or a deposit, money due to a
lender, a seller, or a person to whom one had an obligation under
a charter, fish or harvest or cattle taken from lands unjustly
occupied, cattle taken from pasture, rights to enjoy a common, to
stop troubling someone's transport, to make restitution of land
wrongfully occupied, to make a lord's bailiff account to him for
the profits of the manor.

The Royal Court also decided disputes regarding baronies, nuisance
or encroachments on royal land or public ways or public waterways,
such as diverting waters from their right course and issues of
nuisance by the making or destroying of a ditch or the destruction
of a pond by a mill to the injury of a person's freehold. Other
pleas of the Crown were: insult to the royal dignity, treason,
breaches of safe-conducts, and injury to the King's servants.

Henry involved the Royal Court in many criminal issues, using the
agencies of the county and hundred courts. To detect crimes, he
required royal justices to routinely ask selected representatives:
knights or other landholders, of every neighborhood if any person
were suspected of any murder, robbery, theft, etc. A traveling
royal justice or a sheriff would then hold an inquest, in which
the representatives answered by oath what people were reputed to
have done certain crimes. They made such inquiries through assizes
of presentment, usually composed of twelve men from each hundred
and the four best men of each township. (These later evolved into
grand juries). These assizes were an ancient institution in many
parts of the country. They consisted of representatives of the
hundreds, usually knights, and villages who testified under oath
to all crimes committed in their neighborhood, and indicted those
they suspected as responsible and those harboring them. What
Henry's assize did was to insist upon the adoption of a standard
procedure everywhere systematically. The procedure was made more
regular instead of depending on crime waves. If indicted, the
suspected persons were then sent to the ordeal. There was no trial
by compurgation in the Royal Courts, which was abolished by Henry.
If determined guilty, he forfeited his chattels to the king and
his land reverted to his landlord. If he passed the ordeal but was
ill-famed in the community, he could be banished from the
community. The ordeal was abolished by the Lateran Council of
1215.

As before, a person could also be brought to trial by the
accusation of the person wronged. If the accused still denied the
charge after the accuser testified and the matter investigated by
inquiries and interrogation and then analyzed, trial by combat was
held, unless the accuser was over the age of sixty or maimed, in
which case the accused went to the ordeal.

If a man failed at the ordeal, the penalty prescribed by the
assize of Clarendon of 1166 was loss of a foot and abjuring the
realm. The assize of Northhampton of 1176 added loss of the right
hand. Under the former assize, a man who had a bad reputation had
to abjure the realm even if he had successfully undergone the
ordeal.

Criminal matters such as killing the king or sedition or betraying
the nation or the army, fraudulent concealment of treasure trove
[finding a hoard of coins which had been buried when danger
approached], breach of the King's peace, homicide, murder
(homicide for which there were no eye-witnesses), burning (a town,
house, men, animals or other chattel for hatred or revenge),
robbery, rape and falsifying (e.g. false charters or false
measures or false money) were punishable by death or loss of limb.
All murders were now punished alike because  the applicability of
the murdrum couldn't be determined since it was impossible to
prove that the slain man had been English.

Trespass was a serious and forcible breach of the peace onto land
that developed from the criminal law of felony. One found guilty
of it could be fined and imprisoned as well as amerced.

House-breaking, harboring outlaws, and interference with the royal
perquisites of shipwreck and the beasts of the sea which were
stranded on the coast [such as whales and sturgeon] were also
punishable in the Royal Court.

The Royal Court had grown substantially and was not always
presided over by the King. To avoid court agents from having too
much discretionary power, there was a systematic procedure for
bringing cases to the Royal Court. First, a plaintiff had to apply
to the King's Chancery for a standardized writ into which the
cause had to fit. The plaintiff had to pay a fee and provide a
surety that the plea was brought in good faith. The progress of
the suit was controlled at crucial points by precisely formulated
writs to the sheriff, instructing him for instance, to put the
disputed property under royal protection pending a decision, to
impanel an assize and have it view the property in advance of the
justices' arrival, to ascertain a point of fact material to the
plea, or to summon a 'warrantor' to support a claim by the
defendant.

The Royal Court kept a record on its cases on parchment kept
rolled up: its "rolls". The oldest roll of 1194 is almost
completely comprised of land cases.

Anyone could appoint an agent, an "attorney", to appear in court
on his behalf, it being assumed that the principal could not be
present and royal authorization given. A wife could represent her
husband. The principal was then bound by the actions of his agent.
Gradually men appeared who made a business of representing whoever
would employ them. The common law system became committed to the
"adversary system" with the parties struggling judicially against
each other.

The Royal Court took jurisdiction over issues of whether certain
land was civil or ecclesiastical [assize utrum], and therefore
whether the land owed services or payment to the Crown or not. It
also heard issues of disturbance of advowson, a complex of rights
to income from a church and to the selection of a parson for the
church [assize of darrein [last] presentment]. Many churches had
been built by a lord on his manor for his villeins. The lord had
then appointed a parson and provided for his upkeep out of the
income of the church. In later times, the lord's chosen parson was
formally appointed by the bishop. By the 1100s, many lords had
given their advowsons to abbeys. This procedure used twelve
recognitors selected by the sheriff.

As before, the land of any person who had been outlawed or
convicted of a felony escheated to his lord. His moveable goods
and chattels became the King's. If he was executed, his heirs
received nothing because they were of the same blood as the felon,
which was corrupt: "corruption of the blood". The loss of civil
rights and capacities after a sentence of death for felony or
treason, which resulted in forfeiture of property and corruption
of the blood, was called "attainder".

The manor court heard cases arising out of the unfree tenures of
the lord's vassals. It also heard distraint, also called
"distress", issues. Distraint was a landlord's method of forcing a
tenant to perform the services of his fief. To distrain by the
fief, a lord first obtained a judgment of his court. Otherwise, he
distrained only by goods and chattels without judgment of his
court. A distraint was merely a security to secure a person's
services, if he agreed he owed them, or his attendance in court,
if he did not agree that he owed them. Law and custom restricted
the type of goods and chattels distrainable, and the time and
manner of distraint. For instance, neither clothes, household
utensils, nor a riding horse was distrainable. The lord could not
use the chattels taken while they were in his custody. If cattle
in custody were not accessible to the tenant, the lord had to feed
them at his expense. The lord, if he were not the King, could not
sell the chattel. This court also determined inheritance and dower
issues.

The court of the vill enforced the village ordinances. The hundred
court met twice a month and dealt with the petty crimes of lowly
men in the neighborhood of a few vills. The county and borough
courts heard cases of felonies, accusations against freemen, tort,
and debts. The knights make the county courts work as legal and
administrative agencies of the Crown.

The peace of the sheriff still exists for his county. The King's
peace may still be specially given, but it will cease upon the
death of the King. Law required every good and lawful man to be
bound to follow the hue and cry when it was raised against an
offender who was fleeing. The village reeve was expected to lead
the chase to the boundary of the next jurisdiction, which would
then take the responsibility to catch the man.

Admiralty issues (since no assize could be summoned on the high
seas), and tenement issues of land held in frankalmoin ["free
alms" for the poor to relieve the king of this burden], where the
tenant was a cleric were heard in the ecclesiastical courts.

Before Henry's reign, the church, with the pope's backing, had
become more powerful and asserted more authority. Henry tried to
return to the concept of the king being appointed by God and as
the head of the church as well as of the state, as in Henry I's
time, and to include the church in his reform of the legal system,
which would make the spiritual jurisdiction and temporal
jurisdiction conform to a common justice. Toward this end, he
published the Constitutions of Clarendon. But the Archbishop of
Canterbury, Thomas Becket, refused to agree to them, although as
Chancellor he had seen the beneficial effects on the kingdom of
Henry's legal measures. The disagreement came to a head in Henry's
attempt to establish the principle of "one law to all" by having
church clerics punished by the civil courts as before, instead of
having "benefit of clergy" to be tried and punished only in
ecclesiastical courts, even for secular crimes. Clerics composed
about one-sixth the population. The church courts had
characteristically punished with spiritual penalties of a fine or
a penance, and at most defrocking. It could not impose a death
penalty, even for murder. When Archbishop Becket was murdered and
became a martyr, "benefit of clergy" became a standard right,
except for offenses in the king's forests. Appeals could be made
to the pope without the king's permission. The king could take a
criminal cleric's chattels, but not his life. However, though
theoretically bishops were elected by the body of bishops with the
approval of the king, as a practical matter, the king chose the
bishops and the abbots. It was a constant matter of dispute, in
which the pope would sometimes involve himself. Selection of
archbishops was also a frequent matter of contention between king
and pope.

The church copied the assize procedure developed by the Royal
Court to detect ecclesiastical offenses. Trial was still by
compurgation. Bishops could request the Chancery to imprison an
offender who had remained excommunicant for forty days, until he
made amends. Chancery complied as a matter of course. This went on
for six centuries.

The delineations of jurisdiction among these courts were confused
and there was much competing and overlapping of jurisdictions.
However, the court could appoint arbitrators or suggest to the
parties to compromise to avoid the harshness of a decisive
judgment which might drive the losing party to violent self-help.

The office of coroner was established about 1194 to supplement the
judicial investigations of crimes with local officers prior to the
arrival of the itinerant justices. Four knights who were residents
of the county and possessed sufficient land were elected by the
county court for life. Sometimes they had county and royal
connections instead. They received no pay. They determined if
sudden deaths were accidental or due to murder and the cause of
death of prisoners. They also held inquests on other crime such as
bodily injury, rape, and prison break. They attached [arrested]
the accused and evaluated and guarded his chattels until after the
trial. If the accused was found guilty, his possessions went to
the King. The coroner sat with the sheriff at every county court
and went with him on his turns. This office and the forbidding of
sheriffs to act as justices in their own counties reduced the
power of the sheriffs. The responsibility of receiving the oath of
the peace is changed from the sheriff to knights, the duty of the
sheriffs being only to receive and keep the criminals taken by
these knights until the justices came to try them.

Also, at this time, the constitution of the grand jury of the
county was defined. First, four knights were to be chosen in the
county court. These were to select on oath two knights from each
hundred. These two, also on oath, are to add by co-optation ten
more for the jury of the hundred.

In London, if one of two witnesses for the defence died while an
action was pending, the survivor, after offering his oath, could
proceed to the grave of the dead witness, and there offer oath as
to what the dead man would have sworn if he had been alive. If a
foreigner was bound to make oath for debt or any misdeed, he could
make it with six others, his own oath being the seventh; but if
could not find six supporters, he alone could make the oath and
take it in the six nearest churches.

In London, the method of capital punishment was being confined to
hanging, instead of also being in the form of beheading, burning,
drowning, stoning, or hurling from a rock. In cases of drowning,
the offender was first sewn up in a sack with a snake, a dog, an
ape, and a cock.

Chief Justiciar Ranulph Glanvill wrote a treatise on the writs
which could be brought in the Royal Court and the way they could
be used. It was a practical manual of procedure and of the law
administered in the Royal Court.

There are personal actions such as "debt" for specific chattel or
specific sum of money. This splits into two actions. The detinue
award is for the specific chattel or its value. The action of
"replevin" is available to the tenant to recover personal property
which had been wrongly distrained, usually cattle; the goods are
"repledged" pending action. Also, but rarely used, are "covenant"
to protect termors for leases of land for terms of years, and
"trepass": a semi-criminal action brought by a private party for
an offense punishable by death (or in the 1100s by mutilation)
such as murder, rape, robbery, or mayhem, that is done with force
of arms and against the peace of the king. The use of trespass
grew as private actions for felony were supplanted by public
indictment. It occasioned outlawry in default of appearance. These
personal actions were initiated in common law courts by their
respective writs.

These are some of the cases of novel disseisin brought to the
king's court:

Woodbridge v. Bardolf  (1194, king's court):
Ralf of Woodbridge seeks before the justices his free
tenement in Hebston by the assize of novel disseisin against
Hugh Bardolf. Against which assize Hugh said that he had
that seisin by judgment of his court for the default of the
same Ralf. And the court has recorded the summons and
distraints reasonably made on the same Ralf. And Ralf
himself has acknowledged the summons and distraints and said
that he ought not hold anything from him in that land;
rather, it is of another's fee. And because neither he nor
anyone for him has complained to the justices that Hugh
unjustly drew him into a plea concerning a tenement which
Ralf himself held of the fee of another lord, it is
considered that Hugh hold in peace. And let Ralf plead by
writ of right if he want and be in mercy for his false
claim.

Turroc v. fitz Walter (1194, king's court):
The assize came to recognize if Clement son of Walter
unjustly and without judgment disseised Matilda of Turroc of
her free tenement within the assize. Clement comes and says
that he disseised her by judgment of his court. The court is
present and records that she occupied more of her lord's
land than she had in dower by the sheriff and by order of
the lord king, so that she was summoned and distrained to
come in to court, and she so responded that she remained in
mercy of 10s. by judgment, so that for that amercement and
for other complaints she made fine with her lord for 1/2
mark [7s.] and put her land in pledge in his court and did
not want to render the 1/2 mark [7s.]. And therefore by
judgment of his court he seised it. Matilda denies all word
for word. And the same Clement only produces two men from
his court; and it is considered that it was no court.
Judgment: let Matilda have her seisin and let Clement be in
mercy for disseisin.

Fitz Hereward v. Prior of Lecton (1195, king's court):
The assize came to recognize if the prior of Lecton unjustly
and without judgment disseised Reginald son of Hereward and
Essolda his wife of his free tenement in Clapston after the
first coronation of the lord king. The prior says that the
assize ought not be taken thereof, because he seised that
land by judgment of his court for default of his service and
his rent, whereof he has his court present, which asserts
the same thing. It is considered that the prior replevy
[give back] to them their land and give them a day in his
court concerning the arrears of rents and services. And let
him treat them justly by judgment of his court.

Stanfeld v. Brewes (1199, king's court):
The assize comes to recognize if Simon of Brewes and Luke
cleric and Peter of Brewes unjustly and without a judgment
disseised Odo of Stanfeld and Juliana his wife of her free
tenement in Michehey within the assize. Simon says that the
assize ought not be taken thereof, because he took that land
into his hand by judgment of his court -- which he produced
and which attests to this -- for default of his service. And
it was testified that Odo holds that land from the same
Simon. Simon was ordered to replevy that land to Odo as well
as the chattels and to treat him rightfully in his court.

fitz William v. Amice et al. (1200, king's court):
The assize comes to recognize if Amice who was the wife of
Richard earl of Clare and Hugh of Ceriton, John of Cornherd,
William of Wattevill, Alexander son of Gilbert, Alexander
son of Matthew, Bartholomew son of Alexander, Robert of
Cornherd, and Geoffrey son of Leveric unjustly and without
judgment disseised Richard son of William of Sudbury of his
free tenement in Sudbury after the feast of St Michael next
before the coronation of the lord king. The countess says
that, when she was separated by papal order from the earl of
Clare her husband by reason of consanguinity, to which
husband the vill of Sudbury had been given with her as
marriage portion, she came to Sudbury and convoked her court
and made the same Richard to be summoned to come to show by
what warrant he held her land. He willingly entered into the
plea and vouched the earl of Clare her former husband to
warrant and at the day given him to have [his warrantor] he
did not have him. And thus by consideration of her court she
seised her land and holds it. Which court she produced and
which attests this. Richard comes and denies that he was
ever summoned or came into her court by summons or vouched
to warranty or so lost seisin by consideration of the court
of the countess. And this he offers [to prove]. It is
considered that he defend himself 12-handed that he did not
willingly enter into the plea and vouch to warranty. Let him
wage his law [prove by the 12-handed oath, thus, by
compurgation]. Pledges of the law: Hugh son of Hugh, Wido of
Sudbury. Day is given them at the quindene of St. John.

This is the suit of Richard of Sudbury: [there follow the
names, but only of 10 men] against the countess Amice who was
the countess of Clare, concerning whom he had complained
concerning a novel disseisin of his free tenement in Sudbury.
She said that by judgment of her court for default of warranty
which he had vouched did she make the [dis]seisin and thereof
did she produce suit. And he denied against her and against
the suit, and law was adjudged. And he comes with his law and
makes it with the abovesaid suit. Therefore it is considered
that he recover thereof his seisin; let the countess be in
mercy for unjust disseisin and also her men, of whom the same
Richard has complained. And let the same countess return to
him the damages done thereof by a jury of law-worthy men of
the vicinity. The names of the men of the countess are in the
writ.

A sample of crown pleas in several hundreds or wapentakes [Danish
name for a hundred] from 1201 to 1203 are:

1.  Denise, who was wife to Anthony, appeals Nicholas Kam of
    the death of Anthony, her husband, for that he wickedly slew
    her husband; and this she offers to prove against him under
    award of the court. And Nicholas defends all of it. It is
    considered that Denise's appeal is null, for in it she does
    not say that she saw the deed. The jurors being asked, say
    that they suspect him of it; the whole county likewise
    suspects him. Let him purge himself by water [ordeal] under
    the Assize. He has waged his law.

2.  William de Ros appeals Ailward Bere, Roger Bald, Robert
    Merchant, and Nicholas Parmenter, for that they came to his
    house and wickedly in the king's peace took away from him a
    certain villein of his whom he kept in chains because he
    wished to run away, and led him off, and in robbery carried
    away his wife's coffer with one mark of silver and other
    chattels; and this he offers to prove by his son, Robert de
    Ros, who saw it. And Ailward and the others have come and
    defended the felony, robbery, and breach of the king's
    peace, and say that (as the custom is in Cornwall) Roger of
    Prideaux, by the sheriff's orders, caused twelve men to come
    together and make oath about the said villein, whether he
    was the king's villein or William's and it was found that he
    was the king's villein, so the said Roger the serjeant
    demanded that [William] should surrender him, and he
    refused, so [Roger] sent to the sheriff, who then sent to
    deliver [the villein], who, however, had escaped and was not
    to be found, and William makes this appeal because he wishes
    to keep the chattels of Thomas [the villein], to wit, two
    oxen, one cow, one mare, two pigs, nine sheep, eleven goats.
    And that this is so the jurors testify. Judgment: William
    and Robert in mercy for the false claim. William's
    amercement, a half-mark. Robert's amercement, a half-mark.
    Pledge for the mark, Warin, Robert's son. Let the king have
    his chattels from William. Pledge for the chattels, Richard,
    Hervey's son.

3.  Serlo of Ennis-Caven appeals Osbert of Dimiliock and
    Jordan, Walter's son, for that they in the king's peace
    wickedly assaulted, beat and seriously wounded him, so that
    by reason of the beating three bones were extracted from his
    head; and this he offers to prove against him under the
    court's award as a man maimed by that mayhem. And it is
    testified by the coroners that the wounds when fresh were
    shown in the county [court], and that [the bones were
    broken] as aforesaid. And Osbert and Jordan come and defend
    word by word. It is considered that Osbert do purge himself
    by ordeal of iron on account of the appeal, for Serlo betook
    himself against Osbert in the first instance. And let Jordan
    be in custody until it be known how Osbert shall fare. And
    the other persons who are appealed as accessories are to be
    under pledge until [Osbert's fate] be known.

4.  The jurors say that they suspect William Fisman of the
    death of Agnes of Chilleu, for the day before he had
    threatened her body and goods. And the four neighboring
    townships being sworn, suspect him of it. It is considered
    that he purge himself by water under the Assize.

5.  William Burnell and Luke of the Well are suspected of the
    burglary at the house of Richard Palmer by the jurors of the
    hundred, and by the four neighboring townships, which are
    sworn. Let them purge themselves by water under the Assize.

6.  Malot Crawe appeals Robert, Godfrey's son, of rape. He
    comes and defends. It is testified that he thus raped her
    and that she was seen bleeding. By leave of the justices
    they made concord on the terms of his espousing her.

7.  Walter Wifin was burgled, and of his chattels taken from
    his house in the burglary certain boots were found in the
    house of Lefchild of Ranam, and the said Walter pursues
    those boots as his. And Lefchild said that he bought them in
    Bodmin market for 2 1/2 pence, but he knows not from whom.
    And besides Walter says that eleven ells of linen cloth,
    part of the stolen goods, were sold in Lefchild's house, and
    all the other proceeds of the burglary, and that Lefchild
    was the receiver of the burglars, namely, Robert of Hideford
    and Alan the Foresters, whom he [Walter] had appealed of the
    crime. And Lefchild defends. The jurors on being asked, say
    that they suspect Lefchild of the said receipt. So let him
    purge himself by water under the Assize.

8.  Eadmer of Penwithen appeals Martin, Robert and Thomas of
    Penwithen, for that Robert wounded him in the head so that
    twenty- eight pieces of bone were extracted, and meanwhile
    Martin and Thomas held him; and this he offers to deraign
    against the said Robert as a man thereby maimed, under the
    court's award. And Robert comes and defends all of it word
    by word. It is considered that he purge himself by ordeal of
    iron. Let the others be in custody until it be known how
    Robert shall fare. Afterwards Eadmer came and withdrew
    himself, and submitted to an amercement of one mark.
    Pledges, Reinfrid, Gill's son, and Philip his brother. Let
    the other appellees go quit.

9.  Reginald le Teinus accused of the receipt and fellowship
    of Robert the outlaw comes and defends. The jurors say that
    they suspect him, and the four neighboring townships say
    that they suspect him of it. So let him purge himself by
    water under the Assize. And there must be inquiry as to
    Richard Revel, who was sheriff when the said Robert escaped
    from his custody.

10. Osbert of Reterth appeals Odo Hay, for that he assaulted
    him as he was returning from Bodmin market, and in the
    king's peace and wickedly struck him on the hand with a
    stick, and afterwards struck him on the arm with his sword
    so that he is maimed; and this he offers to prove as a
    maimed man. And Odo defends it all. And that [Osbert] is
    maimed is testified by knights sent to see him. Judgment:
    let [Odo] purge himself by ordeal of iron because of this
    appeal.

11. Wulward of Wadebridge was burgled. And Odo Hay, Lawrence
    Smith, Osbert Mediciner, and Benet his son, William Miller,
    Robert of Frokemere, and Maud his sister, are suspected of
    the burglary by the jurors of the hundred and by the four
    nearest townships, which are sworn. Let the males purge
    themselves by water under the Assize, and Maud by ordeal of
    iron. Roger Morand fled for that burglary, and he was living
    in Bodmin, [which town is] therefore in mercy.

12. Robert, Godfrey's son, appeals Philip, William's son,
    for that he came on the land of [Robert's] lord Richard
    Fortescue, and wickedly and in the king's peace and in
    robbery took eight oxen and a mantle, cape, and sword, and
    carried them off; and this he offers to prove against him by
    his body under award of the court. And Philip comes and
    defends all of it word by word. It is considered that the
    appeal is null, for the oxen were not Robert's, but
    Richard's. The jurors being asked, say that [Philip] did no
    robbery to [Richard]. So Richard Fortescue is in mercy for a
    false appeal, and let Philip be quit.

13. Peter Burel appeals Anketil of Wingely, for that he
    wickedly in the king's peace assaulted him in the field
    where he was pasturing his oxen, and beat him, and gave him
    four wounds in the head, and in robbery took from him an axe
    and a sword; and this he offers to prove against him; but he
    shows no wound. And Anketil defends. And the county records
    that [Peter] first appealed Roger of Tregadec of the same
    robbery and of the same wounds. Therefore it is considered
    that the appeal is null, and let Peter be in mercy for a
    false appeal. His amercement, a half-mark; pledge for it,
    Ralph Giffard.

14. The jurors are in mercy for a silly presentment, for
    they presented an appeal which was made in the hundred
    [court] and which was not presented in the county [court].

15. Lucy of Morwinstow appeals Robert de Scaccis and Roland
    of Kellio and Peter of Lancarf of robbing her of twenty
    shillings and eight pence, and of a cloak, price a
    half-mark. And it is testified by the jurors that they did
    not rob her, and that she is a hireling, and that a man lay
    with her in a garden, and the boys hooted her, so that she
    left her cloak, and the boys took it and pawned it for two
    gallons of wine. It is considered that Robert do give her
    three pence in respect of the wine and do go quit. And
    Roland and Peter neither come nor essoin [present an excuse
    for nonappearance] themselves. And their pledges were
    Nicholas brother of Alfred of Bodmin and Herbert Reeve of
    Bodmin, who are therefore in mercy.

16. Osbert Church accused of the death of Roland, son of
    Reginald of Kennel, on the appeal of the said Reginald, was
    detained in gaol and defends word by word. And Reginald
    offers proof by the body of a certain freeman, Arkald, who
    has his [Reginald's] daughter to wife, who is to prove in
    his stead, since he has passed the age of sixty. Osbert
    Church defends all of it. The knights of the hundred of
    Penwith say that they suspect him of the said death. The
    knights of kerrier [hundred] say the same. The knights of
    Penwith [hundred] say the same. The knights of Pyder
    [hundred] say the same. Judgment: let him purge himself by
    water, and Reginald is in mercy, for he does not allege
    sight and hearing, and because he has withdrawn himself, and
    put another in his place, who neither saw nor heard and yet
    offered to prove it, and so let both Reginald and Arkald be
    in mercy. Osbert is purged by the water. Osbert's pledges:
    Henry Little, Henry of Penant, Ossulf Black, Roger of
    Trevithow, John of Glin, Ralph of Trelew.

17. Roger of Wick [was] appealed of the death of Brictmer by
    the appeal of Hawise, Brictmer's wife, and was captured in
    flight, as say John of Winielton and Ralph of Mertherin, but
    the flight is not testified by the hundred. Kerier [hundred]
    says the same. Penwith [hundred] says the same. So is
    considered that he purge himself by water. He is purged.
    Roger's pledges: Ralph of Trelew, Ogier of Kurnick, Richard,
    Simon's son, Alfred Malvoisin, Everwin of Lande, John of
    Kewerion, Warin of Tiwardeni, Baldwin Tirel, Roger of
    Trevithow, John of Glin, William of Dunham, Thomas, Osbert's
    son.

18. Richard, William's son, appealed Luke, Richard's son,
    and William, the servant of Alan Clerk, of robbery and of
    binding him. The appellees have not come nor essoined
    themselves. The county together with the wapentake says that
    they were appealed, not of the king's peace, but of the
    sheriff's peace, so that the suit was and is in the county
    [court], and therefore they were not attached to come before
    the justices. Therefore the jurors are in mercy for
    presenting what they ought not to have presented.

19. William, Hawise's son, appeals Richard, son of Robert of
    Somercotes, for that he came in the king's peace to his
    house at Somercotes, and broke his house and robbed him
    of...[an abrasion] shillings, and a cape and surcoat, and
    twenty-five fowls, and twenty shillings worth of corn
    [grain], and wounded him in the head with the wound that he
    shows; and this he offers to prove against him as the court
    shall consider etc. And Richard comes and defends the breach
    of the king's peace and the house-breaking, wounding and
    robbery, but confesses that he came to a certain house,
    which William asserts to be his [William's], as to his
    [Richard's] own proper house, which escheated into his hand
    on the death of Roger his villein, and there he took certain
    chattels which were his villein's and which on his villein's
    death were his [Richard's] own: to wit, five thraves of
    oats, thirteen sheaves of barley, and twenty-five fowls; and
    he offers the king twenty shillings for an inquest [to find]
    whether this be so or no. And William says that Richard says
    this unjustly, for the said Roger never had that house nor
    dwelt therein, nor were those chattels Roger's, but he
    [William] held that house as his own, and the chattels there
    seized were his. The jurors being questioned whether Roger
    did thus hold the house of Richard in villeinage, say, Yes.
    Also the coroners and the whole county testify that
    [William] never showed any wound until now; and the wound
    that he now shows is of recent date. Therefore it is
    considered that the appeal is null, and let Richard go quit,
    and William be in mercy for his false claim. Pledges for the
    amercement, Gilbert, Robert's son, and Richard, Haldeng's
    son.

20. Astin of Wispington appeals Simon of Edlington, for that
    he wickedly and in the king's peace assaulted him in his
    meadows and put out his eye, so that he is maimed of that
    eye; and this he offers to prove etc. Simon comes and
    defends all of it word by word. And the coroners and the
    county testify that hitherto the appeal has been duly sued,
    at first by [Astin's] wife, and then by [Astin himself].
    Judgment: let law be made, and let it be in the election of
    the appellee whether he or Astin shall carry the iron. He
    has chosen that Astin shall carry it. Astin has waged the
    law. Simon's pledges, William of Land and his frankpledge
    and Ralph of Stures. Astin's pledges, Roger Thorpe, Osgot of
    Wispington, and William, Joel's brother. Afterwards came
    [the appellor and appellee] and both put themselves in
    mercy.

21. Gilbert of Willingham appeals Gilbert, Geoffrey's son,
    for that he in the king's peace and wickedly set fire to his
    house and burned it, so that after the setting fire [the
    appellor] went forth and raised hue and cry so that his
    neighbors and the township of Willingham came thither, and
    he showed them [the appellee] in flight and therefore they
    pursued him with the cry; and this he offers etc. And the
    appellee defends all of it word by word etc. And the
    neighbors and the township of Willingham being questioned,
    say that they never saw him in flight, and that [the
    appellor] never showed him to them. Likewise the jurors say
    that in their belief he appeals him out of spite rather than
    for just cause. Therefore it is considered that the appeal
    is null, and the appellee is in mercy for a half-mark [7s.].
    Pledge for the amercement, Robert Walo.

22. William burel appeals Walter Morcock, for that he in the
    king's peace so struck and beat Margery, [William's] wife,
    that he killed the child in her womb, and besides this beat
    her and drew blood. And William of Manby, the beadle,
    testifies that he saw the wound while fresh and the blood in
    the wapentake [court]. And the serjeant of the riding and
    the coroners and the twelve knights testify that they never
    saw wound nor blood. And so it is considered that the appeal
    is null, for one part of the appeal being quashed, it is
    quashed altogether, and William Burel is in mercy. Let him
    be in custody. And William Manby is in mercy for false
    testimony. Pledges for William's amercement, Richard of
    Bilsby, Elias of Welton.

23. William Marshall fled for the death of Sigerid, Denis'
    mother, whereof Denis appeals him; and he was in the Prior
    of Sixhills' frank-pledge of Sixhills, which is in mercy,
    and his chattels were two cows and one bullock. Afterwards
    came the Prior of Sixhills and undertook to have William to
    right before the justices. And he came, and then Denis,
    Sigerid's son, came and appealed him of his mother's death.
    And it was testified that [Denis] had an elder brother, and
    that nine years are past since [Sigerid] died, and that she
    lived almost a year after she was wounded, and that Denis
    never appealed [William] before now. Therefore it is
    considered that the appeal is null and that Denis be in
    mercy. Pledge for the amercement, his father, Ralph, son of
    Denis.

24. Alice, wife of Geoffrey of Carlby, appealed William,
    Roger's son, and William his son and Roger his son of the
    death of William her brother. And Alice does not prosecute.
    Therefore let her be in mercy and let her be arrested. To
    judgment against the sheriff who did not imprison the said
    persons who were attached, whereas they are appealed of
    homicide, and to judgment also as to a writ which he ought
    to produce.

25. Hawise, Thurstan's daughter, appeals Walter of Croxby
    and William Miller of the death of her father and of a wound
    given to herself. And she has a husband, Robert Franchenay,
    who will not stir in the matter. Therefore it is considered
    that the appeal is null, for a woman has no appeal against
    anyone save for the death of her husband or for rape. And
    let Robert be in mercy on his wife's account, for a
    half-mark [7s.], and let the appellees be quit. Pledge for
    Robert's amercement, Richard Dean of Mareham, who has lay
    property. Wapentake of Aswardhurn.

26. Juliana of Creeton appeals Adam of Merle of battery and
    robbery. And Adam does not come, but essoins himself as
    being in the king's service beyond seas. And for that it is
    not allowed to anyone appealed of the king's peace to leave
    the land without a warrant before he has been before
    justices learned in the law, his pledges are in mercy: to
    wit, Segar of Arceles, Alan of Renington, and Robert of
    Searby. Adam himself is excused from the plea by the essoin
    that he has cast.

27. Thomas, Leofwin's son, appeals Alan Harvester, for that
    he in the king's peace assaulted him as he went on the
    highway, and with his force carried him into Alan's house,
    and struck him on the arm so that he broke a small bone of
    his arm, whereby he is maimed, and robbed him of his cape
    and his knife, and held him while Eimma, [Alan's] wife, cut
    off one of his testicles and Ralph Pilate the other, and
    when he was thus dismembered and ill- treated, the said Alan
    with his force carried him back into the road, whereupon as
    soon as might be he raised the cry, and the neighbors came
    to the cry, and saw him thus ill-treated, and then at once
    he sent to the king's serjeant, who came and found, so
    [Thomas] says, the robbed things in Alan's house and then as
    soon as might be [Thomas] went to the wapentake [court] and
    to the county [court] and showed all this. So inquiry is
    made of the king's sergeant, who testifies that he came to
    Alan's house and there found the knife and the testicles in
    a little cup, but found not the cape. Also the whole county
    testifies that [Thomas] never before now appealed Alan of
    breaking a bone. And so it is considered that the appeal is
    null, and that [Thomas] be in mercy, and that the other
    appellees be quit. Thomas also appeals Emma, Alan's wife,
    for that she in the peace aforesaid after he was placed in
    her lord's house cut off one of his testicles. He also
    appeals Ralph Pilate, for that he cut off the other of his
    testicles.

28. The twelve jurors presented in their verdict that
    Austin, Rumfar's son, appealed Ralph Gille of the death of
    his brother, so that [Ralph] fled, and that William,
    Rumfar's son, appealed Benet Carter of the same death, and
    Ranulf, Ralph's son, appealed Hugh of Hyckham of the same
    death and Baldwin of Elsham and Ralph Hoth and Colegrim as
    accessories. And the coroners by their rolls testify this
    also. But the county records otherwise, namely, that the
    said Ralph Gille, Benet, Hugh, Baldwin, Ralph [Hoth] and
    Gocegrim were all appealed by Ranulf, Ralph's son, and by no
    one else, so that four of them, to wit, Ralph Gille, Hugh,
    Benet and Colegrim, were outlawed at the suit of the said
    Ranulf, and that the said persons were not appealed by
    anyone other than the said Ranulf. And for that the county
    could not [be heard to] contradict the coroners and the said
    jurors who have said their say upon oath, it is considered
    etc. Thereupon the county forestalled the judgment and
    before judgment was pronounced made fine with 200 pounds
    [4,000s.][to be collected throughout the county], franchises
    excepted.

29. Hereward, William's son, appeals Walter, Hugh's son, for
    that he in the king's peace assaulted him and wounded him in
    the arm with an iron fork and gave him another wound in the
    head; and this he offers to prove by his body as the court
    shall consider. And Walter defends all of it by his body.
    And it is testified by the coroners and by the whole county
    that Hereward showed his wounds at the proper time and has
    made sufficient suit. Therefore it is considered that there
    be battle. Walter's pledges, Peter of Gosberton church, and
    Richard Hereward's son. Hereward's pledges, William his
    father and the Prior of Pinchbeck. Let them come armed in
    the quindene of St. Swithin at Leicester.

30. William Gering appeals William Cook of imprisonment, to
    wit, that he with his force in the king's peace and
    wickedly, while [Gering] was in the service of his lord Guy
    at the forge, took him and led him to Freiston to the house
    of William Longchamp, and there kept him in prison so that
    his lord could not get him replevied; and this he offers to
    prove as the court shall consider. And William Cook comes
    and defends the felony and imprisonment, but confesses that
    whereas he had sent his lord's servants to seize the beasts
    of the said Guy on account of a certain amercement which
    [Guy] had incurred in the court of [Cook's] lord
    [Longchamp], and which though often summoned he had refused
    to pay, [Gering] came and rescued the beasts that had been
    seized and wounded a servant of [Cook's] lord, who had been
    sent to seize them, whereupon [Cook] arrested [Gering] until
    he should find pledges to stand to right touching both the
    wounding and the rescue, and when [Gering's] lord [Guy] came
    for him, [Cook] offered to let him be replevied, but this
    [Guy] refused, and afterwards he repeated the offer before
    the king's serjeant, but even then it was refused, and then
    [Cook] let [Gering] go without taking security. And Guy says
    that he puts himself upon the wapentake, whether the
    imprisonment took place in manner aforesaid, and whether he
    [Guy] at once showed the matter to the king's serjeant, or
    no. And William Cook does the same. And the wapentake says
    that the alleged [imprisonment] took place in Lent, and Guy
    did not show the matter to the wapentake until a fortnight
    before St. Botulph's day. And the county together with the
    coroners says that they never heard the suit in their court.
    Therefore it is considered that the appeal is null, and Guy
    is in mercy. And let William and those who are appealed as
    accessories go quit.

31. The jurors say that Andrew, sureman's son, appealed
    Peter, Leofwin's son, Thomas Squire and William Oildene of
    robbery. And he does not prosecute. So he and Stephen
    Despine and Baldwin Long are in mercy, and the appellees go
    without day. Afterwards comes Andrew and says that [the
    appellees] imprisoned him by the order of William Malesoures
    in the said William's house, so that he sent to the sheriff
    that the sheriff might deliver him, whereupon the sheriff
    sent his serjeant and others thither, who on coming there
    found him imprisoned and delivered him and he produces
    witnesses, to wit, Nicholas Portehors and Hugh, Thurkill's
    son, who testify that they found him imprisoned, and he
    vouches the sheriff to warrant this. And the sheriff, on
    being questioned, says that in truth he sent thither four
    lawful men with the serjeant on a complaint made by Nicholas
    Portehors on Andrew's behalf. And those who were sent
    thither by the sheriff testify that they found him at
    liberty and disporting himself in William's house. Therefore
    it is considered that the appeal is null [and Andrew is in
    mercy] for his false complaint and Nicholas Portehors and
    Hugh, Thurkill's son, are in mercy for false testimony.
    Andrew and Hugh are to be in custody until they have found
    pledges [for their amercement].

32. The jurors say that Geoffrey Cardun has levied new
    customs other than he ought and other than have been usual,
    to wit, in taking from every cart crossing his land at
    Winwick with eels, one stick of eels, and from a cart with
    greenfish, one greenfish, and from a cart with salmon, half
    a salmon, and from a cart with herrings, five herrings,
    whereas he ought to take no custom for anything save for
    salt crossing his land, to wit, for a cart-load, one bole of
    salt, and in that case the salter ought to have a loaf in
    return for the salt, and also if the salter's cart breaks
    down, the salter's horses ought to have pasture on
    Geoffrey's land without challenge while he repairs his cart.
    And Geoffrey comes and confesses that he takes the said
    customs, and ought to take them, for he and his ancestors
    have taken them from the conquest of England, and he puts
    himself on the grand assize of our lord the king, and craves
    that a recognition be made whether he ought to take those
    customs or no. And afterwards he offers the king twenty
    shillings that this action may be put before Sir Geoffrey
    FitzPeter [the Justiciar]. Pledge for the twenty shillings,
    Richard of Hinton.

33. The jurors say that Hugh, son of Walter Priest, was
    outlawed for the death of Roger Rombald at the suit of
    Robert Rombald, and afterwards returned under the
    [protection of the] king's writ, and afterwards was outlawed
    for the same death on the appeal of Geoffrey, Thurstan's
    son. The county therefore is asked by what warrant they
    outlawed the same man twice for the same death, and says
    that of a truth in King Richard's time the said Hugh was
    outlawed at the suit of one Lucy, sister of the said Roger,
    so that for a long time afterwards he hid himself; and at
    length he came into the county [court] and produced letters
    of Sir Geoffrey FitzPeter in the form following: "G.
    FitzPeter etc. to the sheriff of Northamptonshire, greeting,
    Know thou that the king hath pardoned to Hugh, son of the
    priest of Grafton, his flight and the outlawry adjudged to
    him for the death of a certain slain man, and hath signified
    to us by his letters that we be aiding to the said Hugh in
    re-establishing the peace between him and the kinsfolk of
    the slain; wherefore we command thee that thou be aiding to
    the said Hugh in making the peace aforesaid, and do us to
    wit by thy letters under seal what thou hast done in this
    matter, since we are bound to signify the same to the king.
    In witness etc. by the king's writ from beyond seas." And
    the said letters being read in full county [court] the
    county told the said Hugh that he must find pledges that he
    would be in the king's peace, and he went away to find
    pledges, and afterwards did not appear. But the kinsfolk of
    the slain, having heard that Hugh had returned after his
    outlawry, came to the next county [court] and Robert Rombald
    produced Geoffrey, Thurstan's son, who said that if he saw
    the said Hugh he would sue against him the death of the said
    Roger, who was [his kinsman]. And the county showed him how
    Hugh had brought the Justiciar's letters pardoning him the
    flight and outlawry, and that he was to find pledges to
    stand to the king's peace, but had not returned. Whereupon
    the king's serjeant was ordered to seek Hugh and bring him
    to a later county [court]. And at a later county [court]
    Geoffrey offered himself against Hugh, and Hugh did not
    appear; whereupon the king's serjeant being questioned said
    that he had not found him, and the county advised [Geoffrey]
    to come to another county [court], because if in the
    meantime Hugh could be found, he would be brought to the
    county [court]. Then at the third county [court] the said
    Geoffrey offered himself, and it was testified by the
    serjeant that Hugh had not yet been found, wherefore the
    county said that as Hugh would not appear to the king's
    peace, he must bear the wolf's head as he had done before.
    To judgment against the coroners and the twelve jurors.

34. Robert of Herthale, arrested for having in self-defense
    slain Roger, Swein's son, who had slain five men in a fit of
    madness, is committed to the sheriff that he may be in
    custody as before, for the king must be consulted about this
    matter. The chattels of him who killed the five men were
    worth two shillings, for which Richard [the sheriff must
    account].

35. Sibil, Engelard's daughter, appeals Ralph of Sandford,
    for that he in the king's peace and wickedly and in breach
    of the peace given to her in the county [court] by the
    sheriff, came to the house of her lord [or husband] and
    broke her chests and carried off the chattels, and so
    treated her that he slew the child that was living in her
    womb. Afterwards she came and said that they had made a
    compromise and she withdrew herself, for they have agreed
    that Ralph shall satisfy her for the loss of the chattels
    upon the view and by the appraisement of lawful men; and
    Ralph has assented to this.

36. William Pipin slew William [or John] Guldeneman and
    fled. He had no chattels. Let him be exacted. And Hugh
    Fuller was taken for this death and put in gaol because the
    said John [or William] was slain in his house. And Hugh
    gives to the king his chattels which were taken with him,
    that he may have an inquest [to find] whether he be guilty
    thereof or no. The jurors say that he is not guilty, and so
    let him go quit thereof. And William Picot is in mercy for
    having sold Hugh's chattels before he was convicted of the
    death, and for having sold them at an undervalue, for he
    sold them, as he says, for three shillings, and the jurors
    say that they were worth seventeen shillings, for which
    William Picot and those who were his fellows ought to
    account. And William says that the chattels were sold by the
    advice of his fellows, and his fellows deny this.

37. Robert White slew Walter of Hugeford and fled. The
    jurors say that he was outlawed for the death, and the
    county and the coroners say that he was not outlawed,
    because no one sued against him. And because the jurors
    cannot [be heard to] contradict the county and the coroners,
    therefore they are in mercy, and let Robert be exacted. His
    chattels were [worth] fifteen shillings, for which R. of
    Ambresleigh, the sheriff, must account.

38. Elyas of Lilleshall fled to church for the death of a
    woman slain at Lilleshall. He had no chattels. He confessed
    the death and abjured the realm. Alice Crithecreche and Eva
    of Lilleshall and Aldith and Mabel, Geoffrey and Robert of
    Lilleshall, and Peter of Hopton were taken for the death of
    the said woman slain at Lilleshall. And Alice, at once after
    the death, fled to the county of Stafford with some of the
    chattels of the slain, so it is said, and was taken in that
    county and brought back into Shropshire and there, as the
    king's serjeant and many knights and lawful men of the
    county testify, in their presence she said, that at night
    she heard a tumult in the house of the slain; whereupon she
    came to the door and looked in, and saw through the middle
    of the doorway four men in the house, and they came out and
    caught her, and threatened to kill her unless she would
    conceal them; and so they gave her the pelf [booty] that she
    had. And when she came before the [itinerant] justices she
    denied all this. Therefore she has deserved death, but by
    way of dispensation [the sentence is mitigated, so] let her
    eyes be torn out. The others are not suspected, therefore
    let them be under pledges.

39. William, John's son, appeals Walter, son of Ralph Hose,
    for that when [William's] lord Guy of Shawbury and [William]
    had come from attending the pleas of our lord the king in
    the county court of Shropshire, there came five men in the
    forest of Haughmond and there in the king's peace and
    wickedly assaulted his lord Guy, and so that [Walter], who
    was the fourth among those five, wounded Guy and was
    accessory with the others in force as aid so that Guy his
    lord was killed, and after having wounded his lord he
    [Walter] came to William and held him so that he could not
    aid his lord; and this he offers to deraign [determine by
    personal combat] against him as the court shall consider.
    And Walter comes and defends all of it word by word as the
    court etc. It is considered that there be battle [combat]
    between them. The battle [combat] is waged. Day is given
    them, at Oxford on the morrow of the octave of All Saints,
    and then let them come armed. And Ralph [Walter's father]
    gives the king a half-mark that he may have the custody of
    his son, [for which sum] the pledges are John of Knighton
    and Reiner of Acton, and he is committed to the custody of
    Ralph Hose, Reiner of Acton, John of Knighton, Reginald of
    Leigh, Adam of Mcuklestone, William of Bromley, Stephen of
    Ackleton, Eudo of Mark.

40. Robert, son of Robert of Ferrers, appeals Ranulf of
    Tattesworth, for that he came into Robert's garden and
    wickedly and in the king's peace assaulted Robert's man
    Roger, and beat and wounded him so that his life was
    despaired of, and robbed him [Roger?] of a cloak, a sword, a
    bow and arrows: and the said Roger offers to prove this by
    his body as the court shall consider. And Ranulf comes and
    defends the whole of it, word by word, and offers the king
    one mark of silver that he may have an inquest of lawful
    knights [to say] whether he be guilty thereof or no. Also he
    says that Roger has never until now appealed him of this,
    and prays that this be allowed in his favor. [Ranulf's]
    offering is accepted. The jurors say that in truth there was
    some quarrel between Robert's gardener, Osmund, and some
    foot-boys, but Ranulf was not there, and they do not suspect
    him of any robbery or any tort done to Robert or to Osmund.
    Also the county records that the knights who on Robert's
    complaint were sent to view Osmund's wounds found him
    unwounded and found no one else complaining, and that Robert
    in his plaint spoke of Osmund his gardener and never of
    Roger, and that Roger never came to the county [court] to
    make this appeal. Therefore it is considered that Ranulf be
    quit, and Robert and Roger in mercy. Pledge for Ranulf's
    mark, Philip of Draycot. Pledges for the amercement, Henry
    of Hungerhill, and Richard Meverell. Pledge for Roger, the
    said Robert.

41. One L. is suspected by the jurors of being present when
    Reinild of Hemchurch was slain, and of having aided and
    counseled her death. And she defends. Therefore let her
    purge herself by the ordeal of iron; but as she is ill, the
    ordeal is respited until her recovery.

42. Andrew of Burwarton is suspected by the jurors of the
    death of one Hervey, for that he concealed himself because
    of that death. Therefore let him purge himself by ordeal of
    water.

43. Godith, formerly wife of Walter Palmer, appeals Richard
    of Stonall, for that he in the king's peace wickedly and by
    night with his force came to her house and bound her and her
    husband, and afterwards slew the said Walter her husband;
    and this she offers to prove against him as wife of the
    slain as the court shall consider. And he defends all of it.
    And the jurors and the whole neighborhood suspect him of
    that death. And so it is considered that he purge himself by
    ordeal of iron for he has elected to bear the iron.

44. The jurors of Oflow hundred say that the bailiffs of
    Tamworth have unjustly taken toll from the knights of
    Staffordshire, to wit, for their oxen and other beasts. And
    the men of Lichfield complain that likewise they have taken
    toll from them, more especially in Staffordshire. And the
    bailiffs deny that they take anything from the knights in
    Staffordshire. And for that they cannot [be heard to]
    contradict the jurors, the bailiffs are in mercy. As to the
    men of Lichfield, [the Tamworth bailiffs] say that they
    ought to have, and in King Henry's time had, toll of them,
    more especially of the merchants, as well in Staffordshire
    as in Warwickshire. And the burgesses of Lichfield offer the
    king a half-mark for an inquest by the county. And the
    county records that in King Henry's time the men of
    Lichfield did not pay toll in Staffordshire. Therefore the
    bailiffs are in mercy.





                         - - - Chapter 7 - - -



                        - The Times 1215-1272 -

Baron landholders' semi-fortified stone manor houses were improved
and extended. Many had been licensed to be embattled or
crenellated [wall indented at top with shooting spaces]. They were
usually quadrangular around a central courtyard. The central and
largest room was the hall, where people ate and slept. If the hall
was on the first floor, the fire might be at a hearth in the
middle of the floor. Sometimes the lord had his own chamber, with
a sleeping loft above it. Having a second floor necessitated a
fireplace in the wall so the smoke could go up two floors to the
roof. Other rooms each had a fireplace. Often the hall was on the
second floor and took up two stories. There was a fireplace on one
wall of the bottom story. There were small windows around the top
story and on the inside of the courtyard. Windows of large houses
were of opaque glass supplied by a glass-making craft. The glass
was thick, uneven, distorted, and greenish in color. The walls
were plastered. The floor was wood with some carpets. Roofs were
timbered with horizontal beams. Many roofs had tiles supplied by
the tile craft, which baked the tiles in kilns or over an open
fire. Because of the hazard of fire, the kitchen was often a
separate building, with a covered way connecting it to the hall.
It had one or two open fires in fireplaces, and ovens. Sometimes
there was a separate room for a dairy.

Furniture included heavy wood armchairs for the lord and lady,
stools, benches, trestle tables, chests, and cupboards. Outside
was an enclosed garden with cabbages, peas, beans, beetroots,
onions, garlic, leeks, lettuce, watercress, hops, herbs, nut trees
for oil, some flowers, and a fish pond and well. Bees were kept
for their honey.

Nobles, doctors, and attorneys wore tunics to the ankle and an
over-tunic almost as long, which was lined with fur and had long
sleeves. A hood was attached to it. A man's hair was short and
curled, with bangs on the forehead. The tunic of merchants and
middle class men reached to the calf. The laborer wore a tunic
that reached to the knee, cloth stockings, and shoes of heavy
felt, cloth, or perhaps leather. Ladies wore a full-length tunic
with moderate fullness in the skirt, and a low belt, and tight
sleeves. A lady's hair was concealed by a round hat tied on the
top of her head. Over her tunic, she wore a cloak. Monks and nuns
wore long black robes with hoods.

The barons now managed and developed their estates to be as
productive as possible, often using the successful management
techniques of church estates. They kept records of their fields,
tenants, and services owed by each tenant, and duties of the manor
officers, such as supervision of the ploughing and harrowing.
Annually, the manor's profit or loss for the year was calculated.
Most manors were self-supporting except that iron for tools and
horseshoes and salt for curing usually had to be obtained
elsewhere. Wine, tar, canvas and millstones were imports from
other countries and bought at fairs, as was fish, furs, spices,
and silks. Sheep were kept in such large numbers that they were
susceptible to a new disease "scab". Every great household was
bound to give alms.

As feudalism became less military and less rough, daughters were
permitted to inherit fiefs. It became customary to divide the
property of a deceased man without a son equally among his
daughters. Lords were receiving homage from all the daughters and
thereby acquiring marriage rights over all of them. Also, if a son
predeceased his father but left a child, that child would succeed
to the father's land in the same way that the deceased would have.

Manors averaged about ten miles distance between each other, the
land in between being unused and called "wasteland". Statutes
after a period of civil war proscribing the retaking of land
discouraged the enclosure of waste land.

Some villeins bought out their servitude by paying a substitute to
do his service or paying his lord a firm (from hence, the words
farm and farmer) sum to hire an agricultural laborer in his place.
This made it possible for a farm laborer to till one continuous
piece of land instead of scattered strips.

Looms were now mounted with two bars. Women did embroidery. The
clothing of most people was made at home, even sandals. The
village tanner and bootmaker supplied long pieces of soft leather
for more protection than sandals. Tanning mills replaced some hand
labor. The professional hunter of wolves, lynx, or otters supplied
head coverings. Every village had a smith and possibly a carpenter
for construction of ploughs and carts. The smith obtained coal
from coal fields for heating the metal he worked. Horse harnesses
were home-made from hair and hemp. There were water mills and/or
wind mills for grinding grain, for malt, and/or for fulling cloth.
The position of the sails of the wind mills was changed by manual
labor when the direction of the wind changed.

Most men wore a knife because of the prevalence of murder and
robbery. It was an every day event for a murderer to flee to
sanctuary in a church, which would then be surrounded by his
pursuers while the coroner was summoned. Usually, the fugitive
would confess, pay compensation, and agree to leave the nation
permanently.

It had been long customary for the groom to endow his bride in
public at the church door. This was to keep her and her children
if he died first. If dower was not specified, it was understood to
be one-third of all lands and tenements. From 1246, priests taught
that betrothal and consummation constituted irrevocable marriage.

County courts were the center of decision-making regarding
judicial, fiscal, military, and general administrative matters.
The writs for the conservation of the peace, directing the taking
of the oath, the pursuit of malefactors, and the observance of
watch and ward, were proclaimed in full county court; attachments
were made in obedience to them in the county court. The county
offices were: sheriff, coroner, escheator, and constable or
bailiff. There were 28 sheriffs for 38 counties. The sheriff was
usually a substantial landholder and a knight who had been
prominent in the local court. He usually had a castle in which he
kept persons he arrested. He no longer bought his office and
collected certain rents for himself, but was a salaried political
appointee of the King. He employed a deputy or undersheriff, who
was an attorney, and clerks. If there was civil commotion or
contempt of royal authority, the sheriff had power to raise a
posse of armed men to restore order [posse comitatus: power of the
county]. The coroner watched the interests of the crown and had
duties in sudden deaths, treasure trove, and shipwreck cases.
There were about five coroners per county and they served for a
number of years. They were chosen by the county court. The
escheator was appointed annually by the Treasurer to administer
the Crown's rights in feudal land, which until 1242 had been the
responsibility of the sheriff. He was usually chosen from the
local gentry. The constable and bailiff operated at the hundred
and parish level to detect crime and keep the peace. They assisted
sheriffs and Justices of the Peace, organized watches for
criminals and vagrants at the village level, and raised the hue
and cry along the highway and from village to village in pursuit
of offenders who had committed felony or robbery. The constables
also kept the royal castles; they recruited, fed, and commanded
the castle garrison.

County knights served sheriffs, coroners, escheators, and justices
on special royal commissions of gaol-delivery. They sat in
judgment in the county court at its monthly meetings, attended the
two great annual assemblies when the lord, knights and freeholders
of the county gathered to meet the itinerant justices who came
escorted by the sheriff and weapon bearers. They served on the
committees which reviewed the presentments of the hundreds and
village, and carried the record of the county court to Westminster
when summoned there by the kings' justices. They served on the
grand assize. As elected representatives of their fellow knights
of the county, they assessed any taxes due from each hundred.
Election might be by nomination by the sheriff from a fixed list,
by choice, or in rotation. They investigated and reported on local
abuses and grievances. The King's justices and council often
called on them to answer questions put to them on oath. In the
villages, humbler freeholders and sokemen were elected to assess
the village taxes. Six villeins answered for the village's
offenses before the royal itinerant justice.

Reading and writing in the English language was taught. The use of
English ceased to be a mark of vulgarity. In 1258 the first
governmental document was issued in English as well as in Latin
and French. Latin started falling into disuse. Boys of noblemen
were taught reading, writing, Latin, a musical instrument,
athletics, riding, and gentlemanly conduct. Girls were taught
reading, writing, music, dancing, and perhaps household nursing
and first aid, spinning, embroidery, and gardening. Girls of high
social position were also taught riding and hawking. Grammar
schools taught, in Latin, grammar, dialectic (ascertaining word
meaning by looking at its origin, its sound (e.g. soft or harsh),
its power (e.g. robust and strong sound), its inflection, and its
order; and avoiding obscurity and ambiguity in statements), and
rhetoric [art of public speaking, oratory, and debate]. The
teacher possessed the only complete copy of the Latin text, and
most of the school work was done orally. Though books were few and
precious, the students read several Latin works. Girls and boys of
high social position usually had private teachers for grammar
school, while boys of lower classes were sponsored at grammar
schools such as those at Oxford. Discipline was maintained by the
birch or rod.

There was no examination for admission as an undergraduate to
Oxford, but a knowledge of Latin with some skill in speaking Latin
was a necessary background. The students came from all
backgrounds. Some had their expenses paid by their parents, while
others had the patronage of a churchman, a religious house, or a
wealthy layman. They studied the "liberal arts", which derived its
name from "liber" or free, because they were for the free men of
Rome rather than for the economic purposes of those who had to
work. The works of Greek authors such as Aristotle were now
available; the European monk Thomas Aquinas had edited Aristotle's
works to reconcile them to church doctrine. He opined that man's
intellectual use of reason did not conflict with the religious
belief that revelation came only from God, because reason was
given to man by God. He shared Aristotle's belief that the earth
was a sphere, and that the celestial bodies moved around it in
perfect circles. Latin learning had already been absorbed without
detriment to the church.

A student at Oxford would become a master after graduating from a
seven year course of study of the seven liberal arts: [grammar,
rhetoric (the source of law), Aristotelian logic (which
differentiates the true from the false), arithmetic, including
fractions and ratios, (the foundation of order), geometry,
including methods of finding the length of lines, the area of
surfaces, and the volume of solids, (the science of measurement),
astronomy (the most noble of the sciences because it is connected
with divinity and theology), music and also Aristotle's philosophy
of physics, metaphysics, and ethics; and then lecturing and
leading disputations for two years. He also had to write a thesis
on some chosen subject and defend it against the faculty. A
Master's degree gave one the right to teach. Further study for
four years led to a doctorate in one of the professions: theology
and canon or civil law.

There were about 1,500 students in Oxford. They drank, played
dice, quarreled a lot and begged at street corners. There were mob
fights between students from the north and students from the south
and between students and townsmen. But when the mayor of Oxford
hanged two students accused of being involved in the killing of a
townswoman, many masters and students left for Cambridge. In 1214,
a charter created the office of Chancellor of the university at
Oxford. He was responsible for law and order and, through his
court, could fine, imprison, and excommunicate offenders and expel
undesirables such as prostitutes from the town. He had authority
over all crimes involving scholars, except murder and mayhem. The
Chancellor summoned and presided over meetings of the masters and
came to be elected by indirect vote by the masters who had
schools, usually no more than a room or hall with a central hearth
which was hired for lectures. Students paid for meals there.
Corners of the room were often partitioned off for private study.
At night, some students slept on the straw on the floor. Six hours
of sleep were considered sufficient. In 1231, the king ordered
that every student must have his name on the roll of a master and
the masters had to keep a list of those attending his lectures.

In 1221 the friars established their chief school at Oxford. They
were bound by oaths of poverty, obedience, and chastity, but were
not confined within the walls of a monastery. They walked barefoot
from place to lace preaching. They begged for their food and
lodgings. They replaced monks, who had become self-indulgent, as
the most vital spiritual force among the people.

The first college was founded in 1264 by Walter de Merton, former
Chancellor to the King, at Oxford. A college had the living
arrangements of a Hall, with the addition of monastic-type rules.
A warden and about 30 scholars lived and ate meals together in the
college buildings. Merton College's founding documents provided
that: "The house shall be called the House of the Scholars of
Merton, and it shall be the residence of the Scholars forever. . .
There shall be a constant succession of scholars devoted to the
study of letters, who shall be bound to employ themselves in the
study of Arts or Philosophy, the Canons or Theology. Let there
also be one member of the collegiate body, who shall be a
grammarian, and must entirely devote himself to the study of
grammar; let him have the care of the students in grammar, and to
him also let the more advanced have recourse without a blush, when
doubts arise in their faculty. . . There is to be one person in
every chamber, where Scholars are resident, of more mature age
than the others, who is to make his report of their morals and
advancement in learning to the Warden. . . The Scholars who are
appointed to the duty of studying in the House are to have a
common table, and a dress as nearly alike as possible. . . The
members of the College must all be present together, as far as
their leisure serves, at the canonical hours and celebration of
masses on holy and other days. . . The Scholars are to have a
reader at meals, and in eating together they are to observe
silence, and to listen to what is read. In their chambers, they
must abstain from noise and interruption of their fellows; and
when they speak they must use the Latin language. . . A Scrutiny
shall be held in the House by the Warden and the Seniors, and all
the Scholars there present, three times a year; a diligent enquiry
is to be instituted into the life, conduct, morals, and progress
in learning, of each and all; and what requires correction then is
to be corrected, and excesses are to be visited with condign
punishment. . ."

Educated men (and those of the 1200s through the 1500s), believed
that the earth was the center of the universe and that it was
surrounded by a giant spherical dome on which the stars were
placed. The sun and moon and planets were each on a sphere around
the earth that was responsible for their movements. The origin of
the word "planet" meant "wanderer" because the motion of the
planets were variable in direction and speed. Astrology explained
how the position of the stars and planets influenced man and other
earthly things. For instance, the position of the stars at a
person's birth determined his character. The angle and therefore
potency of the sun's rays influenced climate, temperament, and
changes of mortal life such as disease and revolutions. Unusual
events such as the proximity of two planets, a comet, an eclipse,
a meteor, or a nova were of great significance. A star often was
thought to presage the birth of a great man or a hero. There was a
propitious time to have a marriage, go on a journey, make war, and
take herbal medicine or be bled by leeches, the latter of which
was accompanied by religious ceremony. Cure was by God, with
medical practitioners only relieving suffering. But there were
medical interventions such as pressure and binding were applied to
bleeding. Arrow and sword wounds to the skin or to any protruding
intestine were washed with warm water and sewn up with needle and
silk thread. Ribs were spread apart by a wedge to remove arrow
heads. Fractured bones were splinted or encased in plaster.
Dislocations were remedied. Hernias were trussed. Bladder stones
blocking urination were pushed back into the bladder or removed
through an artificial opening in the bladder. Surgery was
performed by butchers, blacksmiths, and barbers.

Roger Bacon, an Oxford master, began the science of physics. He
read Arab writers and studied the radiation of light and heat. He
studied angles of reflection in plane, spherical, cylindrical, and
conical mirrors, in both their concave and convex aspects. He did
experiments in refraction in different media, e.g. air, water, and
glass, and knew that the human cornea refracted light and that the
human eye lens was doubly convex. He comprehended the magnifying
power of convex lenses and conceptualized the combination of
lenses which would increase the power of vision by magnification.
He realized that rays of light pass so much faster than those of
sound or smell that the time is imperceptible to humans. He knew
that rays of heat and sound penetrate all matter without our
awareness and that opaque bodies offered resistance to passage of
light rays. He knew the power of parabolic concave mirrors to
cause parallel rays to converge after reflection to a focus and
knew that a mirror could be produced that would induce combustion
at a fixed distance. These insights made it possible for jewellers
and weavers to use lenses to view their work instead of glass
globes full of water, which distorted all but the center of the
image: "spherical aberration". The lens, whose opposite surfaces
were sections of spheres, took the place of the the central parts
of the globe over the image.

He knew about magnetic poles attracting if different and repelling
if the same and the relation of magnets' poles to those of the
heavens and earth. He calculated the circumference of the world
and the latitude and longitude of terrestrial positions. He
foresaw sailing around the world.

Bacon began the science of chemistry when he took the empirical
knowledge as to a few metals and their oxides and some of the
principal alkalis, acids, and salts to the abstract level of
metals as compound bodies the elements of which might be separated
and recomposed and changed among the states of solid, liquid, and
gas. When he studied man's physical nature, health, and disease,
he opined that the usefulness of a talisman was not to bring about
a physical change, but to bring the patient into a frame of mind
more conducive to physical healing. He urged that there be
experiments in chemistry to develop medicinal drugs.

He studied different kinds of plants and the differences between
arable land, forest land, pasture land, and garden land.

He studied the planetary motions and astronomical tables to
forecast future events. He did calculations on days in a month and
days in a year which later contributed to the legal definition of
a leap year.

Bacon was an extreme proponent of the inductive method of finding
truths, e.g. by categorizing all available facts on a certain
subject to ascertain the natural laws governing it. His
contribution to the development of science was abstracting the
method of experiment from the concrete problem to see its bearing
and importance as a universal method of research. He advocated
changing education to include studies of the natural world using
observation, exact measurement, and experiments.

His explanation of a rainbow as a result of natural laws was
contrary to theological opinion that a rainbow was placed in the
heavens to assure mankind that there was not to be another
universal deluge.

The making and selling of goods diverged e.g. as the cloth
merchant severed from the tailor and the leather merchant severed
from the butcher. These craftsmen formed themselves into guilds,
which sought charters to require all craftsmen to belong to the
guild of their craft, to have legal control of the craft work, and
be able to expel any craftsman for disobedience. These guilds were
composed of master craftsmen, their journeymen, and apprentices.
These guilds determined the wages and working conditions of the
craftsmen and petitioned the borough authorities for ordinances
restraining trade, for instance by controlling the admission of
outsiders to the craft, preventing foreigners from selling in the
town except at fairs, limiting purchases of raw materials to
suppliers within the town, forbidding night work, restricting the
number of apprentices to each master craftsmen, and requiring a
minimum number of years for apprenticeships. In return, these
guilds assured quality control. In some boroughs, they did work
for the town, such as maintaining certain defensive towers or
walls of the town near their respective wards. In some boroughs,
fines for infractions of these regulations were split between the
guild and the government.

In some towns, the merchant guilds attempted to directly regulate
the craft guilds. Crafts fought each other. There was a street
battle with much bloodshed between the goldsmiths and the
parmenters and between the tailors and the cordwainers in 1267 in
London. There was also a major fight between the goldsmiths and
the tailors in 1268. The Parish Clerks' Company was chartered in
1233.

The citizens of London had a common seal for the city. London
merchants traveled throughout the nation with goods to sell exempt
from tolls. Most of the London aldermen were woolmongers,
vintners, skinners, and grocers by turns or carried on all these
branches of commerce at once. Jews were allowed to make loans with
interest up to 2d. a week for 20s. lent. There are three inns in
London. Inns typically had narrow facades, large courtyards,
lodging and refreshment for the well-off, warehousing and
marketing facilities for merchants, and stabling and repairs for
wagons. Care-giving infirmaries such as "Bethlehem Hospital" were
established in London. One was a lunatic infirmary founded by the
sheriff of London. Only tiles were used for roofing in London,
because wood shingles were fire hazards and fires in London had
been frequent. Some areas near London are disclaimed by the king
to be royal forest land, so all citizens could hunt there and till
their land there without interference by the royal foresters. The
Sheriff's court in London lost its old importance and handled
mainly trespass and debt cases, while important cases went to the
Hustings, which was presided over by the Mayor with the sheriffs
and aldermen in attendance. From the early 1200s, the Mayor's
Court took on the work which the weekly Husting could not manage.
This consisted mostly of assault and robbery cases. Murder and
manslaughter cases were left to the royal courts.

London aldermen were elected by the citizens of their respective
wards in ward moots, in which was also arranged the watch,
protection against fire, and probably also assessment of the taxes
within the ward. There was much effort by the commoners to
influence the governance of the city. In 1261 they forced their
way into the town-moot and by this brute show of strength, which
threatened riot, they made their own candidate mayor. Subsequent
elections were tumultuous.

The Tower of London now had outer walls of fortress buildings
surrounded by a wide and deep moat, over which was one stone
causeway and wooden drawbridge. Within this was an inner curtain
wall with twelve towers and an inner moat. The palace within was a
principal residence of English monarchs, whose retinue was
extensive, including the chief officers of state: Lord High
Steward, Lord High Chancellor, Lord High Treasurer, Lord Great
Chamberlain, Lord High Constable, Keeper of the Seals, and the
King's Marshall; lesser officials such as the Chamberlain of the
Candles, Keeper of the Tents, Master Steward of the Larder, Usher
of the Spithouse, Marshall of the Trumpets, Keeper of the Books,
Keeper of the Dishes and of the Cups, and Steward of the Buttery;
and numbers of cat hunters, wolf catchers, clerks and limners,
carters, water carriers, washerwomen and laundresses, chaplains,
lawyers, archers, huntsmen, hornblowers, barbers, minstrels,
guards and servitors, and bakers and confectioners. The fortress
also contained a garrison, armory, chapels, stables, forge,
wardrobe for a tailor's workroom and secure storage of valuable
clothes, silver plate, and expensive imports such as sugar, rice,
almonds, dried fruits, cinnamon, saffron, ginger, galingale,
zedoary, pepper, nutmeg, and mace. There was a kitchen with
courtyard for cattle, poultry, and pigs; dairy, pigeon loft,
brewery, beehives, fruit stores, gardens for vegetables and herbs;
and sheds for gardeners. There was also a mint, which minted a
gold penny worth 2s. of silver, a jewel house, and a menagerie
(with leopards, lions, a bear, and an elephant). The fortress also
served as a state prison. Most prisoners there had opposed the
royal will; they were usually permitted to live in quarters in the
same style they were used to, including servants and visits by
family and friends. But occasionally prisoners were confined in
irons in dark and damp dungeons.

The King's family, immediate circle, and most distinguished guests
dined elegantly in the Great Hall at mid-day. They would first
wash their hands in hot water poured by servants over bowls. The
table had silver plate, silver spoons, and cups of horn, crystal,
maple wood, or silver laid on a white cloth. Each guest brought
his own knife in a leather sheath attached to a belt or girdle. A
procession of servitors brought the many dishes to which the
gentlemen helped the ladies and the young their seniors by placing
the food in scooped-out half loaves of bread that were afterwards
distributed to the poor. A wine cup was handed around the table.
In the winter after dinner, there would often be games of chess or
dice or songs of minstrels, and sometimes dancing, juggler or
acrobat displays, or story-telling by a minstrel. In the summer
there were outdoor games and tournaments. Hunting with hounds or
hawks was popular with both ladies and gentlemen. The King would
go to bed on a feather mattress with fur coverlet that was
surrounded by linen hangings. His grooms would sleep on trundle
beds in the same room. The queen likewise shared her bedchamber
with several of her ladies sleeping on trundle beds. Breakfast was
comprised of a piece of bread and a cup of wine taken after the
daily morning mass in one of the chapels. Sometimes a round and
deep tub was brought into the bedchamber by servants who poured
hot water onto the bather in the tub. Baths were often taken in
the times of Henry III, who believed in cleanliness and
sanitation. Henry III was also noted for his luxurious tastes. He
had a linen table cloth, goblets of mounted cocoa-nut, a glass cup
set in crystal, and silk and velvet mattresses, cushions, and
bolster. He had many rooms painted with gold stars, green and red
lions, and painted flowers. To his sister on her marriage, he gave
goldsmith's work, a chess table, chessmen in an ivory box, silver
pans and cooking vessels, robes of cloth of gold, embroidered
robes, robes of scarlet, blue, and green fine linen, Genoese cloth
of gold, two napkins, and thirteen towels.

In the King's 1235 grant to Oxford, the Mayor and good men were
authorized to take weekly for three years 1/2 d. on every cart
entering the town loaded with goods, if it was from the county, or
1d. if it came from outside the county; 1/4 d. for every horse
load, except for brushwood; 1/2 d. on every horse, mare, ox, or
cow brought to sell; and 1/2 d. for every five sheep, goats, or
pigs.

English ships had one mast with a square sail. The hulls were made
of planks overlapping each other. There was a high fore castle
[tower] on the bow, a top castle on the mast, and a high stern
castle from which to shoot arrows down on other ships. There were
no rowing oars, but steering was still by an oar on the starboard
side of the ship. The usual carrying capacity was 30 tuns [big
casks of wine each with about 250 gallons]. On the coasts there
were lights and beacons. Harbors at river mouths were kept from
silting up. Ships were loaded from piers. The construction of
London Bridge had just been finished. Bricks began to be imported
for building. About 10% of the population lived in towns.

Churches had stained glass windows.

Newcastle-on-Tyne received these new rights:

1.  And that they shall justly have their lands and tenures
    and mortgages and debts, whoever owes them to them.

2.  Concerning their lands and tenures within the town,
    right shall be done to them according to the custom of the
    city Winton.

3.  And of all their debts which are lent in
    Newcastle-on-Tyne and of mortgages there made, pleas shall
    be held at Newcastle-on-Tyne.

4.  None of them shall plead outside the walls of the City of
    Newcastle-on-Tyne on any plea, except pleas of tenures
    outside the city and except the minters and my ministers.

5.  That none of them be distrained by any without the said
    city for the repayment of any debt to any person for which
    he is not capital debtor or surety.

6.  That the burgesses shall be quit of toll and lastage
    [duty on a ship's cargo] and pontage [tax for repairing
    bridges] and have passage back and forth.

7.  Moreover, for the improvement of the city, I have granted
    them that they shall be quit of year's gift and of scotale
    [pressure to buy ale at the sheriff's tavern], so that my
    sheriff of Newcastle- on-Tyne or any other minister shall
    not make a scotale.

8.  And whosoever shall seek that city with his merchandise,
    whether foreigners or others, of whatever place they may be,
    they may come sojourn and depart in my safe peace, on paying
    the due customs and debts, and any impediment to these
    rights is prohibited.

9.  We have granted them also a merchant guild.

10. And that none of them [in the merchant guild] shall
    fight by combat.

The king no longer lives on his own from income from his own
lands, but takes money from the treasury. A tax of a percentage of
1/15th of personal property was levied in 1225 for a war, in
return for which the king signed the Magna Carta. It was to be
paid by all tenants-in-chief, men of the royal domain, burgesses
of the boroughs and cities, clerical tenants-in-chief, and
religious houses. The percentage tax came to be used frequently
and ranged from about 1/40th to 1/5th. In 1294, this tax was
bifurcated into one percentage amount for the rural districts and
a higher one for urban districts, because the burgesses had
greater wealth and much of it was hard to uncover because it was
in the possession of customers and debtors. It was usually 1/10th
for towns and royal domains and 1/15th in the country. This amount
of money collected by this tax increased with the wealth of the
country.

The king takes custody of lands of lunatics and idiots, as well as
escheats of land falling by descent to aliens. Henry III took 20s.
from his tenants-in-chief for the marriage of his daughter, and
two pounds for the knighting of his son.

By 1250, the king was hiring soldiers at 2s. per day for knights,
and 9d. a day for less heavily armed soldiers, and 6d. a day for
cross-bowmen. Some castle-guard was done by watchmen hired at 2d.
a day. Ships were impressed when needed. Sometimes private ships
were authorized to ravage the French coasts and take what spoil
they could.

While King Henry III was underage, there was much controversy as
to who should be his ministers of state, such as justiciar,
chancellor, and treasurer. This led to the concept that they
should not be chosen by the king alone. After he came of age,
elected men from the baronage fought to have meetings and his
small council in several conferences called great councils or
parliaments (from French "to speak the mind") to discuss the
levying of taxes and the solution of difficult legal cases, the
implementation of the Magna Carta, the appointment of the king's
ministers and sheriffs, and the receipt and consideration of
petitions. The barons paid 1/30th tax on their moveable property
to have three barons of their choice added to the council.
Statutes were enacted. Landholders were given the duty of electing
four of their members in every county to ensure that the sheriff
observed the law and to report his misdemeanors to the justiciar.
They were also given the duty of electing four men from the county
from whom the exchequer was to choose the sheriff of the year.
Earl Montfort and certain barons forced King Henry III to summon a
great council or parliament in 1265 in which the common people
were represented officially by two knights from every county, two
burgesses from every borough, and two representatives from each
major port. So the King's permanent small council became a
separate body from parliament and its members took a specific
councilor's oath in 1257 to give faithful counsel, to keep
secrecy, to prevent alienation of ancient demesne, to procure
justice for the rich and poor, to allow justice to be done on
themselves and their friends, to abstain from gifts and misuse of
patronage and influence, and to be faithful to the queen and to
the heir.



                              - The Law -

The barons forced successive Kings to sign the Magna Carta until
it became the law of the land. It became the first statute of the
official statute book. Its provisions express the principle that a
king is bound by the law and is not above it. However, there is no
redress if the king breaches the law.

The Magna Carta was issued by John in 1215. A revised version was
issued by Henry III in 1225 with the forest clauses separated out
into a forest charter. The two versions are replicated together,
with the formatting of each indicated in the titles below.

    {Magna Carta - 1215}
     Magna Carta - 1215 & 1225
     MAGNA CARTA - 1225

{John, by the grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke
of Normandy and Aquitaine, and Count of Anjou: To the Archbishops,
Bishops, Abbots, Earls, Barons, Justiciaries, Foresters, Sheriffs,
Reeves, Ministers, and all Bailiffs and others, his faithful
subjects, Greeting. Know ye that in the presence of God, and for
the health of our soul, and the souls of our ancestors and heirs,
to the honor of God, and the exaltation of Holy Church, and
amendment of our realm, by the advice of our reverend Fathers,
Stephen, Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England, and
Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church; Henry, Archbishop of Dublin;
William of London, Peter of Winchester, Jocelin of Bath and
Glastonbury, Hugh of Lincoln, Walter of Worcester, William of
Coventry, and Benedict of Rochester, Bishops; Master Pandulph, the
pope's subdeacon and familiar; Brother Aymeric, Master of the
Knights of the Temple in England; and the noble persons, William
Marshall, Earl of Pembroke; William, Earl of Salisbury; William,
Earl of Warren; William, Earl of Arundel; Alan de Galloway,
Constable of Scotland; Warin Fitz-Gerald, Peter Fitz-Herbert,
Hubert de Burgh, Seneshal of Poitou, Hugh de Neville, Matthew
Fitz-Herbert, Thomas Basset, Alan Basset, Philip Daubeny, Robert
de Roppelay, John Marshall, John Fitz-Hugh, and others, our
liegemen:}

HENRY BY THE GRACE OF GOD, KING OF ENGLAND, LORD OF IRELAND, DUKE
OF NORMANDY AND GUYAN AND EARL OF ANJOU, TO ALL ARCHBISHOPS,
BISHOPS, ABBOTS, PRIORS, EARLS, BARONS, SHERIFFS, PROVOSTS,
OFFICERS AND TO ALL BAILIFFS AND OTHER OUR FAITHFUL SUBJECTS WHICH
SHALL SEE THIS PRESENT CHARTER, GREETING.

KNOW YE THAT WE, UNTO THE HONOR OF ALMIGHTY GOD, AND FOR THE
SALVATION OF THE SOULS OF OUR PROGENITORS AND SUCCESSORS KINGS OF
ENGLAND, TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF HOLY CHURCH AND AMENDMENT OF OUR
REALM, OF OUR MERE AND FREE WILL, HAVE GIVEN AND GRANTED TO ALL
ARCHBISHOPS, BISHOPS, ABBOTS, PRIORS, EARLS, BARONS, AND TO ALL
FREE MEN OF THIS OUR REALM, THESE LIBERTIES FOLLOWING, TO BE KEPT
IN OUR KINGDOM OF ENGLAND FOREVER.

[I. A CONFIRMATION OF LIBERTIES]

First, we have granted to God, and by this our present Charter
confirmed, for us and our heirs forever, that the English Church
shall be free and enjoy her whole rights and her liberties
inviolable. {And that we will this so to be observed appears from
the fact that we of our own free will, before the outbreak of the
dissensions between us and our barons, granted, confirmed, and
procured to be confirmed by Pope Innocent III the freedom of
elections, which is considered most important and necessary to the
English Church, which Charter we will both keep ourself and will
it to be kept with good faith by our heirs forever.} We have also
granted to all the free men of our realm, for us and our heirs
forever, all the liberties underwritten, to have and to hold to
them and their heirs of us and our heirs.

[II. THE RELIEF OF THE KING'S TENANT OF FULL AGE]

If any of our earls, barons, or others who hold of us in chief by
knight's service dies, and at the time of his death his heir is of
full age and owes to us a relief, he shall have his inheritance on
payment of [no more than] the old relief; to wit, the heir or
heirs of an earl, for an entire earldom, 100 pounds [2,000s.]; the
heir or heirs of a baron of an entire barony, {100 pounds} 100
MARKS [67 POUNDS OR 1340s.]; the heir or heirs of an entire
knight's fee, 100s. at the most [about 1/3 of a knight's annual
income]; and he who owes less shall give less, according to the
old custom of fees.

[III. THE WARDSHIP OF AN HEIR WITHIN AGE. THE HEIR A KNIGHT]

BUT IF THE HEIR OF SUCH BE UNDER AGE, HIS LORD SHALL NOT HAVE THE
WARD OF HIM, NOR OF HIS LAND, BEFORE THAT HE HAS TAKEN OF HIM
HOMAGE. If, however, any such heir is under age and in ward, he
shall have his inheritance without relief or fine when he comes of
age, THAT IS, TWENTY-ONE YEARS OF AGE. SO THAT IF SUCH AN HEIR NOT
OF AGE IS MADE A KNIGHT, YET NEVERTHELESS HIS LAND SHALL REMAIN IN
THE KEEPING OF HIS LORD UNTO THE AFORESAID TERM.

[IV. NO WASTE SHALL BE MADE BY A GUARDIAN IN WARD'S LANDS]

The guardian of the land of any heir thus under age shall take
therefrom only reasonable issues, customs, and services, without
destruction or waste of men or goods. And if we commit the custody
of any such land to the sheriff or any other person answerable to
us for the issues of the same land, and he commits destruction or
waste, we will take an amends from him and recompense therefore.
And the land shall be committed to two lawful and discreet men of
that fee, who shall be answerable for the issues of the same land
to us or to whomsoever we shall have assigned them. And if we give
or sell the custody of any such land to any man, and he commits
destruction or waste, he shall lose the custody, which shall be
committed to two lawful and discreet men of that fee, who shall,
in like manner, be answerable to us as has been aforesaid.

[V. GUARDIANS SHALL MAINTAIN THE INHERITANCE OF THEIR WARDS AND OF
BISHOPRICKS, ETC.]

The guardian, so long as he shall have the custody of the land,
shall keep up and maintain the houses, parks, fishponds, pools,
mills, and other things pertaining thereto, out of the issues of
the same, and shall restore to the heir when he comes of age, all
his land stocked with {ploughs and tillage, according as the
season may require and the issues of the land can reasonably bear}
PLOUGHS AND ALL OTHER THINGS, AT THE LEAST AS HE RECEIVED IT. ALL
THESE THINGS SHALL BE OBSERVED IN THE CUSTODIES OF VACANT
ARCHBISHOPRICKS, BISHOPRICKS, ABBEYS, PRIORIES, CHURCHES, AND
DIGNITIES, WHICH APPERTAIN TO US; EXCEPT THIS, THAT SUCH CUSTODY
SHALL NOT BE SOLD.

[VI. HEIRS SHALL BE MARRIED WITHOUT DISPARAGEMENT]

Heirs shall be married without loss of station. {And the marriage
shall be made known to the heir's nearest of kin before it is
agreed.}

[VII. A WIDOW SHALL HAVE HER MARRIAGE, INHERITANCE, AND
QUERENTINE. THE KING'S WIDOW, ETC.]

A widow, after the death of her husband, shall immediately and
without difficulty have her marriage portion [property given to
her by her father] and inheritance. She shall not give anything
for her marriage portion, dower, or inheritance which she and her
husband held on the day of his death, and she may remain in her
husband's house for forty days after his death, within which time
her dower shall be assigned to her. IF THAT HOUSE IS A CASTLE AND
SHE LEAVES THE CASTLE, THEN A COMPETENT HOUSE SHALL FORTHWITH BE
PROVIDED FOR HER, IN WHICH SHE MAY HONESTLY DWELL UNTIL HER DOWER
IS ASSIGNED TO HER AS AFORESAID; AND IN THE MEANTIME HER
REASONABLE ESTOVERS OF THE COMMON [NECESSARIES OR SUPPLIES SUCH AS
WOOD], ETC.

No widow shall be compelled [by penalty of fine] to marry so long
as she has a mind to live without a husband, provided, however,
that she gives security that she will not marry without our
assent, if she holds of us, or that of the lord of whom she holds,
if she holds of another.

[VIII. HOW SURETIES SHALL BE CHARGED TO THE KING]

Neither we nor our bailiffs shall seize any land or rent for any
debt as long as the debtor's goods and chattels suffice to pay the
debt AND THE DEBTOR HIMSELF IS READY TO SATISFY THEREFORE. Nor
shall the debtor's sureties be distrained as long as the debtor is
able to pay the debt. If the debtor fails to pay, not having the
means to pay, OR WILL NOT PAY ALTHOUGH ABLE TO PAY, then the
sureties shall answer the debt. And, if they desire, they shall
hold the debtor's lands and rents until they have received
satisfaction of that which they had paid for him, unless the
debtor can show that he has discharged his obligation to them.

{If anyone who has borrowed from the Jews any sum of money, great
or small, dies before the debt has been paid, the heir shall pay
no interest on the debt as long as he remains under age, of
whomsoever he may hold. If the debt falls into our hands, we will
take only the principal sum named in the bond.}

{And if any man dies indebted to the Jews, his wife shall have her
dower and pay nothing of that debt; if the deceased leaves
children under age, they shall have necessaries provided for them
in keeping with the estate of the deceased, and the debt shall be
paid out of the residue, saving the service due to the deceased's
feudal lords. So shall it be done with regard to debts owed
persons other than Jews.}

[IX. THE LIBERTIES OF LONDON AND OTHER CITIES AND TOWNS CONFIRMED]

The City of London shall have all her old liberties and free
customs, both by land and water. Moreover, we will and grant that
all other cities, boroughs, towns, and ports shall have all their
liberties and free customs.

{No scutage or aid shall be imposed in our realm unless by common
counsel thereof, except to ransom our person, make our eldest son
a knight, and once to marry our eldest daughter, and for these
only a reasonable aid shall be levied. So shall it be with regard
to aids from the City of London.}

{To obtain the common counsel of the realm concerning the
assessment of aids (other than in the three aforesaid cases) or of
scutage, we will have the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and
great barons individually summoned by our letters; we will also
have our sheriffs and bailiffs summon generally all those who hold
lands directly of us, to meet on a fixed day, but with at least
forty days' notice, and at a fixed place. In all such letters of
summons, we will explain the reason therefor. After summons has
thus been made, the business shall proceed on the day appointed,
according to the advice of those who are present, even though not
all the persons summoned have come.}

{We will not in the future grant permission to any man to levy an
aid upon his free men, except to ransom his person, make his
eldest son a knight, and once to marry his eldest daughter, and on
each of these occasions only a reasonable aid shall be levied.}

[X. NONE SHALL DISTRAIN FOR MORE SERVICE THAN IS DUE.]

No man shall be compelled to perform more service for a knight's
fee nor any freehold than is due therefrom.

[XI. COMMON PLEAS SHALL NOT FOLLOW THE KING'S COURT]

People who have Common Pleas shall not follow our Court traveling
about the realm, but shall be heard in some certain place.

[XII. WHERE AND BEFORE WHOM ASSIZES SHALL BE TAKEN. ADJOURNMENT
FOR DIFFICULTY]

{Land assizes of novel disseisin, mort d'ancestor and darrein
presentment shall be heard only in the county where the property
is situated, and in this manner: We or, if we are not in the
realm, our Chief Justiciary, shall send two justiciaries through
each county four times a year [to clear and prevent backlog], and
they, together with four knights elected out of each county by the
people thereof, shall hold the said assizes in the county court,
on the day and in the place where that court meets.}

ASSIZES OF NOVEL DISSEISIN, MORT D'ANCESTOR SHALL BE HEARD ONLY IN
THE COUNTY WHERE THE PROPERTY IS SITUATED, AND IN THIS MANNER: WE,
OR IF WE ARE NOT IN THE REALM, OUR CHIEF JUSTICIARY, SHALL SEND
JUSTICIARIES THROUGH EACH COUNTY ONCE A YEAR, AND THEY TOGETHER
WITH KNIGHTS OF THAT COUNTY SHALL HOLD THE SAID ASSIZES IN THE
COUNTY.

{If the said assizes cannot be held on the day appointed, so many
of the knights and freeholders as were present on that day shall
remain as will be sufficient for the administration of justice,
according to the amount of business to be done.}

AND THOSE THINGS THAT AT THE COMING OF OUR FORESAID JUSTICIARIES,
BEING SENT TO TAKE THOSE ASSIZES IN THE COUNTIES, CANNOT BE
DETERMINED, SHALL BE ENDED BY THEM IN SOME OTHER PLACE IN THEIR
CIRCUIT; AND THOSE THINGS WHICH FOR DIFFICULTY OF SOME ARTICLES
CANNOT BE DETERMINED BY THEM, SHALL BE REFERRED TO OUR JUSTICES OF
THE BENCH AND THERE SHALL BE ENDED.

[XIII. ASSIZES OF DARREIN PRESENTMENT]

ASSIZES OF DARREIN PRESENTMENT SHALL ALWAYS BE TAKEN BEFORE OUR
JUSTICES OF THE BENCH AND THERE SHALL BE DETERMINED.

[XIV. HOW MEN OF ALL SORTS SHALL BE AMERCED AND BY WHOM]

A freeman shall be amerced [made to pay a fine to the King] for a
small offence only according to the degree thereof, and for a
serious offence according to its magnitude, saving his position
and livelihood; and in like manner a merchant, saving his trade
and merchandise, and a villein saving his tillage, if they should
fall under our mercy. None of these amercements shall be imposed
except by the oath of honest men of the neighborhood.

Earls and barons shall be amerced only by their peers, and only in
accordance with the seriousness of the offense.

{No amercement shall be imposed upon a cleric's lay tenement,
except in the manner of the other persons aforesaid, and without
regard to the value of his ecclesiastical benefice.}

NO MAN OF THE CHURCH SHALL BE AMERCED EXCEPT IN ACCORDANCE WITH
THE SERIOUSNESS OF THE OFFENCE AND AFTER HIS LAY TENEMENT, BUT NOT
AFTER THE QUANTITY OF HIS SPIRITUAL BENEFICE.

[XV. MAKING OF BRIDGES AND BANKS]

No town or freeman shall be compelled to build bridges over rivers
OR BANKS except those bound by old custom and law to do so.

[XVI. DEFENDING OF BANKS]

NO BANKS [LAND NEAR A RIVER] SHALL BE DEFENDED [USED BY THE KING
ALONE, E.G. FOR HUNTING], FROM HENCEFORTH, BUT SUCH AS WERE IN
DEFENCE IN THE TIME OF KING HENRY [II] OUR GRANDFATHER, BY THE
SAME PLACES AND IN THE SAME BOUNDS AS IN HIS TIME.

[XVII. HOLDING PLEAS OF THE CROWN]

No sheriff, constable, coroners, or other of our bailiffs shall
hold pleas of our Crown [but only justiciars, to prevent disparity
of punishments and corruption].

{All counties, hundreds, wapentakes, and tithings (except our
demesne manors) shall remain at the old rents, without any
increase.}

[XVIII. THE KING'S DEBTOR DYING, THE KING SHALL BE FIRST PAID]

If anyone holding a lay fee of us dies, and our sheriff or our
bailiff show our letters patent [public letter from a sovereign or
one in authority] of summons for a debt due to us from the
deceased, it shall be lawful for such sheriff or bailiff to attach
and list the goods and chattels of the deceased found in the lay
fee to the value of that debt, by the sight and testimony of
lawful men [to prevent taking too much], so that nothing thereof
shall be removed therefrom until our whole debt is paid; then the
residue shall be given up to the executors to carry out the will
of the deceased. If there is no debt due from him to us, all his
chattels shall remain the property of the deceased, saving to his
wife and children their reasonable shares.

{If any freeman dies intestate, his chattels shall be distributed
by his nearest kinfolk and friends, under supervision of the
Church, saving to each creditor the debts owed him by the
deceased.}

[XIX. PURVEYANCE FOR A CASTLE]

No constable or other of our bailiffs shall take grain or other
chattels of any man without immediate payment, unless the seller
voluntarily consents to postponement of payment. THIS APPLIES IF
THE MAN IS NOT OF THE TOWN WHERE THE CASTLE IS. BUT IF THE MAN IS
OF THE SAME TOWN AS WHERE THE CASTLE IS, THE PRICE SHALL BE PAID
TO HIM WITHIN 40 DAYS.

[XX. DOING OF CASTLE-GUARD]

No constable shall compel any knight to give money for keeping of
his castle in lieu of castle-guard when the knight is willing to
perform it in person or, if reasonable cause prevents him from
performing it himself, by some other fit man. Further, if we lead
or send him into military service, he shall be excused from
castle-guard for the time he remains in service by our command.

[XXI. TAKING OF HORSES, CARTS, AND WOOD]

No sheriff or bailiff of ours, or any other man, shall take horses
or carts of any freeman for carriage without the owner's consent.
HE SHALL PAY THE OLD PRICE, THAT IS, FOR CARRIAGE WITH TWO HORSES,
10d. A DAY; FOR THREE HORSES, 14d. A DAY. NO DEMESNE CART OF ANY
SPIRITUAL PERSON OR KNIGHT OR ANY LORD SHALL BE TAKEN BY OUR
BAILIFFS.

Neither we nor our bailiffs will take another man's wood for our
castles or for other of our necessaries without the owner's
consent.

[XXII. HOW LONG FELONS' LANDS SHALL BE HELD BY THE KING]

We will hold the lands of persons convicted of felony for only a
year and a day [to remove the chattels and movables], after which
they shall be restored to the lords of the fees.

[XXIII. IN WHAT PLACE WEIRS SHALL BE REMOVED]

All fishweirs [obstructing navigation] shall be entirely removed
by the Thames and Medway rivers, and throughout England, except
upon the seacoast.

[XXIV. IN WHAT CASE A PRAECIPE IN CAPITE IS NOT GRANTABLE]

The [royal] writ called "praecipe in capite" [for tenements held
in chief of the Crown] shall not in the future be granted to
anyone respecting any freehold if thereby a freeman [who has a
mesne lord] may not be tried in his lord's court.

[XXV. THERE SHALL BE BUT ONE MEASURE THROUGHOUT THE REALM]

There shall be one measure of wine throughout our realm, one
measure of ale, and one measure of grain, to wit, the London
quarter, and one breadth of dyed cloth, russets, and haberjets, to
wit, two {ells} YARDS within the selvages. As with measures so
shall it also be with weights.

[XXVI. INQUISITION OF LIFE AND LIMB]

Henceforth nothing shall be given or taken for a writ of
inquisition upon life or limb, but it shall be granted freely and
not denied.

[XXVII. TENURE OF THE KING IN SOCAGE AND OF ANOTHER BY KNIGHT'S
SERVICE. PETIT SERJEANTY.]

If anyone holds of us by fee farm, socage, or burgage, and also
holds land of another by knight's service, we will not by reason
of that fee farm, socage, or burgage have the wardship of his
heir, or the land which belongs to another man's fee. Nor will we
have the custody of such fee farm, socage, or burgage unless such
fee farm owe knight's service. We will not have the wardship of
any man's heir, or the land which he holds of another by knight's
service, by reason of any petty serjeanty which he holds of us by
service of rendering us knives, arrows, or the like.

[XXVIII. WAGES OF LAW SHALL NOT BE WITHOUT WITNESS]

In the future no [royal] bailiff shall upon his own unsupported
accusation put any man to trial or oath without producing credible
witnesses to the truth of the accusation.

[XXIX. NONE SHALL BE CONDEMNED WITHOUT TRIAL. JUSTICE SHALL NOT BE
SOLD OR DELAYED.]

No freeman shall be taken, imprisoned, disseised OF HIS FREEHOLD
OR LIBERTIES OR FREE CUSTOMS, OR BE outlawed, banished, or in any
way ruined, nor will we prosecute or condemn him, except by the
lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

To no one will we sell [by bribery], to none will we deny or
delay, right or justice.

[XXX. MERCHANT STRANGERS COMING INTO THIS REALM SHALL BE WELL
USED]

All merchants shall have safe conduct to go and come out of and
into England, and to stay in and travel through England by land
and water, to buy and sell, without evil tolls, in accordance with
old and just customs, except, in time of war, such merchants as
are of a country at war with us. If any such be found in our realm
at the outbreak of war, they shall be detained, without harm to
their bodies or goods, until it be known to us or our Chief
Justiciary how our merchants are being treated in the country at
war with us. And if our merchants are safe there, then theirs
shall be safe with us.

{Henceforth anyone, saving his allegiance due to us, may leave our
realm and return safely and securely by land and water, except for
a short period in time of war, for the common benefit of the
realm.}

[XXXI. TENURE OF A BARONY COMING INTO THE KING'S HANDS BY ESCHEAT]

If anyone dies holding of any escheat, such as the honor of
Wallingford, Nottingham, Boulogne, {Lancaster,} or other escheats
which are in our hands and are baronies, his heir shall not give
any relief or do any service to us other than he would owe to the
baron, if such barony had been in the baron's hands. And we will
hold the escheat in the same manner in which the baron held it.
NOR SHALL WE HAVE, BY OCCASION OF ANY BARONY OR ESCHEAT, ANY
ESCHEAT OR KEEPING OF ANY OF OUR MEN, UNLESS HE WHO HELD THE
BARONY OR ESCHEAT ELSEWHERE HELD OF US IN CHIEF.

Persons dwelling outside the forest [in the county] need not in
the future come before our justiciaries of the forest in answer to
a general summons unless they are impleaded or are sureties for
any person or persons attached for breach of forest laws.

[XXXII. LANDS SHALL NOT BE ALIENED TO THE PREJUDICE OF THE LORD'S
SERVICE]

NO FREEMAN FROM HENCEFORTH SHALL GIVE OR SELL ANY MORE OF HIS
LAND, BUT SO THAT OF THE RESIDUE OF THE LANDS THE LORD OF THE FEE
MAY HAVE THE SERVICE DUE TO HIM WHICH BELONGS TO THE FEE.

{We will appoint as justiciaries, constables, sheriffs, or
bailiffs only such men as know the law of the land and will keep
it well.}

[XXXIII. PATRONS OF ABBEYS SHALL HAVE THE CUSTODY OF THEM WHEN
VACANT]

All barons who had founded abbeys of which they have charters of
English Kings or old tenure, shall have the custody of the same
when vacant, as is their due.

All forests which have been created in our time shall forthwith be
disafforested. {So shall it be done with regard to river banks
which have been enclosed by fences in our time.}

{All evil customs concerning forests and warrens [livestock
grounds in forests], foresters and warreners, sheriffs and their
officers, or riverbanks and their conservators shall be
immediately investigated in each county by twelve sworn knights of
such county, who are chosen by honest men of that county, and
shall within forty days after this inquest be completely and
irrevocably abolished, provided always that the matter has first
been brought to our knowledge, or that of our justiciars, if we
are not in England.}

{We will immediately return all hostages and charters delivered to
us by Englishmen as security for the peace or for the performance
of loyal service.}

{We will entirely remove from their offices the kinsmen of Gerald
de Athyes, so that henceforth they shall hold no office in
England: Engelard de Cigogne, Peter, Guy, and Andrew de Chanceaux,
Guy de Cigogne, Geoffrey de Martigny and his brothers, Philip Mark
and his brothers, and Geoffrey his nephew, and all their
followers.}

{As soon as peace is restored, we will banish from our realm all
foreign knights, crossbowmen, sergeants, and mercenaries, who have
come with horses and arms, to the hurt of the realm.}

{If anyone has been disseised or deprived by us, without the legal
judgment of his peers, of lands, castles, liberties, or rights, we
will immediately restore the same, and if any disagreement arises
on this, the matter shall be decided by judgment of the twenty-
five barons mentioned below in the clause for securing the peace.
With regard to all those things, however, of which any man was
disseised or deprived, without the legal judgment of his peers, by
King Henry [II] our Father or our Brother King Richard, and which
remain in our hands or are held by others under our warranty, we
shall have respite during the term commonly allowed to the
Crusaders, excepting those cases in which a plea was begun or
inquest made on our order before we took the cross; when, however,
we return from our pilgrimage, or if perhaps we do not undertake
it, we will at once do full justice in these matters.}

{Likewise, we shall have the same respite in rendering justice
with respect to the disafforestation or retention of those forests
which Henry [II] our Father or Richard our Brother afforested, and
concerning custodies of lands which are of the fee of another,
which we hitherto have held by reason of the fee which some person
has held of us by knight's service, and to abbeys founded on fees
other than our own, in which the lord of that fee asserts his
right. When we return from our pilgrimage, or if we do not
undertake it, we will forthwith do full justice to the
complainants in these matters.}

[XXXIV. IN WHAT ONLY CASE A WOMAN SHALL HAVE AN APPEAL OF DEATH]

No one shall be arrested or imprisoned upon a woman's appeal for
the death of any person other than her husband [since no woman was
expected to personally engage in trial by combat].

[XXXV. AT WHAT TIME SHALL BE KEPT A COUNTY COURT, SHERIFF'S TURN
AND A LEET COURT (COURT OF CRIMINAL JURISDICTION EXCEPTING
FELONIES)]

NO COUNTY COURT FROM HENCEFORTH SHALL BE HELD, BUT FROM MONTH TO
MONTH; AND WHERE GREATER TIME HAS BEEN USED, THERE SHALL BE
GREATER. NOR SHALL ANY SHERIFF, OR HIS BAILIFF, KEEP HIS TURN IN
THE HUNDRED BUT TWICE IN THE YEAR; AND NO WHERE BUT IN DUE PLACE
AND ACCUSTOMED TIME, THAT IS, ONCE AFTER EASTER, AND AGAIN AFTER
THE FEAST OF SAINT MICHAEL. AND THE VIEW OF FRANKPLEDGE [THE RIGHT
OF ASSEMBLING THE WHOLE MALE POPULATION OVER 12 YEARS EXCEPT
CLERGY, EARLS, BARONS, KNIGHTS, AND THE INFIRM, AT THE LEET OR
SOKE COURT FOR THE CAPITAL FRANKPLEDGES TO GIVE ACCOUNT OF THE
PEACE KEPT BY INDIVIDUALS IN THEIR RESPECTIVE TITHINGS] SHALL BE
LIKEWISE AT THE FEAST OF SAINT MICHAEL WITHOUT OCCASION, SO THAT
EVERY MAN MAY HAVE HIS LIBERTIES WHICH HE HAD, OR USED TO HAVE, IN
THE TIME OF KING HENRY [II] OUR GRANDFATHER, OR WHICH HE HAS SINCE
PURCHASED. THE VIEW OF FRANKPLEDGE SHALL BE SO DONE, THAT OUR
PEACE MAY BE KEPT; AND THAT THE TYTHING BE WHOLLY KEPT AS IT HAS
BEEN ACCUSTOMED; AND THAT THE SHERIFF SEEK NO OCCASIONS, AND THAT
HE BE CONTENT WITH SO MUCH AS THE SHERIFF WAS WONT TO HAVE FOR HIS
VIEW-MAKING IN THE TIME OF KING HENRY OUR GRANDFATHER.

[XXXVI. NO LAND SHALL BE GIVEN IN MORTMAIN]

IT SHALL NOT BE LAWFUL FROM HENCEFORTH TO ANY TO GIVE HIS LAND TO
ANY RELIGIOUS HOUSE, AND TO TAKE THE SAME LAND AGAIN TO HOLD OF
THE SAME HOUSE [THEREBY EXTINGUISHING THE FEUDAL RIGHTS OF THE
TEMPORAL LORD]. NOR SHALL IT BE LAWFUL TO ANY HOUSE OF RELIGION TO
TAKE THE LANDS OF ANY, AND TO LEASE THE SAME TO HIM OF WHOM HE
RECEIVED IT. IF ANY FROM HENCEFORTH GIVE HIS LANDS TO ANY
RELIGIOUS HOUSE, AND THEREUPON BE CONVICTED, THE GIFT SHALL BE
UTTERLY VOID, AND THE LAND SHALL ACCRUE TO THE LORD OF THE FEE.

{All fines unjustly and unlawfully given to us, and all
amercements levied unjustly and against the law of the land, shall
be entirely remitted or the matter decided by judgment of the
twenty-five barons mentioned below in the clause for securing the
peace, or the majority of them, together with the aforesaid
Stephen, Archbishop of Canterbury, if he himself can be present,
and any others whom he may wish to bring with him for the purpose;
if he cannot be present, the business shall nevertheless proceed
without him. If any one or more of the said twenty-five barons has
an interest in a suit of this kind, he or they shall step down for
this particular judgment, and be replaced by another or others,
elected and sworn by the rest of the said barons, for this
occasion only.}

{If we have disseised or deprived the Welsh of lands, liberties,
or other things, without legal judgment of their peers, in England
or Wales, they shall immediately be restored to them, and if a
disagreement arises thereon, the question shall be determined in
the Marches by judgment of their peers according to the law of
England as to English tenements, the law of Wales as to Welsh
tenements, the law of the Marches as to tenements in the Marches.
The same shall the Welsh do to us and ours.}

{But with regard to all those things of which any Welshman was
disseised or deprived, without legal judgment of his peers, by
King Henry [II] our Father or our Brother King Richard, and which
we hold in our hands or others hold under our warranty, we shall
have respite during the term commonly allowed to the Crusaders,
except as to those matters whereon a suit had arisen or an
inquisition had been taken by our command prior to our taking the
cross. Immediately after our return from our pilgrimage, or if by
chance we do not undertake it, we will do full justice according
to the laws of the Welsh and the aforesaid regions.}

{We will immediately return the son of Llywelyn, all the Welsh
hostages, and the charters which were delivered to us as security
for the peace.}

{With regard to the return of the sisters and hostages of
Alexander, King of the Scots, and of his liberties and rights, we
will do the same as we would with regard to our other barons of
England, unless it appears by the charters which we hold of
William his father, late King of the Scots, that it ought to be
otherwise; this shall be determined by judgment of his peers in
our court.}

[XXXVII. SUBSIDY IN RESPECT OF THIS CHARTER, AND THE CHARTER OF
THE FOREST, GRANTED TO THE KING.]

ESCUAGE [SHIELD MILITARY SERVICE] FROM HENCEFORTH SHALL BE TAKEN
AS IT WAS WONT TO BE IN THE TIME OF KING HENRY [II] OUR
GRANDFATHER; RESERVING TO ALL ARCHBISHOPS, BISHOPS, ABBOTS,
PRIORS, TEMPLERS, HOSPITALLERS, EARLS, BARONS, AND ALL PERSONS AS
WELL SPIRITUAL AS TEMPORAL; ALL THEIR FREE LIBERTIES AND FREE
CUSTOMS, WHICH THEY HAVE HAD IN TIME PASSED. AND ALL THESE CUSTOMS
AND LIBERTIES AFORESAID, WHICH WE HAVE GRANTED TO BE HELD WITHIN
THIS OUR REALM, AS MUCH AS PERTAINS TO US AND OUR HEIRS, WE SHALL
OBSERVE.

{All the customs and liberties aforesaid, which we have granted to
be enjoyed, as far as it pertains to us towards our people
throughout our realm, let all our subjects, whether clerics or
laymen, observe, as far as it pertains toward their dependents.}

AND ALL MEN OF THIS OUR REALM, AS WELL SPIRITUAL AS TEMPORAL (AS
MUCH AS IN THEM IS) SHALL OBSERVE THE SAME AGAINST ALL PERSONS IN
LIKE WISE. AND FOR THIS OUR GIFT AND GRANT OF THESE LIBERTIES, AND
OF OTHER CONSTRAINED IN OUR CHARTER OF LIBERTIES OF OUR FOREST,
THE ARCHBISHOPS, BISHOPS, ABBOTS, PRIORS, EARLS, BARONS, KNIGHTS,
FREEHOLDERS, AND OUR OTHER SUBJECTS, HAVE GIVEN UNTO US THE
FIFTEENTH PART OF ALL THEIR MOVEABLES. AND WE HAVE GRANTED UNTO
THEM ON THE OTHER PART, THAT NEITHER WE, NOR OUR HEIRS, SHALL
PROCURE OR DO ANY THING WHEREBY THE LIBERTIES IN THIS CHARTER
CONTAINED SHALL BE INFRINGED OR BROKEN. AND IF ANY THING BE
PROCURED BY ANY PERSON CONTRARY TO THE PREMISES, IT SHALL BE HAD
OF NO FORCE NOR EFFECT.

[ENFORCEMENT]

{Whereas we, for the honor of God and the reform of our realm, and
in order the better to allay the discord arisen between us and our
barons, have granted all these things aforesaid. We, willing that
they be forever enjoyed wholly and in lasting strength, do give
and grant to our subjects the following security, to wit, that the
barons shall elect any twenty-five barons of the realm they wish,
who shall, with their utmost power, keep, hold, and cause to be
kept the peace and liberties which we have granted unto them and
by this our present Charter have confirmed, so that if we, our
Justiciary, bailiffs, or any of our ministers offends in any
respect against any man, or transgresses any of these articles of
peace or security, and the offense is brought before four of the
said twenty-five barons, those four barons shall come before us,
or our Chief Justiciary if we are out of the realm, declaring the
offense, and shall demand speedy amends for the same. If we or, in
case of our being out of the realm, our Chief Justiciary fails to
afford redress within forty days from the time the case was
brought before us or, in the event of our having been out of the
realm, our Chief Justiciary, the aforesaid four barons shall refer
the matter to the rest of the twenty-five barons, who, together
with the commonalty of the whole country, shall distrain and
distress us to the utmost of their power, to wit, by capture of
our castles, lands, and possessions and by all other possible
means, until compensation is made according to their decision,
saving our person and that of our Queen and children; as soon as
redress has been had, they shall return to their former
allegiance. Anyone in the realm may take oath that, for the
accomplishment of all the aforesaid matters, he will obey the
orders of the said twenty-five barons and distress us to the
utmost of his power; and we give public and free leave to everyone
wishing to take oath to do so, and to none will we deny the same.
Moreover, all such of our subjects who do not of their own free
will and accord agree to swear to the said twenty-five barons, to
distrain and distress us together with them, we will compel to do
so by our command in the aforesaid manner. If any one of the
twenty-five barons dies or leaves the country or is in any way
hindered from executing the said office, the rest of the said
twenty-five barons shall choose another in his stead, at their
discretion, who shall be sworn in like manner as the others. In
all cases which are referred to the said twenty-five barons to
execute, and in which a difference arises among them, supposing
them all to be present, or in which not all who have been summoned
are willing or able to appear, the verdict of the majority shall
be considered as firm and binding as if the whole number had been
of one mind. The aforesaid twenty-five shall swear to keep
faithfully all the aforesaid articles and, to the best of their
power, to cause them to be kept by others. We will not procure,
either by ourself or any other, anything from any man whereby any
of these concessions or liberties may be revoked or abated. If any
such procurement is made, let it be null and void; it shall never
be made use of either by us or by any other.}

[AMNESTY]

{We have also fully forgiven and pardoned all ill-will, wrath, and
malice which has arisen between us and our subjects, both clergy
and laymen, during the disputes, to and with all men. Moreover, we
have fully forgiven and, as far as it pertains to us, wholly
pardoned to and with all, clergy and laymen, all offences made in
consequence of the said disputes from Easter in the sixteenth year
of our reign until the restoration of peace. Over and above this,
we have caused letters patent to be made for Stephen, Archbishop
of Canterbury, Henry, Archbishop of Dublin, the above-mentioned
Bishops, and Master Pandulph, for the aforesaid security and
concessions.}

{Wherefore we will that, and firmly command that, the English
Church shall be free and all men in our realm shall have and hold
all the aforesaid liberties, rights, and concessions, well and
peaceably, freely, quietly, fully, and wholly, to them and their
heirs, of us and our heirs, in all things and places forever, as
is aforesaid. It is moreover sworn, as will on our part as on the
part of the barons, that all these matters aforesaid shall be kept
in good faith and without deceit. Witness the above-named and many
others. Given by our hand in the meadow which is called Runnymede,
between Windsor and Staines, on the fifteenth day of June in the
seventeenth year of our reign.}

THESE BEING WITNESSES: LORD S. ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, E. BISHOP
OF LONDON, F. BISHOP OF BATHE, G. OF WINCESTER, H. OF LINCOLN, R.
OF SALISBURY, W. OF ROCHESTER, X. OF WORCESTER, F. OF ELY, H. OF
HEREFORD, R. OF CHICHESTER, W. OF EXETER, BISHOPS; THE ABBOT OF
ST. EDMONDS, THE ABBOT OF ST. ALBANS, THE ABBOT OF BELLO, THE
ABBOT OF ST. AUGUSTINES IN CANTERBURY, THE ABBOT OF EVESHAM, THE
ABBOT OF WESTMINSTER, THE ABBOT OF BOURGH ST. PETER, THE ABBOT OF
REDING, THE ABBOT OF ABINDON, THE ABBOT OF MALMBURY, THE ABBOT OF
WINCHCOMB, THE ABBOT OF HYDE, THE ABBOT OF CERTESEY, THE ABBOT OF
SHERBURN, THE ABBOT OF CERNE, THE ABBOT OF ABBOREBIR, THE ABBOT OF
MIDDLETON, THE ABBOT OF SELEBY, THE ABBOT OF CIRENCESTER, H. DE
BURGH JUSTICE, H. EARL OF CHESTER AND LINCOLN, W. EARL OF
SALISBURY, W. EARL OF WARREN, G. DE CLARE EARL OF GLOUCESTER AND
HEREFORD, W. DE FERRARS EARL OF DERBY, W. DE MANDEVILLE EARL OF
ESSEX, H. DE BYGOD EARL OF NORFOLK, W. EARL OF ALBEMARLE, H. EARL
OF HEREFORD, F. CONSTABLE OF CHESTER, G. DE TOS, H. FITZWALTER, R.
DE BYPONTE, W. DE BRUER, R. DE MONTEFICHET, P. FITZHERBERT, W. DE
AUBENIE, F. GRESLY, F. DE BREUS, F. DE MONEMUE, F. FITZALLEN, H.
DE MORTIMER, W. DE BEUCHAMP, W. DE ST. JOHN, P. DE MAULI, BRIAN DE
LISLE, THOMAS DE MULTON, R. DE ARGENTEYN, G. DE NEVIL, W. DE
MAUDUIT, F. DE BALUN, AND OTHERS. GIVEN AT WESTMINSTER THE 11TH
DAY OF FEBRUARY THE 9TH YEAR OF OUR REIGN.

WE, RATIFYING AND APPROVING THESE GIFTS AND GRANTS AFORESAID,
CONFIRM AND MAKE STRONG ALL THE SAME FOR US AND OUR HEIRS
PERPETUALLY, AND BY THE TENOUR OF THESE PRESENTS, DO RENEW THE
SAME; WILLING AND GRANTING FOR US AND OUR HEIRS, THAT THIS
CHARTER, AND ALL SINGULAR HIS ARTICLES, FOREVER SHALL BE
STEDFASTLY, FIRMLY, AND INVIOLABLY OBSERVED; AND IF ANY ARTICLE IN
THE SAME CHARTER CONTAINED, YET HITHERTO PERADVENTURE HAS NOT BEEN
KEPT, WE WILL, AND BY ROYAL AUTHORITY, COMMAND, FROM HENCEFORTH
FIRMLY THEY BE OBSERVED.

Statutes which were enacted after the Magna Carta follow:

Nuisance is recognized by this statute: "Every freeman, without
danger, shall make in his own wood, or in his land, or in his
water, which he has within our Forest, mills, springs, pools, clay
pits, dikes, or arable ground, so that it does not annoy any of
his neighbors."

Anyone taking a widow's dower after her husband's death must not
only return the dower, but pay damages in the amount of the value
of the dower from the time of death of the husband until her
recovery of seisin.

Widows may bequeath the crop of their ground as well of their
dowers as of their other lands and tenements.

Freeholders of tenements on manors shall have sufficient ingress
and egress from their tenements to the common pasture and as much
pasture as suffices for their tenements.

"Grain shall not be taken under the pretense of borrowing or the
promise of after-payment without the permission of the owner."

"A parent or other who forcefully leads away and withholds, or
marries off, an heir who is a minor (under 14), shall yield the
value of the marriage and be imprisoned until he has satisfied the
king for the trespass. If an heir 14 years or older marries
without his Lord's permission to defraud him of the marriage and
the Lord offers him reasonable and convenient marriage, without
disparagement, then the Lord shall hold his land beyond the term
of his age, that, of twenty one years, so long that he may receive
double the value of the marriage as estimated by lawful men, or
after as it has been offered before without fraud or collusion,
and after as it may be proved in the King's Court. Any Lord who
marries off a ward of his who is a minor and cannot consent to
marriage, to a villain or other, such as a burgess, whereby the
ward is disparaged, shall lose the wardship and all its profits if
the ward's friends complain of the Lord. The wardship and profit
shall be converted to the use of the heir, for the shame done to
him, after the disposition and provision of his friends." (The
"marriage" could be annulled by the church.)

"If an heir of whatever age will not marry at the request of his
Lord, he shall not be compelled thereunto; but when he comes of
age, he shall pay to his Lord the value of the marriage before
receiving his land, whether or not he himself marries."

"Interest shall not run against any minor, from the time of death
of his ancestor until his lawful age; so nevertheless, that the
payment of the principal debt, with the interest that was before
the death of his ancestor shall not remain."

The value of debts to be repaid to the king or to any man shall be
reasonably determined by the debtor's neighbors and not by
strangers. A debtors' plough cattle or sheep cannot be taken to
satisfy a debt.

The wards and escheats of the king shall be surveyed yearly by
three people assigned by the King. The sheriffs, by their counsel,
shall approve and let to farm such wards and escheats as they
think most profitable for the King. The Sheriffs shall be
answerable for the issues thereof in the Exchequer at designated
times. The collectors of the customs on wool exports shall pay
this money at the two designated times and shall make yearly
accounts of all parcels in ports and all ships.

By statute leap year was standardized throughout the nation, "the
day increasing in the leap year shall be accounted in that year",
"but it shall be taken and reckoned in the same month wherein it
grew and that day and the preceding day shall be counted as one
day."

"An English penny, called a sterling, round and without any
clipping, shall weigh 32 wheat grains dry in the middle of the
ear."

Measurements of distance were standardized to twelve inches to a
foot, three feet to a yard, and so forth up to an acre of land.

Goods which could only be sold by the standard weights and
measures (such as ounces, pounds, gallons, bushels) included sacks
of wool, leather, skins, ropes, glass, iron, lead, canvas, linen
cloth, tallow, spices, confections cheese, herrings, sugar,
pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, wheat, barley, oats, bread, and ale. The
prices required for bread and ale were based on the market price
for the wheat, barley, and oats from which they were made.

The punishment for repeated violations of required measures,
weights, or prices of bread and ale by a baker or brewer; selling
of spoiled or unwholesome wine, meat, fish by brewers, butchers,
or cooks; or a steward or bailiff receiving a bribe was reduced to
placement in a pillory with a shaven head so that these men would
still be fit for military service and not overcrowd the gaols.

Forest penalties were changed so that "No man shall lose either
life or member [limb] for killing of our deer. But if any man be
taken and convicted for taking our venison, he shall make a
grievous fine, if he has anything. And if he has nothing to lose,
he shall be imprisoned for a year and a day. And after that, if he
can find sufficient sureties, he shall be delivered, and, if not,
he shall abjure the realm of England."

The Forest Charter provided that: Every freeman may allow his pigs
to eat in his own wood in the King's forest. He may also drive his
pigs through the King's forest and tarry one night within the
forest without losing any of his pigs. But people having
greyhounds must keep them out of the forest so they don't maim the
deer.

The Forest Charter also allowed magnates traveling through the
King's forest on the King's command to come to him, to kill one or
two deer as long as it was in view of the forester if he was
present, or while having a horn blown, so it did not seem to be
theft.

After a period of civil war, the following statutes were enacted:

"All persons, as well of high as of low estate, shall receive
justice in the King's Court; and none shall take any such revenge
or distress by his own authority, without award of our court,
although he is damaged or injured, whereby he would have amends of
his neighbor either higher or lower." The penalty is a fine
according to the trespass.

A fraudulent conveyance to a minor or lease for a term of years
made to defraud a Lord of a wardship shall be void. A Lord who
maliciously and wrongfully alleges this to a court shall pay
damages and costs.

If a Lord will not render unto an heir his land when he comes of
age or takes possession away from an heir of age or removes
anything from the land, he shall pay damages. (The king retained
the right to take possession of an heir's land for a year or, in
lieu of this, to take one year's profit from the land in addition
to the relief.)

Kinsmen of a minor heir who have custody of his land held in
socage shall make no waste, sale, nor destruction of the
inheritance and shall answer to the heir when he comes of age for
the issues of the land, except for the reasonable costs of these
guardians.

No lord may distrain any of his tenants. No one may drive animals
taken by distraint out of the county where they have been taken.

"Farmers during their terms, shall not make waste, sale, nor exile
of house, woods, and men, nor of any thing else belonging to the
tenements which they have to farm".

Church law required that planned marriages be publically announced
by the priest so that any impediment could be made known. If a
marriage was clandestine or both parties knew of an impediment, or
it was within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity, the
children would be illegitimate. According to church rules, a man
could bequeath his personal property subject to certain family
rights. These were that if only the wife survived, she received
half the property. Similarly, if children survived, but no wife,
they received half the property. When the wife and children
survived, each party received one third. The church hoped that the
remaining fraction would go to the church as a reward for praying
for the deceased's soul. It taught that dying without a will was
sinful. Adults were to confess their sins at least yearly to their
parish priest, which confession would be confidential.

Henry de Bracton, a royal justice and the last great
ecclesiastical attorney, wrote an unfinished treatise: A Tract on
the Laws and Customs of England, systematizing and organizing the
law of the court rolls with definitions and general concepts and
describing court practice and procedure. It was influenced by his
knowledge of Roman legal concepts, such as res judicata, and by
his own opinions, such as that the law should go from precedent to
precedent. He also argued that the will and intent to injure was
the essence of murder, so that neither an infant nor a madman
should be held liable for such and that degrees of punishment
should vary with the level of moral guilt in a killing. He thought
the deodand to be unreasonable.

Bracton defines the requirements of a valid and effective gift as:
"It must be complete and absolute, free and uncoerced, extorted
neither by fear nor through force. Let money or service play no
part, lest it fall into the category of purchase and sale, for if
money is involved there will then be a sale, and if service, the
remuneration for it. If a gift is to be valid the donor must be of
full age, for if a minor makes a gift it will be ineffective since
(if he so wishes) it shall be returned to him in its entirety when
he reaches full age. Also let the donor hold in his own name and
not another's, otherwise his gift may be revoked. And let him, at
the least, be of sound mind and good memory, though an invalid,
ill and on his death bed, for a gift make under such conditions
will be good if all the other [requirements] of a valid gift are
met. For no one, provided he is of good memory, ought to be kept
from the administration or disposition of his own property when
affected by infirmity, since it is only then that he must make
provision for his family, his household and relations, given
stipends and settle his bequests; otherwise such persons might
suffer damage without fault. But since charters are sometimes
fraudulently drawn and gifts falsely taken to be made when they
are not, recourse must therefore be had to the country and the
neighborhood so that the truth may be declared."

In Bracton's view, a villein could buy his own freedom and the
child of a mixed marriage was free unless he was born in the
tenement of his villein parent.



                         - Judicial Procedure -

The Royal Court split up into several courts with different
specialties and became more like departments of state than offices
of the King's household. The justices were career civil servants
knowledgeable in the civil and canon law. The Court of the King's
Bench (a marble slab in Westminster upon which the throne was
placed) traveled with the king and heard criminal cases and pleas
of the Crown. Any use of force, however trivial, was interpreted
as breach of the royal peace and could be brought before the
king's bench. Its records were the coram rege rolls. The title of
the Chief Justiciar of England changed to the Chief Justice of
England. The Court of Common Pleas heard civil cases brought by
one subject against another. Pursuant to the Magna Carta, it sat
only at one place, the Great Hall in Westminster. It had
concurrent jurisdiction with the King's Bench over trespass cases.
Its records were the de banco rolls. The Court of the Exchequer
with its subsidiary department of the Treasury was in almost
permanent session at Westminster, collecting the Crown's revenue
and enforcing the Crown's rights.

Appeals from these courts could be made to the king and/or his
small council, which was the curia regis and could hear any plea
of the land. In 1234, the justiciar as the principal royal
executive officers and chief presiding officer over the curia
regis ended. In 1268, a chief justiciar was appointed the hold
pleas before the king. Henceforth, a justiciar was a royal officer
who dealt only with judicial work.  About the same time the
presiding justice of the court of common pleas also came to be
styled justiciar or chief justice. Justices were no longer
statesmen or politicians, but simply men learned in the law.

Membership in or attendance at the great council or parliament no
longer rested upon feudal tenure, but upon a writ of summons which
was, to a degree, dependent on the royal will.

Crown pleas included issues of the King's property, fines due to
him, murder (a body found with no witnesses to a killing),
homicide (a killing for which there were witnesses), rape,
wounding, mayhem, consorting, larceny, robbery, burglary, arson,
poaching, unjust imprisonment, selling cloth by non-standard
widths, selling wine by non-standard weights. Crown causes were
pled by the king's serjeants or servants at law, who were not
clerics. Apprentices at law learned pleading from them.

Between the proprietary action and the possessory assizes there is
growing use in the king's courts of writs of entry, by which a
tenant may be ordered to give up land, e.g. by a recent flaw in a
tenant's title, for a term which has expired, by a widow for her
late husband's land, or by an heir who has become of full age from
his guardian. For instance: " ...Command Tertius that ... he
render to Claimant, who is of full age, as it is said, ten acres
...which he claims to be his right and inheritance and into which
the said Tertius has no entry save by Secundus, to whom Primus
demised [gaged] them, who had only the wardship thereof while the
aforesaid Claimant was under age, as he says...". But most
litigation about land is still through the writ of right for
proprietary issues and the assizes of novel disseisin and mort
d'ancestor for possessory issues.

Royal itinerant justices traveled to the counties every seven
years. There, they gave interrogatories to local assizes of twelve
men to determine what had happened there since the last eyre. All
boroughs had to send twelve burgesses who were to indict any
burgesses suspected of breaking the royal law. Every crime, every
invasion of royal rights, and every neglect of police duties was
to be presented and tried. Suspects were held in gaol until their
cases could be heard and gaol breaks were common. Punishment after
trial was prison for serious crimes, expulsion from the realm for
less serious crimes, and pledges for good behavior for lesser
crimes. The visitation of these justices was anticipated with
trepidation. In 1237, the residents of Cornwall hid in the woods
rather than face the itinerant justices.

Royal coroners held inquests on all sudden deaths to determine
whether they were accidental or not. If not, royal justices held
trial. They also had duties in treasure trove and shipwreck cases.

Justices of assize, justices of the peace, and itinerant justices
operated at the county level. The traditional county courts had
lost much jurisdiction to the royal courts and were now limited to
personal actions in causes involving usually no more than 40s.
There were pleas of trespass and debt, unjust seizure and
detention of beasts, rent collection, claims of fugitive villeins
and their goods, nuisances, and encroachments. The sheriff still
constitutes and conducts the court. The county court met every
three or four weeks, usually in the sheriff's castle located in
the chief borough of the county, but some met in the open air.

Twice a year the sheriff visited each hundred in the county to
hold a turn [court for small offenses, such as encroachment of
public land, brewing and baking contrary to government
regulations, and use of dishonest weights and measures.]. Everyone
who held freehold land in the hundred except the greater magnates
had to attend or be fined for absence. The sheriff annually viewed
frankpledge, in which every layman without land that could be
forfeited for felony, including villeins, were checked for being
in a tithing, a group of neighbors responsible for each other's
good conduct. This applied to every boy who had reached the age of
twelve. He had to swear on the Bible "I will be a lawful man and
bear loyalty to our lord the King and his heirs, and I will be
justicable to my chief tithing man, so help me God and the
saints." Each tithing man paid a penny to the sheriff.

The hundred court decided cases of theft, viewing of boundaries of
land, claims for tenurial services, claims for homage, relief, and
for wardship; enfeoffments made, battery and brawls not amounting
to felony, wounding and maiming of beasts, collection of debts,
trespass, detinue [detention of personal property which originally
was rightfully acquired] and covenant, which now requires a sealed
writing; defamation, and enquiries and presentments arising from
the assizes of bread and ale and measures. A paid bailiff had
responsibility for the hundred court, which met every three weeks.

Still in existence is the old self-help law of hamsocne, the thief
hand-habbende, the thief back-berend, the old summary procedure
where the thief is caught in the act, AEthelstan's laws, Edward
the Confessor's laws, and Kent's childwyte [fine for begetting a
bastard on a lord's female bond slave]. Under the name of "actio
furti" [appeal of larceny] is the old process by which a thief can
be pursued and goods vindicated. As before and for centuries
later, deodands were forfeited to the king to appease God's wrath.
These chattel which caused the death of a person were usually
carts, cart teams, horses, boats, or mill-wheels. Then they were
forfeited to the community, which paid the king their worth.
Sometimes the justices named the charitable purpose for which the
deodand was to be spent, such as the price of a boat to go to the
repair of a bridge.

Five cases with short summaries are:

CASE: "John Croc was drowned from his horse and cart in the water
       of Bickney. Judgment: misadventur. The price of the horse
       and cart is 4s.6d. 4s.6d. deodand."

CASE: "Willam Ruffus was crushed to death by a certain trunk. The
       price of the trunk is 4d., for which the sheriff is to answer.
       4d. deodand."

CASE: "William le Hauck killed Edric le Poter and fled, so he is
       to be exacted and outlawed. He was in the tithing of Reynold
       Horloc in Clandon of the abbot of Chertsey (West Clandon),
       so it is in mercy. His chattels were 4 s., for which the
       bailiff of the abbot of Chertsey is to answer."

CASE: "Richard de Bregsells, accused of larceny, comes and denies
       the whole and puts himself on the country for good or ill.
       The twelve jurors and four vills say that he is not guilty,
       so he is quit."

CASE: William le Wimpler and William Vintner sold wine contrary
      to the statute, so they are in mercy.

Other cases dealt with issues of entry, e.g. whether land was
conveyed or just rented; issues of whether a man was free, for
which his lineage was examined; issues of to which lord a villein
belonged; issues of nuisance such as making or destroying a bank,
ditch, or hedge; diverting a watercourse or damming it to make a
pool; obstructing a road, and issues of what grazing rights were
conveyed in pasture land, waste, woods, or arable fields between
harvest and sowing. Grazing right disputes usually arose from the
ambiguous language in the grant of land "with appurtenances".

Courts awarded specific relief as well as money damages. If a
landlord broke his covenant to lease land for a term of years, the
court restored possession to the lessee. If a lord did not perform
the services due to his superior lord, the court ordered him to
perform the services. The courts also ordered repair by a lessee.

Debts of country knights and freeholders were heard in the local
courts; debts of merchants and burgesses were heard in the courts
of the fairs and boroughs; debts due under wills and testaments
were heard in the ecclesiastical courts. The ecclesiastical courts
deemed marriage to legitimize bastard children whose parents
married, so they inherited personal property and money of their
parents. Proof was by compurgation. Church law required
excommunication to be in writing with the reasons therefore, and a
copy given to the excommunicant. A church judge was required to
employ a notary or two men to write down all acts of the judge and
to give a copy to the parties to protect against unjust judges. No
cleric was allowed to pronounce or execute a sentence of death or
to take part in judicial tests or ordeals. Anyone knowingly
accepting a stolen article was required to restore it to its
owner. Heretics were to be excommunicated.

Trial by combat is still available, although it is extremely rare
for it to actually take place.

The manor court imposed penalties on those who did not perform
their services to the manor and the lord wrote down the customs of
the manor for future use in other courts.

By statute, no fines could be taken of any man for fair pleading
in the Circuit of Justiciars, county, hundred, or manor courts.

Various statutes relaxed the requirements for attendance at court
of those who were not involved in a case as long as there were
enough to make the inquests fully. And "every freeman who owes
suit to the county, tything, hundred, and wapentake, or to the
Court of his Lord, may freely make his attorney attend for him."
All above the rank of knight were exempted from attendance on the
sheriff's turn, unless specifically summoned. Prelates and barons
were generally excepted from the county courts by the charters of
their estates. Charters of boroughs often excepted their
representatives at the county court when there were no justices.
Some barons and knights paid the sheriff to be excused. The king
often relieved the simple knights by special license. There was
frequently a problem of not having enough knights to hold the
assizes. Henry III excused the attendance at hundred courts of all
but those who were bound to special service, or who were concerned
in suits.

Trespass has become a writ of course in the common law. It still
involves violence, but its element of breach of the peace extends
to those breaches which do not amount to felony. It can include
assault and battery, physical force to land, and physical force to
chattels, e.g. assaulting and beating the plaintiff, breaking into
his close, or carrying off his goods. One found guilty is fined
and imprisoned. As in criminal matters, if a defendant does not
appear at court, his body can be seized and imprisoned, and if he
cannot be found, he may be outlawed. Trespass to goods results in
damages, rather than the return of the goods, for goods carried
off from the plaintiff's possession and can be brought by bailees.

In Chancery, the court of the Chancellor, if there is a case with
no remedy specified in the law, that is similar to a situation for
which there is a writ, then a new writ may be made for that case.
(By this will later be expanded the action of trespass called
"trespass on the case".)

Various cases from the manors of the abbey of Bec in 1248-1249
are:

 1. Ragenilda of Bec gives 2s. for having married without
    licence. Pledge, William of Pinner. The same Ragenilda
    demands against Roger Loft and Juliana his wife a certain
    messuage which belonged to Robert le Beck, and a jury of
    twelve lawful men is granted her in consideration of the
    said fine, and if she recovers seisin she will give in all
    5s. And twelve jurors are elected, to wit, John of Hulle,
    William Maureward, Robert Hale Walter But, Walter Sigar,
    William Brihtwin, Richard Horseman, Richard Leofred, William
    John's son, Hugh Cross, Richard Pontfret and Robert Croyser,
    John Bisuthe and Gilbert Bisuthe who are sworn. And they say
    that the said Ragenilda has the greater right. Therefore let
    her have seisin.

Ruislip [Middlesex]. Saturday after the Purification of the
Blessed Virgin.

 2. Richard Guest gives 12d. and if he recovers will give 2s.
    to have a jury of twelve lawful men as to whether he has the
    greater right in a certain headland at Eastcot which
    Ragenilda widow of William Andrews holds, or the said
    Ragenilda. Pledges for the fine, John Brook and Richard of
    Pinner. And the said Ragenilda comes and says that she has
    no power to bring that land into judgment because she has no
    right in it save by reason of the wardship of the son and
    heir of her husband, who is under age. And Richard is not
    able to deny this. Therefore let him await [the heir's] full
    age.

 3. Walter Hulle gives 13s.4d. for licence to dwell on the
    land of the Prior of Harmondsworth so long as he shall live
    and as a condition finds pledges, to wit, William Slipper,
    John Bisuthe, Gilbert Bisuthe, Hugh Tree, William John's
    son, John Hulle, who undertake that the said Walter shall do
    to the lord all the services and customs which he would do
    if he dwelt on the lord's land and that his heriot shall be
    secured to the lord in case he dies there [i.e. at
    Harmondsworth].

 4. Geoffrey Sweyn demands the moiety of one virgate of land
    which John Crisp and Alina Hele hold, and he gives 2s. to
    have a jury, and if he recovers will give 20s. And the said
    jurors come and say upon their oath that the said Geoffrey
    has no right in the said land. Therefore let the said
    tenants go thence without day and let the said Geoffrey pay
    2s. Pledges, Hugh Bussel and Godfrey Francis.

 5. Juliana Saer's daughter demands as her right the moiety
    of one messuage with a croft, which messuage William Snell
    and Goda his wife, sister of the said Juliana hold. And they
    have made accord by leave [of the court] to the effect that
    the said William and Goda give to the said Juliana a barn
    and the curtilage nearest the Green and two selions [a ridge
    of land between two furrows] in the western part of the said
    croft [a small enclosed field]. And the said William put
    himself in mercy. Fine, 12d.

 6. Hugh of Stanbridge complains of Gilbert Vicar's son and
    William of Stanbridge that the wife of the said Gilbert who
    is of [Gilbert's] mainpast and the said William unjustly
    etc. beat and unlawfully struck him and dragged him by his
    hair out of his own proper house, to his damage 40s. and to
    his dishonour 20s., and [of this] he produces suit. And
    Gilbert and William come and defend all of it fully.
    Therefore let each of them go to his law six-handed.
    Afterwards they make accord to this effect that in case the
    said Hugh shall hereafter in any manner offend against
    [Gilbert and William] and thereof shall be convicted he will
    give the lord 6s.8d. by way of penalty and will make amends
    to [Gilbert and William] according to the judgment of six
    lawful men, and the others on their part will do the like by
    him. And Hugh put himself in mercy. Fine, 3s. Pledges, John
    Tailor and Walter Brother.

 7. Breakers of the assize [of beer:] William Idle (fined
    6d.), maud carter's widow (6d.), Walter Carter.

 8. John Witriche in mercy for carrying off thorns. Fine, 6d.

 9. Robert Dochi in mercy (fine, 2d.) for divers trespasses.
    Pledges, Gilbert Priest's son, Ralph Winbold and Walter
    Green.

10. Ailwin Crisp in mercy for his cow caught in the lord's
    pasture when ward had been made. Fine, 12d.

11. John Bernard in mercy for his beasts caught by night in
    the lord's meadow. Fine, 2s.

12. Richard Love gives 12d. to have a jury of twelve
    touching a rod of land which Robert of Brockhole and Juliana
    his wife hold. This action is respited to the next court
    [when the jurors are to come] without further delay.
    Afterwards the jurors come and say upon their oath that the
    said Richard has the greater right in the said land.
    Therefore let him have seisin.

13. William Blackbeard in mercy for not coming with his law
    as he was bound to do. Pledges, Geoffrey of Wick and
    Geoffrey Payn. Fine, 6d.

14. It was presented that Stephen Shepherd by night struck
    his sister with a knife and grievously wounded her.
    Therefore let him be committed to prison. Afterwards he made
    fine with 2s. Pledge, Geoffrey of wick.

15. It was presented that Robert Carter's son by night
    invaded the house of Peter Burgess and in felony threw
    stones at his door so that the said Peter raised the hue.
    Therefore let the said Robert be committed to prison.
    Afterwards he made fine with 2s.

16. Nicholas Drye, Henry le Notte (fine, 12d.) and Thomas
    Hogue (fine, 12d.) were convicted for that they by night
    invaded the house of Sir Thomas the Chaplain and forcibly
    expelled thence a man and woman who had been taken in there
    as guests. Therefore they are in mercy. Pledges of the said
    Thomas, richard of Lortemere and Jordan of Paris. Pledges of
    the said Henry, Richard Pen... and Richard Butry.

17. Adam Moses gives half a sextary of wine to have an
    inquest as to whether Henry Ayulf accused him of the crime
    of larceny and used opprobrious and contumelious words of
    him. Afterwards they made accord and Henry finds security
    for an amercement. Fine, 12d.

18. Isabella Sywards in mercy for having sold to Richard
    Bodenham land that she could not warrant him.

19. All the ploughmen of great Ogbourne are convicted by the
    oath of twelve men...because by reason of their default [the
    land] of the lord was ill ploughed whereby the lord is
    damaged to the amount of 9s.... And Walter Reaper is in
    mercy for concealing [i.e. not giving information as to] the
    said bad ploughing. Afterwards he made fine with the lord
    with 1 mark.

20. From Ralph Joce 6s.8d. for his son, because he [the son]
    unlawfully carried off grain from the lord's court. Pledge,
    Geoffrey Joce.

21. From Henry Pink 12d. for a trespass by waylaying.

22. From Eve Corner 6d. for a trespass of her pigs.

23. From Ralph Scales 6d. for timber carried off.

24. From William Cooper 12d. for ploughing his own land with
    the lord's plough without licence.

25. From Hugh Newman 12d. for trespass in the wood.

26. From Richard Penant 12d. for the same.

27. From Helen widow of Little Ogbourne 6d. for the same.

28. From Nicholas Siward 6d. for a false complaint against
    William Pafey.

29. From William Pafey 12d. for fighting with the said
    Nicholas.

30. From the widow of Ralph Shepherd 6d. for a trespass in
    Pencombe.

31. Richard Blund gives a half-mark and if he recovers will
    give two marks and a half to have a jury of the whole court,
    to inquire whether he has the greater right in a virgate of
    land which Hugh Frith holds in wardship with Cristiana
    daughter of Simon White, or the said Cristiana. Pledges for
    the fine, Richard Dene, William Hulle, John of Senholt, Hugh
    Smith, and William Ketelburn. And the whole court say upon
    their oath that the said Richard has greater right in the
    said land than anyone else. Therefore let him recover his
    seisin.

32  ....Miller gives 2d. [the Latin translates as 4s.] for a
    trespass against the assize of beer and because the lord's
    grain has been ill kept at the mill. Pledges, John Orped and
    Joce Serjeant.

33. Noah gives 2s. in the same way for an inquest as to one
    acre. Afterwards they submit themselves to arbitrators, who
    adjudge that the said Robert shall pay 3s. to the said Roger
    and 6s. to the said Gilbert and 7s. to the said Noah, and
    that he will do so [Robert] finds pledges.

34. Ralph Bar in mercy for having beaten one of the lord's
    men. Pledges, Herbert Rede and Ralph Brunild.

35. For the common fine of the township, a half-mark.

36. John Boneffiant found pledges, to wit, William Smith and
    William of Bledlow, that he will not eloign himself from the
    lord's land and that he will be prompt to obey the lord's
    summons.





                         - - - Chapter 8 - - -



                        - The Times: 1272-1348 -

King Edward I was respected by the people for his good government,
practical wisdom, and genuine concern for justice for everyone. He
loved his people and wanted them to love him. He came to the
throne with twenty years experience governing lesser lands on the
continent which were given to him by his father Henry III. He
spoke Latin, English, and French. He gained a reputation as a
lawgiver and as a peacemaker in disputes on the continent. His
reputation was so high and agreement on him as the next king so
strong that England was peaceful in the almost two years that it
took him to arrive there from continental business. He was
truthful, law-abiding, and kept his word. He had close and solid
family relationships, especially with his father and with his wife
Eleanor, to whom he was faithful. He was loyal to his close circle
of good friends. He valued honor and adhered reasonably well to
the terms of the treaties he made. He was generous in carrying out
the royal custom of subsidizing the feeding of paupers. He visited
the sick. He was frugal and dressed in plain, ordinary clothes
rather than extravagant or ostentatious ones. He disliked ceremony
and display.

At his accession, there was a firm foundation of a national law
administered by a centralized judicial system, a centralized
executive, and an organized system of local government in close
touch with both the judicial and the executive system. To gain
knowledge of his nation, he sent royal commissioners into every
county to ask about any encroachments on the King's rights and
about misdeeds by any of the King's officials: sheriffs, bailiffs,
or coroners. The results were compiled as the "Hundred Rolls".
They were the basis of reforms which improved justice at the local
as well as the national level. They also rationalized the array of
jurisdictions that had grown up with feudal government. Statutes
were passed by a parliament of two houses, that of peers (lords)
and that of an elected [rather than appointed] commons, and the
final form of the constitution was fixed.

Wardships of children and widows were sought because they were
very profitable. A guardian could get one tenth of the income of
the property during the wardship and a substantial marriage amount
when the ward married. Parents often made contracts to marry for
their young children. This avoided a forced marriage by a ward
should the parents die.

Most earldoms and many baronages came into the royal house by
escheat or marriage. The royal house employed many people. The
barons developed a class consciousness of aristocracy and became
leaders of society. Many men, no matter of whom they held land,
sought knighthood. The king granted knighthood by placing his
sword on the head of able-bodied and moral candidates who swore an
oath of loyalty to the king and to defend "all ladies,
gentlewomen, widows and orphans" and to "shun no adventure of your
person in any war wherein you should happen to be". A code of
knightly chivalry became recognized, such as telling the truth and
setting wrongs right. About half of the knights were literate. In
1278, the king issued a writ ordering all free-holders who held
land of the value of at least 400s. to receive knighthood at the
King's hands.

At the royal house and other great houses gentlemanly jousting
competitions, with well-refined and specific rules, took the place
of violent tournaments with general rules. Edward forbade
tournaments at which there was danger of a "melee". At these
knights competed for the affection of ladies by jousting with each
other while the ladies watched. Courtly romances were common. If a
man convinced a lady to marry him, the marriage ceremony took
place in church, with feasting and dancing afterwards. Romantic
stories were at the height of their popularity. A usual theme was
the lonely quest of a knight engaged in adventures which would
impress his lady.

Riddles include: 1. I will make you a cross, and a thing will not
touch you, and you will not be able to leave the house without
breaking that cross. Answer: Stand before a post in your house,
with your arms extended. 2. What you do not know, and I do not
know, and no one can know after I have told you. Answer: I will
take a straw from the floor of the room, measure its inches, tell
you the length, and break the straw. 3. A pear tree bears all the
fruit a pear tree can bear and did not bear pears. Answer: It bore
only one pear.

The dress of the higher classes was very changeable and subject to
fashion as well as function. Ladies no longer braided their hair
in long tails, but rolled it up in a net under a veil, often
topped with an elaborate and fanciful headdress. They wore non-
functional long trains on their tunics and dainty shoes. Men wore
a long gown, sometimes clasped around the waist. Overtunics were
often lined or trimmed with native fur such as squirrel. People
often wore solid red, blue, or green clothes. Only monks and
friars wore brown. The introduction of buttons and buttonholes to
replace pins and laces made clothing warmer, and it could be made
tighter. After Edward I established the standard inch as three
continuous dried barleycorns, shoes came in standard sizes and
with a right one different from a left one. The spinning wheel
came into existence to replace the hand-held spindle. Now one hand
could be used to form the thread while the other hand turned a
large upright wheel that caused the thread to wind around the
spindle, which did not have to be held by hand. This resulted in
an uninterrupted spinning motion which was not interrupted by
alternately forming the thread and winding it on the spindle.

Lords surrounded themselves with people of the next lower rank,
usually from nearby families, and had large households. For
instance, the king had a circle of noblemen and ladies about him.
A peer or great prelate had a household of about 100-200 people,
among which were his inner circle, companions, administrators,
secretaries, bodyguards and armed escort, chaplain, singing
priests and choirboys, and servants. All officers of the household
were gentlemen. The secretary was usually a clerk, who was
literate because he had taken minor clerical orders. Since the
feudal obligation of the tenants was disappearing, a lord
sometimes hired retainers to supplement his escort of fighting
men. They proudly wore his livery of cloth or hat, which was in
the nature of a uniform or badge of service. A nobleman and his
lady had a circle of knights and gentlemen and their ladies. A
knight had a circle of gentlemen and their ladies.

The great barons lived in houses built within the walls of their
castles. Lesser barons lived in semi-fortified manors, many of
which had been licensed to be embattled or crenellated. Their
halls were two stories high, and usually built on the first rather
than on the second floor. Windows came down almost to the floor.
The hall had a raised floor at one end where the lord and lady and
a few others sat at a high table. The hearth was in the middle of
the room or on a wall. Sometimes a cat was used to open and shut
the louvers of the smoke outlet in the roof. The lord's bedroom
was next to the hall on the second floor and could have windows
into the hall and a spiral staircase connecting the two rooms.
There was a chapel, in which the lord attended mass every morning.
The many knights usually lived in unfortified houses with two
rooms.

In the great houses, there were more wall hangings, and ornaments
for the tables. The tables were lit with candles or torches made
of wax. Plates were gold and silver. The lord, his lady, and their
family and guests sat at the head table, which was raised on a
dais. On this high table was a large and elaborate salt cellar.
One's place in relationship to the salt cellar indicated one's
status: above or below the salt. Also, those of higher status at
the table ate a superior bread. The almoner [alms giver] said
grace. Gentlemen poured the lord's drink [cupbearer], served his
meat [carver], and supervised the serving of the food [sewer]. A
yeoman ewery washed the hands of the lord and his guests and
supplied the napkins, ewers [pitchers], and basins. A yeoman
cellarer or butler served the wine and beer. The yeoman of the
pantry served the bread, salt, and cutlery. The steward presided
over the table of household officers of gentle birth. The marshall
of the hall, clerk of the kitchen, or other yeomen officers
supervised other tables. Salt and spices were available at all
tables. Most people ate with their fingers, although there were
knives and some spoons. Drinking vessels were usually metal, horn,
or wood. A marshall and ushers kept order. Minstrels played
musical instruments or recited histories of noble deeds or amusing
anecdotes. Reading aloud was a favorite pastime. The almoner
collected the left-overs to distribute to the poor.

In lesser houses people ate off trenchers [a four day old slab of
coarse bread or a piece of wood with the middle scooped out like a
bowl], or plates of wood or pewter [made from tin, copper, and
lead]. They often shared plates and drinking vessels at the table.

Queen Eleanor, a cultivated, intelligent, and educated lady from
the continent, fostered culture and rewarded individual literary
efforts, such as translations from Latin, with grants of her own
money. She patronized Oxford and Cambridge Universities and left
bequests to poor scholars there. She herself had read Aristotle
and commentaries thereon, and she especially patronized literature
which would give cross-cultural perspectives on subjects. She was
kind and thoughtful towards those about her and was also
sympathetic to the afflicted and generous to the poor. She shared
Edward's career to a remarkable extent, even accompanying him on a
crusade. She had an intimate knowledge of the people in Edward's
official circle and relied on the advice of two of them in
managing her lands. She mediated disputes between earls and other
nobility, as well as softened her husband's temper towards people.
Edward granted her many wardships and marriages and she arranged
marriages with political advantages. She dealt with envoys coming
to the court. Her intellectual vitality and organized mentality
allowed her to deal with arising situations well. Edward held her
in great esteem. She introduced to England the merino sheep,
which, when bred with the English sheep, gave them a better
quality of wool. She and Edward often played games of chess and
backgammon.

Farm efficiency was increased by the use of windmills in the
fields to pump water and by allowing villeins their freedom and
hiring them as laborers only when needed. Customary service was
virtually extinct. A man could earn 5d. for reaping, binding, and
shocking into a pile, an acre of wheat. A strong man with a wife
to do the binding could do this in a long harvest day. Harvests
were usually plentiful, with the exception of two periods of
famine over the country due to weather conditions. Then the price
of wheat went way up and drove up the prices of all other goods
correspondingly. The story of outlaw Robin Hood, who made a living
by robbing, was passed around. This Robin Hood did not give to the
poor. But generally, there was enough grain to store so that the
population was no longer periodically devastated by famine. The
population grew and all arable land in the nation came under the
plough. The acre was standardized. About 1300, the price of an ox
was 9s., a heifer or cow 7s., a hide 2s.6d., a cart horse 2 or 3
pounds. Farm women went to nearby towns to sell eggs and dairy
products, usually to town women.

Although manors needed the ploughmen, the carters and drivers, the
herdsmen, and the dairymaid on a full-time basis, other tenants
spent increasing time in crafts and became village carpenters,
smiths, weavers or millers' assistants. Trade and the towns grew.
Smiths used coal in their furnaces.

Money rents often replaced service due to a lord, such as fish
silver, malt silver, or barley silver. The lord's rights are being
limited to the rights declared on the extents [records showing
service due from each tenant] and the rolls of the manor.
Sometimes land is granted to strangers because none of the kindred
of the deceased will take it. Often a manor court limited a fee in
land to certain issue instead of being inheritable by all heirs.
Surveyors' poles marked boundaries declared by court in boundary
disputes. This resulted in survey maps showing villages and cow
pastures.

The revival of trade and the appearance of a money economy was
undermining the long-established relationship between the lord of
the manor and his villeins. As a result, money payments were
supplementing or replacing payments in service and produce as in
Martham, where Thomas Knight held twelve acres in villeinage, paid
16d. for it and 14d. in special aids. "He shall do sixteen working
days in August and for every day he shall have one repast - viz.
Bread and fish. He shall hoe ten days without the lord's food -
price of a day 1/2 d. He shall cart to Norwich six cartings or
shall give 9d., and he shall have for every carting one leaf and
one lagena - or gallon - of ale. Also for ditching 1d. He shall
make malt 3 1/2 seams of barley or shall give 6d. Also he shall
flail for twelve days or give 12d. He shall plough if he has his
own plough, and for every ploughing he shall have three loaves and
nine herrings ... For carting manure he shall give 2."

Another example is this manor's holdings, when 3d. would buy food
for a day: "Extent of the manor of Bernehorne, made on Wednesday
following the feast of St. Gregory the Pope, in the thirty-fifth
year of the reign of King Edward, in the presence of Brother
Thomas, keeper of Marley, John de la More, and Adam de Thruhlegh,
clerks, on the oath of William de Gocecoumbe, Walter le Parker,
Richard le Knyst, Richard the son of the latter, Andrew of Estone,
Stephen Morsprich, Thomas Brembel, William of Swynham, John
Pollard, Roger le Glide, John Syward, and John de Lillingewist,
who say that there are all the following holdings:... John Pollard
holds a half acre in Aldithewisse and owes 18d. at the four
terms, and owes for it relief and heriot. John Suthinton holds a
house and 40 acres of land and owes 3s.6d. at Easter and
Michaelmas. William of Swynham holds one acre of meadow in the
thicket of Swynham and owes 1d. at the feast of Michaelmas. Ralph
of Leybourne holds a cottage and one acre of land in Pinden and
owes 3s. at Easter and Michaelmas, and attendance at the court in
the manor every three weeks, also relief and heriot. Richard Knyst
of Swynham holds two acres and a half of land and owes yearly 4s.
William of Knelle holds two acres of land in Aldithewisse and owes
yearly 4s. Roger le Glede holds a cottage and three roods of land
and owes 2s.6d. Easter and Michaelmas. Alexander Hamound holds a
little piece of land near Aldewisse and owes one goose of the
value of 2d. The sum of the whole rent of the free tenants, with
the value of the goose, is 18s.9d. They say, moreover, that John
of Cayworth holds a house and 30 acres of land, and owes yearly
2s. at Easter and Michaelmas; and he owes a cock and two hens at
Christmas of the value of 4d. And he ought to harrow for two days
at the Lenten sowing with one man and his own horse and his own
harrow, the value of the work being 4d.; and he is to receive from
the lord on each day three meals, of the value of 5d., and then
the lord will be at a loss of 1d. Thus his harrowing is of no
value to the service of the lord. And he ought to carry the manure
of the lord for two days with one cart, with his own two oxen, the
value of the work being 8d.; and he is to receive from the lord
each day three meals at the value as above. And thus the service
is worth 3d. clear. And he shall find one man for two days, for
mowing the meadow of the lord, who can mow, by estimation, one
acre and a half, the value of the mowing of an acre being 6d.: the
sum is therefore 9d. And he is to receive each day three meals of
the value given above. And thus that mowing is worth 4d. clear.
And he ought to gather and carry that same hay which he has cut,
the price of the work being 3d. And he shall have from the lord
two meals for one man, of the value of 1 1/2 d. Thus the work will
be worth 1 1/2 d. clear. And he ought to carry the hay of the lord
for one day with a cart and three animals of his own, the price of
the work being 6d. And he shall have from the lord three meals of
the value of 2 1/2 d. And thus the work is worth 3 1/2 d. clear.
And he ought to carry in autumn beans or oats for two days with a
cart and three animals of his own, the value of the work being
12d. And he shall receive from the lord each day three meals of
the value given above. And thus the work is worth 7d. clear. And
he ought to carry wood from the woods of the lord as far as the
manor, for two days in summer, with a cart and three animals of
his own, the value of the work being 9d. And he shall receive from
the lord each day three meals of the price given above. And thus
the work is worth 4d. clear. And he ought to find one man for two
days to cut heath, the value of the work being 4d., and he shall
have three meals each day of the value given above: and thus the
lord will lose, if he receives the service, 3d. Thus that mowing
is worth nothing to the service of the lord. And he ought to carry
the heath which he has cut, the value of the work being 5d. And he
shall receive from the lord three meals at the price of 2 1/2 d.
And thus the work will be worth 2 1/2 d. clear. And he ought to
carry to Battle, twice in the summer season, each time half a load
of grain, the value of the service being 4d. And he shall receive
in the manor each time one meal of the value of 2d. And thus the
work is worth 2d. clear. The totals of the rents, with the value
of the hens, is 2s.4d. The total of the value of the works is 2s.3
1/2 d., being owed from the said John yearly. William of Cayworth
holds a house and 30 acres of land and owes at Easter and
Michaelmas 2s. rent. And he shall do all customs just as the
aforesaid John of Cayworth. William atte Grene holds a house and
30 acres of land and owes in all things the same as the said John.
Alan atte Felde holds a house and 16 acres of land (for which the
sergeant pays to the court of Bixley 2s.), and he owes at Easter
and Michaelmas 4s., attendance at the manor court, relief, and
heriot. John Lyllingwyst holds a house and four acres of land and
owes at the two terms 2s., attendance at the manor court, relief,
and heriot. The same John holds one acre of land in the fields of
Hoo and owes at the two periods 2s., attendance, relief, and
heriot. Reginald atte Denne holds a house and 18 acres of land and
owes at the said periods 18d., attendance, relief, and heriot.
Robert of Northehou holds three acres of land at Saltcote and owes
at the said periods attendance, relief, and heriot. Total of the
rents of the villeins, with the value of the hens, 20s. Total of
all the works of these villeins, 6s.10 1/2 d. And it is to be
noted that none of the above-mentioned villeins can give their
daughters in marriage, nor cause their sons to be tonsured, nor
can they cut down timber growing on the lands they hold, without
licence of the bailiff or sergeant of the lord, and then for
building purposes and not otherwise. And after the death of any
one of the aforesaid villeins, the lord shall have as a heriot his
best animal, if he had any; if, however, he have no living beast,
the lord shall have no heriot, as they say. The sons or daughters
of the aforesaid villeins shall give, for entrance into the
holding after the death of their predecessors, as much as they
give of rent per year. Sylvester, the priest, holds one acre of
meadow adjacent to his house and owes yearly 3s. Total of the rent
of tenants for life, 3s. Petronilla atte Holme holds a cottage and
a piece of land and owes at Easter and Michaelmas - ; also,
attendance, relief, and heriot. Walter Herying holds a cottage and
a piece of land and owes at Easter and Michaelmas 18d.,
attendance, relief, and heriot. Isabella Mariner holds a cottage
and owes at the feast of St. Michael 12d., attendance, relief, and
heriot. Jordan atte Melle holds a cottage and 1 1/2 acres of land
and owes at Easter and Michaelmas 2s., attendance, relief, and
heriot. William of Batelesmere holds one acre of land with a
cottage and owes at the feast of St. Michael 3d., and one cock and
one hen at Christmas of the value of 3d., attendance, relief, and
heriot. John le Man holds half an acre of land with a cottage and
owes at the feast of St. Michael 2s., attendance, relief, and
heriot. Hohn Werthe holds one rood of land with a cottage and owes
at the said term 18d., attendance, relief, and heriot. Geoffrey
Caumbreis holds half an acre and a cottage and owes at the said
term 18d., attendance, relief, and heriot. William Hassok holds
one rood of land and a cottage and owes at the said term 18d.,
attendance, relief, and heriot. The same man holds 3 1/2 acres of
land and owes yearly at the feast of St. Michael 3s. for all.
Roger Doget holds half an acre of land and a cottage, which were
those of R. the miller, and owes at the feast of St. Michael 18d.,
attendance, relief, and heriot. Thomas le Brod holds one acre and
a cottage and owes at the said term 3s., attendance, relief, and
heriot. Agnes of Cayworth holds half an acre and a cottage and
owes at the said term 18d., attendance, relief, and heriot. Total
of the rents of the said cottagers, with the value of the hens,
34s.6d. And it is to be noted that all the said cottagers shall do
as regards giving their daughters in marriage, having their sons
tonsured, cutting down timber, paying heriot, and giving fines for
entrance, just as John of Cayworth and the rest of the villeins
above mentioned." The above fines and penalties, with heriots and
reliefs, are worth 5s. yearly.

Often one village was divided up among two or more manors, so
different manorial customs made living conditions different among
the villagers. Villages usually had carpenters, smiths, saddlers,
thatchers, carters, fullers, dyers, soapmakers, tanners, needlers,
and brassworkers. Each villein had his own garden in which to grow
fruit and vegetables next to his house, a pig (which fattened more
quickly than other animals), strips in the common field, and
sometimes an assart [a few acres of his own to cultivate as he
pleased on originally rough uncultivated waste land beyond the
common fields and the enclosed common pastures and meadows]. Most
villeins did not venture beyond their village except for about ten
miles to a local shrine or great fair a couple times a year. At
the fair might be fish, honey, spices, salt, garlic, oil, furs,
silks, canvas, soap, pans, pots, grindstones, coal, nails, tar,
iron, shovels, brushes, pails, horses, and pack-saddles. Early
apothecaries might sell potions there. Men and women looking for
other employment might attend to indicate their availability.

Under Edward I, villages were required to mount watches to protect
life and property and were called upon to provide one man for the
army and to pay his wages.

People told time by counting the number of rings of the church
bell, which rang on the hour. Every Sunday, the villagers went to
church, which was typically the most elaborate and centrally
located building in the village. The parishioners elected
churchwardens, who might be women. This religion brought comfort
and hope of going to heaven after judgment by God at death if sin
was avoided. On festival days, Bible stories, legends, and lives
of saints were read or performed as miracle dramas. They learned
to avoid the devil, who was influential in lonely places like
forests and high mountains. At death, the corpse was washed,
shrouded, and put into a rectangular coffin with a cross on its
lid. Priests sang prayers amid burning incense for the deliverance
of the soul to God while interring the coffin into the ground. Men
who did not make a will risked the danger of an intestate and
unconfessed death. The personal property of a man dying intestate
now went to the church as a trust for the dead man's immperiled
soul instead of to the man's lord.

Unqualified persons entered holy orders thereby obtaining "benefit
of clergy", and then returned to secular employments retaining
this protection.

A villein could be forever set free from servitude by his lord as
in this example:

"To all the faithful of Christ to whom the present writing
shall come, Richard, by the divine permission, abbot of
Peterborough and of the Convent of the same place, eternal
greeting in the Lord: Let all know that we have manumitted
and liberated from all yoke of servitude William, the son of
Richard of Wythington, whom previously we have held as our
born bondman, with his whole progeny and all his chattels,
so that neither we nor our successors shall be able to
require or exact any right or claim in the said William, his
progeny, or his chattels. But the same William, with his
whole progeny and all his chattels, shall remain free and
quit and without disturbance, exaction, or any claim on the
part of us or our successors by reason of any servitude
forever.

We will, moreover, and concede that he and his heirs shall
hold the messuages, land, rents, and meadows in Wythington
which his ancestors held from us and our predecessors, by
giving and performing the fine which is called merchet for
giving his daughter in marriage, and tallage from year to
year according to our will, - that he shall have and hold
these for the future from us and our successors freely,
quietly, peacefully, and hereditarily, by paying to us and
our successors yearly 40s. sterling, at the four terms of
the year, namely: at St. John the Baptist's day 10s., at
Michaelmas 10s., at Christmas 10s., and at Easter 10s., for
all service, exaction, custom, and secular demand; saving to
us, nevertheless, attendance at our court of Castre every
three weeks, wardship, and relief, and outside service of
our lord the King, when they shall happen. And if it shall
happen that the said William or his heirs shall die at any
time without an heir, the said messuage, land rents, and
meadows with their appurtenances shall return fully and
completely to us and our successors. Nor will it be allowed
to the said William or his heirs to give, sell, alienate,
mortgage, or encumber in any way, the said messuage, land,
rents, and meadows, or any part of them, by which the said
messuage, land, rents, and meadows should not return to us
and our successors in the form declared above. And if this
should occur later, their deed shall be declared null, and
what is thus alienated shall come to us and our successors...

Given at Borough, for the love of Lord Robert of good
memory, once abbot, our predecessor and maternal uncle of
the said William, and at the instance of the good man,
Brother Hugh of Mutton, relative of the said abbot Robert,
A.D. 1278, on the eve of Pentecost."

Villeins who were released from the manorial organization by
commutation of their service for a money payment took the name of
their craft as part of their name, such as, for the manufacture of
textiles, Weaver, Draper, Comber, Fuller, Napper, Cissor, Tailor,
Textor; for metal-work, Faber, Ironmonger; for leatherwork,
Tanner; for woodwork, building and carpentry, Carpenter, Cooper,
Mason, Pictor; for food-production, Baker, Pistor. Iron, tin,
lead, salt, and even coal were providing increasing numbers of
people with a livelihood.

Many new boroughs were founded as grants of market rights by the
king grew in number. These grants implied the advantage of the
King's protection. In fact, one flooded town was replaced with a
new town planned with square blocks. It was the charter which
distinguished the borough community from the other communities
existing in the country. It invested each borough with a distinct
character. The privileges which the charter conferred were
different in different places. It might give trading privileges:
freedom from toll, a guild merchant, a right to hold a fair. It
might give jurisdictional privileges: a right to hold court with
greater or less franchises. It might give governmental privileges:
freedom from the burden of attending the hundred and county
courts, the return of writs, which meant the right to exclude the
royal officials, the right to take the profits of the borough,
paying for them a fixed sum to the Crown or other lord of the
borough, the right to elect their own officials rather than them
being appointed by the king or a lord, and the right to provide
for the government of the borough. It might give tenurial
privileges: the power to make a will of lands, or freedom from the
right of a lord to control his tenants' marriages. It might give
procedural privileges: trial by combat is excluded, and trial by
compurgation is secured and regulated. These medieval borough
charters are very varied, and represent all stages of development
and all grades of franchise. Boroughs bought increasing rights and
freedoms from their lord, who was usually the King.

In the larger towns, where cathedrals and public building were
built, there arose a system for teaching these technical skills
and elaborate handicraft, wood, metal, stained glass, and stone
work. A boy from the town would be bound over in apprenticeship to
a particular craftsman, who supplied him with board and clothing.
The craftsman might also employ men for just a day. These
journeymen were not part of the craftsman's household as was the
apprentice. After a few years of an apprenticeship, one became a
journeyman and perfected his knowledge of his craft and its
standards by seeing different methods and results in various
towns. He was admitted as a master of his trade to a guild upon
presenting an article of his work worthy of that guild's standard
of workmanship: his "masterpiece". Women, usually wives of
brethren only, could be admitted. The tailors' guild and the
skinners' guild are extant now.

When guilds performed morality plays based on Bible stories at
town festivals, there was usually a tie between the Bible story
and the guild's craft. For instance, the story of the loaves and
fishes would be performed by the Bakers' or Fishmongers' Guild.
The theme of the morality play was the fight of the Seven Cardinal
Virtues against the Seven Deadly Sins for the human soul, a life-
long battle. The number seven was thought to have sacred power;
there were seven sacraments, seven churches in the Biblical
Apocalypse, seven liberal arts and seven devilish arts. The seven
sacraments were: baptism, confirmation, Lord's Supper, penance,
orders, matrimony, and extreme unction.

A borough was run by a mayor elected usually for life. By being
members of a guild, merchant-traders and craftsmen acquired the
legal status of burgesses and had the freedom of the borough. Each
guild occupied a certain ward of the town headed by an alderman.
The town aldermen, who were unpaid, made up the town council,
which advised the mayor. The Mayor of London received 40 pounds
for hospitality, but in small towns, 20s. sufficed. Often there
were town police, bailiffs, beadles [messengers], a town crier,
and a town clerk. London offices included recorder, prosecutor,
common sergeant, and attorneys. In the center of town were the
fine stone houses, a guildhall with a belfry-tower, and the
marketplace - a square or broad street, where the town crier made
public announcements with bell or horn. Here too was the ducking
stool for scandalmongers and the stocks which held offenders by
their legs and perhaps their hands to be scorned and pelted by
bystanders with, for instance, rotten fruit and filth. No longer
were towns dominated by the local landholders.

In London there were 4 royal princes, 6 great earls, 17 barons, 26
knights, and 11 female representatives of the peerage (counted in
1319). There was a wall with four towers surrounding the White
Tower, and this castle was known as the Tower of London. Another
wall and a moat were built around it and it has reached its final
form. Hovels, shops, and waste patches alternated with high walls
and imposing gateways protecting mansions. The mansions had
orchards, gardens, stables, brewhouses, bakeries, guardrooms, and
chapels. London streets were paved with cobbles and sand. Each
citizen was to keep the street in front of his tenement in good
repair. Later, each alderman appointed four reputable men to
repair and clean the streets for wages. The repair of Bishopsgate
was the responsibility of the Bishop because he received one stick
from every cart of firewood passing through it. Rules as to tiled
roofs were enforced. A 1297 ordinance required all taverns to
close at curfew, an hour that fluctuated. Prostitutes were
expelled from the city because the street with their bawdy houses
had become very noisy. Women huckster-retailers, nurses, servants,
and loose women were limited to wearing hoods furred with lambskin
or rabbitskin and forbidden to wear hoods furred with vair or
miniver [grey or white squirrel] in the guise of good ladies. An
infirmary for the blind was founded by a mercer, who became its
first prior.

The London mayoral elections were hotly fought over until in 1285,
when the aldermen began to act with the aid of an elected council
in each of the twenty-four wards, which decentralized the
government of the city. Each ward chose certain of its inhabitants
to be councilors to the aldermen. This council was to be consulted
by him and its advice to be followed. In 1291, the aldermen for
the first time included a fishmonger. The Fishmongers were the
only guild at this time, besides the Weavers, which had acquired
independent jurisdiction by the transfer of control of their
weekly hall-mote from a public official to themselves. Craftsmen
began to take other public offices too. By the reign of Edward II,
all the citizens were obliged to be enrolled among the trade-
guilds. A great quarrel between the weaver's guild and the
magistracy began the control of the city by the craft guilds or
city companies. Admission to freedom of the city [citizenship] was
controlled by the citizens, who decided that no man of English
birth, and especially no English merchant, who followed any
specific mistery [French word for a calling or trade] or craft,
was to be admitted to the freedom of the city except on the
security of six reputable men of that mistery or craft. No longer
could one simply purchase citizenship. Apprentices had to finish
their terms before such admission, and often could not afford the
citizenship fee imposed on them. Only freemen could sell wares in
the city, a custom of at least two hundred years.

As economic activity in London became more complex and on a larger
scale in the 1200s, some craftsmen were brought under the control
of other crafts or merchants. The bakers fell under the control of
the wholesale grain dealers; the weavers became pieceworkers for
rich cloth merchants; the blade-makers and shearers were employed
by cutlers; coppersmiths were controlled by girdlers; fullers were
controlled by entrepreneurial dyers; and the painters, joiners,
and lorimers were controlled by the saddlers. Guilds moved their
meeting places from churches, which were now too small, to guild
halls. The controlling officers of the large guilds met at the
Guildhall, which became the seat of mayoral authority. London
streets in existence by this time include Cordwainer, Silver,
Cannon (Candlewick), and Roper. Lanes included Ironmonger, Soper,
Spurrier, Lad (ladles), Distaff, Needles, Mede, Limeburner, and
Hosier. Fighting among groups was common in London. There was a
street fight on a large scale in 1327 between the saddlers and a
coalition of joiners, painters, and lorimers (makers of metal work
of saddles). Much blood was shed in the street battle between the
skinners and the fishmongers in 1340. There was a city ordinance
that no one except royal attendants, baronial valets, and city
officials were to go about armed. Disputes among neighbors that
were brought to court included the use and upkeep of party walls,
blocked and overflowing gutters, cesspits too close to a
neighbor's property, noisy tenants, loss of light, and dangerous
or overhanging structures.

In 1275, a goldsmith was chief assay-master of the King's mint and
keeper of the exchange at London. The king gave the Goldsmiths'
Company the right of assay [determination of the quantity of gold
or silver in an object] and required that no vessels of gold or
silver should leave the maker's hands until they had been tested
by the wardens and stamped appropriately. In 1279, goldsmith
William Farrington bought the soke of the ward containing the
goldsmiths' shops. It remained in his family for 80 years. A
patent of 1327 empowered the guild to elect a properly qualified
governing body to superintend its affairs, and reform subjects of
just complaint. It also prescribed, as a safeguard against a
prevailing fraud and abuse, that all members of the trade should
have their standing in Cheapside or in the King's exchange, and
that no gold or silver should be manufactured for export, except
that which had been bought at the exchange or of the trade openly.

Some prices in London were: large wooden bedstead 18s., a small
bedstead 2s., a large chest for household items 2s., feather beds
2-3s., a table 1s., a chair 4-6d., cloth gown lined with fur 13-
20s., plain coats and overcoats 2-8s., caps 2-8d., a pair of pen-
cases with inkhorn 4d., a skin of parchment 1d., 24 sheets of
paper 6d, a carcass of beef 15s., a pig 4s., a swan 5s., and a
pheasant 4s. There was a problem with malefactors committing
offenses in London and avoiding its jurisdiction by escaping to
Southwark across the Thames. So Southwark was given a royal
charter which put it under the jurisdiction of London for peace
and order matters and allowed London to appoint its tax collector.
London forbade games being played because they had replaced
practice in archery, which was necessary for defense.

A royal inquiry into the state of the currency indicated much
falsification and coin-clipping by the Jews and others. About 280
Jews and many Englishmen were found guilty and hanged. The rest of
the Jews, about 16,000, were expelled in 1290. This was popular
with the public because of the abuses of usury. There had been
outbreaks of violence directed at the Jews since about 1140. The
king used Italian bankers instead because he thought them more
equitable in their dealings. The lepers were driven out of London
in 1276. Exports and imports were no longer a tiny margin in an
economy just above the subsistence level. Exports were primarily
raw wool and cloth, but also grain, butter, eggs, herring, hides,
leather goods such as bottles and boots, embroideries, metalware,
horseshoes, daggers, tin, coal, and lead. Imported were wine,
silk, timber, furs, rubies, emeralds, fruits, raisins, currents,
pepper, ginger, cloves, rice, cordovan leather, pitch, hemp,
spars, fine iron, short rods of steel, bow-staves of yew, tar,
oil, salt, cotton (for candle-wicks), and alum (makes dyes hold).
Ships which transported them had one or two masts upon which sails
could be furled, the recently invented rudder, and a carrying
capacity of up to 200 tuns [about one ton]. Many duties of
sheriffs and coroners were transferred to county landholders by
commissions. In coastal counties, there were such commissions for
supervising coastal defense and maintaining the beacons. Each
maritime county maintained a coast guard, which was under the
command of a knight. Ports had well-maintained harbors, quays, and
streets. By 1306 there was an office of admiral of the fleet of
the ships of the southern ports.

Women could inherit land in certain circumstances. Some tenants
holding land in chief of the king were women.

Regulation of trade became national instead of local. Trade was
relatively free; almost the only internal transportation tolls
were petty portages and viages levied to recoup the expense of a
bridge or road which had been built by private enterprise.
Responsibility for the coinage was transferred from the individual
moneyers working in different boroughs to a central official who
was to become Master of the Mint. The round half penny and
farthing [1/4 penny] were created so that the penny needn't be cut
into halves and quarters anymore.

Edward I called meetings of representatives from all social and
geographic sectors of the nation at one Parliament to determine
taxes due to the Crown. He declared that "what touches all, should
be approved by all". He wanted taxes from the burgesses in the
towns and the clergy's ecclesiastical property as well as from
landholders. He argued to the clergy that if barons had to both
fight and pay, they who could do no fighting must at least pay.
When the clergy refused to pay, he put them outside the royal
protection and threatened outlawry and confiscation of their
lands. Then they agreed to pay and to renounce all papal orders
contrary to the King's authority.

The Model Parliament of 1295 was composed of the three
communities. The first were the lords, which included seven earls
and forty-one barons. Because of the increase of lesser barons due
to a long national peace and prosperity, the lords attending were
reduced in numbers and peerage became dependent not on land
tenure, but on royal writ of summons. The great barons were chosen
by the king and received a special summons in their own names to
the council or Parliament. Others were called by a general
summons. The second community was the clergy, represented by the
two archbishops, bishops from each of eighteen dioceses, and
sixty-seven abbots. The third community was the commons. It was
composed of two knights elected by the suitors who were then
present at the county court, two burgesses elected by principal
burgesses of each borough, and two representatives from each city.
The country knights had a natural affinity with the towns in part
because their younger sons sought their occupation, wife, and
estate there. Also, great lords recruited younger brothers of
yeoman families for servants and fighting men, who ultimately
settled down as tradesmen in the towns. The country people and the
town people also had a community of interest by both being
encompassed by the county courts. The peasants were not
represented in the county courts nor in Parliament. One had to
have land to be entitled to vote because the landowner had a stake
in the country, a material security for his good behavior.

Parliaments without knights and burgesses still met with the king.
But it was understood that no extraordinary tax could be levied
without the knights and burgesses present. Ordinary taxes could be
arranged with individuals, estates, or communities. The lower
clergy ceased to attend Parliament and instead considered taxes to
pay to the king during their national church convocations, which
were held at the same time as Parliament. For collection purposes,
their diocesan synod was analogous to the count court. The higher
clergy remained in Parliament because they were feudal vassals of
the king.

Edward's council was the highest tribunal. It comprised the
chancellor, treasurer and other great officers of state, the
justices of the three courts, the master or chief clerks of the
chancery, and certain selected prelates and barons. The council
assisted the king in considering petitions. Most petitions to the
King were private grievances of individuals, including people of
no social rank, such as prisoners. Other petitions were from
communities and groups, such as religious houses, the two
universities, boroughs, and counties. These groups sometimes
formed alliances in a common cause. Women sometimes petitioned.
From 1293, the petitions were placed in four stacks for
examination by the King and council, by the Chancery, by the
Exchequer, or by the justices. Many hours were spent hearing and
answering petitions. From 1305, the petitions were presented to
the king in full Parliament.

The king still exercised the power of legislation without a full
Parliament. He might in his council issue proclamations. The Chief
Justices still had, as members of the king's council, a real voice
in the making of laws. The king and his justices might, after a
statute has been made, put an authoritative interpretation upon
it. Royal proclamations had the same force as statutes while the
king lived; sometimes there were demands that certain
proclamations be made perpetual by being embodied in statutes,
e.g. fixing wages. There was no convention that agreement or even
the presence of representatives was required for legislation. The
idea that the present can bind the absent and that the majority of
those present may outvote the minority was beginning to take hold.
Edward I's councilors and justices took an oath to give, expedite,
and execute faithful counsel; to maintain, recover, increase, and
prevent the diminution of, royal rights; to do justice, honestly
and unsparingly; to join in no engagements which may present the
councilor from fulfilling his promise; and to take no gifts in the
administration of justice, save meat and drink for the day. These
were in addition to other matters sworn to by the councilors.

Parliament soon was required to meet at least once a year at the
Great Hall at Westminster beside the royal palace. London paid its
representatives 10s. per day for their attendance at Parliament.
From the time of Edward II, the counties paid their knight-
representatives 4s. daily, and the boroughs paid their burgess-
representatives 2s. daily. When it convened, the Chancellor sat on
the left and the Archbishop of Canterbury on the right of the
king. Just below and in front of the king his council sits on wool
sacks brought in for their comfort from wool stored nearby. It
answers questions. Behind them on the wool sacks sit the justices,
who may be called upon to give legal advice, e.g. in framing
statutes. Then come the spiritual and lay barons, then the
knights, and lastly the elected burgesses and citizens. Lawmaking
is now a function of Parliament, of which the King's council is a
part, instead of a function of the king with his council and
justices. The common people now had a voice in law-making, though
legislation could be passed without their consent. The first
legislation proposed by the commons was alteration of the forest
laws governing the royal pleasure parks. Such a statute was passed
in a bargain for taxes of a percentage of all movables, which were
mostly foodstuffs and animals. The king offered to give up the
royal right to tax merchandise for a new tax: customs on exports.
The barons and knights of the county agreed to pay an 11th, the
burgesses, a 7th, and the clergy a 10th on their other movables.
In time, several boroughs sought to be included in the county
representation so they could pay the lower rate. This new system
of taxation began the decline of the imposition of feudal aids,
knights' fees, scutages, carucage, and tallage, which had been
negotiated by the Exchequer with the reeves of each town, the
sheriff and county courts of each county, and the bishops of each
diocese.

The staple [depot or mart, from the French "estaple"] system began
when the export of wool had increased and Parliament initiated
customs duties of 6s.8d. on every sack of wool, woolfells
[sheepskin with wool still on it], or skins exported in 1275.
These goods had to be assessed and collected at certain designated
ports. Certain large wool merchants, the merchants of the staple,
were allowed to have a monopoly on the purchase and export of
wool. Imports of wine were taxed as tunnage as before, that is
there was a royal right to take from each wine ship one cask for
every ten at the price of 20s. per cask.

In 1297, Edward I confirmed the Magna Carta and other items.
Judgments contrary to Magna Carta were nullified. The documents
were to be read in cathedral churches as grants of Edward and all
violators were to be excommunicated. He also agreed not to impose
taxes without the consent of Parliament after baronial pressure
had forced him to retreat from trying to increase, for a war in
France, the customs tax on every exported sack of wool to 40s.
from the 6s. 8d. per sack it had been since 1275. The customs tax
was finally fixed at 10s. for every sack of wool, 2s. for each tun
[casket] of wine, and 6d. for every pound's worth of other goods.
The "tenths and fifteenths" tax levied on income from movables or
chattels became regular every year. Edward also confirmed the
Forest Charter, which called for its earlier boundaries. And he
agreed not to impound any grain or wool or and like against the
will of the owners, as had been done before to collect taxes.
Also, the special prises or requisitions of goods for national
emergency were not to be a precedent. Lastly, he agreed not to
impose penalties on two earls and their supporters for refusing to
serve in the war in France when the king did not go.

From 1299, statutes were recorded in a Statute Roll as they were
enacted.

By the end of the 1200s, the King's wardrobe, where confidential
matters such as military affairs were discussed in his bedroom,
became a department of state with the King's privy seal. The
keeper of the privy seal was established as a new office by Edward
I in 1318. The wardrobe paid and provisioned the knights, squires,
and sergeants of the king and was composed mostly of civil
servants. It traveled with the King. The Crown's treasure, plate,
tents, hangings, beds, cooking-utensils, wine, and legal and
financial rolls were carried on pack horses or in two-wheeled
carts drawn by oxen, donkeys, or dogs. The people in the entourage
rode horses or walked. The other two specialized administrative
bodies were the Exchequer, which received most of the royal
revenue and kept accounts at Westminster, and the Chancery, which
wrote royal writs, charters, and letters, and kept records.

The chief functions of administration in the 1300s were performed
by the council, chancery, wardrobe, chamber [room off wardrobe for
dressing and for storage], and exchequer. Many of the chancellors
had come from the wardrobe and chamber. In time, the chancellor
ceased to be a part of the king's personal retinue and to follow
the court. The chancery became primarily a department of central
administration rather than a secretarieat and record-keeping part
of the royal household. The king used a privy seal to issue
directives to the chancery. Edward III made some merchants earls
and appointed them to be his ministers. He did not summon anyone
to his council who did not have the confidence of the magnates
[barons, earls, bishops, and abbots].

There was a recoinage due to debasement of the old coinage. This
increased the number of coins in circulation. The price of wheat
went from about 7s. in 1270 to about 5s. per quarter in 1280. Also
the price of an ox went from 14s. to 10s. Then there were broad
movements of prices, within which there were wide fluctuations,
largely due to the state of the harvest. From 1280 to 1290, there
was runaway inflation. In some places, both grain and livestock
prices almost doubled between 1305 and 1310. Wheat prices peaked
at 15s.5d. a quarter in the famine year of 1316. In 1338, prices
dropped and remained low for twenty years. The poor were hurt by
high prices and the lords of the manors were hurt by low prices.

As before, inadequate care and ignorance of nutrition caused many
infant deaths. Accidents and disease were so prevalent that death
was always near and life insecure. Many women died in childbirth.

In the 1300s, there were extremes of fashion in men's and women's
clothing including tight garments, pendant sleeves down to the
ground, coats so short they didn't reach the hips or so long they
reached the heels, hoods so small they couldn't cover the head,
and shoes with long curved peaks like claws at the toes. Both men
and women wore belts low on the hips. The skirt of a lady's tunic
was fuller and the bodice more closely fitted than before. Her
hair was usually elaborately done up, e.g. with long curls or
curled braids on either side of the face. A jeweled circlet was
often worn around her head. Ladies wore on their arms or belts,
cloth handbags, which usually contained toiletries, such as combs
made of ivory, horn, bone, or wood, and perhaps a little book of
devotions. A man wore a knife and a bag on his belt. Some women
painted their faces and/or colored their hair. There were hand-
held glass mirrors. Some people kept dogs purely as pets.

There was a great development of heraldic splendor with for
instance, crests, coat-armor, badges, pennons [long, triangular
flag], and helmets. They descended through families. Not only was
it a mark of service to wear the badge of a lord, but lords wore
each other's badges by way of compliment.

Edward I always sought the agreement of Parliament before
assembling an army or taking actions of war, and Parliamentary
consent came to be expected for such. He completed the conquest
and annexation of Wales in 1284. The feudal army was summoned for
the last time in the 100 year war with France, which began in
1337. In it the English longbow was used to pierce French knights'
armor. There had been much competition between the strength of
arrows to pierce and the heaviness of armor to resist. Guns and
cannon with gunpowder were introduced in 1338. A system to raise
an army by contract was developed. Contracts were made with
nobles, knights, or esquires who undertook to enlist an agreed
number of armored men-at-arms and archers, who were paid wages.
The King provided transport for each contractor and his retinue,
baggage, and horses. The title of "knight" now resumed its
military character as well as being a social rank.

After Edward I died in 1307, there was a period of general
lawlessness and contests for power between earls and barons and
the irresponsible King Edward II, who was not a warrior king. He
eventually was assassinated. Also in 1307, Parliament required the
king to obtain its consent for any exchange or alteration of the
currency.

By 1319, the guilds of London had become so powerful that they
extracted a charter from the king that to be a citizen of London
one had to be a member of a guild.

By 1326, scholars, the nobility, and the clergy had reading
eyeglasses, which had been invented in Italy, probably by the
glass blowers. Italy was famous for its glasswork. The first
eyeglasses were fabricated by pouring molten glass into curved
molds. The actual shape was difficult to control because thermal
expansion and contraction resulted in bubbles and other optical
imperfections.

As of 1336, importing foreign cloth or fur, except for use by the
King's family, was prohibited, as was the export of unwoven wool.
Later, this was relaxed and a customs tax of 33% was imposed on
wool exported.

Foreign cloth-workers were allowed by statute to come to live in
the nation, be granted franchises, and be in the King's
protection. But no cloth was to be exported until it was fulled.
During the reign of Edward III, Flanders weavers were encouraged
to come to England to teach the English how to weave and finish
fine cloth. A cloth industry grew with all the manufacturing
processes under the supervision of one capitalist manufacturer,
who set up his enterprise in the country to avoid the regulations
of the towns. The best places were hilly areas where there were
many streams and good pasture for flocks of sheep. He hired
shearers to cut the nap as short as possible to give a smooth
surface, then spinsters to card and spin the wool in their country
cottages, then weavers, and then fullers and dyers to come to
fulling mills established near streams for their waterpower.
Fulling became mechanized as heavy wooden hammers run by water-
power replaced feet trampling the cloth covered with soap or
fuller's clay. The shaft loom was a technological advance in
weaving. This loom was horizontal and its frames, which controlled
the lifting of the warp threads, could each be raised by a foot
treadle. This left both hands free to throw and catch the shuttle
attached to the weft thread from side to side through the warp.
Also many more weaving patterns became possible through the use of
different thread configurations on the frames.

In 1341, the commons forced King Edward III and council to approve
their petition when Parliament was still in session so that they
would draft the legislation in true accordance with the petition.
This had not been done when drafting had been done after
Parliament ended, when the phrase "saving the prerogatives of the
king" was often added. Also the lords and commons consulted each
other and joined in petitions. But they usually stated their
conclusions to the king separately. It was considered a burden
rather than a privilege to attend Parliament and elections for
such were not often contested. They were conducted according to
local custom until 1600.

In 1348, the Commons voted a tax of 1/15th on moveables for three
years with the proviso that it be spent only on the war against
Scotland. This began the practice of appropriation of funds. In
1381, began the practice of appointing treasurers of the subsidies
to account to Parliament for both receipts and disbursements.

Alien merchants wree under the king's special protection. In
return for paying extra import and export duties, Edward III gave
alien merchants full rights of trade, travel, and residence in
England free of all local tolls and restrictions, and guaranteed a
fair hearing of their commercial and criminal cases in special pie
powder (after French "pie poudrous" or dusty feet) courts at
fairs.



                              - The Law -

Edward I remodeled the law in response to grievances and to
problems which came up in the courts. The changes improved the
efficiency of justice and served to accommodate it to the changing
circumstances of the social system. These statutes were:

"No man by force of arms, malice or menacing shall disturb
anyone in making free election [of sheriffs, coroners,
conservators of the peace by freeholders of the county]."

"No city, borough, town, nor man shall be amerced without
reasonable cause and according to the severity of his
trespass. That is, every freeman saving his freehold, a
merchant saving his merchandise, a villein saving his
waynage [implements of agriculture], and that by his peers."

No distress shall be taken of ploughing-cattle or sheep.

Young salmon shall not be taken from waters in the spring.

No loan shall be made for interest.

If an heir who is a minor is married off without the consent
of the guardian, the value of the marriage will be lost and
the wrongdoer imprisoned. If anyone marries off an heir over
14 years of age without the consent of the guardian, the
guardian shall have double the value of the marriage.
Moreover, anyone who has withdrawn a marriage shall pay the
full value thereof to the guardian for the trespass and make
amends to the King. And if a lord refuses to marry off a
female heir of full age and keep her unmarried because he
covets the land, then he shall not have her lands more than
two years after she reaches full age, at which time she can
recover her inheritance without giving anything for the
wardship or her marriage. However, if she maliciously
refuses to be married by her lord, he may hold her land and
inheritance until she is the age of a male heir, that is, 21
years old and further until he has taken the value of the
marriage.

Aid to make one's son a knight or marry off his daughter of
a whole knight's fee shall be taken 20s., and 400s.[yearly
income from] land held in socage 20s. [5%], and of more,
more; and of less, less; after the rate. And none shall levy
such aid to make his son a knight until his son is 15 years
old, nor to marry his daughter until she is seven year old.

A conveyance of land which is the inheritance of a minor
child by his guardian or lord to another is void.

Dower shall not abate because the widow has received dower
of another man unless part of the first dower received was
of the same tenant and in the same town. But a woman who
leaves her husband for another man is barred from dower.

A tenant for a term of years who has let land from a
landlord shall not let it lie waste, nor shall a landlord
attempt to oust a tenant for a term of years by fictitious
recoveries.

When two or more hold wood, turfland, or fishing or other
such thing in common, wherein none knows his several, and
one does waste against the minds of the others, he may be
sued.

Lands which are given to a man and his wife upon condition
that if they die without heirs, the land shall revert to the
donor or his heir, may not be alienated to defeat this
condition.

If a man takes land in marriage with a wife, and she dies
before him, the land will revert to the donor or his heir,
unless the couple has a child, in which case the husband
will have the land by the courtesy of the nation for his
life before it reverts to the donor or his heir.

The ecclesiastical law had a doctrine for women-covert, i.e.
women under the protection or coverture of a husband. It
held that chattels of a woman who married vested in her
husband, but he could not dispose of them by will. Her
jewelry, but not her apparel, could go to his creditors if
his assets didn't cover his debts. If she was a merchant
when she married, she could still sell her goods in the open
market. The husband also had the right to the rents and
profits from his wife's real estate, but not the real estate
itself, unless by the birth of a child he became tenant for
life by courtesy. Only the father, but not the mother had
authority over their children. A father had a right to his
child's services, and could sue a third party for abducting,
enticing away, or injuring the child, just as he could for
his servants. A husband was liable for the debts of his
wife, even if incurred before the marriage. He was
answerable for her torts and trespasses, except for battery.
For this reason, he was allowed to chastise her, restrain
her liberty for gross misbehavior, and punish her by beating
for some misdemeanors. But the courts would protect her from
death, serious bodily harm, or his failure to supply her the
necessities of life. Promises under oath were not recognized
for married women. A conveyance or agreement of a married
woman was void. These principles held only if she was under
the protection of her husband, i.e. a woman-covert, and not
if they lived separately, for instance if he went to sea. If
separated, she had a right to alimony from him to maintain
herself.

A free tenant may alienate his land freely, but if the
alienation was for an estate in fee simple [to a man and his
heirs], the person acquiring the land would hold of the
land's lord and not of the person alienating the land. (This
halted the growth of subinfeudation and caused services as
well as incidents of aids, relief, escheat, wardship, and
marriage to go directly to the Chief Lord. It also
advantaged the Crown as overlord, which then acquired more
direct tenants.)

One may create an estate which will descend in unbroken
succession down the line of inheritance prescribed in the
original gift as long as that line should last, instead of
descending to all heirs. This was called a fee simple
conditional holding of land. The successive occupants might
draw the rents and cut the wood, but on the death of each,
his heir would take possession of an unencumbered interest,
unfettered by any liability for the debt of his ancestor or
by any disposition made by him during his lifetime e.g. a
wife's estate in dower or a husband's estate in courtesy. If
there was no issue, it reverted to the original donor. (This
curtailed the advantage of tenants of the greater barons who
profited by increased wardships and reliefs from
subinfeudation from subdivision and better cultivation of
their land while still paying the greater barons fixed sums.
This statute that protected reversionary estates
incidentally established a system of entails. This new
manner of holding land: "fee tail", is in addition to the
concepts of land held in fee simple (i.e. with no
subdivisions) and land held for life. No grantee or his
heirs could alienate the land held in fee tail. The donor
could give directions that the land could remain to another
person rather than reverting to himself. (Interests in
remainder or reversion of estates in land replace the lord's
tenurial right to succeed to land by escheat if his tenant
dies without heirs.)

In Kent, all men are free and may give or sell their lands
without permission of their lords, as before the Conquest.
(Since Kent was nearest the continent, money flowed between
England and the continent through Kent. So Kent never
developed a manorial system of land holding, but evolved
from a system of clans and independent villages directly
into a commercial system.

Anyone disseising another whereby he also robs him or uses
force and arms in the disseisin shall be imprisoned and
fined. The plaintiff shall recover seisin and damages.

"All must be ready at the command and summons of sheriffs,
and at the cry of the country, to sue and arrest felons as
necessary as well within franchise as without." Otherwise,
he shall be fined. A Lord defaulting shall lose his
franchise to the King. A Bailiff defaulting shall be
imprisoned a year as well as fined, or be imprisoned two
years if he cannot pay the fine. A sheriff, coroner, or any
other bailiff who conceals a felony will be imprisoned for a
year and pay a fine, or be imprisoned for three years if he
cannot pay the fine.

Villeins must report felons, pursue felons, serve in the
watch, and clear growth of concealing underwood from roads.
They must join the military to fight on the borders when
called. Desertion from the army is punishable.

Accessories to a crime shall not be declared outlaw before
the principal is proven guilty. (This made uniform the
practice of the various counties.)

Only those imprisoned for the smaller offenses of a single
incidence of petty larceny, receipt of felons, or accessory
to a felony, or some other trespass not punishable by life
or limb shall be let out by sufficient surety. Prisoners who
were outlawed or escaped from prison or are notorious
thieves or were imprisoned for felonious house burning,
passing false money, counterfeiting the King's seal, treason
touching the king himself, or other major offenses or have
been excommunicated by the church may not be released.

Killing in self-defense and by mischance shall be pardoned
from the King's indictment. Killing by a child or a person
of unsound mind shall be pardoned from the King's
indictment. (But a private accuser can still sue.)

Any man who ravishes [abducts] any woman without her consent
or by force shall have the criminal penalty of loss of life
or limb. (The criminal penalty used to be just two years in
prison.)

Trespasses in parks or ponds shall be punished by
imprisonment for three years and a fine as well as paying
damages to the wronged person. After his imprisonment, he
shall find a surety or leave the nation.

"Forasmuch as there have been often times found in the
country devisors of tales, where discord, or occasion of
discord, has many times arisen between the King and his
people, or great men of this realm; For the damage that has
and may thereof ensue, it is commanded, that from henceforth
none be so hardy to tell or publish any false news or tales,
whereby discord or occasion of discord or slander may grow
between the King and his people, or the great men of the
realm." Anyone doing so shall be imprisoned until he brings
into the court the first author of the tale.

A system of registration and enforcement of commercial
agreements was established by statute. Merchants could
obtain a writing of a debt sealed by the debtor and
authenticated by royal seal or a seal of a mayor of certain
towns, and kept by the creditor. Failure to pay a such a
debt was punishable by imprisonment and, after three months,
the selling of borough tenements and chattels and of county
lands. During the three months, the merchant held this
property in a new tenure of "statute merchant". (Prior to
this, it was difficult for a foreign merchant to collect a
debt because he could not appear in court which did not
recognize him as one of its proper "suitors" or
constituents, so he had to trust a local attorney. Also, the
remedy was inadequate because the history of the law of debt
was based on debt as a substitute for the blood feud, so
that failure to pay meant slavery or death. Also a debtor's
land was protected by feudal custom, which was contrary to
the idea of imposing a new tenant on a lord.)

"In no city, borough, town, market, or fair shall a person
of the realm be distrained for a debt for which he is not
the debtor or pledge."

Anyone making those passing with goods through their
jurisdiction answer to them in excess of their jurisdiction
shall be grievously amerced to the King.

No market town shall take an outrageous toll contrary to the
common custom of the nation.

Since good sterling money has been counterfeited with base
and false metal outside the nation and then brought in,
foreigners found in the nation's ports with this false money
shall forfeit their lives. Anyone bringing money into the
nation must have it examined at his port of entry. Payments
of money shall be made only by coin of the appropriate
weight delivered by the Warden of the Exchange and marked
with the King's mark. (A currency exchange was established
at Dover for the exchange of foreign currency for English
sterling.)

The silver in craftwork must be sterling and marked with the
Leopard's Head. The gold in craftwork must meet the standard
of the Touch of Paris.

The assize of bread and ale had been and was enforced
locally by local inspectors. Now, the Crown appointed royal
officers for the gauge of wines and measurement of cloths.
Edicts disallowed middlemen from raising prices against
consumers by such practices as forestalling [intercepting
goods before they reached the market and then reselling
them] or engrossing [buying a large supply of a commodity to
drive up the price] and price regulation was attempted. For
instance, prices were set for poultry and lamb, in a period
of plenty. Maximum prices were set for cattle, pigs, sheep,
poultry, and eggs in 1314, but these prices were hard to
enforce. In London examples of prices set are: best hen
3d.2q., best wild goose 4d., best hare 4d., best kid 10d.,
best lamb 4d., best fresh herrings 12 for 1d., best pickled
herrings 20 for 1d., best haddock 2d., best fresh salmon 3s.

Freemen may drive their swine through the King's demesne
Forest to feed in their own woods or elsewhere. No man shall
lose his life or limb for killing deer in the Forest, but
instead shall be grievously fined or imprisoned for a year.

The Forest Charter allowed a man to cut down and take wood
from his own woods in the King's forest to repair his house,
fences, and hedges. He may also enclose his woods in the
King's forest with fences and hedges to grow new trees and
keep cattle and beasts therefrom. After seven years growth
of these new trees, he may cut them down for sale with the
King's permission.

Each borough has its own civil and criminal ordinances and
police jurisdiction. Borough courts tended to deal with more
laws than other local courts because of the borough's denser
populations, which were composed of merchants,
manufacturers, and traders, as well as those engaged in
agriculture. Only borough courts have jurisdiction over
fairs. In some boroughs the villein who resides for a year
and a day becomes free. There are special ordinances
relating to apprentices. There are sometimes ordinances
against enticing away servants bound by agreement to serve
another. The wife who is a trader is regarded in many places
as a feme sole [single woman rather than a feme covert
[woman-covert], who was under the protection of a husband].
There may be special ordinances as to the liability of
masters for the acts of their apprentices and agents, or as
to brokers, debt, or earnest money binding a bargain. The
criminal and police jurisdiction in the borough was
organized upon the same model as in the country at large,
and was controlled by the King's courts upon similar
principles, though there are some survivals of old rules,
such as mention of the bot and the wer. The crimes committed
are similar to those of the country, such as violence,
breaches of the assize of bread and beer, stirring up suits
before the ecclesiastical courts, digging up or obstructing
the highway, not being enrolled in a tithing, encroachments
upon or obstructions of rights of common. The most striking
difference with the country at large are the ordinances on
the repair or demolition of buildings, encroachments on
another's building, fires, and nuisances. Specimens of other
characteristic urban disputes are: selling bad food, using
bad materials, unskillful or careless workmanship,
fraudulent weights and measures, fraud in buying and
selling, forestalling or regrating [buying in one market to
resell in another market], acting in a way likely to
endanger the liberties of the borough, usury, trading
without being a citizen, assisting other unlicensed persons
to trade, unlawfully forming a guild, complaints against
various guilds in which trade might be organized. Since the
ordinances were always liable to be called in question
before the King's courts, they tended to become uniform and
in harmony with the principles of the common law. Also,
trading between boroughs kept them knowledgeable about each
other's customs and conditions for trade, which then tended
to standardize. Boroughs often had seals to prove communal
consent and tended to act as a corporate body.

Borough ordinances often include arson such as this one:
"And if a street be set on fire by any one, his body shall
be attached and cast into the midst of the fire." Robbery by
the miller was specially treated by an ordinance that "And
if the miller be attainted [found guilty] of robbery of the
grain or of the flour to the amount of 4d., he shall be
hanged from the beam in his mill."

In London, an ordinance prescribed for bakers for the first
offense of making false bread a forfeiture of that bread.
For the second offense was prescribed imprisonment, and for
the third offense placement in the pillory. A London
ordinance for millers who caused bread to be false
prescribed for them to be carried in a tumbrel cart through
certain streets, exposed to the derision of the people.

By statute, no one may make a gift or alienation of land to
the church. An attempt to do so will cause the land to
escheat to the lord, or in his default, to the King.
Religious houses may not alienate land given to them by the
king or other patrons because such gifts were for the sake
of someone's soul. An attempt to do so will cause the land
to revert to the donor or his heir. If the church did not
say the prayers or do the other actions for which land was
given to it, the land will revert to the donor or his heir.
Land may not be alienated to religious bodies in such a way
that it would cease to render its due service to the King.
(The church never died, never married, and never had
children.) The church shall send no money out of the nation.
(This statute of mortmain was neutralized by collusive
lawsuits in which the intended grantor would sue the
intended grantee claiming superior title and then would
default, surrendering the land to the intended grantee by
court judgment.)

"Concerning wrecks of the sea, where a man, a dog, or a cat
escape alive out of the ship, that such ship nor barge nor
anything within them shall be deemed wreck, but the goods
shall be saved and kept by view of the Sheriff, Coroner, or
the King's Bailiff". If anyone proves the goods were his
within a year and a day, they shall be restored to him
without delay. Otherwise, they shall be kept by the King.
"And where wreck belongs to one other than the King, he
shall have it in like manner". If he does otherwise, he
shall be imprisoned and pay damages and fine.

Some statutes applied only to Kent County, which had a
unique position between London and the continent. One could
sell or give away his land without the consent of one's
lord. The services of the land, however, could only be sold
to the chief lord. Inheritance of land was to all sons by
equal portions, and if there were no sons, then to all
daughters in equal portions. The eldest brother has his
choice of portion, then the next oldest, etc. The goods of a
deceased person were divided into three parts after his
funeral expenses and debts were paid. One third went to the
surviving spouse. One third went to the deceased's sons and
daughters. One third could be disposed by will of the
decedent. If there were no children, one half went to the
spouse and one half went according to will. If an heir was
under 15 years old, his next of kin to whom inheritance
could not descend was to be his guardian. A wife who
remarried or bore a child lost her dower land. A husband
lost his dower if he remarried. If a tenant withheld rent or
services, his lord could seek award of court to find
distress on his tenement and if he could find none, he could
take the tenement for a year and a day in his hands without
manuring it. It the tenant paid up in this time, he got the
tenement back. If he didn't within a year and a day,
however, the lord could manure the land. A felon forfeited
his life and his goods, but not his lands or tenements. A
wife of a felon had the dower of one half or her husband's
lands and tenements.

The common law recognized the tort of false imprisonment if
a man arrested as a felon, a person who was not a felon.




                         - Judicial Procedure -

The writ of Quo Warranto [by what right] is created, by which all
landholders exercising jurisdictions must bring their ancestors'
charters before a traveling justice for the Common Pleas for
examination and interpretation as to whether they were going
beyond their charters and infringing upon the jurisdiction of the
Royal Court. As a result, many manor courts were confined to
manorial matters and could no longer view frankpledge or hear
criminal cases, which were reserved for the royal courts. In the
manor courts which retained criminal jurisdiction, there was a
reassertion of the obligation to have present a royal coroner,
whose duty it was to see that royal rights were not infringed and
that the goods of felons were given to the Crown and not kept by
the lords.

The supreme court was the king and his council in Parliament. It
heard the most important causes, important because they concern
the king, or because they concern very great men (e.g.treason), or
because they involve grave questions of public law, or because
they are unprecedented. It has large, indefinite powers and
provides new remedies for new wrongs. The office of great
justiciar disappears and the chancellor becomes the head of the
council. After the council were the royal courts of the King's
Bench, Common Pleas, and the Exchequer, which had become separate,
each with its own justices and records. The Court of Common Pleas
had its own Chief Justice and usually met at Westminster. This
disadvantaged the small farmer, who would have to travel to
Westminster to present a case. The King's Council maintained a
close connection with the Court of the King's Bench, which heard
criminal cases and appeals from the Court of Common Pleas. It
traveled with the King. There were many trespass cases so heard by
it in the reign of Edward I. The King's Council did a great deal
of justice, for the more part criminal justice. It was supported
by the populace because it dealt promptly and summarily with
rebellion or some scandalous acquittal of a notorious criminal by
bribed or partial jurors, and thereby prevented anarchy. Its
procedure was to send for the accused and compel him to answer
upon oath written interrogatories. Affidavits were then sworn upon
both sides. With written depositions before them, the Lords of the
council, without any jury, acquit or convict. Fines and
imprisonments were meted out to rioters, conspirators, bribers,
and perjured jurors. No loss of life or limb occurred because
there had been no jury.

In criminal cases, witnesses acquainted with particular facts were
added to the general assize of twelve men from each hundred and
four men from each town. The assize then bifurcated into the grand
jury of twelve to twenty-four men and the petty jury or jury of
verdict of twelve men, which replaced ordeal, compurgation, and
trial by combat as the method of finding the truth. The men of the
petty jury as well as those of the grand jury were expected to
know or to acquaint themselves with the facts of the cases. The
men of the petty jury tended to be the same men who were on the
grand jury.

Felony included such crimes as homicide, arson, rape, robbery,
burglary, and larceny. Murder still meant secret homicide.
Burglary was an offense committed in times of peace and consisted
of breaking into churches, houses, and into the walls and gates of
villages and boroughs. These six offenses could be prosecuted by
indictment or private accusation by an individual. The penalties
involved loss of life or limb or outlawry; a felon's goods were
confiscated by the crown and his land was forfeited to the crown
for a year and a day, after which it escheated to the felon's
lord. The peace of the king now did not die with the king, but
renewed automatically without an interval before the inauguration
of a new king.

Notorious felons who would not consent or put themselves on
inquests for felonies with which they were charged at royal courts
were put in strong and hard imprisonment to persuade them to
accept trial by assize. This inducement progressed into being
loaded with heavy chains and placed on the ground in the worst
part of the prison and being fed a only little water one day and a
little bread the next. Sometimes pieces of iron or stones were
placed one another onto their prone bodies to persuade them to
plead. This then developed into being loaded with as much iron as
could be borne, and finally into being pressed to death ["peine
forte et dure"]. Many of these men chose to die by this pressing
so that their families could inherit their property, which would
have been forfeited if they had been convicted of serious crimes.

The most common cases in the Court of Common Pleas were "detinue"
[wrongful detention of a good or chattel which had been loaned,
rented, or left for safe-keeping with a "bailee", but belonged to
the plaintiff], "debt" [for money due from a sale, for money
loaned, for rent upon a lease for years, from a surety, promised
in a sealed document, or due to arbitrators to whom a dispute had
been submitted] and "account" [e.g. against bailiffs of manors, a
guardian in socage, and partners]. It also heard estovers of wood,
profit by gathering nuts, acorns, and other fruits in wood, corody
[allowance of food], yearly delivery of grain, toll, tunnage,
passage, keeping of parks, woods, forests, chases, warrens, gates,
and other bailiwicks, and offices in fee.

The itinerant justices gradually ceased to perform administrative
duties on their journeys because landed society had objected to
their intrusiveness. Edward I substituted regular visitations of
justices of assize for the irregular journeys of the itinerant
justices. Each one of four circuits had two justices of assize.
From about 1299, these justices of assize heard cases of gaol
delivery. Their jurisdiction expanded to include serious criminal
cases and breach of the king's peace.

Breaches of the forest charter laws were determined by justices of
the King's forest, parks, and chases, along with men of assize.

Coroners' inquest procedures were delineated by statute and
included describing in detail in the coroner's rolls every wound
of a dead body, how many may be culpable, and people claiming to
have found treasure who might be suspects.

The precedent for punishment for treason was established by the
conviction of a knight, David ab Gruffydd, who had turned traitor
to the Welsh enemy, after fighting with Edward and being rewarded
with land, during the conquest of Wales. He had plotted to kill
the King. He was found guilty of treason by Parliament and
condemned to be dragged at the heels of horses for being a traitor
to his knightly vows, hanged by the neck for his murders, cut down
before consciousness left him to have his entrails cut out for
committing his crimes during the holy week of Easter, and his head
cut off and his body divided into four parts for plotting against
the King's life. The head was placed on the Tower of London and
his body sections were placed in public view at various other
locations in England. This came to be known as "hanging, drawing,
and quartering". Prior to this the penalty had been imprisonment,
usually followed by ransom.

Trial by combat is now limited to certain claims of enfeoffment of
large land holding and is barred for land held in socage, burgage,
or by marriage. Assize is the usual manner of trial, but
compurgation remains in the borough court long after it becomes
obsolete in the royal courts. Defendants no longer request assizes
but are automatically put to them.

Numerous statutes protect the integrity of the courts and King's
offices by double and treble damages and imprisonment for offenses
such as bribery, false informers, conspiracy to falsely move or
maintain pleas, champerty [covenant between a litigant and another
for the other to have a part or profit in the award in return for
maintaining the suit], conflict of interest by court officers
taking part in a quarrel pending in court or working any fraud
whereby common right may be delayed or disturbed. There had been
many abuses, the most common of which was extortion by sheriffs,
who gaoled people without cause to make them pay to be released.
The 1275 prohibition of maintenance of a quarrel of a party in
court by a non-party was extended in 1327 to all persons,
including the king's councilors and ministers, and great men, e.g.
by sending letters. In 1346, this prohibition specifically
included prelates, earls, barons taking in hand quarrels other
than their own, or maintaining them for gift, promise, amity,
favor, doubt, or fear, in disturbance of law and hindrance of
right. The reason given was that there had been persons
disinherited, delayed or disturbed in their rights, and not guilty
persons convicted or otherwise oppressed. All great men were
required to put out of their service all maintainers who had been
retained, and void their fees and robes, without giving them aid,
favor, or comfort. This law was not obeyed.

The king reserved to himself and his council in its judicial
capacity the correction of all breaches of the law which the lower
courts had failed to remedy, whether from weakness, partiality,
corruption, or jury timidity, and especially when the powerful
barons defied the courts. The Chancery also sought to address
causes which were impeded in their regular course, which often
involved assaults, batteries, and forcible dispossessions.

Disputes within the royal household were administered by the
King's steward. He received and determined complaints about acts
or breaches of the peace within twelve miles around the King's
person or "verge". He was assisted by the marshall in the "court
of the hall" and by the clerk of the market when imposing fines
for trading regulation violations in the "court of the market".

Ecclesiastical courts were successful in their competition with
the secular courts for jurisdiction over testamentary matters
[concerning wills] and succession [no will] to chattels.

There were local courts of the vill, borough, manor, hundred,
county, sheriff, escheator, and royal bailiff, with overlapping
jurisdictions. The county court in its full session, that is, as
it attended the itinerant justices on their visitation, contained
the archbishops, bishops, priors, earls, barons, knights, and
freeholders, and from each township four men and the reeve, and
from each borough twelve burgesses. It was still the folkmote, the
general assembly of the people. In 1293, suitors who could not
spend 40s. a year within their county were not required to attend
their county court.

The most common plea in the hundred court was trespass. It also
heard issues concerning services arising out of land, detention of
chattels, small debts, wounding or maiming of animals, and
personal assaults and brawls not amounting to felony. It met every
three weeks. The sheriff held his turn twice a year and viewed
frankpledge once a year.

When Edward I came to the throne, over half of the approximately
600 hundred courts had gone under the jurisdiction of a private
lord owing to royal charter, prescriptive right, and usurpation.
The sheriff's powers in these hundreds varied. In some, the
sheriff had no right of entry.

In the manor courts, actions of debt, detinue, and covenant were
frequent. Sometimes there are questions of a breach of warranty of
title in agreements of sale of land. Accusations of defamation
were frequent; this offense could not be taken to the King's
court, but it had been recognized as an offense in the Anglo-Saxon
laws. In some cases, the damages caused are specifically stated.
For instance, defamation of a lord's grain would cause other
purchasers to forbear buying it. There are frequent cases of
ordinary thefts, trespasses, and assaults. The courts did rough
but substantial justice without distinction between concepts such
as tort and contract. In fact, the action of covenant was the only
form of agreement enforceable at common law. It required a writing
under seal and awarded damages. Their law was not technical, but
elastic, and remedies could include injunctions, salary
attachment, and performance of acts. The steward holding the manor
court was often a lawyer.

Some pleas in the manors of the abbey of Bec were:

1.  Hugh le Pee in mercy (fine, 12d.) for concealing a sheep
    for half a year. Pledges, Simon of Newmere, John of Senholt

2.  William Ketelburn in mercy (fine, 13s.4d.) for divers
    trespasses. Pledge, Henry Ketelburn.

3.  Hugh Derwin for pasture, 6d. Richard Hulle for divers
    trespasses, 12d. Henry Stanhard for pasture, 6d.

4.  William Derwin for a trespass, 6d.; pledge, William
    Sperling.

5.  Hugh Hall gives the lord 12d. that he may have the
    judgment of the court as to a tenement and two acres of
    land, which he demands as of right, so he says. And it being
    asserted that the said land is not free[hold] let the court
    say its say. And the court says that the tenement and one of
    the two acres are of servile condition and that the other
    acre is of free condition. The case is reserved for the
    lord's presence. Pledge, John Brian.

6.  John Palmer is put in seisin of his father's tenement and
    gives the lord 53s.4d. as entry money.

7.  William Ketelburn gives the lord 6s.8d. that he may be
    removed from the office of reeve. Pledge, Robert Serjeant.

8.  William Frith for subtraction of work, 6d. John Reginald
    for the same, 6d. John of Senholt, 12d. William Ketelburn,
    12d.

9.  For the common fine to be paid on S. Andrew's day, 100s.

10. It is presented by the chief pledges that Godfrey
    Serjeant has made default; also that John le Pee has
    unlawfully thrown up a bank; therefore let it be set to
    rights.

11. Robert Smith is put in seisin of his father's tenement
    and gives the lord four pounds for entry money. Pledge,
    Robert Serjeant.

12. William Ketelburn for a trespass, 13s.4d.

13. William Fleming gives four pounds for leave to contract
    [marriage] with widow Susan. Pledge, Richard Serjeant.

14. John Mabely gives the lord 3s. to have the judgment of
    twelve men as to certain land whereof Noah deforces him;
    pledges, Richard Smith, Ralph Bernard. The said jurors say
    that Noah the Fat has right; therefore etc.

15. Agnes Stampelove gives the lord 2s. for leave to come
    and go in the vill but to dwell outside the lord's land.
    Pledge, Richard Smith.

16. Godfrey Tailor the younger for a trespass, 2s.

17. Whereas Godfrey Tailor the younger has demanded against
    Noah a farthing land, now the action is compromised in
    manner following:- -Godfrey for himself and his heirs
    remises to the said Noah and his heirs all right and claim
    which he has or can have in the said farthing land by reason
    of the gift made by his grandfather John Tailor.

18. Agnes Mabely is put in seisin of a farthing land which
    her mother held, and gives the lord 33s.4d. for entry money.
    Pledges, Noah, William Askil.

19. The full court declares that in case any woman shall
    have altogether quitted the lord's domain and shall marry a
    freeman, she may return and recover whatever right and claim
    she has in any land; but if she shall be joined to a serf,
    then she cannot do this during the serf's lifetime, but
    after his death she may.

20. William Alice's son is put in seisin of a bakehouse in
    the King's Street, and shall keep up the house at his own
    cost and gives 12d. for entry money, and 10s. annual rent
    payable at three terms, viz. 3s.4d. at Martinmas, 3s.4d. at
    Lady Day, 3s.4d. at Christmas. Pledges, Adam Clerk, John
    Deboneir.

20. John son of Alma demands a cottage which Henry Fleming
    holds and gives the lord 12d. for the oath and recognition
    of 12 men; pledge, Richard Jordan. The jurors say that Henry
    Fleming has the better right.

21. Baldwin Cobbler's son finds [as pledges] Walter Cobbler,
    Roger of Broadwater, Robert Linene, William Frances, that
    notwithstanding his stay in London he will always make suit
    with his tithing and will at no time claim any liberty
    contrary to the lord's will and will come to the lord
    whenever the lord wills.

22. Simon Patrick gives the lord 12d. to have the judgment
    of the court as to a cottage of which the widow of Geoffrey
    Dogers deforces him; pledge, Simon of Strode. The said
    jurors say that the said Simon has the better right. And the
    said Simon remises and quit-claims all his right to his
    sister Maud and her husband John Horin, [who] gives the lord
    10s. for entry money; pledges, Simon Patrick, John Talk.

23. Hugh Wiking for not making suit at the lord's mill, 12d.

24. It was presented that William Derwin and John Derwin
    (fine, 12d.) committed a trespass against Agnes Dene, and
    the cry was raised, therefore etc.

25. Hugh Churchyard contracted [marriage] without the lord's
    leave; [fine] 12d.

26. Let Juliana Forester be distrained for her default, also
    William Moor.

27. John Kulbel in mercy (fine, 12d.) for not producing
    Gregory Miller, and he is commanded to produce him at the
    next court.

28. Hugh Andrew's son gives the lord 4s. for leave to marry;
    pledge, Robert Serjeant.

29. Juliana Forester gives the lord 12d. in order that for
    the future no occasion may be taken against her for neglect
    of suit of court.

30. John Franklain is put in seisin of his father's tenement
    and gives the lord 20s. for entry; pledge, Robert Serjeant.

31. Henry Cross gives the lord 4s. for license to marry;
    pledge, Robert Serjeant.

32. Isabella Warin gives the lord 4s. for leave to give her
    daughter Mary in marriage; pledge, John Serjeant.

33. It is presented by the whole township that Ralph le War
    has disseised the lord of a moiety of a hedge, whereas it
    had often been adjudged by award of the court that the said
    hedge belongs as to one moiety to the lord and as to the
    other to Ralph, and the said Ralph claims and takes to his
    use the whole to the lord's damage etc. Also they say that
    the said Ralph holds Overcolkescroft, which land by right is
    the lord's.

34. It is presented by unanimous verdict of the whole court
    that if anyone marries a woman who has right in any land
    according to the custom of the manor and is seised thereof
    by the will of the lord, and the said woman surrenders her
    right and her seisin into the hands of the lord and her
    husband receives that right and seisin from the hands of the
    lord, in such case the heirs of the woman are for ever
    barred from the said land and the said right remains to the
    husband and his heirs. Therefore let William Wood, whose
    case falls under this rule, hold his land in manner
    aforesaid. And for the making of this inquest the said
    William gives the lord 6s.8d.

35. The tenements of Lucy Mill are to be seized into the
    lord's hands because of the adultery which she has committed
    and the bailiff is to answer for them.

The chief pledges present that Cristina daughter of Richard
    Maleville has married at London without the lord's licence;
    therefore let the said Richard be distrained. He has made
    fine with 12d. Also that Alice Berde has done the same;
    therefore let her be distrained. Also that Robert Fountain
    has committed a trespass against William Gery; therefore the
    said Robert is in mercy; pledge, Humfrey; fine, 6d. Also
    that Richard Maleville has drawn blood from Stephen Gust;
    therefore he is in mercy; fine, 2s.

36. Geoffrey Coterel in mercy for a battery; fine, 12d.;
    pledge, Adam Serjeant. 37. Geoffrey Coterel for trespass in
    the hay; fine, 6d.; pledge, Alan Reaper. 38. Hugh of Senholt
    in mercy for trespass in the green wood; fine, 6d.

37. Hugh Wiking in mercy for delay in doing his works; fine,
    6d. Hugh Churchyard for trespass in [cutting] thorns; fine,
    6d. Thomas Gold in mercy for trespass in the wood; fine,
    3d.; pledge, Robert Grinder.

38. William Dun in mercy for subtraction of his works due in
    autumn; fine, 2s. Avice Isaac for the same, 6d.; Hugh Wiking
    for the same, 6d.; Agnes Rede in mercy for her daughter's
    trespass in the corn [grain], 6d.

39. Walter Ash in mercy for not making suit to the lord's
    mill; fine, 6d. Hugh Pinel in mercy for diverting a
    watercourse to the nuisance of the neighbours; fine, 6d.;
    pledge, Robert Fresel.

40. John Dun in mercy for carrying off corn [grain] in the
    autumn; pledge, Adam White. Alan Reaper gives the lord 12d.
    on account of a sheep which was lost while in his custody.

41. Adam White in mercy for bad mowing; fine, 6d. Hugh
    Harding in mercy for the same; fine, 6d.

42. The chief pledges present that Henry Blackstone (fine,
    6d.), Hugh Churchyard (fine, 18d.), Walter Ash (fine, 6d.),
    Henry of Locksbarow (fine, 12d.), Avice Isaac (fine, 6d.),
    Richard Matthew (fine, 6d.), Hugh Wiking (fine,--), Ralph
    Dene (fine, 6d.), John Palmer (fine, 12d.), John Coterel
    (fine, 6d.), John Moor (fine, 6d.), John Cubbel (fine,
    12d.), Hugh Andrew (fine, 6d.), Philip Chapman (fine, 6d.),
    John Fellow (fine, 12d.), Robert Bailiff (fine, 6d.), Alice
    Squire (fine, 12d.), John Grately (fine,--), Richard Hull
    (fine, 6d.), Osbert Reaper (fine, 6d.), and Robert Cross
    (fine, 6d.), have broken the assize of beer. Also that Henry
    of Senholt, Henry Brown, Hugh Hayward, Richard Moor, Juliana
    Woodward, Alice Harding, Peronel Street, Eleanor Mead make
    default. Also that Walter Ash (fine,--), John Wiking
    (fine,--), John Smart (fine,--), and Henry Coterel have
    married themselves without the lord's licence; therefore let
    them be distrained to do the will of the lord.

43. Alan Reaper for the trespass of his foal; fine, 6d.

44. Philip Chapman in mercy for refusing his gage to the
    lord's bailiff; fine, 3d.

45. William Ash in mercy for trespass in the growing crop;
    fine, 6d.

46. John Iremonger in mercy for contempt; fine, 6d.

47. The chief pledges present that William of Ripley (fine,
    6d.), Walter Smith (no goods), Maud of Pasmere (fine, 6d.),
    have received [strangers] contrary to the assize; therefore
    they are in mercy.

48. Maud widow of Reginald of Challow has sufficiently
    proved that a certain sheep valued at 8d. is hers, and binds
    herself to restore it or its price in case it shall be
    demanded from her within year and day; pledges, John
    Iremonger and John Robertd; and she gives the lord 3d. for
    [his] custody [of it].

The Court of Hustings in London is empowered to award landlords
their tenements for which rent or services are in arrears if the
landlord could not distrain enough tenant possessions to cover the
arrearages.

Wills are proven in the Court of Husting, the oldest court in
London, which went back to the times of Edward the Confessor. One
such proven will is:

"Tour (John de La) - To Robert his eldest son his capital messuage
and wharf in the parish of Berchingechurch near the land called
'Berewardesland`. To Agnes his wife his house called
'Wyvelattestone', together with rents, reversions, etc. in the
parish of S. Dunstan towards the Tower, for life; remainder to
Stephen his son. To Peter and Edmund his sons lands and rents in
the parish of All Hallows de Berhyngechurch; remainders over in
default of heirs. To Agnes, wife of John le Keu, fishmonger, a
house situate in the same parish of Berhyng, at a peppercorn
[nominal] rent."

The Court of the Mayor of London heard diverse cases, including
disputes over goods, faulty or substandard goods, adulteration,
selling food unfit for human consumption, enhancing the price of
goods, using unlawful weighing beams, debts, theft, distraints,
forgery, tavern brawling, bullying, and gambling. Insulting or
assaulting a city dignitary was a very serious crime; an attack on
the mayor was once capitally punished. Sacrilege, rape, and
burglary were punished by death. Apart from the death penalty, the
punishment meted out the most was public exposure in the pillory,
with some mark of ignominy slung round the neck. If the crime was
selling bad food, it was burnt under the offender's nose. If it
was sour wine, the offender was drenched in it. Standing in the
pillory for even one hour was very humiliating, and by the end of
the day, it was known throughout the city. The offender's
reputation was ruined. Some men died in the pillory of shame and
distress. A variation of the pillory was being dragged through the
streets on a hurdle. Prostitutes were carted through the streets
in coarse rough cloth hoods, with penitential crosses in their
hands. Scolds were exposed in a "thewe" for women. In more serious
cases, imprisonment for up to a year was added to the pillory.
Mutilation was rare, but there are cases of men losing their right
hands for rescuing prisoners. The death penalty was usually by
hanging. The following four London cases pertain to customs, bad
grain, surgery, and apprenticeship, respectively.

"John le Paumer was summoned to answer Richer de Refham, Sheriff,
in a plea that, whereas the defendant and his Society of Bermen
[carriers] in the City were sworn not to carry any wine, by land
or water, for the use of citizens or others, without the Sheriff's
mark, nor lead nor cause it to be led, whereby the Sheriff might
be defrauded of his customs, nevertheless he caused four casks of
wine belonging to Ralph le Mazun of Westminster to be carried from
the City of Westminster without the Sheriff's mark, thus
defrauding the latter of his customs in contempt of the king etc.
The defendant acknowledged the trespass. Judgment that he remain
in the custody of the Sheriff till he satisfy the King and the
Court for offense."

"Walter atte Belhaus, William atte Belhous, Robert le Barber
dwelling at Ewelleshalle, John de Lewes, Gilbert le Gras, John his
son, Roger le Mortimer, William Ballard atte Hole, Peter de
Sheperton, John Brun and the wife of Thomas the pelterer, Stephen
de Haddeham, William de Goryngg, Margery de Frydaiestrate, Mariot,
who dwells in the house of William de Harwe, and William de
Hendone were attached to answer for forestalling all kinds of
grain and exposing it, together with putrid grain, on the
pavement, for sale by the bushel, through their men and women
servants; and for buying their own grain from their own servants
in deception of the people. The defendants denied that they were
guilty and put themselves on their country. A jury of Richard de
Hockeleye and others brought in a verdict of guilty, and the
defendants were committed to prison til the next Parliament."

"Peter the Surgeon acknowledged himself bound to Ralph de
Mortimer, by Richard atte Hill his attorney, in the sum of 20s.,
payable at certain terms, the said Ralph undertaking to give Peter
a letter of acquittance [release from a debt]. This Recognizance
arose out of a covenant between them with regard to the effecting
of a cure. Both were amerced for coming to an agreement out of
Court. A precept was issued to summon all the surgeons of the City
for Friday, that an enquiry might be made as to whether the above
Peter was fitted to enjoy the profession of a surgeon."

"Thomas de Kydemenstre, shoemaker, was summoned to answer William
de Beverlee, because he did not clothe, feed and instruct his
apprentice Thomas, William's son, but drove him away. The
defendant said that the apprentice lent his master's goods to
others and promised to restore them or their value, but went away
against his wish; and he demanded a jury. Subsequently, a jury of
William de Upton and others said the apprentice lent two pairs of
shoes belonging to his master and was told to restore them, but,
frightened by the beating which he received, ran away; further
that the master did not feed and clothe his apprentice as he
ought, being unable to do so, to the apprentice's damage 40d., but
that he was now in a position to look after his apprentice.
Thereupon Thomas de Kydemenstre said he was willing to have the
apprentice back and provide for him, and the father agreed.
Judgment that the master take back the apprentice and feed and
instruct him, or that he repay to the father, the money paid to
the latter, and that he pay the father the 40d. and be in mercy."

A professional class of temporal attorneys whose business it is to
appear on behalf of litigants is prominent in the nation.
Attorneys are now drawn from the knightly class of landed
gentlemen, instead of ecclesiastical orders. Since it was
forbidden for ecclesiastics to act as advocates in the secular
courts, those who left the clergy to become advocates adopted a
close-fitting cap to hide their tonsures, which came to be called
a "coif". The great litigation of the nation is conducted by a
small group of men, as is indicated by the earliest Year Books of
case decisions. They sit in court and will sometimes intervene as
amicus curiae [friends of the court]. Parliament refers difficult
points of law to them as well as to the justices. These reports
became so authoritative that they could be cited in the courts as
precedent. Groups of attorneys from the countryside who are
appearing in London courts during term-time and living in
temporary lodgings start to form guild-like fellowships and buy
property where they dine and reside together, called the Inns of
Court. They begin to think of themselves as belonging to a
profession, with a feeling of responsibility for training the
novices who sat in court to learn court procedures and attorney
techniques. They invited these students to supper at the Inns of
Court for the purpose of arguing about the day's cases. The Inns
of Court evolved a scheme of legal education, which was oral and
used disputations. Thus they became educational institutions as
well as clubs for practicing attorneys. The call to the bar of an
Inn was in effect a degree. To be an attorney one had to be
educated and certified at the Inns of Court. They practice law
full time. Some are employed by the King. Justices come to be
recruited from among those who had passed their lives practicing
law in court, instead of from the ecclesiastical orders. All
attorneys were brought under the control of the justices.

There are two types of attorney: one attorney appears in the place
of his principal, who does not appear. The appointment of this
attorney is an unusual and a solemn thing, only to be allowed on
special grounds and with the proper formalities. For instance, a
poor person may not be able to afford to travel to attend the
royal court in person. The other one is the pleader-attorney, who
accompanies his client to court and advocates his position with
his knowledge of the law and his persuasiveness.

In 1280, the city of London made regulations for the admission of
both types of attorneys to practice before the civic courts, and
for their due control. In 1292 the king directed the justices to
provide a certain number of attorneys and apprentices to follow
the court, who should have the exclusive right of practicing
before it. This begins the process which will make the attorney
for legal business an "officer of the court" which has appointed
him.






                         - - - Chapter 9 - - -



                        - The Times: 1348-1399 -

Waves of the black death, named for the black spots on the body,
swept over the nation. The black blotches were caused by extensive
internal bleeding. The plague was carried in the blood of black
rats and transmitted to humans by the bite of the rat flea, but
this cause was unknown. The first wave of this plague, in 1348,
lasted for three years and desolated the nation by about one half
the population in the towns and one third in the country. People
tried to avoid the plague by flight. The agony and death of so
many good people caused some to question their belief in God.
Also, it was hard to understand why priests who fled were less
likely to die than priests who stayed with the dying to give them
the last rites. Legal and judicial, as well as other public
business, ceased for two years, interrupted by the plague. Thus
begins a long period of disorganization, unrest, and social
instability. Customary ways were so upset that authority and
tradition were no longer automatically accepted. Fields lay waste
and sheep and cattle wandered over the countryside. Local courts
could seldom be held. Some monasteries in need of cash sold
annuities to be paid in the form of food, drink, clothing, and
lodging during the annuitant's life, and sometimes that of his
widow also. Guilds and rich men made contributions to the poor and
ships with provisions were sent to various parts of the country
for the relief of starving people. In London, many tradesmen and
artisans formed parish fraternities which united people of all
social levels and women on almost equal terms with men, in
communal devotion and mutual support, such as help in resolving
disputes, moral guidance, money when needed, and burial and
masses.

Farm workers were so rare that they were able to demand wages at
double or triple the pre-plague rate. The pre-plague had been 4d.-
6d. daily for masons, carpenters, plasterers, and tilers and 3d.
for their laborers. These laborers could buy 12 cheap loaves, 3
gallons of ale, and a gallon of cheap wine or half a pair of
shoes. Prices did not go up nearly as much as wages. Villeins
relinquish their tenements, and deserted their manors, to get
better wages elsewhere. They became nomadic, roaming from place to
place, seeking day work for good wages where they could get it,
and resorting to thievery on the highways or beggary where they
could not. The Robin Hood legends were popular among them. In
them, Robin Hood is pure outlaw and does not contribute money to
the poor. Nor does he court Maid Marion.

They spread political songs among each other, such as: "To seek
silver to the King, I my seed sold; wherefore my land lieth fallow
and learneth to sleep. Since they fetched my fair cattle in my
fold; when I think of my old wealth, well nigh I weep. Thus
breedeth many beggars bold; and there wakeneth in the world dismay
and woe, for as good is death anon as so for to toil."

Groups of armed men took lands, manors, goods, and women by force.
The villeins agreed to assist each other in resisting by force
their lords' efforts to return them to servitude. A statute of
laborers passed in 1351 for wages to be set at the pre-plague
rates was ineffectual. Justices became afraid to administer the
law. Villeins, free peasants, and craftsmen joined together and
learned to use the tactics of association and strikes against
their employers.

The office of Justice of the Peace was created for every county to
deal with rioting and vagrants. Cooperation by officials of other
counties was mandated to deal with fugitives from its justice.

The Black Death visited again in 1361 and in 1369. The Black Death
reduced the population from about 5 million to about 2 1/2
million. It was to rise to about 4 million by 1600.

When there were attempts to enforce the legal servitude of the
villeins, they spread rhymes of their condition and need to
revolt. A secret league, called the "Great Society" linked the
centers of intrigue. A high poll tax, graduated from 20s. to 12d.,
that was to be raised for a war with France, touched off a
spontaneous riot all over the nation in 1381. This tax included
people not taxed before, such as laborers, the village smith, and
the village tiler. Each area had its own specific grievances.
There was no common political motive, except maladministration in
general.

In this Peasants' Revolt, mobs overran the counties around London.
The upper classes fled to the woods. Written records of the
servitude of villeins were burned in their halls, which were also
looted. Title deeds of landlords were burned. Rate rolls of
general taxation were destroyed. Prisoners were released from
gaols. Men connected with tax collection, law enforcement,
attorneys, and alien merchants were beheaded. The Chief Justice
was murdered while fleeing. The archbishop, who was a notoriously
exploitive landlord, the chancellor, and the treasurer were
murdered. Severed heads were posted on London Bridge. A mob took
control of the king's empty bedchamber in the Tower. The villeins
demanded that service to a lord be by agreement instead of by
servitude, a commutation of villein service for rents of a maximum
of 4d. per acre yearly, abolition of a lord's right for their work
on demand (e.g. just before a hail storm so only his crops were
saved), and the right to hunt and fish. The sokemen protested
having to use the lord's mill and having to attend his court.

The revolt was suppressed and its leaders punished. The king
issued proclamations forbidding unauthorized gatherings and
ordering tenants of land to perform their customary services. The
poll tax was dropped. For the future, the duty to deal with
rioting and vagrants was given to royal justices, sheriffs,
mayors, bailiffs, and constables as well as the Justices of the
Peace. There was a high Peace in each hundred and a petty
constable in each parish. Justices of the Peace could swear in
neighbors as unpaid special constables when disorder broke out.

The sheriff was responsible for seeing that men of the lower
classes were organized into groups of ten for police and surety
purposes, and for holding of hundred and county courts, arresting
suspects, guarding prisoners awaiting trial, carrying out the
penalties adjudged by the courts, and collecting Crown revenue
through his bailiffs. Royal writs were addressed to the sheriff.
Because many sheriffs had taken fines and ransoms for their own
use, a term limit of one year was imposed. Sheriffs, hundreders,
and bailiffs had to have lands in the same counties or bailiwicks
[so they could be held answerable to the King].

Efforts were made to keep laborers at the plough and cart rather
than learn a craft or entering and being educated by the church.
The new colleges at the universities ceased to accept villeins as
students.

Due to the shortage of labor, landlords' returns had decreased
from about 20% to about 5%. But some found new methods of using
land that were more profitable than the customary services of
villeins who had holdings of land or the paid labor of practically
free men who paid a money rent for land holdings. One method was
to turn the land to sheep breeding. Others leased their demesne
land, which transferred the burden of getting laborers from the
landlord to the lessee-tenant. The payment was called a "farm" and
the tenant a "farmer". First, there were stock-and-land leases, in
which both the land and everything required to cultivate it were
let together. After 50 years, when the farmers had acquired
assets, there were pure land leases. Landlords preferred to lease
their land at will instead of for a term of years to prevent the
tenant from depleting the soil with a few richer crops during the
last years of his tenancy. The commutation of labor services into
a money payment developed into a general commutation of virtually
all services. Lords in need of money gladly sold manumissions to
their villeins.

The lord and lady of some manors now ate with their family and
entertained guests in a private parlor [from French word 'to
speak"] or great chamber, where they could converse and which had
its own fireplace. The great chamber was usually at the dais end
of tahe great hall. The great hall had been too noisy for
conversation and now was little used. There were also separate
chambers or bed-sitting rooms for guests or members the family or
household, in which one slept, received visitors, played games,
and occasionally ate.

Some farmers achieved enough wealth to employ others as laborers
on their farms. The laborers lived with their employer in his
barn, sleeping on hay in the loft, or in mud huts outside the
barn. The farmer's family lived at one end of the barn around an
open fire. Their possessions typically were: livestock, a chest, a
trestle table, benches, stools, an iron or bronze cauldron and
pots, brooms, wooden platters, wooden bowls, spoons, knives,
wooden or leather jugs, a salt box, straw mattresses, wool
blankets, linen towels, iron tools, and rush candles [used the
pith of a rush reed for the wick]. Those who could not afford rush
candles could get a dim light by using a little grease in a
shallow container, with a few twisted strands of linen thread
afloat in it. The peasants ate dark bread and beans and drank
water from springs. Milk and cheese were a luxury for them. Those
who could not afford bread instead ate oat cakes made of pounded
beans and bran, cheese, and cabbage. They also had leeks, onions,
and peas as vegetables. Some farmers could afford to have a wooden
four-posted bedstead, hens, geese, pigs, a couple of cows, a
couple of sheep, or two plow oxen. July was the month when the
divide between rich and poor became most apparent. The rich could
survive on the contents of their barns, but the poor tried to
survive by grinding up the coarsest of wheat bran and shrivelled
peans and beans to make some sort of bread. Grain and bread prices
soared during July. Farming still occupied the vast majority of
the population. Town inhabitants and university students went into
the fields to help with the harvest in the summer. Parliament was
suspended during the harvest.

Town people had more wealth than country people. Most townspeople
slept in nightgowns and nightcaps in beds with mattresses,
blankets, linen sheets, and pillows. Beds were made every morning.
Bathing was by sponging hot water from a basin over the body,
sometimes with herbs in it, rinsing with a splash of warm water,
and drying off with a towel. Tubs used only for baths came into
use. There were drapery rugs hung around beds, hand-held mirrors
of glass, and salt cellars. The first meal of the day was a light
breakfast, which broke the fast that had lasted the night. Meals
were often prepared according to recipes from cook books which
involved several preparation procedures using flour, eggs, sugar,
cheese, and grated bread, rather than just simple seasoning. Menus
were put together with foods that tasted well together and served
on plates in several courses. Sheffield cutlery was world famous.
Table manners included not making sounds when eating, not playing
with one's spoon or knife, not placing one's elbows on the table,
keeping one's mouth clean with a napkin, and not being boisterous.
There were courtesies such as saying "Good Morning" when meeting
someone and not pointing one's finger at another person. King
Richard II invented the handkerchief for sneezing and blowing
one's nose. There were books on etiquette. Cats were the object of
superstition, but there was an Ancient and Honorable Order of the
Men Who Stroke Cats.

New burgesses were recruited locally, usually from within a 20
mile radius of town. Most of the freemen of the larger boroughs,
like Canterbury and London, came from smaller boroughs. An
incoming burgess was required to buy his right to trade either by
way of a seven year apprenticeship or by payment of an entry fee.
To qualify, he needed both a skill and social respectability.

Towns started acquiring from the king the right to vacant sites
and other waste places, which previously was the lord's right. The
perpetuality of towns was recognized by statutes of 1391, which
compared town-held property to church-held property. The right of
London to pass ordinances was confirmed by charter. Some towns had
a town clerk, who was chief of full-time salaried officers. There
was a guildhall to maintain, a weigh-house, prison, and other
public buildings, municipal water supplies, wharves, cranes,
quays, wash-houses, and public lavatories.

After the experience of the black death, some sanitary measures
were taken. The notorious offenders in matters of public hygiene
in the towns, such as the butchers, the fishmongers, and the
leather tanners were assigned specific localities where their
trades would do least harm. The smiths and potters were excluded
from the more densely populated areas because they were fire
risks. In the town of Salisbury, there was Butcher Row, Ox Row,
Fish Row, Ironmongers' Row, Wheelwrights' Row, Smiths' Row, Pot
Row, Silver Street, Cheese Market, and Wool Market.

Fresh water was brought into towns by pipe or open conduit as a
public facility, in addition to having public wells. In London, a
conduit piped water underground to a lead tank, from which it was
delivered to the public by means of pipes and brass taps in the
stone framework. This was London's chief water supply. Water
carriers carried water in wooden devices on their backs to houses.
The paving and proper drainage of the streets became a town
concern. Building contracts began specifying the provision of
adequate cesspits for the privies at town houses, whether the
latrines were built into the house or as an outhouse. Also, in the
better houses, there grew a practice of carting human and animal
fecal matter at night to dung heaps outside the city walls. There
was one public latrine in each ward and about twelve dung-carts
for the whole city. Country manor houses had latrines on the
ground floor and/or the basement level. Stairwells between floors
had narrow and winding steps.

In London, the Goldsmiths, Merchant Taylors [Tailors], Skinners,
and Girdlers bought royal charters, which recognized their power
of self-government as a company and their power to enforce their
standards, perhaps throughout the country. The Goldsmiths, the
Mercers, and the Saddlers became the first guilds to receive, in
1394-5, charters of incorporation, which gave them perpetual
existence. As such they could hold land in "mortmain" [dead hand],
thus depriving the king of rights that came to him on the death of
a tenant-in-chief. They were authorized to bestow livery on their
members and were called Livery Companies. The liverymen [freemen]
of the trading companies elected London's representatives to
Parliament.

In all towns, the organization of craft associations spread
rapidly downwards through the trades and sought self-government.
Craft guilds were gaining much power relative to the old merchant
guilds in governing the towns. The greater crafts such as the
fishmongers, skinners, and the corders (made rope, canvas, and
pitch) organized and ultimately were recognized by town
authorities as self-governing craft guilds. The building trade
guilds such as the tilers, carpenters, masons, and joiners, became
important. Masons were still itinerant, going to sites of
churches, public buildings, or commanded by the king to work on
castles. The guild was not necessarily associated with a specific
product. For instance, a saddle and bridle were the result of work
of four crafts: joiner (woodworker), painter, saddler (leather),
and lorimer (metal trappings).

In London in 1392 craft guilds included: baker, fishmonger (cut up
and sold fish), fruiterer, brewer, butcher, bird dealer, cook,
apothecary (sold potions he had ground up), cutler (made knives
and spoons), barber, tailor, shoemaker, glover (made gloves),
skinner (sold furs), girdler (made girdles of cloth to wear around
one's waist), pouchmaker, armorer, sheathmaker, weaver, fuller,
painter, carpenter, joiner (woodworker who finished interior
woodwork such as doors and made furniture), tiler, mason (cut
stone for buildings), smith (made metal tools for stonemasons and
builders), tallow chandler (made candles and sometimes soap from
the fat and grease the housewife supplied), wax chandler (made
candles), stirrup maker, spurrier (made spurs), and hosteler
(innkeeper). However, the merchant guilds of the goldsmiths,
vintners (sold wine), mercers (sold cloth), grocers, and drapers
(finished and sold English cloth) were still strong. It was a long
custom in London that freemen in one company could practice the
trade of another company. There were paint mills and saw mills
replacing human labor. There were apothecary shops and women
surgeons. Women who earned their own living by spinning were
called "spinsters".

Some prices in London were: a hen pastry 5d., a capon pastry 8d.,
a roast pheasant 13d., a roast heron 18d., roast goose 7d., a hen
4d., a capon 6d., three roast thrushes 2d., ten larks 3d., ten
finches 1d, and ten cooked eggs 1d.

Many of the guilds bought sites on which they built a chapel,
which was later used as a secular meeting place. The guild
officers commonly included an alderman, stewards, a dean, and a
clerk, who were elected. The guild officers sat as a guild court
to determine discipline for offences such as false weights or
measures or false workmanship or work and decided trade disputes.
The brethren in guild fraternity were classified as masters,
journeymen, or apprentices. They were expected to contribute to
the support of the sick and impoverished in their fellowship.
Their code required social action such as ostracizing a man of the
craft who was living in adultery until he mended his ways.

The rules of the Company of Glovers were:

1.  None but a freeman of the city shall make or sell gloves.

2.  No glover may be admitted to the freedom of the city unless
    with the assent of the wardens of the trade.

3.  No one shall entice away the servant of another.

4.  If a servant in the trade makes away with his master's
    chattels to the value of 12d., the wardens shall make good
    the loss; and if the servant refuses to be judged by the
    wardens, he shall be taken before the mayor and aldermen.

5.  No one may sell his goods by candle-light.

6.  Any false work found shall be taken before the mayor and
    aldermen by the wardens.

7.  All things touching the trade within the city between those who
    are not freemen shall be forfeited.

8.  Journeymen shall be paid their present rate of wages.

9.  Persons who entice away journeymen glovers to make gloves in
    their own houses shall be brought before the mayor and aldermen.

10. Any one of the trade who refuses to obey these regulations
    shall be brought before the mayor and aldermen.

Cordwainers [workers in soft cordovan leather from Spain,
especially shoes] of good repute petitioned the city of London in
1375 for ordinances on their trade as follows:

"To the mayor and aldermen of the city of London pray the good
folks of the trade of cordwainers of the same city, that it may
please you to grant unto them the articles that follow, for the
profit of the common people; that so, what is good and right may
be done unto all manner of folks, for saving the honor of the city
and lawfully governing the said trade.

In the first place - that if any one of the trade shall sell to
any person shoes of bazen [sheep-skin tanned in oak or larch-bark]
as being cordwain, or of calf-leather for ox-leather, in deceit of
the common people, and to the scandal of the trade, he shall pay
to the Chamber of the Guildhall, the first time that he shall be
convicted thereof, forty pence; the second time, 7s. half a mark;
and the third time the same, and further, at the discretion of the
mayor and aldermen.

Also - that no one of the trade shall keep house within the
franchise if he be not free [invested with the rights or
privileges] of the city and one knowing his trade, and that no one
shall be admitted to the freedom without the presence of the
wardens of the trade bearing witness to his standing, on the pain
aforesaid.

Also - if any one of the trade shall be found offending touching
the trade, or rebellious against the wardens thereof, such person
shall not make complaint to any one of another trade, by reason of
the discord or dissension that may have arisen between them; but
he shall be ruled by the good folks of his own trade. And if he
shall differ from them as acting against right, then let the
offense be adjudged upon before the mayor and aldermen; and if he
be found rebellious against the ordinance, let him pay to the
Chamber the sum above mentioned.

Also - that no one of the trade shall entice or purloin the
servant of another from the service of his master by paying him
more than is ordained by the trade, on the pain aforesaid.

Also - that no one shall carry out of his house any wares
connected with his trade for sale in market or elsewhere except
only at a certain place situated between Soperesland and the
Conduit; and that at a certain time of the day, that is to say,
between prime [the first hour of the day] and noon. And that no
shoes shall exceed the measure of seven inches, so that the wares
may be surveyed by the good folks of the trade, because of the
deceit upon the common people that might ensue and the scandal of
the trade, on the pain aforesaid.

Also - that no one shall expose his wares openly for sale in
market on Sundays at any place, but only within his own dwelling
to serve the common people, on the pain aforesaid.

Also - that if any one sells old shoes, he shall not mix new shoes
among the old in deceit of the common people and to the scandal of
the trade, on the pain aforesaid."

Smithfield was a field outside the city gates at which horses were
sold and raced. In 1372, the horsedealers and drovers petitioned
for a tax on animals sold there to pay for cleaning the field. The
city ordinance reads as follows: "On Wednesday next after the
Feast of St. Margaret the Virgin came reputable men, the
horsedealers and drovers, and delivered unto the mayor and
aldermen a certain petition in these words: 'To the mayor,
recorder, and aldermen show the dealers of Smithfield, that is to
say, the coursers and drovers, that for the amendment of the said
field they have granted and assented among them that for the term
of three years next ensuing after the date of this petition for
every horse sold in the said field there shall be paid one penny,
for every ox and cow one half-penny, for every eight sheep one
penny, and for every swine one penny by the seller and the same by
the purchaser who buys the same for resale.` Afterwards, on the
eleventh day of August in the same year, Adam Fernham, keeper of
the gaol at Newgate, Hugh, Averelle, bailiff of Smithfield, and
William Godhewe, weaver, were chosen and sworn faithfully to
collect and receive the said pennies in form aforesaid and to
clean the field of Smithfield from time to time during such term
of three years when necessary."

Many London houses were being made from stone and timber and even
brick and timber, instead of just timber and mud. However,
chimneys were still a luxury of the rich. They were made of stone,
tile, or plaster. There were windows of glass and a guild of
glaziers was chartered by the King. A typical merchant's house had
a cellar; a ground floor with a shop and storage space; a first
floor with a parlor to receive guests, a spacious hall for dining,
and perhaps a kitchen; and at the top, a large family bedroom and
a servant's room. Many single-roomed houses added a second-floor
room for sleeping, which was approached by a wooden or stone
staircase from the outside. Their goods were displayed on a booth
outside the door of the house or hung in the windows. They were
stored at night in the cellar. Over the booths swung huge signs,
which had to be nine feet above street level to allow a man on
horseback to ride underneath. There were no sidewalks. Street
repair work for wages was supervised by a stone master. The
streets sloped down from the middle so that the filth of the
streets would run down the sides of the road. There were many wood
chips in the streets due to cutting up of firewood before taking
it indoors. People often threw the rubbish from their houses onto
the street although they were supposed to cart it outside the city
walls and to clean the frontage of their houses once a week.
Dustmen scavenged through the rubbish on the streets. Pigs and
geese were not longer allowed to run at large in the streets, but
had to be fed at home. There were other city rules on building,
public order, the use of fountains, precautions against fire,
trading rights in various districts, closing time of taverns, and
when refuse could be thrown into the streets, e.g. nighttime.

Aldermen were constantly making rounds to test measures and
weights, wine cups, the height of tavern signs, and the mesh of
the fishing nets, which had to be at least two inches wide. They
saw that the taverns were shut when curfew was rung and arrested
anyone on the street after curfew who had a weapon, for no one
with a sword was allowed on the streets unless he was some great
lord or other substantial person of good reputation. Wards
provided citizens to guard the gates in their respective
neighborhood and keep its key.

The city was so dense that nuisance was a common action brought in
court, for instance, vegetable vendors near a church obstructing
passageway on the street or plumbers melting their solder with a
lower than usual shaft of the furnace so smoke was inhaled by
people nearby.

Crime in London was rare. Murder, burglary, highway robbery, and
gross theft were punishable by hanging. Forgery, fraud, was
punishable by the placement in the pillory or stocks or by
imprisonment. Perjury was punished by confession from a high stool
for the first offense, and the pillory for the second. Slander and
telling lies were punished by the pillory and wearing a whetstone
around one's neck. There was an ordinance passed against
prostitutes in 1351. London as well as other port towns had not
only prostitutes, but syphillus.

Prominent Londoners sought to elevate their social position by
having their family marry into rural landholders of position. For
poor boys with talent, the main routes for advancement were the
church, the law, and positions in great households.

Many master freemasons, who carved freestone or finely grained
sandstone and limestone artistically with mallet and chisel, left
the country for better wages after their wages were fixed by
statute. The curvilinear gothic style of architecture was replaced
by the perpendicular style, which was simpler and cheaper to
build. Church steeples now had clocks on them with dials and hands
to supplement the church bell ringing on the hour. Alabaster was
often used for sepulchral monuments instead of metal or stone.
With it, closer portraiture could be achieved.

In the 1300s and 1400s the London population suffered from
tuberculosis, typhus, influenza, leprosy, dysentery, smallpox,
diphtheria, measles, heart disease, fevers, coughs, cramps,
catarrhs and cataracts, scabs, boils, tumors, and "burning agues".
There were also many deaths by fires, burning by candles near
straw beds when drunk, falling downstairs when drunk, and drowning
in the river or wells. Children were often crushed by carts,
trampled by horses, or mauled by pigs. Towns recognized surgery as
a livelihood subject to admission and oath to serve the social
good. Master surgeons were admitted to practice in 1369 in London
in full husting before the mayor and the aldermen and swore to:
faithfully serve the people in undertaking their cures, take
reasonably from them, faithfully follow their calling, present to
the said mayor and aldermen the defaults of others undertaking, so
often as should be necessary; to be ready, at all times when they
should be warned, to attend the maimed or wounded and others, to
give truthful information to the officers of the city as to such
maimed, wounded, or others whether they be in peril of death or
not, and to faithfully do all other things touching their calling.

Some young girls of good families were boarded at nunneries to be
taught there. Some upper class widows retired there. Only women
were allowed to be present at a birth, at which they spread the
knowledge of midwifery. As usual, many women died giving birth.
Various ways to prevent pregnancy were tried. It was believed that
a baby grew from a seed of the father planted in the woman's body.

Infant mortality was especially high in boroughs and burgess
family lines usually died out. A three-generation family span was
exceptional in the towns, despite family wealth.

Children's sweets included gingerbread and peppermint drops. After
the plague, gentlemen no longer had their children learn to speak
Norman. The grammar schools taught in English instead of Norman as
of 1362. Bishops began to preach in English. English became the
official language of Parliament, in 1363, and the courts,
replacing Norman and Latin.

A will in 1389 in which a wealthy citizen arranges for one son to
become a attorney and the other a merchant: "Will of William de
Tonge, citizen of London: One hundred marks [1,333s.] each to my
two sons. And I will that my said two sons shall live upon the
profits of the money bequeathed to them above until the age of
twenty years. And if my said two sons be well learned in grammar
and adorned with good manners, which shall be known at the end of
twenty years, and the elder son wish to practice common law, and
if it is known that he would spend his time well in that faculty,
I will that over and above the profit of the said one hundred
marks he shall have yearly from my rents for the term of seven
years five marks [67s.]. And if he should waste his time
aforesaid, or if he should marry foolishly and unsuitably, I will
that he receive nothing more of the said five marks.

And if younger son wishes to attend the University of Oxford or to
establish himself well in the mystery of a merchant after the age
of twenty years, and [if] there be knowledge of his praiseworthy
progress in his faculty or his carefulness in trading ... I will
that he shall receive five marks yearly in the manner described
above for his maintenance, over and above the profit of the said
one hundred marks to him bequeathed, for the space of seven years;
and if he behave himself otherwise, I will that thereupon he be
excluded from the said five marks. And in case the said bequest of
200 marks [2,667s.] to him and his brother shall be annulled so
that he shall have nothing therefrom ... then the said 200 marks
shall be spent upon all the yearly chaplains who can be had to
celebrate divine service in the church of All Hallows for my
soul."

England was still an agricultural rather than a manufacturing
country. Imported were cloth, silks, linen, velvets, furs, glass,
wines, candles, millstones, amber, iron, and mercury. Exported
were wool, leather, lead, tin, and alabaster for sculpturing.
Merchant adventurers came to manufacture cloth good enough for
export and began to buy up raw wool in such quantity that its
export declined. They took their cloth abroad to sell, personally
or by agents.

An Oxford theologian and preacher, John Wyclif, voiced the popular
resentment of the materialism of the church, benefit of clergy,
immorality of priests, and the selling of indulgences and pardons.
Encouraged by the king, he argued against the supremacy of the
papal law over the King's courts and against payments to the
papacy. He opined that the church had no power to excommunicate.
The friars had become mere beggars and the church was still
wealthy. He proposed that all goods should be held in common by
the righteous and that the church should hold no property but be
entirely spiritual. He believed that people should rely on their
individual consciences. He thought that the Bible should be
available to people who could read English so that the people
could have a direct access to God without priests or the pope.
Towards this end, he translated it from Latin into English in
1384. His preachers spread his views throughout the country. The
church then possessed about one-third of the land of the nation.

William of Ockham, an Englishman educated at Oxford and teaching
theology in Paris, taught that the primary form of knowledge came
from experience gained through the senses and that God might cause
a person to think that he has intuitive knowledge of an existent
object when there is in fact no such object.

Most great lords were literate. Many stories described good men,
who set an example to be followed, and bad men, whose habits were
to be avoided. Stories were written about pilgrimage vacations of
ordinary people to religious sites in England. Will Langland's
poem "The Vision of William Concerning Piers Plowman" portrays a
pilgrimage of common people to the shrine of Truth led by a
virtuous laborer. Mystics wrote practical advice with
transcendental teaching, for instance "Scale of Perfection"
attributed to Walter Hilton and "Cloud of Unknowing". Richard
Rolle wrote about spiritual matters, probably the "Prick of
Conscience". Richard de Bury wrote "Philobiblon" about book
lovers. Jean Froissart wrote the "Chronicles" on knights. Courtly
ideals were expressed in "Sir Gawaine and the Grene Knyght",
wherein the adventures of the hero, an Arthur knight, are
allegorical in the struggle against the world, the flesh, and the
devil (1370). "Pearl" eulogized all that is pure and innocent on
the event of the death of a two year old child.

Geoffrey Chaucer was a squire and diplomat of the king. His "Tales
of the Canterbury Pilgrims" portrayed characters of every social
class, including the knight with his squire, abbot, prioress, nun,
priest, monk, friar, poor parson of the country, summoner (who
enforced the jurisdiction and levied the dues of the church
courts), pardoner (sold pardons from the pope), scholar, attorney,
doctor, merchant, sailor, franklin, yeoman, haberdasher, tapestry-
maker, ploughman, cook, weaver, dyer, upholsterer, miller, reeve,
carpenter.

There were Chaucer stories about a beautiful and virtuous wife
disliked by her mother-in-law, the difficulty of marriage between
people of different religions, the hatred of a poor person by his
brother and his neighbor, rich merchants who visited other
kingdoms, the importance of a man himself following the rules he
sets for other people's behavior, the spite of a man for a woman
who rejected him, the relative lack of enthusiasm of a wife for
sex as compared to her husband, a mother giving up her own comfort
for that of her child, the revenge killing of a murderer by the
dead man's friends, the joy of seeing a loved one after years of
separation, that life is more sad than happy, that lost money can
be retrieved, but time lost is lost forever.

Other stories in the Canterbury Tales were about two men who did
not remain friends after they fell in love with the same woman,
about a child who preferred to learn from an older child than from
his school-teacher, about a wife who convinced her husband not to
avenge her beating for the sake of peace, about a man who woke up
from bad dreams full of fear, about a man wanting to marry a
beautiful woman but later realizing a plain wife would not be
pursued by other men, about a man who drank so much wine that he
lost his mental and physical powers, about a woman who married for
money instead of love, about a man who said something in
frustration which he didn't mean, about a person brought up in
poverty who endured adversity better than one brought up in
wealth, about a wife who was loving and wise, about a good
marriage being more valuable than money, about a virgin who
committed suicide rather than be raped, about a wife persuaded to
adultery by a man who said he would otherwise kill himself, about
three men who found a pile of gold and murdered each other to take
it all, about an angry man who wanted to kill, about a malicious
man who had joy in seeing other men in trouble and misfortune,
about a man whose face turned red in shame, about a wife expecting
to have half of what her husband owned. Paper supplemented
parchment, so there were more books.

Political songs and poems were written about the evil times of
King Edward II, the military triumphs of King Edward III, and the
complaints of the poor against their oppressors, such as "Song of
the Husbandman". John Gower wrote moralizing poems on the
villein's revolt, the sins of the clergy and attorneys, and the
bad rule of King Richard II, who in 1377 succeeded Edward III.
Robin Hood ballads were popular. The minstrel, who was a honorable
person, replaced the troubadour of older times.

There were many colleges at Oxford and Cambridge due to the
prohibition of gifts to the church. Laymen instead of
ecclesiastics were appointed as Chancellor. The Masters at Oxford
got rid of ecclesiastical supervision by a bishop and archdeacon
by 1368. One could be admitted as a student at age thirteen. The
rate of maintenance for a student was 10d. weekly.

A Bachelor of Arts degree was granted after four years of study
and an oral exam. Required reading in 1340 for the Bachelor's
Degree was the new logic of Aristotle ("Prior and Posterior
Analytics" e.g. on syllogistic logic and deduction, the "Topics",
or the "Sophistical Refutations", e.g. logical fallacies such as
from 'All A are B' to 'All B are A'), and a selection from these
Aristotle works on physics: "Of Heaven and Earth", "On the Soul",
"Of meteors", "Of Birth and Decay", or "Of Feeling and What is
Felt" with "Of Memory and Recollection" and "Of Sleep and Waking",
or "Of the Movement of Animals" with "Of Minor Points in Natural
History".

A Master of Arts degree could be awarded after three more years of
study and teaching. A Doctorate degrees in theology required ten
more years of study. A Doctorate in civil or canon law required
eight more years. A man with a degree in canon law who wanted to
practice in a certain bishop's court had to first satisfy this
bishop of his competence.

Another source of legal learning was in London, where the guilds
gave rise to the Inns of Court. They used the Register of Writs,
the case law of the Year Books, and disputation to teach their
students.

For a doctorate in medicine from Oxford or Cambridge, five more
years plus two years of practice were required. Surgery was not
taught because it was considered manual labor, and there was some
feeling that it was a sacrilege and dishonorable. Urinalysis and
pulse beat were used for diagnosis. Epilepsy and apoplexy were
understood as spasms inside the head. It was known what substances
served as laxatives and diuretics. Teeth were extracted, eye
cataracts were removed with a silver needle, and skin from the arm
was grafted onto a mutilated face.

Englishmen who had collected books on philosophy, medicine,
astronomy, and history and literature books from the continent
gave their collections to the universities, which started their
libraries. Marco Polo's discoveries on his journey to China were
known.

The requirements of elementary and higher studies were adjusted in
1393 and began the public school system. William of Wykeham's
school, St. Mary College of Winchester in Oxford was the
prototype. The curriculum was civil law, canon law, medicine, with
astronomical instruments that students made, theology, and the
arts. The arts textbooks were still grammar, logic, Donatus, and
Aristotle. Many laymen were literate, for instance country gentry,
merchants, and craftsmen. Laymen instead of clerics were now
appointed to the great offices of state.

Parliament met about twice a year and lasted from two weeks to
several months. There was a well-defined group of about fifty
barons and a few spiritual peers who were always summoned to
Parliament and who composed a House of Lords. "Peer" now meant a
member of the House of Lords. All peers had the right to approach
the king with advice. The baron peers reasoned that the custom of
regular attendance was a right that should be inherited by the
eldest son, or by a female heir, if there were no male heirs.
However, the theory of nobility by blood as conveying political
privilege had no legal recognition. No female could attend
Parliament; the husband of a baronness attended Parliament in her
stead. Edward III and Richard II created new peers with various
titles of dignity, such as duke and marquess, which were above
barons and earls. The dukes and marquesses were identified with a
territorial designation such as an English county or county town.
Whenever a Parliament was assembled the commons were present. The
commons was composed of representatives from 100 boroughs and 37
counties. Each new Parliament required an election of
representatives. The members of the commons were generally the
most prominent and powerful economic and political figures of the
county and were repeatedly re-elected. The electors were usually
influenced by the sheriff or a powerful lord who suggested
suitable men. The wealthy merchants typically represented the
boroughs and paid much of the taxes. Under Edward III, the commons
took a leading part in the granting of taxes and the presentation
of petitions and became a permanent and distinct body, the House
of Commons, with a spokesman or "speaker", chosen by the Crown,
and a clerk. The speaker came to be an intermediary between the
Commons and the king and between the Commons and the Lords. A
clerk of Parliament registered its acts and sat with the Lords. A
clerk of the Crown superintended the issue of writs and the
receipt of the returns and attested the signature of the king on
statutes. It became a regular practice for the Chancellor to open
Parliament with an opportunity to present petitions after his
opening speech. The king then referred them to certain peers and
justices, who decided to which court, or Parliament, they should
be sent. During the 1300s, the number of barons going to
Parliament gradually decreased.

At the 1376 Parliament, ("the Good Parliament") the Commons, which
formerly had only consented to taxes, took political action by
complaining that the King's councilors had grown rich by war
profiteering at the cost of impoverishing the nation and the
people were too poor to endure any more taxation for the war and
held a hearing on financial malfeasance and dishonesty of two
ministers. The chamberlain had extorted enormous sums, had
intercepted fines meant for the king's treasury, and had sold a
castle to the enemy. The steward had bought debts of the king's.
The House of Lords, the High Court of Parliament, found the
charges proved and dismissed them permanently from office. This
established the constitutional means for impeachment and
prosecution by the Commons and removal by the House of Lords of
ministers. By this process, there could be no royal intimidation,
as there could be in the ordinary courts. The Commons demanded
that its members be elected by county citizens rather than
appointed by the sheriff.

The roles of Parliament and the King's council are starting to
differentiate into legislative and executive, respectively. The
legislative function is law-making and the executive is
regulation-making that refines and effectuates the laws of
Parliament. But the legislative, executive, and judicial
authorities have not as yet become so completely separated that
they cannot on occasion work together.

Sheriffs dealt directly with the king instead of through an earl.

From 1150 to 1400, resistance was an ordinary remedy for political
disagreements. If a popular leader raised his standard in a
popular cause, an irregular army could be assembled in a day.
(There was no regular army, since England was protected by the sea
from invasion.) So misgovernment by a king would be quickly
restrained. Society recovered quickly from conflict and civil war
because the national wealth consisted chiefly in flocks and herds
and in the simple buildings inhabited by the people. In a week
after armed resistance, the agricultural worker was driving his
team. There was little furniture, stock of shops, manufactured
goods, or machinery that could be destroyed.

To support a war with France in 1353, the staple was reinstated by
statute of 1353 after an experiment without it in which profits of
a staple went to staples outside the nation. Wool exports were
inspected for quality and taxed through his officials only at the
designated staple ports. These officials included collectors,
controllers, searchers [inspectors], surveyors, clerks, weighers,
and crane-keepers. Wool, woolfells, leather, and lead sold for
export had to go through the staple town. The penalty was
forfeiture of lands, tenements, goods, and chattel. (The staple
statute remained basically unchanged for the next 200 years.) The
mayor and constables of the staple were elected annually by the
native and foreign merchants of the place. The mayor gave validity
to contracts for a set fee, by seal of his office. He and the
constables had jurisdiction over all persons and things touching
the staple, which was regulated by the Law Merchant in all matters
of contract, covenant, debt, and felonies against foreign
merchants. A hue and cry was required to be raised and followed
for anyone taking a cart of merchandise or slaying a merchant,
denizen [resident alien] or alien, or the town would answer for
the robbery and damage done. In 1363, Calais, a continental town
held by the English, became the staple town for lead, tin, cloth,
and wool and was placed under a group of London capitalists: the
Merchants of the Staple. All exports of these had to pass through
Calais, where customs tax was collected.

Guns and cannon were common by 1372. In the 1300s and 1400s, the
king relied on mercenaries hired directly or by contract with his
great nobles for foreign wars. The King reimbursed the contractors
with the profits of war, such as the ransoms paid by the families
of rich prisoners. The fighting men supplemented their pay by
plunder. Featherbeds and blooded horses were favorite spoils of
war brought back to England from the continent. As new techniques
with footmen came into being, the footmen became the core of the
army and the knightly abilities of the feudal tenants-in-chief
became less valuable.

Many lords got men to fight with them by livery and maintenance
employment agreements such as this one of 1374: "Bordeaux,
February 15. This indenture, made between our lord King John [of
Gaunt, of Castile, etc.] of the one part and Symkyn Molyneux,
esquire, of the other part, witnesses that the said Symkyn is
retained and will remain with our said lord for peace and for war
for the term of his life, as follows: that is to say, the said
Symkyn shall be bound to serve our said lord as well in time of
peace as of war in whatsoever parts it shall please our said lord,
well and fitly arrayed. And he shall be boarded as well in time of
peace as of war. And he shall take for his fees by the year, as
well in time of peace as of war, ten marks sterling [133s.] from
the issues of the Duchy of Lancaster by the hands of the receiver
there who now is or shall be in time to come, at the terms of
Easter and Michaelmas by even portions yearly for the whole of his
life. And, moreover, our lord has granted to him by the year in
time of war five marks sterling [67s.] by the hands of the
treasurer of war for the time being. And his year of war shall
begin the day when he shall move from his inn towards our said
lord by letters which shall be sent to him thereof, and
thenceforward he shall take wages coming and returning by
reasonable daily [payments] and he shall have fitting freightage
for him, his men, horses, and other harness within reason, and in
respect of his war horses taken and lost in the service of our
said lord, and also in respect to prisoners and other profits of
war taken or gained by him or any of his men, the said our lord
will do to him as to other squires of his rank."

Forecastles and stern castles on ships were lower and broader.
Underneath them were cabins. The English ship was still single
masted with a single square sail. A fleet was formed with over 200
ships selected by the English admirals acting for the king at the
ports. Men were seized and pressed into service and criminals were
pardoned from crimes to become sailors in the fleet, which was led
by the King's ship. They used the superior longbow against the
French sailor's crossbow. In 1372, the Tower of London had four
mounted fortress cannon and the port of Dover had six.

The war's disruption of shipping caused trade to decline. But the
better policing of the narrow seas made piracy almost disappear.

English merchants may carry their merchandise in foreign ships if
there are no English ships available.

Anyone may ship or carry grain out of the nation, except to
enemies, after paying duties. But the council may restrain this
passage when necessary for the good of the nation. Any merchant,
privy or stranger, who was robbed of goods on the sea or lost his
ship by tempest or other misfortune on the sea banks, his goods
coming to shore could not be declared Wreck, but were to be
delivered to the merchant after he proves ownership in court by
his marks on the goods or by good and lawful merchants.

All stakes and obstacles set up in rivers impeding the passage of
boats shall be removed.

Waterpower was replacing foot power in driving the mills where
cloth was cleaned and fulled.

A boundary dispute between two barons resulted in the first true
survey map. Nine cow pastures were divided by a boundary marked by
a shield on a pole which the commission of true and sworn men had
set up.

King Richard II, an irresponsible sovereign, asserted an absolute
supremacy of the king over Parliament and declared certain
statutes which he claimed to have been forced on him to be
revoked. He interfered with county elections of knights to
Parliament by directing sheriffs to return certain named persons.
He wanted to dispense altogether with Parliament and instead have
a committee of representatives. He claimed that the goods of his
subjects were his own and illegally taxed the counties. There were
many disputes as to who should be his ministers. High treason was
extended to include making a riot and rumor, compassing or
purposing to depose the King, revoking one's homage or liege to
the King, or attempting to repeal a statute. When Henry
Bolingbroke reported to Parliament that another lord had cast
doubt on the king's trustworthiness, a duel between them was
arranged. But Richard, probably fearing the gain of power of the
lord who won, instead exiled the two lords. He took possession of
the Lancaster estates to which Henry was heir and forbade this
inheritance. This made all propertied men anxious and they united
behind Bolingbroke in taking up arms against Richard. Richard was
not a warrior king and offered to resign the crown. The "Merciless
Parliament" of 1388 swept out Richard's friends. Parliament
deposed and imprisoned Richard. It revoked the extensions to the
definition of high treason. It elected Bolingbroke, who claimed to
be a descendant of Henry III, to be King Henry IV. This action
established clearly that royal decrees were subordinate to
parliamentary statutes, that Parliament was the ultimate legal
arbiter of the realm, and that the consent of Parliament was
necessary in determining kingship. The House of Commons became
very powerful. It was responsible for the major part of
legislation. It's members began to assert the privilege of free
speech. That is, they wanted to discuss other matters than what
was on the king's agenda and they opposed punishment for what they
said unless it was treasonable. Henry IV agreed to their request
not to consider reports of proceedings unless they came to him
through official channels.



                              - The Law -

After the Black Death of 1348 these statutes were enacted:

High treason was defined by statute in 1352 as levying war against
the King, aiding the King's enemies, compassing or imagining the
death of the King, Queen, or their eldest son and heir, or
violating the Queen or the eldest unmarried daughter or the wife
of the King's eldest son and heir; making or knowingly using
counterfeits of the King's great or privy seal or coinage; or
slaying the Chancellor, Treasurer, or any justice in the exercise
of their duty. The penalty was forfeit of life and lands.

Petit treason was defined by statute and included a servant
slaying his master, a wife her husband, or a man his lord, to whom
was owed faith and obedience.

No one shall tell false news or lies about prelates, dukes, earls,
barons, and other nobles and great men or the Chancellor,
Treasurer, a Justice, Clerk of the Privy Seal, Steward of the
King's house whereby debates and discords might arise between
these lords or between the lords and the commons. Cases shall be
tried by the King's Council, which included the Chancellor,
Treasurer, and chief justices.

Preachers drawing crowds by ingenious sermons and inciting them to
riot shall be arrested by sheriffs and tried by the ecclesiastical
court.

Any stranger passing at night of whom any have suspicion shall be
arrested and taken to the Sheriff.

No man shall ride with a spear, upon pain of forfeiting it.

No servant of agriculture or laborer shall carry any sword or
dagger, or forfeit it, except in time of war in defense of the
nation. He may carry bow and arrow [for practice] on Sundays and
holy days, when he should not play games such as tennis, football,
or dice.

No one may enter another's land and tenements by strong hand nor
with a mob, upon pain of imprisonment and ransom at the King's
will.

Charters, releases, obligations, [quit-claim deeds] and other
deeds burnt or destroyed in uprisings shall be reissued without
fee, after trial by the king and his council. Manumissions,
obligations, releases and other bonds and feoffments in land made
by force, coercion or duress during mob uprisings are void.

Men who rape and women consenting after a rape shall lose their
inheritance and dower and joint feoffments. The husbands, or
father or next of kin of such women may sue the rapist by
inquisition, but not by trial by combat. The penalty is loss of
life and member.

The Statute of Laborers of 1351 required all workers, from tailors
to ploughmen, to work only at pre-plague wage rates and forced the
vagrant peasant to work for anyone who claimed him or her. It also
encouraged longer terms of employment as in the past rather than
for a day at a time. Statutory price controls on food limited
profits to reasonable ones according to the distance of the
supply. Later, wages were determined in each county by Justices of
the Peace according to the dearth of victuals while allowing a
victualler a reasonable profit and a penalty was specified as
paying the value of the excess wages given or received for the
first offense, double this for the second offense, and treble this
or forty days imprisonment for the third offense.

A fugitive laborer will be outlawed, and when found, shall be
burnt in the forehead with the letter "F" for falsity.

Children who labored at the plough and cart or other agriculture
shall continue in that labor and may not go into a craft.

A statute of 1363 designed to stop hoarding various types of
merchandise until a type became scarce so to sell it at high
prices, required merchants to deal in only one type of
merchandise. It also required craftsmen to work in only one craft
as before (except women who traditionally did several types of
handiwork). This was repealed a year later.

Where scarcity has made the price of poultry high, it shall be
lowered to 8d. for a young capon, 7d. for an old capon or a goose,
9d. for a hen, and 10d. for a pullet.

The fares for passage on boats on fresh waters and from Dover to
the continent shall remain at their old rate.

Any merchant selling at a fair after it has ended will forfeit to
the king twice the value of that sold.

Anyone finding and proving cloth contrary to the assize of cloth
shall have one-third of it for his labor.

No shoemaker nor cordwainer shall tan their leather and no tanner
shall make shoes, in order that tanning not be false or poorly
done.

All denizen [foreigner permitted to reside in the realm with
certain rights and privileges] and alien merchants may buy and
sell goods and merchandise, in gross, in any part of the country,
despite town charters or franchises, to anyone except an enemy of
the King. They may also sell small wares: victuals, fur, silk,
coverchiefs [an item of woman's apparel], silver wire, and gold
wire in retail, but not cloth or wine. They must sell their goods
within three months of arrival. Any alien bringing goods to the
nation to sell must buy goods of the nation to the value of at
least one-half that of his merchandise sold. These merchants must
engage in no collusion to lower the price of merchandise bought,
take merchandise bought to the staple, and promise to hold no
staple beyond the sea for the same merchandise. An amendment
disallowed denizens from taking wools, leather, woolfells, or lead
for export, but only strangers.

Towns failing to bring disturbers of this right to justice shall
forfeit their franchise to the king and pay double damages to the
merchant. The disturber shall be imprisoned for a year.

Cloth may not be tacked nor folded for sale to merchants unless
they are opened to the buyers for inspection, for instance for
concealed inferior wool. Workers, weavers, and fullers shall put
their seals to every cloth. And anyone could bring his own wools,
woolfells, leather, and lead to the staple to sell without being
compelled to sell them in the country. Special streets or
warehouses were appointed with warehouse rent fixed by the mayor
and constables with four of the principal inhabitants. Customs
duties were regulated and machinery provided for their collection.
No one was to forestall or regrate, that is, buy at one price and
sell at a higher price in the same locale. Forestallers were those
who bought raw material on its way to market. Regrators were those
who tried to create a "corner" in the article in the market
itself.

Imported cloth shall be inspected by the King's officials for non-
standard measurements or defects [despite town franchises].

No one shall leave the nation except at designated ports, on pain
of one year's imprisonment.

Social distinctions by attire were mandated by statute of 1363. A
servant, his wife, son, or daughter, shall only wear cloth worth
no more than 27s. and shall not have more than one dish of meat or
fish a day. Carters, ploughmen, drivers of the plough, oxherds,
cowherds, shepherds, and all other people owning less than 40s. of
goods and chattels shall only wear blanket and russet worth no
more than 12d. and girdles of linen according to their estate.
Craftsmen and free peasants shall only wear cloth worth no more
than 40s. Esquires and gentlemen below the rank of knight with no
land nor rent over 2,000s. a year shall only wear cloth worth no
more than 60s., no gold, silver, stone, fur, or the color purple.
Esquires with land up to 2,667s. per year may wear 67s. cloth,
cloth of silk and silver, miniver [grey squirrel] fur and stones,
except stones on the head. Merchants, citizens, burgesses,
artificers, and people of handicraft having goods and chattels
worth 10,000s. shall wear cloth the same value as that worn by
esquires and gentlemen with land or rent within 2,000s. per year.
The same merchants and burgesses with goods and chattels worth
13,333s. and esquires and gentlemen with land or rent within 400s.
per year may not wear gold cloth, miniver fur, ermine [white] fur,
or embroidered stones. A knight with land or rents within 2,667s.
yearly are limited to cloth of 80s., but his wife may wear a stone
on her head. Knights and ladies with land or rents within 8,000s.
to 20,000s. yearly may not wear fur of ermine or of letuse, but
may wear gold, and such ladies may wear pearls as well as stones
on their heads. The penalty is forfeiture of such apparel. This
statute is necessary because of "outrageous and excessive apparel
of diverse persons against their estate and degree, to the great
destruction and impoverishment of all the land".

If anyone finds a hawk [used to hunt birds, ducks, and pheasant]
that a lord has lost, he must take it to the sheriff for keeping
for the lord to claim. If there is no claim after four months, the
finder may have it only if he is a gentleman. If one steals a hawk
from a lord or conceals from him the fact that it has been found,
he shall pay the price of the hawk and be imprisoned for two
years.

No laborer or any other man who does not have lands and tenements
of the value of 40s. per year shall keep a greyhound [or other
hound or dog] to hunt, nor shall they use nets or cords or other
devices to take [deer, hare, rabbits, nor other gentlemen's game],
upon pain of one year imprisonment. (The rabbit had been
introduced by the Normans.) This 1390 law was primarily intended
to stop the meetings of laborers and artificers.

No man shall eat more than two courses of meat or fish in his
house or elsewhere, except at festivals, when three are allowed
[because great men ate costly meats to excess and the lesser
people were thereby impoverished].

No one may export silver, whether bullion or coinage, or wine
except foreign merchants may carry back the portion of their money
not used to buy English commodities. The penalty for bringing
false or counterfeit money into the nation is loss of life and
member. An assigned searcher [inspector] for coinage of the nation
on the sea passing out of the nation or bad money in the nation
shall have one third of it. No foreign money may be used in the
nation.

Each goldsmith shall have an identifying mark, which shall be
placed on his vessel or work only after inspection by the King's
surveyor.

No one shall give anything to a beggar who is capable of working.

Vagrants begging in London were banned by this 1359 ordinance:
"Forasmuch as many men and women, and others, of divers counties,
who might work, to the help of the common people, have betaken
themselves from out of their own country to the city of London and
do go about begging there so as to have their own ease and repose,
not wishing to labor or work for their sustenance, to the great
damage of the common people; and also do waste divers alms which
would otherwise be given to many poor folks, such as lepers,
blind, halt, and persons oppressed with old age and divers other
maladies, to the destruction of the support of the same - we do
command on behalf of our lord the King, whom may God preserve and
bless, that all those who go about begging in the said city and
who are able to labor and work for the profit of the common people
shall quit the said city between now and Monday next ensuing. And
if any such shall be found begging after the day aforesaid, the
same shall be taken and put in the stocks on Cornhill for half a
day the first time, and the second time he shall remain in the
stocks one whole day, and the third time he shall be taken and
shall remain in prison for forty days and shall then forswear the
said city forever. And every constable and the beadle of every
ward of the said city shall be empowered to arrest such manner of
folks and to put them in the stocks in manner aforesaid."

The hundred year cry to "let the king live on his own" found
fruition in a 1352 statute requiring consent of the Parliament
before any commission of array for militia could be taken and a
1362 statute requiring purchases of goods and means of conveyance
for the king and his household to be made only by agreement with
the seller and with payment to him before the king traveled on,
instead of at the low prices determined unilaterally by the king's
purveyor.

Every man who has wood within the forest may take houseboot [right
to take wood for reapir of one's house] and heyboot [right to take
material for the maintenance of hedges and fences, and the making
of farming utensils] in his wood without being arrested so long as
it take such within the view of the foresters.

No fecal matter, dung, garbage, or entrails of animals killed
shall be put into ditches or rivers or other waters, so that
maladies and diseases will not be caused by corrupted and infected
air. The penalty is 400s. to the king after trial by the
Chancellor.

Gifts or alienation of land to guilds, fraternities, or towns are
forbidden. Instead, it escheats to its lord, or in his default, to
the King.

No man will be charged to go out of his county to do military
service except in case of an enemy invasion of the nation. Men who
chose to go into the king's service outside the nation shall be
paid wages by the king until their return.

Admiralty law came into being when ancient naval manners and
customs were written down as the "Black Book of the Admiralty".
This included the organization of the fleet under the Admiral,
sea-maneuver rules such as not laying anchor until the Admiral's
ship had, engagement rules, and the distribution of captured
goods: one-fourth to the vessel owner, one-fourth to the king if
the seamen were paid by the king's wages, and the rest divided
among the crew and Admiral. Stealing a boat or an anchor holding a
boat was punishable by hanging. Stealing an oar or an anchor was
punishable by forty days imprisonment for the first offense, six
months imprisonment for the second, and hanging for the third.
Desertion was punishable by loss of double the amount of wages
earned and imprisonment for one year. Cases were tried by jury in
the Admiral's court.

Wines, vinegar, oil and honey imported shall be gauged by the
King's appointees.



                         - Judicial Procedure -

The office of Justice of the Peace was developed and filled by
knights, esquires and gentlemen who were closely associated with
the magnates. There was no salary nor any requirement of knowledge
of the law. They were to pursue, restrain, arrest, imprison, try,
and duly punish felons, trespassers, and rioters according to the
law. They were expected to arrest vagrants who would not work and
imprison them until sureties for good behavior was found for them.
They also were empowered to inspect weights and measures. Trespass
included forcible offenses of breaking of a fence enclosing
private property, assault and battery, false imprisonment, and
taking away goods and chattels.

The action of trespass was replacing private suits for murder and
for personal injury.

Pardons may be given only for slaying another in one's own defense
or by misfortune [accident], and not for slaying by lying in wait,
assault, or malice aforethought.

Justices of Assize, sheriffs, and Justices of the Peace and mayors
shall have power to inquire of all vagabonds and compel them to
find surety of their good bearing or be imprisoned.

A reversioner shall be received in court to defend his right when
a tenant for a term of life, tenant in dower, or by the Law of
England, or in Tail after Possibility of Issue extinct are sued in
court for the land, so as to prevent collusion by the demandants.

A person in debt may not avoid his creditors by giving his
tenements or chattels to his friends in collusion to have the
profits at their will.

Where there was a garnishment given touching a plea of land, a
writ of deceit is also maintainable.

Actions of debt will be heard only in the county where the
contract was made. The action of debt includes enforcement of
contracts executed or under seal, e.g. rent due on a lease, hire
of an archer, contract of sale or repair of an item. Thus there is
a growing connection between the actions of debt and contract.

Executors have an action for trespass to their testators' goods
and chattels in like manner as did the testator when alive.

If a man dies intestate, his goods shall be administered by his
next and most lawful friends appointed. Such administrators shall
have the same powers and duties as executors and be accountable as
are executors to the ecclesiastical court.

Children born to English parents in parts beyond the sea may
inherit from their ancestors in the same manner as those born in
the nation.

A person grieved by a false oath in a town court proceeding may
appeal to the King's Bench or Common Pleas, regardless of any town
franchise.

The Court of the King's Bench worked independently of the King. It
was exceptional to find the king sitting on his bench. It became
confined to the established common law.

Decisions of the common law courts are appealable to the House of
Lords. The king's council members who are not peers, in particular
the justices and the Masters of the Chancery, are summoned by the
House of Lords only as mere assistants. Parliament can change the
common law by statute. The right of a peer to be tried for capital
crimes by a court composed of his peers was established. There is
a widespread belief that all the peers are by right the king's
councilors.

No attorney may practice law and also be a justice of assize. No
justice may take any gift except from the king nor give counsel to
any litigant before him.

In 1390, there was another statute against maintainers,
instigators, barretors, procurers, and embracers of quarrels and
inquests because of great and outrageous oppressions of parties in
court. Because this encouraged maintenance by the retinue of lords
with fees, robes, and other liveries, such maintainers were to be
put out of their lords' service, and could not be retained by
another lord. No one was to give livery to anyone else, except
household members and those retained for life for peace or for
war. Justices of the Peace were authorized to inquire about
yeomen, or other of lower estate than squire, bearing livery of
any lord.

Whereas it is contained in the Magna Carta that none shall be
imprisoned nor put out of his freehold, nor of his franchises nor
free custom, unless it be by the law of the land; it is
established that from henceforth none shall be taken by petition
or suggestion made to the king unless by indictment of good and
lawful people of the same neighborhood where such deeds be done,
in due manner, or by process made by writ original at the common
law; nor that none be out of his franchise, nor of his freeholds,
unless he be duly brought into answer and before judges of the
same by the course of law.

The Chancery came to have a separate and independent equitable
jurisdiction. It heard petitions of misconduct of government
officials or of powerful oppressors, fraud, accident, abuse of
trust, wardship of infants, dower, and rent charges. Because the
common law and its procedures had become technical and rigid, the
Chancery was given equity jurisdiction by statute in 1285. King
Edward III proclaimed that petitions for remedies that the common
law didn't cover be addressed to the Chancellor, who was not bound
by established law, but could do equity. In Chancery, if there is
a case that is similar to a case for which there is a writ, but is
not in technical conformity with the requirements of the common
law for a remedy, then a new writ may be made for that case by the
Chancellor. These were called "actions on the case". Also,
Parliament may create new remedies. There were so many cases that
were similar to a case with no remedy specified in the common law,
that litigants were flowing into the Chancery. The Chancellor gave
swift and equitable relief, which was summary. With the backing of
the council, the Chancellor made decisions implementing the policy
of the Statute of Laborers. Most of these concerned occupational
competency, for instance negligent activity of carriers, builders,
shepherds, doctors, clothworkers, smiths, innkeepers, and gaolers.
For instance, the common law action of detinue could force return
of cloth bailed for fulling or sheep bailed for pasturing, but
could not address damages due to faulty work. The Chancellor
addressed issues of loss of wool, dead lambs, and damaged sheep,
as well as dead sheep. He imposed a legal duty on innkeepers to
prevent injury or damage to a patron or his goods from third
parties. A dog bite or other damage by a dog known by its owner to
be vicious was made a more serious offense than general damage by
any dog. A person starting a fire was given a duty to prevent the
fire from damaging property of others.

The king will fine instead of seize the land of his tenants who
sell or alienate their land, such fine to be determined by the
Chancellor by due process.

Only barons who were peers of the House of Lords were entitled to
trial in the House of Lords. In practice, however, this pertained
only to major crimes.

Treason was tried by the lords in Parliament, by bill of
"attainder". It was often used for political purposes. Most
attainders were reversed as a term of peace made between competing
factions.

The King's coroner and a murderer who had taken sanctuary in a
church often agreed to the penalty of confession and perpetual
banishment from the nation as follows: "Memorandum that on July 6,
[1347], Henry de Roseye abjured the realm of England before John
Bernard, the King's coroner, at the church of Tendale in the
County of Kent in form following: 'Hear this, O lord the coroner,
that I, Henry de Roseye, have stolen an ox and a cow of the widow
of John Welsshe of Retherfeld; and I have stolen eighteen beasts
from divers men in the said county. And I acknowledge that I have
feloniously killed Roger le Swan in the town of Strete in the
hundred of Strete in the rape [a division of a county] of Lewes
and that I am a felon of the lord King of England. And because I
have committed many ill deeds and thefts in his land, I abjure the
land of the Lord Edward King of England, and [I acknowledge] that
I ought to hasten to the port of Hastings, which thou hast given
me, and that I ought not to depart from the way, and if I do so I
am willing to be taken as a thief and felon of the lord King, and
that at Hastings I will diligently seek passage, and that I will
not wait there save for the flood and one ebb if I can have
passage; and if I cannot have passage within that period, I will
go up to the knees into the sea every day, endeavoring to cross;
and unless I can do so within forty days, I will return at once to
the church, as a thief and a felon of the lord King, so help me
God."

Property damage by a tenant of a London building was assessed in a
1374 case: "John Parker, butcher, was summoned to answer Clement
Spray in a plea of trespass, wherein the latter complained that
the said John, who had hired a tavern at the corner of St. Martin-
le-Grand from him for fifteen months, had committed waste and
damage therein, although by the custom of the city no tenant for a
term of years was entitled to destroy any portion of the buildings
or fixtures let to him. He alleged that the defendant had taken
down the door post of the tavern and also of the shop, the boarded
door of a partition of the tavern, a seat in the tavern, a
plastered partition wall, the stone flooring in the chamber, the
hearth of the kitchen, and the mantelpiece above it, a partition
in the kitchen, two doors and other partitions, of a total value
of 21s. four pounds, 1s. 8d., and to his damage, 400s. [20
pounds]. The defendant denied the trespass and put himself on the
country. Afterwards a jury [panel]... found the defendant guilty
of the aforesaid trespass to the plaintiff's damage, 40d. Judgment
was given for that amount and a fine of 1s. to the King, which the
defendant paid immediately in court."

The innkeeper's duty to safeguard the person and property of his
lodgers was applied in this case:

"John Trentedeus of Southwark was summoned to answer William
Latymer touching a plea why, whereas according to the law and
custom of the realm of England, innkeepers who keep a common inn
are bound to keep safely by day and by night without reduction or
loss men who are passing through the parts where such inns are and
lodging their goods within those inns, so that, by default of the
innkeepers or their servants, no damage should in any way happen
to such their guests ...

On Monday after the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary
in the fourth year of the now King by default of the said John,
certain malefactors took and carried away two small portable
chests with 533s. and also with charters and writings, to wit two
writings obligatory, in the one of which is contained that a
certain Robert Bour is bound to the said William in 2,000s. and in
the other that a certain John Pusele is bound to the same William
in 800s. 40 pounds ... and with other muniments [writings
defending claims or rights] of the same William, to wit his return
of all the writs of the lord King for the counties of Somerset and
Dorset, whereof the same William was then sheriff, for the morrow
of the Purification of the Blessed Mary the Virgin in the year
aforesaid, as well before the same lord the King in his Chancery
and in his Bench as before the justices of the King's Common Bench
and his barons of his Exchequer, returnable at Westminster on the
said morrow, and likewise the rolls of the court of Cranestock for
all the courts held there from the first year of the reign of the
said lord the King until the said Monday, contained in the same
chests being lodged within the inn of the same John at Southwark

And the said John ... says that on the said Monday about the
second hour after noon the said William entered his inn to be
lodged there, and at once when he entered, the same John assigned
to the said William a certain chamber being in that inn, fitting
for his rank, with a door and a lock affixed to the same door with
sufficient nails, so that he should lie there and put and keep his
things there, and delivered to the said William the key to the
door of the said chamber, which chamber the said William
accepted...

William says that ... when the said John had delivered to him the
said chamber and key as above, the same William, being occupied
about divers businesses to be done in the city of London, went out
from the said inn into the city to expedite the said businesses
and handed over the key of the door to a certain servant of the
said William to take care of in meantime, ordering the servant to
remain in the inn meanwhile and to take care of his horses there;
and afterwards, when night was falling, the same William being in
the city and the key still in the keeping of the said servant, the
wife of the said John called unto her into her hall the said
servant who had the key, giving him food and drink with a merry
countenance and asking him divers questions and occupying him thus
for a long time, until the staple of the lock of the door
aforesaid was thrust on one side out of its right place and the
door of the chamber was thereby opened and his goods, being in the
inn of the said John, were taken and carried off by the said
malefactors ... The said John says ...[that his wife did not call
the servant into the hall, but that] when the said servant came
into the said hall and asked his wife for bread and ale and other
necessaries to be brought to the said chamber of his master, his
wife immediately and without delay delivered to the same servant
the things for which he asked ... protesting that no goods of the
same William in the said inn were carried away by the said John
his servant or any strange malefactors other than the persons of
the household of the said William."

On the Coram Rege Roll of 1395 is a case on the issue of whether a
court-crier can be seized by officers of a staple:

"Edmund Hikelyng, 'criour', sues William Baddele and wife Maud,
John Olney, and William Knyghtbrugge for assault and imprisonment
at Westminster, attacking him with a stick and imprisoning him for
one hour on Wednesday before St. Martin, 19 Richard II.

Baddele says Mark Faire of Winchester was prosecuting a bill of
debt for 18s. against Edmund and John More before William
Brampton, mayor of the staple of Westminster, and Thomas Alby and
William Askham, constables of the said staple, and on that day the
Mayor and the constables issued a writ of capias against Edmund
and John to answer Mark and be before the Mayor and the constables
at the next court. This writ was delivered to Baddele as sergeant
of the staple, and by virtue of it he took and imprisoned Edmund
in the staple. Maud and the others say they aided Baddele by
virtue of the said writ.

Edmund does not acknowledge Baddele to be sergeant of the staple
or Mark a merchant of the staple or that he was taken in the
staple. He is minister of the King's Court of his Bench and is
crier under Thomas Thorne, the chief crier, his master. Every
servant of the court is under special protection while doing his
duty or on his way to do it. On the day in question, he was at
Westminster carrying his master's staff of office before Hugh
Huls, one of the King's justices, and William took him in the
presence of the said justice and imprisoned him.

The case is adjourned for consideration from Hilary to Easter."

A law of equity began to be developed from decisions by the
Chancellor in his court of conscience from around 1370. One such
case was that of Godwyne v. Profyt sometime after 1393. This
petition was made to the Chancellor: To the most reverend Father
in God, and most gracious Lord, the bishop of Exeter, Chancellor
of England. Thomas Godwyne and Joan his wife, late wife of Peter
at More of Southwerk, most humbly beseech that, whereas at
Michaelmas in the 17th year of our most excellent lord King
Richard who now is, the said Peter at More in his lifetime
enfeoffed Thomas Profyt parson of St. George's church Southwerk,
Richard Saundre, and John Denewey, in a tenement with the
appurtenances situated in Southwerk and 24 acres of land 6 acres
of meadow in the said parish of St. George and in the parish of our
Lady of Newington, on the conditions following, to wit, that the
said three feoffees should, immediately after the death of the
said Peter, enfeoff the said Joan in all the said lands and
tenements with all their appurtenances for the life of the said
Joan, with remainder after her decease to one Nicholas at More,
brother of the said Peter, to hold to him and the heirs of his
body begotten, and for default of issue, then to be sold by four
worthy people of the said parish, and the money to be received for
the same to be given to Holy Church for his soul; whereupon the
said Peter died. And after his death two of the said feoffees,
Richard and John, by the procurement of one John Solas, released
all their estate in the said lands and tenements to the said
Thomas Profyt, on the said conditions, out of the great trust that
they had in the said Thomas Profyt, who was their confessor, that
he would perform the will of the said Peter [at More] in the form
aforesaid; and this well and lawfully to do the said Thomas Profyt
swore on his Verbum Dei and to perform the said conditions on all
points. And since the release was so made, the said Thomas Profyt,
through the scheming and false covin of the said John Solas, has
sold all the lands and tenements aforesaid to the same John Solas
for ever. And the said John Solas is bound to the said Thomas
Profyt in 100 pounds by a bond to make defence of the said lands
and tenements by the bribery (?) and maintenance against every
one; and so by their false interpretation and conspiracy the said
Joan, Nicholas, and Holy Church are like to be disinherited and
put out of their estate and right, as is abovesaid, for ever,
tortiously, against the said conditions, and contrary to the will
of the said Peter [at More]. May it please your most righteous
Lordship to command the said Thomas Profyt, Richard Saundre, and
John Denewy to come before you, and to examine them to tell the
truth of all the said matter, so that the said Joan, who has not
the wherewithal to live, may have her right in the said lands and
tenements, as by the examination before you, most gracious Lord,
shall be found and proved; for God and in way of holy charity.





                         - - - Chapter 10 - - -



                        - The Times: 1399-1485 -

This period, which begins with the reign of the usurper King,
Henry IV, is dominated by war: the last half of the 100 year war
with France, which, with the help of Joan of Arc, took all English
land on the continent except the port of Calais, and the War of
the Roses over the throne in England. The ongoing border fights
with Wales and Scotland were fought by England's feudal army. But
for fighting in France, the king paid barons and earls to raise
their own fighting forces. When they returned to England, they
fought to put their candidate on its throne, which had been
unsteady since its usurpation by Henry IV. All the great houses
kept bands of armed retainers. These retainers were given land or
pay or both as well as liveries [uniforms or badges] bearing the
family crest. In the system of "livery and maintenance", if the
retainer was harassed by the law or by enemies, the lord protected
him. The liveries became the badges of the factions engaged in the
War of the Roses. And the white rose was worn by the supporters of
the house of York, and the red rose by supporters of the house of
Lancaster for the Crown. Great lords fought each other for
property and made forcible entries usurping private property.
Shakespeare's histories deal with this era.

In both wars, the musket was used as well as the longbow. To use
it, powder was put into the barrel, then a ball rammed down the
barrel with a rod, and then the powder lit by a hot rod held with
one hand while the other hand was used to aim the musket. Cannon
were used to besiege castles and destroy their walls, so many
castles were allowed to deteriorate. The existence of cannon also
limited the usefulness of town walls for defense. But townspeople
did not take part in the fighting.

Since the power of the throne changed from one faction to another,
political and personal vindictiveness gave rise to many bills of
attainder that resulted in lords being beheaded and losing their
lands to the King. However, these were done by the form of law;
there were no secret executions in England. Families engaged in
blood feuds. Roving bands ravaged the country, plundering the
people, holding the forests, and robbing collectors of Crown
revenue. Some men made a living by fighting for others in
quarrels. Individual life and property were insecure. Whole
districts were in a permanent alarm of riot and robbery. The roads
were not safe. Nobles employed men who had returned from fighting
in war to use their fighting skill in local defense. There was
fighting between lords and gangs of ruffians holding the roads,
breaking into and seizing manor houses, and openly committing
murders.

Peace was never well-kept nor was law ever well-executed, though
fighting was suspended by agreement during the harvest. Local
administration was paralyzed by party faction or lodged in some
great lord or some clique of courtiers. The elections of members
to Parliament was interfered with and Parliament was rarely held.
Barons and earls fought their disputes in the field rather than in
the royal courts. Litigation was expensive, so men relied
increasingly on the protection of the great men of their
neighborhood and less on the King's courts for the safety of their
lives and land. Local men involved in court functions usually owed
allegiance to a lord which compromised the exercise of justice.
Men serving in an assize often lied to please their lord instead
of telling the truth. Lords maintained, supported, or promoted
litigation with money or aid supplied to one party to the
detriment of justice. It was not unusual for lords to attend court
with a great force of retainers behind them. Many justices of the
peace wore liveries of magnates and accepted money from them.
Royal justices were flouted or bribed. The King's writ was denied
or perverted. For 6-8s., a lord could have the king instruct his
sheriff to impanel a jury which would find in his favor. A statute
against riots, forcible entries, and, excepting the King,
magnates' liveries of uniform, food, and badges to their
retainers, except in war outside the nation, was passed, but was
difficult to enforce because the offenders were lords, who
dominated the Parliament and the council.

With men so often gone to fight, their wives managed the household
alone. The typical wife had maidens of equal class to whom she
taught household management, spinning, weaving, carding wool with
iron wool-combs, heckling flax, embroidery, and making garments.
There were foot-treadles for spinning wheels. She taught the
children. Each day she scheduled the activities of the household
including music, conversation, dancing, chess, reading, playing
ball, and gathering flowers. She organized picnics, rode horseback
and went hunting, hawking to get birds, and hare-ferreting. She
was nurse to all around her. If her husband died, she usually
continued in this role because most men named their wife as
executor of their will with full power to act as she thought best.
The wives of barons shared their right of immunity from arrest by
the processes of common law and to be tried by their peers.

For ladies, close-fitting jackets came to be worn over close-
fitting long gowns with low, square-cut necklines and flowing
sleeves, under which was worn a girdle or corset of stout linen
reinforced by stiff leather or even iron. Her skirt was
provocatively slit from knee to ankle. All her hair was confined
by a hair net. Headdresses were very elaborate and heavy, trailing
streamers of linen. Some were in the shape of hearts, butterflies,
crescents, double horns, steeples, or long cones. Men also wore
hats rather than hoods. They wore huge hats of velvet, fur, or
leather. Their hair was cut into a cap-like shape on their heads,
and later was shoulder-length. They wore doublets with thick
padding over the shoulders or short tunics over the trucks of
their bodies and tightened at the waist to emphasize the
shoulders. Their collars were high. Their sleeves were long
concoctions of velvet, damask, and satin, sometimes worn wrapped
around their arms in layers. Their legs were covered with hosen,
often in different colors. Codpieces worn between the legs
emphasized the sensuality of the age as did ladies' tight and low-
cut gowns. Men's shoes were pointed with upward pikes at the toes
that impeded walking. At another time, their shoes were broad with
blunt toes. Both men and women wore much jewelry and
ornamentation. But, despite the fancy dress, the overall mood was
a macabre preoccupation with mortality, despair, and a lack of
confidence in the future. Cannon and mercenaries had reduced the
military significance of knighthood, so its chivalric code
deteriorated into surface politeness, ostentation, and
extravagance.

Master and servants ceased to eat together in the same hall,
except for great occasions, on feast days, and for plays. The
lord, and his lady, family, and guests took their meals in a great
chamber, usually up beneath the roof next to the upper floor of
the great hall. The chimney-pieces and windows were often richly
decorated with panelled stonework, tracery and carving. There was
often a bay or oriel window with still expensive glass.
Tapestries, damask, and table-cloths covered the tables. There was
much formality and ceremonial ritual, more elaborate than before,
during dinners at manorial households, including processions
bringing and serving courses, and bowing, kneeling, and
curtseying. There were many courses of a variety of meats, fish,
stews, and soups, with a variety of spices and elaborately cooked.
Barons, knights, and their ladies sat to the right of the lord
above the salt and were served by the lord's sewer and carver and
gentlemen waiters; their social inferiors such as "gentlemen of
worship" sat below the salt and were served by another sewer and
yeomen. The lord's cupbearer looked after the lord alone. A
knights table was waited on by yeomen. The gentlemen officers,
gentlemen servants and yeomen officers were waited on by their own
servants. The amount of food dished out to each person varied
according to his rank. The almoner said grace and distributed the
left-overs to the poor gathered at the gate. The superior people's
hands were washed by their inferiors. Lastly, the trestle tables
were removed while sweet wine and spices were consumed standing.
Then the musicians were called into the hall and dancing began.
The lord usually slept in a great bed in this room. The standard
number of meals was three: breakfast, dinner, and supper.

The diet of an ordinary family such as that of a small shopholder
or yeoman farmer included beef, mutton, pork, a variety of fish,
both fresh and salted, venison, nuts, peas, oatmeal, honey,
grapes, apples, pears, and fresh vegetables. Cattle and sheep were
driven from Wales to English markets. This droving lasted for five
centuries.

Many types of people besides the nobility and knights now had
property and thus were considered gentry: female lines of the
nobility, merchants and their sons, attorneys, auditors, squires,
and peasant-yeomen. The burgess grew rich as the knight dropped
lower. The great merchants lived in mansions which could occupy
whole blocks. Typically, there would be an oak-paneled great hall,
with adjoining kitchen, pantry, and buttery on one end and a great
parlor to receive guests, bedrooms, wardrobes, servants' rooms,
and a chapel on the other end or on a second floor. The beds were
surrounded by heavy draperies to keep out cold drafts. In towns
these mansions were entered through a gate through a row of shops
on the street. A lesser dwelling would have these rooms on three
floors over a shop on the first floor. An average Londoner would
have a shop, a storeroom, a hall, a kitchen, and a buttery on the
first floor, and three bedrooms on the second floor. Artisans and
shopkeepers of more modest means lived in rows of dwellings, each
with a shop and small storage room on the first floor, and a
combination parlor-bedroom on the second floor. The humblest
residents crowded their shop and family into one 6 by 10 foot room
for rent of a few shillings a year. All except the last would also
have a small garden. The best gardens had a fruit tree, herbs,
flowers, a well, and a latrine area. There were common and public
privies for those without their own. Kitchen slops and casual
refuse continued to be thrown into the street. Floors of stone or
planks were strewn with rushes. There was some tile flooring. Most
dwellings had glass windows. Candles were used for lighting at
night. Torches and oil-burning lanterns were portable lights.
Furnishings were still sparse. Men sat on benches or joint stools
and women sat on cushions on the floor. Hall and parlor had a
table and benches and perhaps one chair. Bedrooms had a curtained
feather bed with pillows, blankets, and sheets. Clothes were
stored in a chest, sometimes with sweet-smelling herbs such as
lavender, rosemary, and southernwood. Better homes had wall
hanging and cupboards displaying plate. Laundresses washed clothes
in the streams, rivers, and public conduits. Country peasants
still lived in wood, straw, and mud huts with earth floors and a
smoky hearth in the center or a kitchen area under the eaves of
the hut.

In 1442, bricks began to be manufactured in the nation and so
there was more use of bricks in buildings. Chimneys were
introduced into manor houses where stone had been too expensive.
This was necessary if a second floor was added, so the smoke would
not damage the floor above it and would eventually go out of the
house.

Nobles and their retinue moved from manor to manor, as they had
for centuries, to keep watch upon their lands and to consume the
produce thereof; it was easier to bring the household to the
estate than to transport the yield of the estate to the household.
Also, at regular intervals sewage had to be removed from the
cellar pits. Often a footman walked or ran on foot next to his
master or mistress when they rode out on horseback or in a
carriage. He was there primarily for prestige.

Jousting tournaments were held for entertainment purposes only and
were followed by banquets of several courses of food served on
dishes of gold, silver, pewter, or wood on a linen cloth covering
the table. Hands were washed before and after the meal. People
washed their faces every morning after getting up. Teeth were
cleaned with powders. Fragrant leaves were chewed for bad breath.
Garlic was used for indigestion and other ailments. Feet were
rubbed with salt and vinegar to remove calluses. Good manners
included not slumping against a post, fidgeting, sticking one's
finger into one's nose, putting one's hands into one's hose to
scratch the privy parts, spitting over the table or too far,
licking one's plate, picking one's teeth, breathing stinking
breath into the face of the lord, blowing on one's food, stuffing
masses of bread into one's mouth, scratching one's head, loosening
one's girdle to belch, and probing one's teeth with a knife.

Fishing and hunting were reserved for the nobility rather than
just the King.

As many lords became less wealthy because of the cost of war, some
peasants, villein and free, became prosperous, especially those
who also worked at a craft, e.g. butchers, bakers, smiths,
shoemakers, tailors, carpenters, and clothworkers.

An agricultural slump caused poorer soils to fall back into waste.
The better soils were leased by peasants, who, with their
families, were in a better position to farm it than a great lord,
who found it hard to hire laborers at a reasonable cost. Further,
peasants' sheep, hens, pigs, ducks, goats, cattle, bees, and crop
made them almost self-sufficient in foodstuffs. They lived in a
huddle of cottages, pastured their animals on common land, and
used common meadows for hay-making. They subsisted mainly on
boiled bacon, an occasional chicken, worts and beans grown in the
cottage garden, and cereals. They wore fine wool cloth in all
their apparel. Brimless hats were replacing hoods. They had an
abundance of bed coverings in their houses. And they had more free
time. Village entertainment included traveling jesters, acrobats,
musicians, and bear-baiters. Playing games and gambling were
popular pastimes.

Most villeins were now being called "customary tenants" or "copy-
holders" of land because they held their acres by a copy of the
court-roll of the manor, which listed the number of teams, the
fines, the reliefs, and the services due to the lord for each
landholder. The Chancery court interpreted many of these documents
to include rights of inheritance. The common law courts followed
the lead of the Chancery and held that copyhold land could be
inherited as was land at common law. Evictions by lords decreased.

The difference between villein and freeman lessened but landlords
usually still had profits of villein bondage, such as heriot,
merchet, and chevage.

A class of laborers was arising who depended entirely on the wages
of industry for their subsistence. The cloth workers in rural
areas were isolated and weak and often at the mercy of middle-men
for employment and the amount of their wages. When rural laborers
went to towns to seek employment in the new industries, they would
work at first for any rate. This deepened the cleavage of the
classes in the towns. The artificers in the town and the cottagers
and laborers in the country lived from hand to mouth, on the edge
of survival, but better off than the old, the diseased, the
widows, and the orphans. However, the 1400s were the most
prosperous time for laborers considering their wages and the
prices of food. Meat and poultry were plentiful and grain prices
low.

Social mobility was most possible in the towns, where distinctions
were usually only of wealth. So a poor apprentice could aspire to
become a master, a member of the livery of his company, a member
of the council, an alderman, a mayor, and then an esquire for
life. The distance between baron and a country knight and between
a yeoman and knight was wider. Manor custom was strong. But a
yeoman could give his sons a chance to become gentlemen by
entering them in a trade in a town, sending them to university, or
to war. Every freeman was to some extent a soldier, and to some
extent a lawyer, serving in the county or borough courts. A
burgess, with his workshop or warehouse, was trained in warlike
exercises, and he could keep his own accounts, and make his own
will and other legal documents, with the aid of a scrivener or a
chaplain, who could supply an outline of form. But law was growing
as a profession. Old-established London families began to choose
the law as a profession for their sons, in preference to an
apprenticeship in trade. Many borough burgesses in Parliament were
attorneys.

In London, shopkeepers appealed to passers-by to buy their goods,
sometimes even seizing people by the sleeve. The drapers had
several roomy shops containing shelves piled with cloths of all
colors and grades, tapestries, pillows, blankets, bed draperies,
and 'bankers and dorsers' to soften hard wooden benches. A rear
storeroom held more cloth for import or export. Many shops of
skinners were on Fur Row. There were shops of leather-sellers,
hosiers, gold and silver cups, and silks. At the Stocks Market
were fishmongers, butchers, and poulterers. London grocers
imported spices, canvas, ropery, potions, unguents, soap,
confections, garlic, cabbages, onions, apples, oranges, almonds,
figs, dates, raisins, dye-stuffs, woad, madder (plant for medicine
and dye), scarlet grains, saffron, iron, and steel. They were
retailers as well as wholesalers and had shops selling honey,
licorice, salt, vinegar, rice, sugar loaves, syrups, spices,
garden seeds, dyes, alum, soap, brimstone, paper, varnish, canvas,
rope, musk, incense, treacle of Genoa, and mercury. The Grocers
did some money-lending, usually at 12% interest. The guilds did
not restrict themselves to dealing in the goods for which they had
a right of inspection, and so many dealt in wine that it was a
medium of exchange. There was no sharp distinction between retail
and wholesale trading.

In London, grocers sold herbs for medicinal as well as eating
purposes. Breadcarts sold penny wheat loaves. Foreigners set up
stalls on certain days of the week to sell meat, canvas, linen,
cloth, ironmongery, and lead. There were great houses, churches,
monasteries, inns, guildhalls, warehouses, and the King's Beam for
weighing wool to be exported. In 1410, the Guildhall of London was
built through contributions, proceeds of fines, and lastly, to
finish it, special fees imposed on apprenticeships, deeds, wills,
and letters-patent. The Mercers and Goldsmiths were in the
prosperous part of town. The Goldsmiths' shops sold gold and
silver plate, jewels, rings, water pitchers, drinking goblets,
basins to hold water for the hands, and covered saltcellars. The
grain market was on Cornhill. Halfway up the street, there was a
supply of water which had been brought up in pipes. On the top of
the hill was a cage where riotous folk had been incarcerated by
the night watch and the stocks and pillory, where fraudulent
schemers were exposed to ridicule. No work was to be done on
Sundays, but some did work surreptitiously. The barbers kept their
shops open in defiance of the church. Outside the London city
walls were tenements, the Smithfield cattle market, Westminster
Hall, green fields of crops, and some marsh land.

On the Thames River to London were large ships with cargoes; small
boats rowed by tough boatmen offering passage for a penny; small
private barges of great men with carved wood, gay banners, and
oarsmen with velvet gowns; the banks covered with masts and
tackle; the nineteen arch London Bridge supporting a street of
shops and houses and a drawbridge in the middle; quays;
warehouses, and great cranes lifting bales from ship to wharf.
Merchant guilds which imported or exported each had their own
wharves and warehouses. Downstream, pirates hung on gallows at the
low-water mark to remain until three tides had overflowed their
bodies. A climate change of about 1 1/2 degree Celcius lower
caused the Thames to regularly freeze over in winter.

The large scale of London trade promoted the specialization of the
manufacturer versus the merchant versus the shipper. Merchants had
enough wealth to make loans to the government or for new
commercial enterprises. Local reputation on general, depended upon
a combination of wealth, trustworthiness of character, and public
spirit; it rose and fell with business success. Some London
merchants were knighted by the King. Many bought country estates
and turned themselves into gentry.

The king granted London all common soils, improvements, wastes,
streets, and ways in London and in the adjacent waters of the
Thames River and all the profits and rents to be derived
therefrom. Later the king granted London the liberty to purchase
lands and tenements worth up to 2,667s. yearly.  With this power,
London had obtained all the essential features of a corporation: a
seal, the right to make by-laws, the power to purchase lands and
hold them "to them and their successors" (not simply their heirs,
which is an individual and hereditary succession only), the power
to sue and be sued in its own name, and the perpetual succession
implied in the power of filling up vacancies by election. Since
these powers were not granted by charters, London is a corporation
by prescription. In 1446, the liverymen obtained the right with
the council to elect the mayor, the sheriff, and certain other
corporate officers.

Many boroughs sought and obtained formal incorporation with the
same essential features as London. This tied up the loose language
of their early charters of liberties. Often, a borough would have
its own resident Justice of the Peace. Each incorporation involved
a review by a Justice of the Peace to make sure the charter of
incorporation rule didn't conflict with the law of the nation. A
borough typically had a mayor accompanied by his personal sword-
bearer and serjeants-at-mace bearing the borough regalia,
bailiffs, a sheriff, and chamberlains or a steward for financial
assistance. At many boroughs, aldermen, assisted by their
constables, kept the peace in their separate wards. There might be
coroners, a recorder, and a town clerk, with a host of lesser
officials including beadles, aletasters, sealers, searchers
[inspectors], weighers and keepers of the market, ferrymen and
porters, clock-keepers and criers, paviors [maintained the roads],
scavengers and other street cleaners, gatekeepers and watchmen of
several ranks and kinds. A wealthy borough would have a chaplain
and two or three minstrels. The mayor replaced the bailiffs as the
chief magistracy.

In all towns, the wealthiest and most influential guilds were the
merchant traders of mercers, drapers, grocers, and goldsmiths.
From their ranks came most of the mayors, and many began to
intermarry with the country knights and gentry. Next came the
shopholders of skinners, tailors, ironmongers, and corvisors
[shoemakers]. Thirdly came the humbler artisans, the sellers of
victuals, small shopkeepers, apprentices, and journeymen on the
rise. Lastly came unskilled laborers, who lived in crowded
tenements and hired themselves out. The first three groups were
the free men who voted, paid scot and bore lot, and belonged to
guilds. Scot was a rateable proportion in the payments levied from
the town for local or national purposes. Merchant guilds in some
towns merged their existence into the town corporation, and their
guild halls became the common halls of the town, and their
property became town property.

In London, the Cutlers' Company was chartered in 1415, the
Haberdashers' Company in 1417, the Grocers' Company in 1428, the
Drapers' and Cordwainers' companies in 1429, the Vintners' and
Brewers' companies in 1437, the Leathersellers' Company in 1444,
the Girdlers' Company in 1448, the Armourers' and Brassiers'
companies in 1453, the Barbers' Company in 1461, the Tallow
Chandlers' Company in 1462, the Ironmongers' Company in 1464, the
Dyers' Company in 1471, the Musicians' Company in 1472, the
Carpenters' Company in 1477, the Cooks' Company in 1481, and the
Waxchandlers' Company in 1483. The Fishmongers, which had been
chartered in 1399, were incorporated in 1433, the Cordwainers in
1439, and the Pewterers in 1468.

There were craft guilds in the towns, at least 65 in London. In
fact, every London trade of twenty men had its own guild. The
guild secured good work for its members and the members maintained
the reputation of the work standards of the guild. Bad work was
punished and night work prohibited as leading to bad work. The
guild exercised moral control over its members and provided
sickness and death benefits for them. There was much overlapping
in the two forms of association: the craft guild and the religious
fraternity. Apprentices were taken in to assure an adequate supply
of competent workers for the future. The standard indenture of an
apprentice bound him to live in his master's house, to serve him
diligently, obey reasonable commands, keep his master's secrets,
protect him from injury, abstain from dice, cards and haunting of
taverns, not marry, commit no fornication, nor absent himself
without permission. In return the master undertook to provide the
boy or girl with bed, board, and lodging and to instruct him or
her in the trade, craft, or mystery. When these apprentices had
enough training they were made journeymen with a higher rate of
pay. Journeymen traveled to see the work of their craft in other
towns. Those journeymen rising to master had the highest pay rate.

Occupations free of guild restrictions included horse-dealers,
marbelers, bookbinders, jewelers, organ makers, feathermongers,
pie makers, basket makers, mirrorers, quilters, and parchment
makers. Non-citizens of London could not be prevented from selling
leather, metalwares, hay, meat, fruit, vegetables, butter, cheese,
poultry, and fish from their boats, though they had to sell in the
morning and sell all their goods before the market closed.

In the towns, many married women had independent businesses and
wives also played an active part in the businesses of their
husbands. Wives of well-to-do London merchants embroidered, sewed
jewelry onto clothes, and made silk garments. Widows often
continued in their husband's businesses, such as managing a large
import-export trade, tailoring, brewing, and metal shop. Socially
lower women often ran their own breweries, bakeries, and taverns.
It was possible for wives to be free burgesses in their own right
in some towns.

Some ladies were patrons of writers. Some women were active in
prison reform in matters of reviews to insure that no man was in
gaol without due cause, overcharges for bed and board, brutality,
and regulation of prisoners being placed in irons. Many men and
women left money in their wills for food and clothing for
prisoners, especially debtors. Wills often left one-third of the
wealth to the church, the poor, prisoners, infirmaries, young
girls' education; road, wall, and bridge repair; water supply,
markets and almshouses. Some infirmaries were for the insane, who
were generally thought to be possessed by the devil or demons.
Their treatment was usually by scourging the demons out of their
body by flogging. If this didn't work, torture could be used to
drive the demons from the body.

The guilds were being replaced by associations for the investment
of capital. In associations, journeymen were losing their chance
of rising to be a master. Competition among associations was
starting to supplant custom as the mainspring of trade.

The cloth exporters, who were mostly mercers, were unregulated and
banded together for mutual support and protection under the name
of Merchant Adventurers of London. The Merchant Adventurers was
chartered in 1407. It was the first and a prototype of regulated
companies. That is the company regulated the trade. Each merchant
could ship on his own a certain number of cloths each year (the
number depending on the length of his membership in the company)
and sell them himself or by his factor at the place where the
company had privileges of market. Strict rules governed the
conduct of each member. He was to make sales only at certain hours
on specified days. All disagreements were to be settled by the
company's governor, or his deputy in residence, and those
officials dealt with such disputes as arose between members of the
company and continental officials and buyers. A share in the
ownership of one of their vessels was a common form of investment
by prosperous merchants. By 1450, the merchant adventurers were
dealing in linen cloths, buckrams [a stiffened, coarse cloth],
fustians [coarse cloth made of cotton threads going in one
direction and linen threads the other], satins, jewels, fine
woolen and linen wares, threads, potions, wood, oil, wine, salt,
copper, and iron. They began to replace trade by alien traders.
The history of the "Merchant Adventurers" was associated with the
growth of the mercantile system for more than 300 years. It
eventually replaced the staples system.

Paved roads in towns were usually gravel and sometimes cobble.
They were frequently muddy because of rain and spillage of water
being carried. Iron-shod wheels and overloaded carts made them
very uneven. London was the first town with paviors. They cleaned
and repaired the streets, filling up pot-holes with wood chips and
compacting them with hand rams. The paviors were organized as a
city company in 1479. About 1482, towns besides London began
appointing salaried road paviors to repair roads and collect their
expenses from the householders because the policy of placing the
burden on individual householders didn't work well. London streets
were lighted at night by public lanterns, under the direction of
the mayor. The residents were to light these candle lanterns in
winter from dusk to the 9 pm curfew. There were fire-engines
composed of a circular cistern with a pump and six feet of
inflexible hose on wheels pulled by two men on one end and pushed
by two men on the other end. In 1480 the city walls were rebuilt
with a weekly tax of 5d. per head.

In schools, there was a renaissance of learning from original
sources of knowledge written in Greek and rebirth of the Greek
pursuit of the truth and scientific spirit of inquiry. There was a
striking increase in the number of schools founded by wealthy
merchants or town guilds. Every cathedral, monastery, and college
had a grammar school. Merchants tended to send their sons to
private boarding schools, instead of having them tutored at home
as did the nobility. Well-to-do parents still sent sons to live in
the house of some noble to serve them as pages in return for being
educated with the noble's son by the household priest. They often
wore their master's coat of arms and became their squires as part
of their knightly education. Sometimes girls were sent to live in
another house to take advantage to receive education from a tutor
there under the supervision of the lady of the house. Every man,
free or villein, could send his sons and daughters to school. In
every village, there were some who could read and write.

In 1428, Lincoln's Inn required barristers normally resident in
London and the county of Middlesex to remain in residence and pay
commons during the periods between sessions of court and during
vacations, so that the formal education of students would be
continuous. In 1442, a similar requirement was extended to all
members.

The book "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" was written about an
incident in the court of King Arthur and Queen Guenevere in which
a green knight challenges Arthur's knights to live up to their
reputation for valor and awesome deeds. The knight Gawain answers
the challenge, but is shown that he could be false and cowardly
when death seemed to be imminent. Thereafter, he wears a green
girdle around his waist to remind him not to be proud.

Other literature read included "London Lickpenny", a satire on
London and its expensive services and products, "Fall of Princes"
by John Lydgate, social history by Thomas Hoccleve, "The Cuckoo
and the Nightengale", and "The Flower and Leaf" on morality as
secular common sense. King James I of Scotland wrote a book about
how he fell in love. Chaucer, Cicero, Ovid, and Aesops's Fables
were widely read. Malory's new version of the Arthurian stories
was popular. Margery Kempe wrote the first true autobiography. She
was a woman who had a normal married life with children, but one
day had visions and voices which led her to leave her husband to
take up a life of wandering and praying in holy possession. There
were religious folk ballads such as "The Cherry Tree Carol", about
the command of Jesus from Mary's womb for a cherry tree to bend
down so that Mary could have some cherries from it. The common
people developed ballads, e.g. about their love of the forest,
their wish to hunt, and their hatred of the forest laws.

About 30% of Londoners could read English. Books were bought in
London in such quantities by 1403 that the craft organizations of
text-letter writers, illuminators, book-binders, and book sellers
was sanctioned by ordinance. "Unto the honorable lords, and wise,
the mayor and aldermen of the city of London, pray very humbly all
the good folks, freemen of the said city, of the trades of writers
of text-letter, limners [illuminator of books], and other folks of
London who are wont to bind and to sell books, that it may please
your great sagenesses to grant unto them that they may elect
yearly two reputable men, the one a limner, the other a text-
writer, to be wardens of the said trades, and that the names of
the wardens so elected may be presented each year before the mayor
for the time being, and they be there sworn well and diligently to
oversee that good rule and governance is had and exercised by all
folks of the same trades in all works unto the said trades
pertaining, to the praise and good fame of the loyal good men of
the said trades and to the shame and blame of the bad and disloyal
men of the same. And that the same wardens may call together all
the men of the said trades honorably and peacefully when need
shall be, as well for the good rule and governance of the said
city as of the trades aforesaid. And that the same wardens, in
performing their due office, may present from time to time all the
defaults of the said bad and disloyal men to the chamberlain at
the Guildhall for the time being, to the end that the same may
there, according to the wise and prudent discretion of the
governors of the said city, be corrected, punished, and duly
redressed. And that all who are rebellious against the said
wardens as to the survey and good rule of the same trades may be
punished according to the general ordinance made as to rebellious
persons in trades of the said city [fines and imprisonment]. And
that it may please you to command that this petition, by your
sagenesses granted, may be entered of record for time to come, for
the love of God and as a work of charity."

Gutenberg's printing press, which used movable type of small
blocks with letters on them, was brought to London in 1476 by a
mercer: William Caxton. It supplemented the text-writer and
monastic copyist. It was a wood and iron frame with a mounted
platform on which were placed small metal frames into which words
with small letters of lead had been set up. Each line of text had
to be carried from the type case to the press. Beside the press
were pots filled with ink and inking balls. When enough lines of
type to make a page had been assembled on the press, the balls
would be dipped in ink and drawn over the type. Then a sheet of
paper would be placed on the form and a lever pulled to press the
paper against the type. Linen usually replaced the more expensive
parchment for the book pages.

The printing press made books more accessible to all literate
people. Caxton printed major English texts and some translations
from French and Latin. He commended different books to various
kinds of readers, for instance, for gentlemen who understand
gentleness and science, or for ladies and gentlewomen, or to all
good folk. There were many cook books in use. There were convex
eyeglasses for reading and concave ones for distance to correct
near-sightedness. The first public library in London was
established from a bequest in a will in 1423.

Many carols were sung at the Christian festival of Christmas.
Ballads were sung on many features of social life of this age of
disorder, hatred of sheriffs, but faith in the King. The legend of
Robin Hood was popular. Town miracle plays on leading incidents of
the Bible and morality plays were popular. Vintners portrayed the
miracle of Cana where water was turned into wine and Goldsmiths
ornately dressed the three Kings coming from the east. In York,
the building of Noah's Ark was performed by the Shipwrights and
the Flood performed by the Fishery and Mariners. Short pantomimes
and disguising, forerunners of costume parties, were good
recreation. Games of cards became popular as soon as cards were
introduced. The king, queen, and jack were dressed in contemporary
clothes. Men bowled, kicked footballs, and played tennis. In
London, Christmas was celebrated with masques and mummings. There
was a great tree in the main market place and evergreen
decorations in churches, houses, and streets. There were also
games, dances, street bonfires in front of building doors, and
general relaxation of social controls. Sometimes there was drunken
licentiousness and revelry, with peasants gathering together to
make demands of lords for the best of his goods. May Day was
celebrated with crowns and garlands of spring flowers. The village
May Day pageant was often presided over by Robin Hood and Maid
Marion.

People turned to mysticism to escape from the everyday violent
world. They read works of mystics, such as "Scale of Perfection"
and "Cloud of Unknowing", the latter describing how one may better
know God. They believed in magic and sorcery, but had no religious
enthusiasm because the church was engendering more disrespect.
Monks and nuns had long ago resigned spiritual leadership to the
friars; now the friars too lost much of their good reputation. The
monks became used to life with many servants such as cooks,
butlers, bakers, brewers, barbers, laundresses, tailors,
carpenters, and farm hands. The austerity of their diet had
vanished. The schedule of divine services was no longer followed
by many and the fostering of learning was abandoned. Into
monasteries drifted the lazy and miserable. Nunneries had become
aristocratic boarding houses. The practice of taking sanctuary was
abused; criminals and debtors sought it and were allowed to
overstay the 40-day restriction and to leave at night to commit
robberies. There were numerous chaplains, who were ordained
because they received pay from private persons for saying masses
for the dead; having to forego wife and family, they had much
leisure time for mischief. Church courts became corrupt, but
jealously guarded their jurisdiction from temporal court
encroachment. Peter's Pence was no longer paid by the people, so
the burden of papal exaction fell wholly on the clergy. But the
church was rich and powerful, paying almost a third of the whole
taxation of the nation and forming a majority in the House of
Lords. Many families had kinsmen in the clergy. Even the lowest
cleric or clerk could read and write in Latin.

People relied on saint's days as reference points in the year,
because they did not know dates of the year. But townspeople knew
the hour and minute of each day, because mechanical clocks were in
all towns and in the halls of the well-to-do. This increased the
sense of punctuality and highered standards of efficiency.

A linguistic unity and national pride was developing. London
English became the norm and predominated over rural dialects.
Important news was announced and spread by word of mouth in market
squares and sometimes in churches. As usual, traders provided one
of the best sources of news; they maintained an informal network
of speedy messengers and accurate reports because political
changes so affected their ventures. News also came from pedlars,
who visited villages and farms to sell items that could not be
bought in the local village. These often included scissors,
eyeglasses, colored handkerchiefs, calendars, fancy leather goods,
watches, and clocks. Peddling was fairly profitable because of the
lack of competition. But pedlars were often viewed as tramps and
suspected of engaging in robbery as well as peddling.

A royal post service was established by relays of mounted
messengers. The first route was between London and the Scottish
border, where there were frequent battles for land between the
Scotch and English.

The inland roads from town to town were still rough and without
signs. A horseman could make up to 40 miles a day. Common carriers
took passengers and parcels from various towns to London on
scheduled journeys. Now the common yeoman could order goods from
the London market, communicate readily with friends in London, and
receive news of the world frequently. Trade with London was so
great and the common carrier so efficient in transporting goods
that the medieval fair began to decline. First the Grocers and
then the Mercers refused to allow their members to sell goods at
fairs. There was much highway robbery. Most goods were still
transported by boats along the coasts, with trading at the ports.

Embroidery was exported. Imported were timber, pitch, tar, potash
[for cloth-dying], furs, silk, satin, gold cloth, damask cloth,
furred gowns, gems, fruit, spices, and sugar. Imports were
restricted by national policy for the purpose of protecting native
industries.

English single-masted ships began to be replaced by two or three
masted ships with high pointed bows to resist waves and sails
enabling the ship to sail closer to the wind. 200 tuns was the
usual carrying capacity. The increase in trade made piracy, even
by merchants, profitable and frequent until merchant vessels began
sailing in groups for their mutual protection. The astrolabe was
used for navigation by the stars.

Consuls were appointed to assist English traders abroad.

Henry IV appointed the first admiral of the entire nation and
resolved to create a national fleet of warships instead of using
merchant ships. In 1417, the war navy had 27 ships. In 1421,
Portsmouth was fortified as a naval base. Henry V issued the
orders that formed the basic law of English admiralty and
appointed surgeons to the navy and army. He was the last true
warrior King.

For defense of the nation, especially the safeguard of the seas,
Parliament allotted the king for life, 3s. for every tun of wine
imported and an additional 3s. for every tun of sweet wine
imported. From about 1413, tunnage on wine and poundage on
merchandise were duties on goods of merchants which were regularly
granted by Parliament to the king for life for upkeep of the Navy.
Before this time, such duties had been sporadic and temporary.

The most common ailments were eye problems, aching teeth,
festering ears, joint swelling and sudden paralysis of the bowels.
Epidemics broke out occasionally in the towns in the summers. The
plague swept London in 1467 and the nation in 1407, 1445, and
1471. Leprosy disappeared.

Infirmaries were supported by a tax of the king levied on nearby
counties. The walls, ditches, gutters, sewers, and bridges on
waterways and the coast were kept in repair by laborers hired by
commissions appointed by the Chancellor. Those who benefited from
these waterways were taxed for the repairs in proportion to their
use thereof.

Alabaster was sculptured into tombs surmounted with a recumbent
effigy of the deceased, and effigies of mourners on the sides. Few
townsmen choose to face death alone and planned memorial masses to
be sung to lift his soul beyond Purgatory. Chantries were built by
wealthy men for this purpose.

Chemical experimentation was still thought to be akin to sorcery,
so was forbidden by King Henry IV in 1404.

Gold was minted into coins: noble, half noble, and farthing.

King Henry IV lost power to the Commons and the Lords because he
needed revenue from taxes and as a usurper King, he did not carry
the natural authority of a King. The Commons acquired the right to
elect its own speaker. The lords who helped the usurpation felt
they should share the natural power of the kingship. The council
became the instrument of the Lords. Also, the Commons gained power
compared to the nobility because many nobles had died in war. The
consent of the Commons to legislation became so usual that the
justices declared that it was necessary. The Commons began to see
itself as representative of the entire commons of the realm
instead of just their own counties. Its members had the freedom to
consider and debate every matter of public interest, foreign or
domestic, except for church matters. The Commons, the poorest of
the three estates, established an exclusive right to originate all
money grants to the king in 1407. The Speaker of the Commons
announced its money grant to the king only on the last day of the
parliamentary session, after the answers to its petitions had been
declared, and after the Lords had agreed to the money grant. It
tied its grants by rule rather than just practice to certain
appropriations. For instance, tunnage and poundage were
appropriated for naval defenses. Wool customs went to the
maintenance of Calais, a port on the continent, and defense of the
nation. It also put the petitions in statutory form, called
"bills", to be enacted after consideration and amendment by all
without alteration. Each house had a right to deliberate in
privacy. In the Commons, members spoke in the order in which they
stood up bareheaded. Any member of Parliament or either house or
the king could initiate a bill. Both houses had the power to amend
or reject a bill. There were conferences between select committees
of both houses to settle their differences. The Commons required
the appointment of auditors to audit the King's accounts to ensure
past grants had been spent according to their purpose. It forced
the King's council appointees to be approved by Parliament and to
be paid salaries. About 1430, kings' councilors were required to
take an oath not to accept gifts of land, not to maintain private
suits, not to reveal secrets, and not to neglect the kings'
business. A quorum was fixed and rules made for removal from the
council. For the next fifty years, the council was responsible
both to the king and to Parliament. This was the first
encroachment on the King's right to summon, prorogue, or dismiss a
Parliament at his pleasure, determine an agenda of Parliament,
veto or amend its bills, exercise his discretion as to which lords
he summoned to Parliament, and create new peers by letters patent
[official public letters]. Parliament was affected by the
factionalism of the times. The speaker of the commons was often an
officer of some great lord. In 1426, the retainers of the barons
in Parliament were forbidden to bear arms, so they appeared with
clubs on their shoulders. When the clubs were forbidden, they came
with stones concealed in their clothing.

Kings created dukes and marquesses to be peers. A duke was given
creation money or allowance of 40 pounds a year. A marquess was
given 35 pounds. These new positions could not descend to an
heiress, unlike a barony or earldom. An earl was given 20 pounds,
which probably took the place of his one-third from the county.
King Henry VI gave the title of viscount to several people; it had
an allowance of 13.3 pounds and was above baron. It allowed them
to be peers. There were about 55 peers. In King Edward IV's reign,
the king's retinue had about 16 knights, 160 squires, 240 yeomen,
clerks, grooms, and stablemen. The suitable annual expense of the
household of the king was 13,000 pounds for his retinue of about
516 people, a duke 4,000 pounds for about 230 people, a marquess
3,000 pounds for about 224 people, an earl 2,000 pounds for about
130 people, a viscount 1,000 pounds for about 84 people, a baron
500 pounds for about 26 people, a banneret [a knight made in the
field, who had a banner] 200 pounds for about 24 people, a knight
bachelor 100 pounds for about 16 people, and a squire 50 pounds
for about 16 people. Of a squire's 50 pounds, about 25 pounds were
spent in food, repairs and furniture 5, on horses, hay, and
carriage 4, on clothes, alms and oblations 4, wages 9, livery of
dress 3, and the rest on hounds and the charges of harvest and
hay-time. Many servants of the household of the country gentleman
were poor relations. They might by education and accomplishment
rise into the service of a baron who could take him to court and
make his fortune.

Barons' households also included steward, chaplains, treasurer,
accountants, chamberlain, carvers, servers, cupbearers, pages, and
even chancellor. They were given wages and clothing allowances and
had meals in the hall at tables according to their degree.

The authority of the King's privy seal had become a great office
of state which transmitted the King's wishes to the Chancery and
Exchequer, rather than the King's personal instrument for sealing
documents. Now the king used a signet kept by his secretary as his
personal seal. Edward IV made the household office of secretary,
who had custody the king's signet seal, a public office. The
secretary was generally a member of the council. Edward IV
invented the benevolence, a gift wrung from wealthy subjects.

King Edward IV introduced an elaborate spy system, the use of the
rack to torture people to give information, and other
interferences with justice, all of which the Tudor sovereigns
later used. Torture was used to discover facts, especially about
co-conspirators, rather than to elicit a confession, as on the
continent. It was only used on prisoners held in the Tower of
London involved in state trials and could only be authorized by
the king's closest councilors in virtue of the royal prerogative.
The rack stretched the supine body by the wrists and legs with
increasing agony at the joints until the limbs were dislocated.
Some victims were permanently crippled by it; others died on it.
Most told what they knew, often at the very sight of the rack.
Torture was forbidden in the common law, which favored an
accusatorial system, in which the accuser had to prove guilt,
rather than an inquisitional system, in which the accused had to
prove innocence. Edward IV applied martial law to ordinary cases
of high treason by extending the jurisdiction of the politically-
appointed High Constable of England to these cases, thus depriving
the accused of trial by jury. He executed many for treason and
never restored their forfeited land to their families, as had been
the usual practice.

King Richard III prohibited the seizure of goods before conviction
of felony. He also liberated the unfree villeins on royal estates.

It was declared under Parliamentary authority that there was a
preference for the Crown to pass to a King's eldest son, and to
his male issue after him. Formerly, a man could ascend to the
throne through his female ancestry as well.



                              - The Law -

The forcible entry statute is expanded to include peaceful entry
with forcible holding after the justices arrived and to forcible
holding with departure before the justices arrived. Penalties are
triple damages, fine, and ransom to the King. A forceful
possession lasting three years is exempt.

By common law, a tenant could not take away buildings or fixtures
he built on land because it would be wasteful. This applied to
agricultural fixtures, but not to other trade fixtures. Also at
common law, if a person had enjoyed light next to his property for
at least 20 years, no one could build up the adjacent land so that
the light would be blocked.

Women of age fourteen or over shall have livery of their lands and
tenements by inheritance without question or difficulty.

Purposely cutting out another's tongue or putting out another's
eyes is a felony [penalty of loss of all property].

No one may keep swans unless he has lands and tenements of the
estate of freehold to a yearly value of 67s., because swans of the
King, lords, knights, and esquires have been stolen by yeomen and
husbandmen.

The wage ceiling for servants is: bailiff of agriculture 23s.4d.
per year, and clothing up to 5s., with meat and drink; chief
peasant, a carter, chief shepherd 20s. and clothing up to 4s.,
with meat and drink; common servant of agriculture 15s., and
clothing up to 3s.4d.; woman servant 10s., and clothing up to 4s.,
with meat and drink; infant under fourteen years 6s., and clothing
up to 3s., with meat and drink. Such as deserve less or where
there is a custom of less, that lesser amount shall be given.

For laborers at harvest time: mower 4d. with meat and drink or 6d.
without; reaper or carter: 3d. with or 5d. without; woman laborer
and other laborers: 2d with and 4d. without.

The ceiling wage rate for craftsmen per day is: free mason or
master carpenter 4d. with meat & drink or 5d. without; master
tiler or slater, rough mason, and mesne [intermediary] carpenter
and other artificiers in building 3d. with meat and drink or 4d.
without; every other laborer 2d. with meat and drink or 3d.
without. In winter the respective wages were less: mason category:
3d. with or 4d. without; master tiler category: 2d. with or 4d.
without; others: 1d. with or 3d. without meat and drink.

Any servant of agriculture who is serving a term with a master and
covenants to serve another man at the end of this term and that
other man shall notify the master by the middle of his term so he
can get a replacement worker. Otherwise, the servant shall
continue to serve the first master.

No man or woman may put their son or daughter to serve as an
apprentice in a craft within any borough, but may send the child
to school, unless he or she has land or rent to the value of 20s.
per year. [because of scarcity of laborers and other servants of
agriculture]

No laborer may be hired by the week.

Masons may no longer congregate yearly, because it has led to
violation of the statute of laborers.

No games may be played by laborers because they lead to [gambling
and] murders and robberies.

Apparel worn must be appropriate to one's status to preserve the
industry of agriculture. The following list of classes shows the
lowest class, which could wear certain apparel:

1.  Lords - gold cloth, gold corses, sable fur, purple silk

2.  Knights - velvet, branched satin, ermine fur

3.  Esquires and gentlemen with possessions to the value of
    800s. per year, daughters of a person who has possessions to
    the value of 2,000s. a year - damask, silk, kerchiefs up to
    5s. in value.

4.  Esquires and gentlemen with possessions to the yearly
    value of 800s. 40 pounds - fur of martron or letuse, gold or
    silver girdles, silk corse not made in the nation, kerchief
    up to 3s.4d in value

5.  Men with possessions of the yearly value of 40s.
    excluding the above three classes - fustian, bustian,
    scarlet cloth in grain

6.  Men with possessions under the yearly value of 40s.
    excluding the first three classes - black or white lamb fur,
    stuffing of wool, cotton, or cadas.

7.  Yeomen - cloth up to the value of 2s., hose up to the
    value of 14s., a girdle with silver, kerchief up to 12d.

8.  Servants of agriculture, laborer, servant, country
    craftsman - none of the above clothes

Gowns and jackets must cover the entire trunk of the body,
including the private parts. Shoes may not have pikes over two
inches.

Every town shall have at its cost a common balance with weights
according to the standard of the Exchequer. All citizens may weigh
goods for free. All cloth to be sold shall be sealed according to
this measure.

There is a standard bushel of grain throughout the nation.

There are standard measures for plain tile, roof tile, and gutter
tile throughout the nation.

No gold or silver may be taken out of the nation.

The price of silver is fixed at 30s. for a pound, to increase the
value of silver coinage, which has become scarce due to its higher
value when in plate or masse.

A designee of the king will inspect and seal cloth with lead to
prevent deceit. Cloth may not be tacked together before
inspection. No cloth may be sold until sealed.

Heads of arrows shall be hardened at the points with steel and
marked with the mark of the arrowsmith who made it, so they are
not faulty.

Shoemakers and cordwainers may tan their leather, but all leather
must be inspected and marked by a town official before it is sold.

Cordwainers shall not tan leather [to prevent deceitful tanning].
Tanners who make a notorious default in leather which is found by
a cordwainer shall make a forfeiture.

Defective embroidery for sale shall be forfeited.

No fishing net may be fastened or tacked to posts, boats, or
anchors, but may be used by hand, so that fish are preserved and
vessels may pass.

No one may import any articles which could be made in the nation,
including silks, bows, woolen cloths, iron and hardware goods,
harness and saddlery, except printed books.

The following merchandise shall not be brought into the nation
already wrought: woolen cloth or caps, silk laces, ribbons,
fringes, and embroidery, gold laces, saddles, stirrups, harnesses,
spurs, bridles, gridirons, locks, hammers, fire tongs, dripping
pans, dice, tennis balls, points, purses, gloves, girdles, harness
for girdles of iron steel or of tin, any thing wrought of any
treated leather, towed furs, shoes, galoshes, corks, knives,
daggers, woodknives, thick blunt needles, sheers for tailors,
scissors, razors, sheaths, playing cards, pins, pattens [wooden
shoes on iron supports worn in wet weather], pack needles, painted
ware, forcers, caskets, rings of copper or of gilt sheet metal,
chaffing dishes, hanging candlesticks, chaffing balls, mass bells,
rings for curtains, ladles, skimmers, counterfeit felt hat moulds,
water pitchers with wide spouts, hats, brushes, cards for wool,
white iron wire, upon pain of their forfeiture. One half this
forfeiture goes to the king and the other half to the person
seizing the wares.

No sheep may be exported, because being shorn elsewhere would
deprive the king of customs.

No wheat, rye, or barley may be imported unless the prices are
such that national agriculture is not hurt.

Clothmakers must pay their laborers, such as carders and
spinsters, in current coin and not in pins and girdles and the
like.

The term "freemen" in the Magna Carta includes women.

The election of a knight from a county to go to Parliament shall
be proclaimed by the sheriff in the full county so all may attend
and none shall be commanded to do something else at that time.
Election is to be by majority of the votes and its results will be
sealed and sent to Parliament.

Electors and electees to Parliament must reside in the county or
be citizens or burgesses of a borough. To be an elector to
Parliament, a knight must reside in the county and have a freehold
of land or tenements there of the value of at least 40s. per year,
because participation in elections of too many people of little
substance or worth had led to homicides, assaults, and feuds.
(These "yeomen" were about one sixth of the population. Most
former electors and every leaseholder and every copyholder were
now excluded. Those elected for Parliament were still gentry
chosen by substantial freeholders.)

London ordinances forbade placing rubbish or dung in the Thames
River or any town ditch or casting water or anything else out of a
window. The roads were maintained with tolls on carts and horses
bringing victuals or grains into the city and on merchandise
unloaded from ships at the port. No carter shall drive his cart
more quickly when it is unloaded than when it is loaded. No pie
bakers shall sell beef pies as venison pies, or make any meat pie
with entrails. To assist the poor, bread and ale shall be sold by
the farthing.

Desertion by a soldier is penalized by forfeiture of all land and
property.

The common law held that a bailee is entitled to possession
against all persons except the owner of the bailed property.

Former justice Sir Thomas Littleton wrote a legal textbook
describing tenancies in dower; the tenures of socage, knight's
service, serjeanty, and burgage; estates in fee simple, fee tail,
and fee conditional; inheritance and alienation of land. For
instance, "Also, if feoffment be made upon such condition, that if
the feoffor pay to the feofee at a certain day, etc., 800s. forty
pounds of money, that then the feoffor may re-enter, etc., in this
case the feoffee is called tenant in mortgage, ... and if he doth
not pay, then the land which he puts in pledge upon condition for
the payment of the money is gone from him for ever, and so dead as
to the tenant, etc."

Joint tenants are distinguished from tenants in common by
Littleton thus: "Joint-tenants are, as if a man be seised of
certain lands or tenements, etc., and thereof enfeoffeth two, or
three, or four, or more, to have and to hold to them (and to their
heirs, or letteth to them) for term of their lives, or for term of
another's life; by force of which feoffment or lease they are
seised, such are joint-tenants. ... And it is to be understood,
that the nature of joint-tenancy is, that he that surviveth shall
have solely the entire tenancy, according to such estate as he
hath, ..." "Tenants in common are they that have lands or
tenements in fee-simple, fee-tail, or for term of life, etc., the
which have such lands and tenements by several title, and not by
joint title, and neither of them knoweth thereof his severalty,
but they ought by the law to occupy such lands or tenements in
common pro indiviso [undivided], to take the profits in common.
...As if a man enfeoff two joint-tenants in fee, and the one of
them alien that which to him belongeth to another in fee, now the
other joint-tenant and the alienee are tenants in common, because
they are in such tenements by several titles, ..."

There are legal maxims and customs of ancient origin which have
become well established and known though not written down as
statutes. Some delineated by Christopher St. Germain in "Doctor
and Student" in 1518 are:

1.  The spouse of a deceased person takes all personal and
    real chattels of the deceased.

2.  For inheritance of land, if there are no descendant
    children, the brothers and sisters take alike, and if there
    are none, the next blood kin of the whole blood take, and if
    none, the land escheats to the lord. Land may never ascend
    from a son to his father or mother.

3.  A child born before espousals is a bastard and may not
    inherit, even if his father is the husband.

3.  If a middle brother purchases lands in fee and dies
    without heirs of his body, his eldest brother takes his
    lands and not the younger brother. The next possible heir in
    line is the younger brother, and the next after him, the
    father's brother.

4.  For lands held in socage, if the heir is under 14, the
    next friend to the heir, to whom inheritance may not
    descend, shall have the ward of his body and lands until the
    heir is 14, at which time the heir may enter.

5.  For lands held by knight's service, if the heir is under
    14, then the lord shall have the ward and marriage of the
    heir until the heir is 21, if male, or 14 (changed to 16 in
    1285), if female. When of age, the heir shall pay relief.

6.  A lease for a term of years is a real chattel rather than
    a free tenement, and may pass without livery of seisin.

7.  He who has possession of land, though it is by disseisin,
    has right against all men but against him who has right.

8.  If a tenant is past due his rent, the lord may distrain
    his beasts which are on the land.

9.  All birds, fowls, and wild beasts of the forest and
    warren are excepted out of the law and custom of property.
    No property may be had of them unless they are tame.
    However, the eggs of hawks and herons and the like belong
    to the man whose land they are on.

10. If a man steals goods to the value of 12d., or above, it
    is felony, and he shall die for it. If it is under the value
    of 12d., then it is but petit larceny, and he shall not die
    for it, but shall be punished at the discretion of the
    judges. This not apply to goods taken from the person, which
    is robbery, a felony punishable by death.

11. If the son is attainted [convicted of treason or felony
    with the death penalty and forfeiture of all lands and
    goods] in the life of the father, and after he purchases his
    charter of pardon of the King, and after the father dies; in
    this case the land shall escheat to the lord of the fee,
    insomuch that though he has a younger brother, yet the land
    shall not descend to him: for by the attainder of the elder
    brother the blood is corrupt, and the father in the law died
    without heir.

12. A man declared outlaw forfeits his profits from land and
    his goods to the King.

13. He who is arraigned upon an indictment of felony shall
    be admitted, in favor of life, to challenge thirty-five
    inquirers (three whole inquests would have thirty-six)
    peremptorily. With cause, he may challenge as many as he has
    cause to challenge if he can prove it. Such peremptory
    challenge shall not be admitted in a private suit.

14. An accessory shall not be put to answer before the
    principal.

15. If a man commands another to commit a trespass, and he
    does it, the one who made the command is a trespasser.

16. The land of every man is in the law enclosed from other,
    though it lies in the open field, and a trespasser in it
    may be brought to court.

17. Every man is bound to make recompense for such hurt as
    his beasts do in the growing grain or grass of his neighbor,
    though he didn't know that they were there.

18. If two titles are concurrent together, the oldest title
    shall be preferred.

19. He who recovers debt or damages in the King's court when
    the person charged is not in custody, may within a year
    after the judgment take the body of the defendant, and
    commit him to prison until he has paid the debt and damages.

20. If the demandant or plaintiff, hanging his writ (writ
    pending in court), will enter into the thing demanded, his
    writ shall abate.

21. By the alienation of the tenant, hanging the writ, or
    his entry into religion, or if he is made a knight, or she
    is a woman and takes a husband hanging the writ, the writ
    shall not abate.

22. The king may disseise no man and no man may disseise the
    king, nor pull any reversion or remainder out of him.



                         - Judicial Procedure -

The prohibition against maintenance was given penalties in 1406 of
100s. per person for a knight or lower giving livery of cloth or
hats, and of 40s. for the receiver of such. A person who brought
such suit to court was to be given half the penalty. The Justices
of Assize and King's Bench were authorized to inquire about such
practices. The statute explicitly included ladies and any writing,
oath, or promise as well as indenture. Excepted were guilds,
fraternities, and craftsmen of cities and boroughs which were
founded on a good purpose, universities, the mayor and sheriffs of
London, and also lords, knights, and esquires in time of war. A
penalty of one year in prison without bail was given. In 1468,
there was a penalty of 100s. per livery to the giver of such,
100s. per month to the retainer or taker of such, and 100s. per
month to the person retained. Still this law was seldom obeyed.

People took grievances outside the confines of the rigid common
law to the Chancellor, who could give equitable remedies under
authority of a statute of 1285 (described in Chapter 8). The
Chancery heard many cases of breach of faith in the "use", a form
of trust in which three parties were involved: the holder of land,
feofees to whom the holder had made it over by conveyance or
"bargain and sale", and the beneficiary or receiver of the profits
of the land, who was often the holder, his children, relatives,
friends, an institution, or a corporation. This system of using
land had been created by the friars to get around the prohibition
against holding property. Lords and gentry quickly adopted it. The
advantages of the use were that 1) there was no legal restriction
to will away the beneficial interest of the use although the land
itself could not be conveyed by will; 2) it was hard for the king
to collect feudal incidents because the feoffees were often
unknown 3) the original holder was protected from forfeiture of
his land in case of conviction of treason if the Crown went to
someone he had not supported. Chancery gave a remedy for dishonest
or defaulting feofees.

Chancery also provided the equitable relief of specific
performance in disputes over agreements, for instance, conveyance
of certain land, whereas the common law courts awarded only
monetary damages by the writ of covenant.

Chancery ordered accounts to be made in matters of foreign trade
because the common law courts were limited to accounts pursuant to
transactions made within the nation. It also involved itself in
the administration of assets and accounting of partners to each
other.

The Chancellor took jurisdiction of cases of debt, detinue, and
account which had been decided in other courts with oath-helping
by the defendant. He did not trust the reliance on friends of the
defendant swearing that his statement made in his defense was
true. An important evidentiary difference between procedures of
the Chancery and the common law courts was that the Chancellor
could orally question the plaintiff and the defendant under oath.
He also could order persons to appear at his court by subpoena
[under pain of punishment, such as a heavy fine].

Whereas the characteristic award of the common law courts was
seisin of land or monetary damages, Chancery often enjoined
certain action. Because malicious suits were a problem, the
Chancery identified such suits and issued injunctions against
taking them to any court.

The Chancery was given jurisdiction by statute over men of great
power taking by force women who had lands and tenements or goods
and not setting them free unless they bound themselves to pay
great sums to the offenders or to marry them. A statute also gave
Chancery jurisdiction over servants taking their masters' goods at
his death.

Justices of the Peace, appointed by the Crown, investigated all
riots and arrested rioters, by authority of statute. If they had
departed, the Justices certified the case to the King. The case
was then set for trial first before the king and his council and
then at the King's Bench. If the suspected rioters did not appear
at either trial, they could be convicted for default of
appearance. If a riot was not investigated and the rioters sought,
the Justice of the Peace nearest forfeited 2,000s. Justices of the
peace were not paid. For complex cases and criminal cases with
defendants of high social status, they deferred to the Justices of
Assize, who rode on circuit once or twice a year. Since there was
no requirement of legal knowledge for a Justice of the Peace, many
referred to the "Boke of the Justice of the Peas" compiled about
1422 for them to use. Manor courts still formally admitted new
tenants, registered titles, sales of land and exchanges of land,
and commutation of services, enrolled leases and rules of
succession, settled boundary disputes, and regulated the village
agriculture.

All attorneys shall be examined by the royal justices for their
learnedness in the law and, at their discretion, those that are
good and virtuous shall be received to make any suit in any royal
court. These attorneys shall be sworn to serve well and truly in
their offices.

Attorneys may plead on behalf of parties in the hundred courts.

A qualification for jurors was to have an estate to one's own use
or one of whom other persons had estates of fee simple, fee tail,
or freehold in lands and tenements, which were at least 40s. per
year in value. In a plea of land worth at least 40s. yearly or a
personal plea with relief sought at least 800s., jurors had to
have land in the bailiwick to the value of at least 400s., because
perjury was considered less likely in the more sufficient men.

In criminal cases, there were many complaints made that the same
men being on the grand assize and petty assize was unfair because
prejudicial. So it became possible for a defendant to challenge an
indictor for cause before the indictor was put on the petty
assize. Then the petty assize came to be drawn from the country at
large and was a true petty or trial jury. Jurors were separated
from witnesses.

Justices of the Peace were to have lands worth 267s. yearly,
because those with less had used the office for extortion and lost
the respect and obedience of the people.

A Sheriff was not to arrest, but to transfer indictments to the
Justices of the Peace of the county. He had to reside in his
bailiwick. The sheriff could be sued for misfeasance such as
bribery in the King's court.

Impeachment was replaced with bill of attainder during the swift
succession of parliaments during the civil war. This was a more
rapid and efficient technique of bringing down unpopular ministers
or political foes. There was no introduction of evidence, nor
opportunity for the person accused to defend himself, nor any
court procedure, as there was with impeachment.

An example of a case of common law decided by Court of King's
Bench is Russell's Case (1482) as follows:

In the king's bench one Thomas Russell and Alice his wife brought
a writ of trespass for goods taken from Alice while she was
single. The defendant appeared and pleaded not guilty but was
found guilty by a jury at nisi prius, which assessed the damages
at 20 pounds. Before the case was next to be heard in the King's
Court an injunction issued out of the Chancery to the plaintiffs
not to proceed to judgment, on pain of 100 pounds, and for a long
time judgment was not asked for. Then Hussey CJKB. asked Spelman
and Fincham, who appeared for the plaintiff if they wanted to ask
for judgment according to the verdict. Fincham [P]: We would ask
for judgment, except for fear of the penalty provided for in the
injunction, for fear that our client will be imprisoned by the
Chancellor if he disobeys. Fairfax, JKB: He can ask for judgment
in spite of the injunction, for if it is addressed to the
plaintiff his attorney can ask for judgment, and vice versa.
Hussey, CJKB: We have consulted together on this matter among
ourselves and we see no harm which can come to the plaintiff if he
proceeds to judgment. The law will not make him pay the penalty
provided in the injunction. If the Chancellor wants to imprison
him he must send him to the Fleet Prison, and, as soon as you are
there you will inform us and we shall issuea habeas corpus
returnable before us, and when you appear before us we shall
discharge you, so you will not come to much harm, and we shall do
all we can for you. Nevertheless, Fairfax said he would go to the
Chancellor and ask him if he would discharge the injunction. And
they asked for judgment and it was held that they should recover
their damages as assessed by the jury, but they would not give
judgment for damages caused by the vexation the plaintiff suffered
through the Chancery injunction. And they said that if the
Chancellor would not discharge the injunction, they would give
judgment if the plaintiff would ask for it.

An example of a petition to chancery in the 15th century is
Hulkere v. Alcote, as follows:

To the right reverend father in God and gracious lord bishop of
Bath, chancellor of England, your poor and continual bedwoman Lucy
Hulkere, widow of Westminster, most meekly and piteously
beseeches: that whereas she has sued for many years in the King's
Bench and in the Common Pleas for withholding diverse charters and
evidences of land, leaving and delaying her dower of the manor of
Manthorpe in Lincolnshire and also of the manor of Gildenburton in
Northamptonshire, together with the withdrawing of her true goods
which her husband gave her on his deathbed to the value of 100
pounds and more, under record of notary, sued against Harry Alcote
and Elizabeth of the foresaid Gildenburton within the same county
of Northampton. And by collusion and fickle counsel of the
foresaid Harry and Elizabeth his mother there was led and shown
for him within the Common Pleas a false release, sealed, to void
and exclude all her true suit by record of true clerks and
attorneys of the aforesaid Common Pleas. Of the which false
release proved she has a copy to show. [All this is] to her great
hindrance and perpetual destruction unless she have help and
remedy by your righteous and gracious lordship in this matter at
this time. That it please your noble grace and pity graciously to
grant a writ subpena to command the foresaid Henry Alcote and
Elizabeth Alcote to come before your presence by a certain day by
you limited in all haste that they may come to Westminster to
answer to this matter abovesaid, for love of God and adeed of
charity, considering graciously that the foresaid Harry Alcote,
with another fellow of his affinity who is not lately hanged for a
thief in Franceled her into a garden at Gildenburton and put her
down on the ground, laying upon her body a board and a summer
saddle and great stones upon the board, the foresaid Harry Alcote
sitting across her feet and the other at her head for to have
slain her and murdered her, and by grace of our lady her mother-
in-law out walking heard a piteous voice crying and by her
goodness she was saved and delivered, and otherwise would be dead.
Pledges to prosecute: John Devenshire of Berdevyle in Essex and
James Kelom of London. Returnable in Michaelmas term.





                         - - - Chapter 11 - - -



                        - The Times: 1485-1509 -

Henry Tudor and other exiles defeated and killed Richard III on
Bosworth field, which ends the civil War of the Roses between the
Lancaster and York factions. As King, Henry VII restored order to
the nation. He was readily accepted as king because he was
descended from the Lancaster royal line and he married a woman
from the York royal line. Henry was intelligent and sensitive. He
weighed alternatives and possible consequences before taking
action. He was convinced by reason on what plans to make. His
primary strategy was enacting and enforcing statutes to shore up
the undermined legal system, which includes the establishment of a
new court: the Court of the Star Chamber, to obtain punishment of
persons whom juries were afraid to convict. It had no jury and no
grand jury indictment. For speed and certainty, it tried people
"ex officio": by virtue of its office. Suspects were required to
take an oath ex officio, by which they swore to truthfully answer
all questions put to them. A man could not refuse to answer on the
grounds of self-incrimination. The Star Chamber was the room in
which the King's council had met since the 1300s. In his reign of
24 years, Henry applied himself diligently to the details of the
work of government to make it work well. He strengthened the
monarchy, shored up the legal system to work again, and provided a
peace in the land in which a renaissance of the arts and sciences,
culture, and the intellectual life could flourish.

The most prevalent problems were: murder, robbery, rape or forced
marriage of wealthy women, counterfeiting of coin, extortion,
misdemeanors by sheriffs and escheators, bribing of sheriffs and
jurors, perjury, livery and maintenance agreements, idleness,
unlawful plays, and riots. Interference with the course of justice
was not committed only by lords on behalf of their retainers; men
of humbler station were equally prone to help their friends in
court or to give assistance in return for payment. Rural juries
were intimidated by the old baronage and their armed retinues.
Juries in municipal courts were subverted by gangs of townsmen.
Justices of the Peace didn't enforce the laws. The agricultural
work of the nation had been adversely affected.

Henry made policy with the advice of his council and had
Parliament enact it into legislation. He dominated Parliament by
having selected most of its members. Many of his council were sons
of burgesses and had been trained in universities. He chose
competent and especially trusted men for his officers and
commanders of castles and garrison. The fact that only the king
had artillery deterred barons from revolting. Also, the baronial
forces were depleted due to civil War of the Roses. If Henry
thought a magnate was exercising his territorial power to the
King's detriment, he confronted him with an army and forced him to
bind his whole family in recognizances for large sums of money to
ensure future good conduct. Since the king had the authority to
interpret these pledges, they were a formidable check on any
activity which could be considered to be disloyal. The earl of
Kent, whose debts put him entirely at the King's mercy, was bound
to "be seen daily once in the day within the King's house". Henry
also required recognizances from men of all classes, including
clergy, captains of royal castles, and receivers of land. The
higher nobility now consisted of about twenty families. The heavy
fines by the Star Court put an end to conspiracies to defraud,
champerty [an agreement with a litigant to pay costs of litigation
for a share in the damages awarded], livery, and maintenance. The
ties between the nobility and the Justices of the Peace had
encouraged corruption of justice. So Henry appointed many of the
lesser gentry and attorneys as Justices of the Peace. Also he
appointed a few of his councilors as non-resident Justices of the
Peace. There were a total of about thirty Justices of the Peace
per county. Their appointments were indefinite and most remained
until retirement or death. Henry instituted the Yeomen of the
Guard to be his personal bodyguards night and day.

Many bills of attainder caused lords to lose their land to the
King. Most of these lords had been chronic disturbers of the
peace. Henry required retainers to be licensed, which system
lasted until about 1600. Henry was also known to exhaust the
resources of barons he suspected of disloyalty by accepting their
hospitality for himself and his household for an extended period
of time.

Henry built up royal funds by using every available procedure of
government to get money, by maximizing income from royal estates
by transferring authority over them from the Exchequer to
knowledgeable receivers, and from forfeitures of land and property
due to attainders of treason. He also personally reviewed all
accounts and initialed every page, making sure that all payments
were made. He regularly ordered all men with an income of 800s.
[40 pounds] yearly from lands or revenue in hand to receive
knighthoods, which were avoided by those who did not want to
fight, or pay a high fee. As a result, the Crown became rich and
therefore powerful.

Henry's Queen, Elizabeth, was a good influence on his character.
Her active beneficence was a counteracting influence to his
avaricious predisposition. When Henry and his Queen traveled
through the nation, they often stopped to talk to the common
people. They sometimes gave away money, such as to a man who had
lost his hand. Henry paid for an intelligent boy he met to go to
school.

Henry had the first paper mill erected in the nation. He fostered
the reading of books and the study of Roman law, the classics, and
the Bible. He had his own library and gave books to other
libraries.

The age of entry to university was between 13 and 16. It took four
years' study of grammar, logic, and rhetoric to achieve the
Bachelor of Arts degree and another five before a master could
begin a specialized study of the civil law, canon law, theology,
or medicine. Arabic numbers replaced Roman numerals, making
multiplication and division possible. Humanist studies were
espoused by individual scholars at the three centers of higher
learning: Oxford University, Cambridge University, and the Inns of
Court in London. The Inns of Court attracted the sons of gentry
and merchants pursuing practical and social accomplishments. The
text of 'readings' to members of the inns survive from this time.
In the legalistic climate of these times, attorneys were
prosperous.

The enclosure of land by hedges for sheep farming continued,
especially by rich merchants who bought country land for this
purpose. Often this was land that had been under the plough. Any
villeins were given their freedom and they and the tenants at will
were thrown off it immediately. That land held by copyholders of
land who had only a life estate, was withheld from their sons.
Only freeholders and copyholders with the custom of the manor in
their favor were secure against eviction. But they could be
pressured to sell by tactics such as breeding rabbits or keeping
geese on adjoining land to the detriment of their crops, or
preventing them from taking their traditional short cuts across
the now enclosed land to their fields. The real line of
distinction between rural people was one of material means instead
of legal status: free or unfree. On one extreme was the well-to-do
yeoman farmer farming his own land. On the other extreme was the
agricultural laborer working for wages. Henry made several
proclamations ordering certain enclosures to be destroyed and
tillage to be restored.

Other land put to use for sheep breeding was waste land. There
were three sheep to every person. The nearby woodlands no longer
had wolves or lynx who could kill the sheep. Bears and elk are
also gone.

There were still deer, wild boar, wildcats and wild cattle in vast
forests for the lords to hunt. Wood was used for houses, arms,
carts, bridges, and ships.

The villages were still isolated from each other, so that a
visitor from miles away was treated as warily as a foreigner. Most
people lived and died where they had been born. A person's dialect
indicated his place of origin. The life of the village still
revolved around the church. In some parishes, its activities were
highly organized, with different groups performing different
functions. For example, the matrons looked after a certain altar;
the maidens raised money for a chapel or saw to the gilding of the
images; the older men collected money for church repair; and the
younger men organized the church ales and the church plays. Wills
often left property or rents from leased land to the church. Cows
and sheep given could be leased out to villagers. Buildings given
could be leased out, turned over to the poor, used to brew ale or
bake bread for church ales, or used in general as a place for
church activities. Church ales would usually a good source of
income; alehouses would be closed during the ceremonies and
parishioners would contribute malt for the ale and grain, eggs,
butter, cheese, and fruits.

The largest town, London, had a population of about 70,000. Other
towns had a population less than 20,000. The population was
increasing, but did not reach the level of the period just before
the black death.

In most large towns, there were groups of tailors and hatmakers,
glovers, and other leatherworkers. Some towns had a specialization
due to their proximity to the sources of raw materials, such as
nails, cutlery, and effigies and altars. Despite the spread of
wool manufacturing to the countryside, there was a marked increase
of industry and prosperity in the towns. The principal streets of
the larger towns were paved with gravel. Guild halls became
important and imposing architecturally.

A large area of London was taken up by walled gardens of the
monasteries and large mansions. There were some houses of stone
and timber and some mansions of brick and timber clustered around
palaces. In these, bedrooms increased in number, with rich bed
hangings, linen sheets, and bolsters. Bedspreads were introduced.
Nightgowns were worn. Fireplaces became usual in all the rooms.
Tapestries covered the walls. Carpets were used in the private
rooms. Some of the great halls had tiled floors. The old trestle
tables were replaced by tables with legs. Benches and stools had
backs to lean on. Women and men wore elaborate headdresses. There
are guilds of ironmongers, salters, and haberdashers [hats and
caps]. On the outer periphery are mud and straw taverns and
brothels. Houses are beginning to be built outside the walls along
the Thames because the collapse of the power of the great feudal
lords decreased the fear of an armed attack on London. The
merchants introduced this idea of living at a distance from the
place of work so that they could escape living in the narrow,
damp, and dark lanes of the City and have more light and space.
Indeed no baronial army ever threatened the king again. East of
London were cattle pastures, flour mills, bakers, cloth-fulling
mills, lime burners, brick and tile makers, bell-founders, and
ship repairing. There was a drawbridge on the south part of London
Bridge for defense and to let ships through. Water sports were
played on the Thames such as tilting at each other with lances
from different boats.

The Tailors' and Linen Armorers' Guild received a charter in 1503
from the king as the "Merchant Tailors" to use all wares and
merchandise, especially wool cloth, as well wholesale as retail,
throughout the nation. Some schooling was now being made
compulsory in certain trades; the goldsmiths' company made a rule
that all apprentices had to be able to read and write.

A yeoman was the second-rank person of some importance, below a
knight, below a gentleman, below a full member of a guild. In
London, it meant the journeyman or second adult in a small
workshop. These yeomen had their own fraternities and were often
on strike. Some yeomen in the large London industries, e.g.
goldsmiths, tailors, clothworkers, who had served an
apprenticeship started their own businesses in London suburbs
outside the jurisdiction of their craft to search them.

The Merchant Adventurers created a London fellowship confederacy
to make membership of their society and compliance with its
regulations binding on all cloth traders and to deal with common
interests and difficulties such as taxation, relations with
rulers, and dangers at sea. They made and enforced trading rules,
chartered fleets, and organized armed convoys when the seas were
unsafe and coordinated policies with Henry VII. Membership could
be bought for a large fee or gained by apprenticeship or by being
the son of a member.

Foreign trade was revived because it was a period of comparative
peace. The nation sought to sell as much as possible to foreign
nations and to buy at little as possible and thereby increase its
wealth in gold and silver, which could be used for currency.

Ships weighed 200 tons and had twice the cargo space they had
previously. Their bows were more pointed and their high prows made
them better able to withstand gales. The mariners' compass with a
pivoting needle and circular dial with a scale was introduced. The
scale gave precision to directions. Ships had three masts. On the
first was a square sail. On the second was a square sail with a
small rectangular sail above it. On the third was a three cornered
lateen sail. These sails make it possible to sail in almost any
direction. This opened the seas of the world to navigation. At
this time navigators kept their knowledge and expertise secret
from others. Adventurous seamen went on voyages of discovery, such
as John Cabot to North America in 1497, following Italian
Christopher Columbus' discovery of the new world in 1492.
Ferdinand Magellan of Portugal circumnavigated the world in 1519,
proving uncontrovertedly that the earth was spherical rather than
flat. Sailors overcame their fear of tumbling into one of the
openings into hell that they believed were far out into the
Atlantic Ocean and ceased to believe that a red sunset in the
morning was due to a reflection from hell. Seamen could venture
forth into the darkness of the broad Atlantic Ocean with a fair
expectation of finding their way home again. They gradually
learned that there were no sea serpents or monsters that would
devour foolhardy mariners. They learned to endure months at sea on
a diet of salt beef, beans, biscuits, and stale water and the bare
deck for a bed. But there were still mutinies and disobedient
pilots. Mortality rates among seamen were high. Theologians had to
admit that Jerusalem was not the center of the world. There are
more navy ships, and they have some cannon.

The blast furnace was introduced in the iron industry. A blast of
hot air was constantly forced from a stove into the lower part of
the furnace which was heating at high temperature a mixture of the
iron ore and a reducing agent that combined with the oxygen
released. After the iron was extracted, it was allowed to harden
and then reheated and hammered on an anvil to shape it and to
force out the hard, brittle impurities. Blast furnace heat was
maintained by bellows worked by water wheels. Alchemists sought to
make gold from the baser metals and to make a substance that would
give them immortality. There was some thought that suffocation in
mines, caverns, wells, and cellars was not due to evil spirits,
but to bad air such as caused by "exhalation of metals".

There were morality plays in which the seven deadly sins: pride,
covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth, fought the
seven cardinal virtues: faith, hope, charity, prudence,
temperance, justice, and strength, respectively, for the human
soul. The play "Everyman" demonstrates that every man can get to
heaven only by being virtuous and doing good deeds in his
lifetime. It emphasizes that death may come anytime to every man,
when his deeds will be judged as to their goodness or sinfulness.
Card games were introduced. The legend of Robin Hood was written
down.

The Commons gained the stature of the Lords and statutes were
regularly enacted by the "assent of the lords spiritual and
temporal and the commons", instead of at the request of the
Commons.



                              - The Law -

Royal proclamations clarifying, refining or amplifying the law had
the force of parliamentary statutes. In 1486, he proclaimed that
"Forasmuch as many of the King our sovereign lord's subjects
[have] been disposed daily to hear feigned, contrived, and forged
tidings and tales, and the same tidings and tales, neither
dreading God nor his Highness, utter and tell again as though they
were true, to the great hurt of divers of his subjects and to his
grievous displeasure: Therefore, in eschewing of such untrue and
forged tidings and tales, the King our said sovereign lord
straitly chargeth and commandeth that no manner person, whatsoever
he be, utter nor tell any such tidings or tales but he bring forth
the same person the which was author and teller of the said
tidings or tales, upon pain to be set on the pillory, there to
stand as long as it shall be thought convenient to the mayor,
bailiff, or other official of any city, borough, or town where it
shall happen any such person to be taken and accused for any such
telling or reporting of any such tidings or tales. Furthermore the
same our sovereign lord straitly chargeth and commandeth that all
mayors, bailiffs, and other officers diligently search and inquire
of all such persons tellers of such tidings and tales not bringing
forth the author of the same, and them set on the pillory as it is
above said." He also proclaimed in 1487 that no one, except peace
offiers, may carry a weapon, e.g. bows, arrows, or swords, in any
town or city unless on a journey. He proclaimed in 1498 that no
one may refuse to receive silver pennies or other lawful coin as
payment regardless of their condition as clipped, worn, thin, or
old, on pain of imprisonment and further punishment.

Statutes included:

Lords holding castles, manors, lands and tenements by knight's
service of the king shall have a writ of right for wardship of the
body as well as of the land of any minor heir of a deceased person
who had the use [beneficial enjoyment] of the land for himself and
his heirs as if the land had been in the possession of the
deceased person. And if such an heir is of age, he shall pay
relief to the lord as if he had inherited possession of the land.
An heir in ward shall have an action of waste against his lord as
if his ancestor had died seised of the land. That is, lands of
"those who use" shall be liable for execution of his debt and to
the chief lord for his relief and heriot, and if he is a bondsman,
they may be seized by the lord. The king tried to retain the
benefits of feudal incidents on land by this Statute of Uses, but
attorneys sought to circumvent it by drafting elaborate and
technical instruments to convey land free of feudal burdens.

Any woman who has an estate in dower, or for a term of life, or in
tail, jointly with her husband, or only to herself, or to her use,
in any manors, lands, tenements, or other hereditaments of the
inheritance or purchase of her husband, or given to the said
husband and wife in tail, or for term of life, by any of the
ancestors of the said husband, or by any other person seised to
the use of the said husband, or of his ancestors, who, by herself
or with any after taken husband; discontinue, alienate, release,
confirm with warranty or, by collusion, allow any recovery of the
same against them or any other seised to their use, such action
shall be void. Then, the person to whom the interest, title, or
inheritance would go after the death of such woman may enter and
possess such premises. This does not affect the common law that a
woman who is single or remarried may give, sell, or make
discontinuance of any lands for the term of her life only.

All deeds of gift of goods and chattels made of trust, to the use
of the giver [grantor and beneficiary of trust], to defraud
creditors are void.

It is a felony to carry off against her will, a woman with lands
and tenements or movable goods, or who is heir-apparent to an
ancestor. This includes taking, procuring, abetting, or knowingly
receiving a woman taken against her will.

A vagabond, idle, or suspected person shall be put in the stocks
for three days with only bread and water, and then be put out of
the town. If he returns, he shall spend six days in the stocks. (A
few years later this was changed to one and three days,
respectively.) Every beggar who is not able to work, shall return
to the hundred where he last dwelled, is best known, or was born
and stay there.

No one may take pheasants or partridges by net snares or other
devices from his own warren [breeding ground], upon the freehold
of any other person, or forfeit 200s., one half to the owner of
the land and the other half to the suer. No one may take eggs of
any falcon, hawk, or swan out of their nest, whether it is on his
land or any other man's land, on pain of imprisonment for one year
and fine at the King's will, one half to the King, and the other
half to the holder of the land, or owner of the swan. No man shall
bear any English hawk, but shall have a certificate for any hawk
imported, on pain for forfeiture of such. No one shall drive
falcons or hawks from their customary breeding place to another
place to breed or slay any for hurting him, or pay 200s. after
examination by a Justice of the Peace, one half going to the king
and one half to the suer.

Any person without a forest of his own who has a net device with
which to catch deer shall pay 200s. for each month of possession.
Anyone stalking a deer with beasts anywhere not in his own forest
shall forfeit 200s. Anyone taking any heron by device other than a
hawk or long bow shall forfeit 6s.8d. No one shall take a young
heron from its nest or pay 10s. for each such heron. Two justices
may decide such an issue, and one tenth of the fine shall go to
them.

No man shall shoot a cross-bow except in defense of his house,
other than a lord or one having 2,667s. of land because their use
had resulted in too many deer being killed. (The long-bow was not
forbidden.)

No beasts may be slaughtered or cut up by butchers within the
walls of a town, or pay 12d. for every ox and 8d. for every cow or
other beast, so that people will not be annoyed and distempered by
foul air, which may cause them sickness.

No tanner may be a currier [dressed, dyed, and finished tanned
leather] and no currier may be a tanner. No shoemaker [cordwainer]
may be a currier and no currier may be a shoemaker. No currier
shall curry hides which have not been tanned. No tanner shall sell
other than red leather. No tanner may sell a hide before it is
dried. No tanner may tan sheepskins.

No long bow shall be sold over the price of 3s.4d.

Good wood for making bows may be imported without paying customs.

No grained cloth of the finest making shall be sold for more than
16s., nor any other colored cloth for more than 11s. per yard, or
forfeit 40s. for every yard so sold. No hat shall be sold for more
than 20d. and no cap shall be sold for more than 2s.8d., or
forfeit 40s. for each so sold.

Silver may not be sold or used for any use but goldsmithery or
amending of plate to make it good as sterling, so that there will
be enough silver with which to make coinage.

Each feather bed, bolster, or pillow for sale shall be stuffed
with one type of stuffing, that is, dry pulled feathers or with
clean down alone, and with no sealed feathers nor marsh grass, nor
any other corrupt stuffings. Each quilt, mattress, or cushion for
sale shall be stuffed with one type of stuffing, that is, clean
wool, or clean flocks alone, and with no horsehair, marsh grass,
neatshair, deershair, or goatshair, which is wrought in lime-fats
and gives off an abominable and contagious odor when heated by a
man's body, on pain of forfeiture of such.

Salmon shall be sold by standard volume butts and barrels. Large
salmon shall be sold without any small fish or broken-bellied
salmon and the small fish shall be packed by themselves only, or
forfeit 6s.8d. Herring shall be sold at standard volumes. The
herring shall be as good in the middle and in every part of the
package as at the ends of the package, or forfeit 3s.4d. Eels
shall be sold at standard volumes, and good eels shall not be
mixed with lesser quality eels, or forfeit 10s. The fish shall be
packed in the manner prescribed or forfeit for each vessel 3s.4d.

Fustians shall always be shorn with the long shear, so that it can
be worn for at least two years. If an iron or anything else used
to dress such injures the cloth so that it wears out after four
months, 20s. shall be forfeited for each default, one half to the
king and the other half to the suer.

Pewter and brass ware for sale shall be of the quality of that of
London and marked by its maker, on pain of forfeiture of such, and
may be sold only at open fairs and markets or in the seller's
home, or forfeit 200s. If such false ware is sold, its maker shall
forfeit its value, one half to the king and one half to the
searchers. Anyone using false weights of such wares shall forfeit
20s., one half to the king and one half to the suer, or if he
cannot pay this fine, to be put in the stocks until market day and
then be put in the pillory all the market time.

No alien nor denizen [foreigner allowed to reside in the nation
with certain rights and privileges] may carry out of the nation
any raw wool or any woolen cloth which has not been barbed, rowed,
and shorn.

Silk ribbons, laces, and girdles of silk may not be imported,
since they can be made in the nation.

No one shall import wine into the nation, but on English ships, or
forfeit the wine, one half to the king and one half to the seizer
of the wine.

No one may take out of the nation any [male] horse or any mare
worth more than 6s.8s. or under the age of three years, upon pain
of forfeiture of such. However, a denizen may take a horse for his
own use and not to sell. This is to stop losing horses needed for
defense of the nation and to stop the price of a horse from going
up.

Freemen of London may go to fairs and markets with wares to sell,
despite the London ordinance to the contrary.

Merchants residing in the nation but outside London shall have
free access to foreign markets without exaction taken of more than
133s. sterling by the confederacy of London merchants, which have
increased their fee so much, 400s., that merchants not in the
confederacy have been driven to sell their goods in London for
less than they would get at a foreign market. Exacting more is
punishable by a fine of 400s. and damages to the grieved party of
ten times the excess amount taken.

For the privilege of selling merchandise, a duty of scavage shall
be taken of merchant aliens, but not of denizens. Any town
official who allows disturbing of a person trying to sell his
merchandise because he has not paid scavage, shall pay a fine of
400s.

Coin clipped or diminished shall not be current in payment, but
may be converted at the King's mint into plate or bullion. Anyone
refusing to take coins with only normal wear may be imprisoned by
the mayor, sheriff, bailiff, constable or other chief officer. New
coins, which have a circle or inscription around the outer edge,
will be deemed clipped if this circle or inscription is interfered
with.

The penalty for usury is placement in the pillory, imprisonment
for half a year, and a fine of 400s. (The penalty was later
changed to one half thereof.)

Lawbooks in use at the Inns of Court included "The Books of Magna
Carta with diverse Old Statutes", "Doctor and Student" by St.
Germain, "Grand Abridgment" by Fitzherbert, and "New Natura
Brevium" by Lombard.



                         - Judicial Procedure -

These changes in the judicial process were made by statute:

The Chancellor, Treasurer, keeper of the King's privy seal, or two
of them, with a bishop selected by them, and a temporal lord of
the King's council selected by them, and the two Chief Justices of
the King's Bench shall constitute the court of the Star Chamber.
It shall have the authority to call before it by writ or by privy
seal anyone accused of "unlawful maintenances, giving of liveries,
signs and tokens, and retainers by indentures, promises, oaths,
writings, or otherwise embraceries of his subjects" and witnesses,
and impose punishment as if convicted under due process of law.
These laws shall now be enforced: If a town does not punish the
murderer of a man murdered in the town, the town shall be
punished. A town shall hold any man who wounds another in peril of
death, until there is perfect knowledge whether the man hurt
should live or die. Upon viewing a dead body, the coroner should
inquire of the killers, their abettors, and anyone present at the
killing and certify these names. In addition, the murderer and
accessories indicted shall be tried at the King's suit within a
year of the murder, which trial will not be delayed until a
private suit is taken. If acquitted at the King's suit, he shall
go back to prison or let out with bail for the remainder of the
year, in which time the slain man's wife or next of kin may sue.
For every inquiry made upon viewing a slain body coroners shall be
paid 13s.4d. out of the goods of the slayer or from a town not
taking a murderer, but letting him escape. If the coroner does not
make inquiry upon viewing a dead body, he shall be fined 100s. to
the King. If a party fails to appear for trial after a justice has
taken bail from him, a record of such shall be sent to the King.

Up to 1600, the Star Chamber heard many cases of forgery, perjury,
riot, maintenance, fraud, libel, and conspiracy. It could mete out
any punishment, except death or any dismemberment. This included
life imprisonment, fines, pillory, whipping, branding, and
mutilation. Henry VII sat on it. If a Justice of the Peace does
not act on any person's complaint, that person may take that
complaint to another Justice of the Peace, and if there is no
remedy then, he may take his complaint to a Justice of Assize, and
if there is not remedy then, he may take his complaint to the King
or the Chancellor. There shall then be inquiry into why the other
justices did not remedy the situation. If it is found that they
were in default in executing the laws, they shall forfeit their
commissions and be punished according to their demerits.

Justices of the Peace shall make inquiry of all offenses in
unlawful retaining, examine all suspects, and certify them to the
King's Bench for trial there or in the King's council, and the
latter might also proceed against suspects on its own initiative
on information given.

Perjury committed by unlawful maintenance, embracing, or
corruption of officers, or in the Chancery, or before the King's
council, shall be punished in the discretion of the Chancellor,
Treasurer, both the Chief Justices, and the clerk of the rolls.

The Star Chamber, Chancellor, King's Bench and King and council
have the power to examine all defendants, by oath or otherwise, to
adjudge them convicted or attainted. They can also be found guilty
by confession, examination, or otherwise. If a defendant denied
doing the acts of which he is convicted, he was subject to an
additional fine to the king and imprisonment. Violations of
statutes may be heard by the Justices of Assize or the Justices of
the Peace, except treason, murder, and other felony.

Actions on the case shall be treated as expeditiously in the
courts of the King's Bench and Common Pleas as actions of trespass
or debt.

Proclamation at four court terms of a levy of a fine shall be a
final end to an issue of land, tenements, or other hereditaments
and the decision shall bind persons and their heirs, whether they
have knowledge or not of the decision, except for women-covert who
were not parties, persons under the age of twenty-one, in prison,
out of the nation, or not of whole mind, who are not parties.
These may sue within five years of losing such condition. Also,
anyone not a party may claim a right, title, claim, or interest in
the said lands, tenements, or other hereditaments at the time of
such fine recorded, within five years after proclamations of the
fine.

A defendant who appeals a decision for the purpose of delaying
execution of such shall pay costs and damages to the plaintiff for
the delay.

No sheriff, undersheriff, or county clerk shall enter any
complaints in their books unless the complaining party is present.
And no more complaints than the complaining party knows about
shall be entered. The penalty is 40s. for each such false
complaint, one half to the king and the other half to the suer
after examination by a Justice of the Peace. This is to prevent
extortion of defendants by false complaints. The justice shall
certify this examination to the King, on pain of a fine of 40s. A
bailiff of a hundred who does not do his duty to summon defendants
shall pay a fine of 40s. for each such default, after examination
by a Justice of the Peace. Sheriffs' records of fines imposed and
bailiffs' records of fines collected may be reviewed by a Justice
of the Peace to examine for deceit.

Any sheriff allowing a prisoner to escape, whether from negligence
or for a bribe, shall be fined, if the prisoner was indicted of
high treason, at least 1,333s. for each escape. However, if the
prisoner was in their keeping because of a suspicion of high
treason, the fine shall be at least 800s.; and if indicted of
murder or petite treason, at least 400s.; and if suspected of
murder or petite treason, 200s.; and if suspected of other
felonies, 100s. Petite treason was that by a wife to her husband
or a man to his lord.

Any person not responding to a summons for jury service shall be
fined 12d. for the first default, and 2s. for the second, and
double for each subsequent default.

A pauper may sue in any court and be assigned a attorney at no
cost to him.

A Justice of the Peace to whom has been reported hunting by
persons disguised with painted faces or visors or otherwise, may
issue a warrant for the sheriff or other county officer to arrest
such persons and bring them before the justice. Such hunting in
disguise or hunting at night or disobeying such warrant is a
felony. This is to stop large mobs of disguised people from
hunting together and then causing riots, robberies, and murders.

Benefit of clergy may be used only once, since this privilege has
made clerics more bold in committing murder, rape, robbery, and
theft. However, there will be no benefit of clergy in the case of
murder of one's immediate lord, master, or sovereign. (This begins
the gradual restriction of benefit of clergy until it disappears.
Also, benefit of clergy was often disregarded in unpeaceful
times.)

For an issue of riot or unlawful assembly, the sheriff shall call
24 jurors, each of lands and tenements at least 20s. of charter
land or freehold or 26s.8d. of copyhold or of both. For each
default of the sheriff, he shall pay 400s. And if the jury
acquits, then the justice, sheriff, and under-sheriff shall
certify the names of any jurors maintained or embraced and their
misdemeanors, or forfeit 400s. Any person proved to be a
maintainer or embracer shall forfeit 400s. to the king and be
committed to ward.

The principal leaders of any riot or unlawful assembly shall be
imprisoned and fined and be bound to the peace with sureties at a
sum determined by the Justices of the Peace. If the riot is by
forty people or heinous, the Justices of Peace shall certify such
and send the record of conviction to the King.

The King's steward, Treasurer, and comptroller have authority to
question by twelve discreet persons any servant of the king about
making any confederacies, compassings, conspiracies, or
imaginations with any other person to destroy or murder the king
or one of his council or a lord. Trial shall be by twelve men of
the King's household and punishment as by felony in the common
law.

When a land holder enfeoffs his land and tenements to people
unknown to the remainderman in tail, so that he does not know who
to sue, he may sue the receiver of the profits of the land and
tenements for a remedy. And the receivers shall have the same
advantages and defenses as the feoffees or as if they were
tenants. And if any deceased person had the use for himself and
his heirs, then any of his heirs shall have the same advantages
and defenses as if his ancestor had died seised of the land and
tenements. And all recoveries shall be good against all receivers
and their heirs, and the feofees and their heirs, and the co-
feoffees of the receivers and their heirs, as though the receivers
were tenants indeed, or feofees to their use, or their heirs of
the freehold of the land and tenements.

If a person feoffs his land to other persons while retaining the
use thereof for himself, it shall be treated as if he were still
seised of the land. Thus, relief and heriot will still be paid for
land in socage. And debts and executions of judgments may be had
upon the land and tenements.

The penalty for not paying customs is double the value of the
goods.

The town of London shall have jurisdiction over flooding and
unlawful fishing nets in that part of the Thames River that flows
next to it.

The city of London shall have jurisdiction to enforce free passage
of boats on the Thames River in the city, interruption of which
carries a fine of 400s., two-thirds to the king and one third to
the suer.

Jurors impaneled in London shall be of lands, tenements, or goods
and chattels, to the value of 133s. And if the case concerns debt
or damages at least 133s, the jurors shall have lands, tenements,
goods, or chattels, to the value of 333s. This is to curtail the
perjury that has gone on with jurors of little substance,
discretion, and reputation.

A party grieved by a false verdict of any court in London may
appeal to the Hustings Court of London, which hears common pleas
before the mayor and aldermen. Each of the twelve alderman shall
pick from his ward four jurors of the substance of at least
2,000s. to be impaneled. If twenty-four of them find that the
jurors of the petty jury has given an untrue verdict, each such
juror shall pay a fine of at least 400s. and imprisonment not more
than six months without release on bail or surety. However, if it
is found that the verdict was true, then the grand jury may
inquire if any juror was bribed. If so, such juror bribed and the
defendant who bribed him shall each pay ten times the amount of
the bribe to the plaintiff and be imprisoned not more than six
months without release on bail or surety.

Other changes in the judicial process were made by court decision.
For instance, the royal justices decided that only the king could
grant sanctuary for treason and not the church. After this, the
church withdrew the right of sanctuary from second time offenders.

The King's council has practically limited itself to cases in
which the state has an interest, especially the maintenance of
public order. Chancery became an independent court rather than the
arm of the king and his council. In Chancery and the King's Bench,
the intellectual revival brought by humanism inspires novel
procedures to be devised to meet current problems in disputed
titles to land, inheritance, debt, breach of contract, promises to
perform acts or services, deceit, nuisance, defamation, and the
sale of goods.

A new remedy is specific performance, that is, performance of an
act rather than money damages.

Evidence is now taken from witnesses.

Various courts had overlapping jurisdiction. For instance,
trespass could be brought in the Court of Common Pleas because it
was a civil action between two private persons. It could also be
brought in the Court of the King's Bench because it broke the
King's peace. It was advantageous for a party to sue for trespass
in the King's court because there a defendant could be made to pay
a fine to the king or be imprisoned, or declared outlaw if he did
not appear at court.

A wrongful step on the defendant's land, a wrongful touch to his
person or chattels could be held to constitute sufficient force
and an adequate breach of the king's peace to sustain a trespass
action. A new form of action is trespass on the case, which did
not require the element of force or of breach of the peace that
the trespass offense requires. Trespass on the case [or "case" for
short] expands in usage to cover many types of situations.
Stemming from it is "assumpsit", which provided damages for breach
of an oral agreement and a written agreement without a seal.

Parliament's supremacy over all regular courts of law was firmly
established and it was called "the high court of Parliament",
paradoxically, since it came to rarely function as a law court.

The humanist intellectual revival also caused the church courts to
try to eliminate contradictions with state law, for instance in
debt, restitution, illegitimacy, and the age of legal majority.

The Bishop's Court in London had nine offenders a week by 1500.
Half of these cases were for adultery and sexual offenses, and the
rest were for slander, blasphemy, missing church services, and
breach of faith. Punishment was penance by walking barefoot before
the cross in the Sunday Procession dressed in a sheet and holding
a candle.





                         - - - Chapter 12 - - -



                        - The Times: 1509-1558 -

Renaissance humanism came into being in the nation. In this
development, scholars in London, Oxford, and Cambridge emphasized
the value of classical learning, especially Platonism and the
study of Greek literature as the means of better understanding and
writing. They studied the original Greek texts and became
disillusioned with the filtered interpretations of the church, for
example of the Bible and Aristotle. There had long been
displeasure with the priests of the church. They were supposed to
preach four times yearly, visit the sick, say the daily liturgies,
and hear confessions at least yearly. But there were many lapses.
Many were not celibate, and some openly lived with a woman and had
children. Complaints about them included not residing within their
parish community, doing other work such as raising crops, and
taking too much in probate, mortuary fees, and marriage fees.
Probate fees had risen from at most 5s. to 60s. in the last
hundred years. Mortuary fees ranged from 1/3 to 1/9 of a deceased
person's goods. Sanctuary was abused. People objected to the right
of arrest by ecclesiastical authorities.

Also, most parish priests did not have a theology degree or even a
Bachelor's degree, as did many laymen. In fact, many laymen were
better educated than the parish priests. No one other than a
laborer was illiterate in the towns.

Humanist grammar [secondary] schools were established in London by
merchants and guilds. In 1510, the founder and dean of St. Paul's
School placed its management in the hands of London "citizens of
established reputation" because he had lost confidence in the good
faith of priests and noblemen. The sons of the nobility,
attorneys, and merchants were starting to go to grammar school now
instead of being taught at home by a tutor. At school, they
mingled with sons of yeomen, farmers, and tradesmen, who were
usually poor. The usual age of entry was six or seven. Classical
Latin and Greek were taught and the literature of the best
classical authors was read. Secondary education teachers were
expected to know Latin and have studied the ancient philosophers,
history, and geography. The method of teaching was for the teacher
to read textbooks to the class from a prepared curriculum. The
students were taught in Latin and expected not to speak English in
school. They learned how to read and to write Latin, to develop
and amplify a theme by logical analysis, and to essay on the same
subject in the narrative, persuasive, argumentative, commending,
consoling, and inciting styles. They had horn books with the
alphabet and perhaps a Biblical verse on them. This was a piece of
wood with a paper on it held down by a sheet of transparent horn.
They also learned arithmetic (solving arithmetical problems and
casting accounts). Disobedience incurred flogging by teacher as
well as by parents. Spare the rod and spoil the child was the
philosophy. Schools now guarded the morals and behavior of
students. There were two week vacations at Christmas and at
Easter. Royal grammar books for English and Latin were proclaimed
by Henry in 1543 to be the only grammar book authorized for
students. In 1545, he proclaimed a certain primer of prayers in
English to be the only one to be used by students.

The first school of humanist studies arose in Oxford with the
Foundation of Corpus Christi College in 1516 by Bishop Richard
Fox. It had the first permanent Reader or Professor in Greek. The
Professor of Humanity was to extirpate all barbarisms by the study
of Cicero, Sallust, Valerius Maximus, and Quintilian. The third
Reader of Theology was to read texts of the Holy Fathers but not
those of their commentators. Oxford University was granted a
charter which put the greater part of the town under control of
the Chancellor and scholars. The mayor of Oxford was required to
take an oath at his election to maintain the privileges and
customs of the university. Roman law and other Regius
professorships were founded by the king at Oxford and Cambridge.
Teaching of undergraduates was the responsibility of the
university rather than of the colleges, though some colleges had
live-in teachers as students. Most colleges were exclusively for
graduate fellows, though this was beginning to change. The
university took responsibility for the student's morals and
behavior and tutors sometimes whipped the undergraduates. For
young noblemen, a more important part of their education than
going to university was travel on the continent with a tutor. This
exposure to foreign fields was no longer readily available through
war or pilgrimage. The purpose was practical - to learn about
foreign people and their languages, countries, and courts.
Knowledge of the terrain, resources, prosperity, and stability of
their countries was particularly useful to a future diplomatic or
political career.

The physicians of London were incorporated to oversee and govern
the practice of medicine. A faculty of physicians was established
at Oxford and Cambridge. A Royal College of Physicians was founded
in London in 1518 by the King's physician. The College of
Physicians taught more practical medicine and anatomy than the
universities. Only graduates of the College of Physicians or of
Oxford or Cambridge were allowed to practice medicine or surgery.

Medical texts were Hippocrates and Galen. These viewed disease as
only part of the process of nature without anything divine. They
stressed empiricism, experience, collections of facts, evidences
of the senses, and avoidance of philosophical speculations.
Hippocrates had asserted that madness was simply a disease of the
brain and then Galen had agreed and advocated merciful treatment
of the insane. Galen's great remedies were proper diet, exercise,
massage, and bathing. He taught the importance of a good water
supply and good drainage. Greek medicinal doctrines were assumed,
such as that preservation of the health of the body was dependant
on air, food, drink, movement and repose, sleeping and waking,
excretion and retention, and the passions. It was widely known
that sleep was restorative and that bad news or worry could spoil
one's digestion. An Italian book of 1507 showed that post-mortem
examinations could show cause of death by gallstones, heart
disease, thrombosis of the veins, or abscesses. In 1540 began the
practice of giving bodies of hanged felons to surgeons to dissect.
This was to deter the commission of felony. There was some feeling
that dissection was a sacrilege, that the practice of medicine was
a form of sorcery, and that illness and disease should be dealt
with by prayer and/or atonement because caused by sin, the wrath
of God, or by the devil. In 1543, Flemish physician Andreas
Vesalius, who had secretly dissected human corpses, published the
first finely detailed description of human anatomy. In it, there
was no missing rib on one side of man, and this challenged the
theory of the woman Eve having been made from a rib of the man
Adam. Food that was digested was thought to turn into a vapor
which passed along the veins and was concreted as blood, flesh,
and fat. After 1546 there was a book listing hundreds of drugs and
explaining how to prepare them, but their use was by trial and
error.

Students were beginning to read for the bar by their own study of
the newly available printed texts, treatises, and collections of
statute law and of cases, instead of listening in court and
talking with attorneys.

In 1523, Anthony Fitzherbert wrote "Boke of Husbandry", which set
forth the most current methods of arable farming, giving details
of tools and equipment, advice on capital outlay, methods of
manuring, draining, ploughing, and rick-building. It was used by
many constantly, and was often carried around in the pocket. This
began a new way to disseminate new methods in agriculture. He also
wrote a "Boke of Surveying", which relied on the perch rod and
compass dial, and gave instruction on how to set down the results
of a survey. In 1533, Gemma Frisius laid down the principles of
topographical survey by triangulation. This improved the quality
of surveys and produced accurate plots.

Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" was a popular book. Through
Chaucer, London English became a national standard and the notion
of "correct pronunciation" came into being.

The discoveries and adventures of Amerigo Vespucci, a Portuguese
explorer, were widely read. The North and South American
continents were named for him.

London merchant guilds began to be identified mainly with
hospitality and benevolence instead of being trading
organizations. Twelve great companies dominated city politics and
effectively chose the mayor and aldermen. They were, in order of
precedence, Mercers, Grocers, Drapers, Fishmongers, Goldsmiths,
Skinners, Tailors, Haberdashers, Ironmongers, Salters, Vintners,
and the Clothworkers (composed from leading fullers and shearmen).
The leading men of these guilds were generally aldermen and the
guilds acted like municipal committees of trade and manufactures.
Then they superintended the trade and manufactures of London much
like a government department. They were called Livery Companies
and categorized their memberships in three grades: mere
membership, livery membership, and placement on the governing
body. Livery members were distinguished by having the clothing of
the brotherhood [its livery] and all privileges, and proprietary
and municipal rights, in the fullest degree. They generally had a
right to a place at the Company banquets. They were invited by the
governing body, as a matter of favor, to other entertainments.
These liverymen were usually those who had bought membership and
paid higher fees because they were richer. Their pensions were
larger than those of mere members. Those with mere membership were
freemen who had only the simple freedom of the trade. The masters
were usually householders. The journeymen, yeomanry, bachelors
were simple freemen. Most of these companies had almshouses
attached to their halls for the impoverished, disabled, and
elderly members and their widows and children. For instance, many
members of the Goldsmiths had been blinded by the fire and smoke
of quicksilver and some members had been rendered crazed and
infirm by working in that trade. The freedom and rights of
citizenship of the city could only be obtained through membership
in a livery company.

A lesser guild, the Leathersellers, absorbed the Glovers, Pursers,
and Pouchmakers. These craftsmen then became wage earners of the
Leathersellers, but others of these craftsmen remained
independent. Before, the Whittawyers, who treated horse, deer, and
sheep hides with alum and oil, had become wage earners for the
Skinners.

Londoners went to the fields outside the city for recreation and
games. When farmers enclosed some suburban common fields in 1514,
a crowd of young men marched out to them and, crying "shovels and
spades", uprooted the hedges and filled in the ditches, thus
reclaiming the land for their traditional games. The last major
riot in London was aroused by a speaker on May Day in 1517 when a
thousand disorderly young men, mostly apprentices, defied the
curfew and looted shops and houses of aliens. A duke with two
thousand soldiers put it down in mid-afternoon, after which the
king executed fifteen of the rioters.

Many English migrated to London. There were ambitious young men
and women hopeful of betterment through employment,
apprenticeship, higher wages, or successful marriage. On the other
hand, there were subsistence migrants forced to leave their homes
for food, work, or somewhere to live. There was much social
mobility. For instance, between 1551 and 1553, of  881 persons
admitted as freemen of London, 46 were the sons of gentlemen, 136
the sons of yeomen, and 289 the sons of farm workers. London grew
in population about twice as fast as the nation. The fortunes of
landowners varied; some went into aristocratic debt by
ostentatiously spending on building, clothes, food, and drink, and
some became indebted by inefficient management. Some had to sell
their manors and dismiss their servants.

There are 26 wards of London as of 1550. This is the number for
the next four centuries. Each ward has an alderman, a clerk, and a
chief constable. There are also in each ward about 100 to 300
elected officials including prickers, benchers, blackbootmen,
fewellers [keepers of greyhounds], scribes, a halter-cutter,
introducers, upperspeakers, under speakers, butlers, porters,
inquestmen, scavengers, constables, watchmen, a beadle, jurymen,
and common councilmen. The wardmoot had inquest jurisdiction over
immorality or bad behavior such as vagrancy, delinquency,
illegitimacy, and disputes. This contributed greatly to social
stability. In 1546, Henry ordered the London brothels closed. A
small gaol was established in the Clink district of Southwark,
giving the name "clink" to any small gaol. London ordinances
required journeymen to work from 6 am to 6 pm in winter, with a
total of 90 minutes breaks for breakfast, dinner, and an afternoon
drink, for 7d. In the summer they had to work for two hours longer
for 8d. At its peak in the 1540s the court employed about 200
gentlemen, which was about half the peerage and one-fifth of the
greater gentry. Henry issued a proclamation ordering noblemen and
gentlemen in London not employed by the court to return to their
country homes to perform their service to the king.

Though there was much agreement on the faults of the church and
the need to reform it, there were many disagreements on what
philosophy of life should take the place of church teachings. The
humanist Thomas More was a university trained intellectual. His
book "Utopia", idealized an imaginary society living according to
the principles of natural virtue. In it, everything is owned in
common and there is no need for money. All believe that there is a
God who created the world and all good things and who guides men,
and that the soul is immortal. But otherwise people choose their
religious beliefs and their priests. From this perspective, the
practices of current Christians, scholastic theologians, priests
and monks, superstition, and ritual look absurd. He encouraged a
religious revival. Aristotle's position that virtuous men would
rule best is successfully debated against Plato's position that
intellectuals and philosophers would be the ideal rulers.

More believed the new humanistic studies should be brought to
women as well as to men. He had tutors teach all his children
Latin, Greek, logic, theology, philosophy, mathematics, and
astronomy from an early age. His eldest daughter Margaret became a
recognized scholar and translated his treatise on the lord's
prayer. Other high class women became highly educated. They voiced
their opinions on religious matters. In the 1530s, the Duchess of
Suffolk spoke out for reform of the clergy and against images,
relics, shrines, pilgrimmages, and services in Latin. She and the
countess of Sussex supported ministers and established seminaries
for the spread of the reformed faith.

More pled for proportion between punishment and crime. He urged
that theft no longer be punished by death because this only
encouraged the thief to murder his victim to eliminate evidence of
the theft. He opined that the purpose of punishment was to reform
offenders. He advocated justice for the poor to the standard of
justice received by the rich.

Erasmus, a former monk, visited the nation for a couple of years
and argued that reason should prevail over religious belief. He
wrote the book "In Praise of Folly", which noted man's elaborate
pains in misdirected efforts to gain the wrong thing. For
instance, it questioned what man would stick his head into the
halter of marriage if he first weighed the inconveniences of that
life? Or what woman would ever embrace her husband if she foresaw
or considered the dangers of childbirth and the drudgery of
motherhood? Childhood and senility are the most pleasant stages of
life because ignorance is bliss. Old age forgetfulness washes away
the cares of the mind. A foolish and doting old man is freed from
the miseries that torment the wise and has the chief joy of life:
garrulousness. The seekers of wisdom are the farthest from
happiness; they forget the human station to which they were born
and use their arts as engines with which to attack nature. The
least unhappy are those who approximate the naiveness of the
beasts and who never attempt what is beyond men. As an example, is
anyone happier than a moron or fool? Their cheerful confusion of
the mind frees the spirit from care and gives it many-sided
delights. Fools are free from the fear of death and from the pangs
of conscience. They are not filled with vain worries and hopes.
They are not troubled by the thousand cares to which this life is
subject. They experience no shame, fear, ambition, envy, or love.
In a world where men are mostly at odds, all agree in their
attitude towards these innocents. They are sought after and
sheltered; everyone permits them to do and say what they wish with
impunity. However, the usual opinion is that nothing is more
lamentable than madness. The Christian religion has some kinship
with folly, while it has none at all with wisdom. For proof of
this, notice that children, old people, women, and fools take more
delight than anyone else in holy and religious things, led no
doubt solely by instinct. Next, notice that the founders of
religion have prized simplicity and have been the bitterest foes
of learning. Finally, no people act more foolishly than those who
have been truly possessed with Christian piety. They give away
whatever is theirs; they overlook injuries, allow themselves to be
cheated, make no distinction between friends and enemies, shun
pleasure, and feast on hunger, vigils, tears, labors, and scorn.
They disdain life, and utterly prefer death. In short, they have
become altogether indifferent to ordinary interests, as if their
souls lived elsewhere and not in their bodies. What is this, if
not to be mad? The life of Christians is run over with nonsense.
They make elaborate funeral arrangements, with candles, mourners,
singers, and pallbearers. They must think that their sight will be
returned to them after they are dead, or that their corpses will
fall ashamed at not being buried grandly. Christian theologians,
in order to prove a point, will pluck four or five words out from
different places, even falsifying the sense of them if necessary,
and disregard the fact that their context was relevant or even
contradicted their points. They do this with such brazen skill
that our attorneys are often jealous of them.

Attorney Christopher St. German wrote the legal treatise "Doctor
and Student", in which he deems the law of natural reason to be
supreme and eternal. The law of God and the law of man, as
enunciated by the church and royalty, merely supplement the law of
natural reason and may change from time to time. Examples of the
law of reason are: It is good to be loved. Evil is to be avoided.
Do onto others as you would have them do unto you. Do nothing
against the truth. Live peacefully with others. Justice is to be
done to every man. No one is to wrong another. A trespasser should
be punished. From these is deduced that a man should love his
benefactor. It is lawful to put away force with force. It is
lawful for every man to defend himself and his goods against an
unlawful power.

Like his father, Henry VIII dominated Parliament. He used this
power to reform the church of England in the 1530's. The
Protestant reformation cause, started in Germany in 1517 by Martin
Luther posting his thesis, had become identified with Henry's
efforts to have his marriage of eighteen years to the virtuous
Catherine annulled so he could marry a much younger woman: Anne.
His purported reason was to have a son. The end of his six
successive wives was: annuled, beheaded, died; annuled, beheaded,
survived. Henry VIII was egotistical, arrogant, and self-
indulgent. This nature allowed him to declare himself the head of
the church of England instead of the pope.

Henry used and then discarded officers of state e.g. by executing
them for supposed treason. One such was Thomas Wolsey, the son of
a town grazier and butcher, who was another supporter of classical
learning. He rose through the church, the gateway to advancement
in a diversity of occupations of clergy such as secretary,
librarian, teacher, attorney, doctor, author, civil servant,
diplomat, and statesman. He was a court priest when he aligned
himself with Henry, both of whom wanted power and glory and
dressed extravagantly. But he was brilliant and more of a
strategist than Henry. Wolsey called himself a reformer and
started a purge of criminals, vagrants and prostitutes within
London, bringing many before the council. But most of his
reforming plans were not brought to fruition, but ended after his
campaign resulted in more power for himself. Wolsey rose to be
Chancellor to the King and Archbishop of York. As the
representative of the pope for England, he exercised almost full
papal authority there. But he controlled the church in England in
the King's interest. He was second only to the King and he
strengthened the crown by consolidating power and income that had
been scattered among nobles and officeholders. He also came to
control the many courts. Wolsey centralized the church in England
and dissolved the smaller monasteries, the proceeds of which he
used to build colleges at Oxford and his home town. He was an
impartial and respected justice.

When Wolsey was not able to convince the pope to give Henry an
annulment of his marriage, Henry dismissed him and took his
property, shortly after which Wolsey died.

The King replaced Wolsey as Chancellor with Thomas More, after
whom he made Thomas Cromwell Chancellor. Cromwell, the son of a
clothworker/blacksmith/brewer/innkeeper, was a self-taught
attorney, arbitrator, merchant, and accountant. Like Wolsey, he
was a natural orator. He drafted and had passed legislation that
created a new church of England. He had all men swear an oath to
the terms of the succession statute. Thomas More was known for his
honesty and was a highly respected man. More did not yield to
Henry's bullying for support for his statute declaring the
succession to be vested in the children of his second marriage,
and his statute declaring himself the supreme head of the church
of England, instead of the pope. He did not expressly deny this
supremacy statute, so was not guilty of treason under its terms.
But silence did not save him. He was attainted for treason on
specious grounds and beheaded. His conviction rested on the
testimony of one perjured witness, who misquoted More as saying
that Parliament did not have the power to require assent to the
supremacy statute because it was repugnant to the common law of
Christendom.

Henry ruled with an iron fist. In 1536, he issued a proclamation
that "any rioters or those in an unlawful assembly shall return to
their houses" or "we will proceed against them with all our royal
force and destroy them and their wives and children." In 1538, he
proclaimed that anyone hurting or maiming an officer while trying
to make an arrest "shall lose and forfeit all their lands, goods,
and chattel" and shall suffer perpetual imprisonment. Moreover, if
one murdered such an officer, he would suffer death without
privilege of sanctuary or of clergy. In 1540, he proclaimed that
there would be no shooting by handgun except on a shooting range.
Henry had Parliament pass bills of attainder against many people.
For the first time, harsh treatment of prisoners in the Tower,
such as placement in dungeons with little food, no bed, and no
change of clothes, became almost a matter of policy. Through his
host of spies, Cromwell heard what men said to their closest
friends. Words idly spoken were distorted into treasonable
utterances. Fear spread through the people. Silence was a person's
only possibility of safety.

Cromwell developed a technique for the management of the House of
Commons which lasted for generations. He promulgated books in
defense of royal spiritual authority, which argued that canon law
was not divine but merely human and that clerical authority had no
foundation in the Bible. A reformed English Bible was put in all
parish churches. Reformers were licensed to preach. Cromwell
ordered sermons to be said which proclaimed the supremacy of the
King. He instituted registers to record baptisms, marriages, and
burials in every county, for the purpose of reducing disputes over
descent and inheritance. He dissolved all the lesser monasteries.

When Cromwell procured a foreign wife for Henry whom Henry found
unattractive, he was attainted and executed.

Henry now reconstructed his council to have a fixed membership, an
official hierarchy based on rank, a secretariat, an official
record, and formal powers to summon individuals before it by legal
process. Because it met in the King's Privy Lodgings, it was
called the "Privy Council". It met daily instead of just during
the terms of the Westminster courts from late autumn to early
summer. It communicated with the king through intermediaries, of
whom the most important was the King's Secretary. Because it was a
court council, part of it traveled with the king, while the other
part conducted London business. When Henry went to war in France,
part of the council went with him, and part of it stayed to attend
the Queen Regent.

Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote the first English
Common Book of Prayer. With its use beginning in 1549, church
services were to be held in English instead of Latin. The
celebration of the Lord's Supper was a communion among the
parishoners and minister all sharing the wine and bread. It
replaced the mass, in which the priests were thought to perform a
miraculous change of the substance of bread and wine into the body
and blood of Christ, which the priest then offered as a sacrifice
for remission of pain or guilt. This reflected the blood sacrifice
of Christ dying on the cross. In the mass, only the priests drank
the wine. The mass, miracles, the worship of saints, prayers for
souls in purgatory, and pilgrimages to shrines such as that of
Thomas Becket, were all to be discontinued. Imprisonment or exile
rather than death was made the penalty for heresy and blasphemy,
and also for adultery.

After the King dissolved the greater monasteries, he took and sold
their ornaments, silver plate and jewelry, lead from roofs of
their buildings, and finally much of the land itself. Three
monasteries were converted into the first three treating hospitals
in London, one for the diseased, one for the poor, and one,
Bethlehem (or "Bedlam" for short), for the mentally ill. But there
were still many poor, sick, blind, aged, and impotent people in
the streets since the closure of the monasteries. In 1552, there
were 2,100 people in need of relief, including 300 orphans, 600
sick or aged, 350 poor men overburdened with their children, 650
decayed householders, and 200 idle vagabonds. London then set up a
poor relief scheme. The Bridewell was established to set to work
the idle in making feather bed ticks and wool-cards, drawing of
wire, carding, knitting, and winding of silk. Parishes were
required to give money for the poor in 1563. Other towns followed
London's lead in levying a poor rate.

Henry used the proceeds from the sale of the monasteries for
building many new palaces and wood ships for his navy. In war,
these navy ships had heavy guns which could sink other ships. In
peace time, these ships were hired out to traders. Large ships
were constructed in docks, made partly by digging and partly by
building walls. In 1545, henry issued a proclamation ordering all
vagabonds, ruffians, masterless men, and evil-disposed persons to
serve him in his navy.

The former land of the monasteries, about 30% of the country's
land, was sold and resold, usually to great landowners, or leased.
Title deeds became important as attorneys sought the security that
title could give. Some land went to entrepreneurial cloth
manufacturers, who converted the buildings for the manufacture of
cloth. They bought the raw wool and hired craftsmen for every step
of the manufacturing process to be done in one continuous process.
This was faster than buying and selling the wool material between
craftsmen who lived in different areas. Also, it was more
efficient because the amount of raw wool bought could be adjusted
to the demand for cloth.

Many landowners now could live in towns exclusively off the rents
of their rural land. Rents were increased so much that tenants
could not pay and were evicted. They usually became beggars or
thieves. Much of their former land was converted from crop raising
to pasture for large herds of sheep. Arable farming required many
workers, whereas sheep farming required only one shepherd and
herdsman. There were exceptional profits made from the export of
wool cloth. But much raw wool was still exported. Its price went
up from 6s.8d. per tod [about 28 pounds] in 1340 to 20s.8d. in
1546.

Villeinage was now virtually extinct. A lord could usually claim a
small money-rent from the freeholder, sometimes a relief when his
land was sold or passed at death, and occasionally a heriot from
his heir.

There was steady inflation. Landlords made their leases short term
so that they could raise rents as prices rose. Copyholders
gradually acquired a valuable right in their holdings; their rent
became light - less that a shilling an acre.

At least 85% of the population still lived in the country. Rich
traders built town or country houses in which the emphasis was on
comfort and privacy. There was more furniture, bigger windows
filled with glass, thick wallpaper, and formal gardens. Use of
thick, insulating wallpaper rose with the rise of paper mills. It
was stenciled, hand-painted, or printed. Some floors were tiled
instead of stone or wood. They were still strewn with straw. The
owners ate in a private dining room and slept in their own rooms
with down quilts. Their soap was white. They had clothing of white
linen and white wool, leather slippers, and felt hats. Men wore
long tunics open at the neck and filled in with pleated linen and
enormous puffed sleeves.

Henry made proclamations reminding people of the apparel laws, but
they were difficult to enforce. Henry also made a proclamation
limiting the consumption of certain meat according to status.
Seven dishes were allowed to bishops, dukes, marquises, and earls;
six to other temporal lords; five to justices, the King's council,
sheriffs, and persons with an income of at least 200 pounds yearly
or goods worth 2000 pounds; four to persons with an income of at
least 100 pounds or goods worth 1000 pounds; and three dishes to
persons with an income of at least 100 pounds or goods worth 500
pounds. There were limits on types of meat served, such as a
maximum of one dish of great fowl such as crane, swan, and
peacock; eight quail per dish; and twelve larks in a dish. People
used tin or pewter dishes, platters, goblets, saucers, spoons,
saltcellars, pots, and basins. They used soap to wash themselves,
their clothes, and their dishes. A solid, waxy soap was from
evaporating a mixture of goat fat, water, and ash high in
potassium carbonate. They had bedcovers on their beds. Cloth bore
the mark of its weaver and came in many colors. Cloth could be
held together with pins that had a shank with a hook by which they
were closed. People went to barbers to cut their hair and to
extract teeth. They went to people experienced with herbs, roots,
and waters for treatment of skin conditions such as sores, cuts,
burns, swellings, irritated eyes or scaly faces. For more
complicated ailments, they went to physicians, who prescribed
potions and medicines. They bought potions and medicines from
apothecaries and pharmacists. They burned wood logs in the
fireplaces in their houses. So much wood was used that young trees
were required by statute to be given enough lateral space to
spread their limbs and were not cut down until mature.

The King, earls, who ruled counties, and barons, who had land and
a place in the House of Lords, still lived in the most comfort.
The King's house had courtyards, gardens, orchards, wood-yards,
tennis courts, and bowling alleys.

The walls of the towns were manned by the citizens themselves,
with police and watchmen at their disposal. In inns, travelers
slept ten to a bed and there were many fleas and an occasional rat
or mouse running through the rushes strewn on the floor. The inn
provided a bed and ale, but travelers brought their own food. Each
slept with his purse under his pillow.

In markets, sellers set up booths for their wares. They sold grain
for making oatmeal or for sowing one's own ground. Wine, butter,
cheese, fish, chicken, and candles could also be bought. Butchers
bought killed sheep, lambs, calves, and pigs to cut up for
selling. Tanned leather was sold to girdle-makers and shoemakers.
Goods bought in markets were presumed not to be stolen, so that a
purchaser could not be dispossessed of goods bought unless he had
knowledge that they were stolen.

The ruling group of the towns came to be composed mostly of
merchants, manufacturers, attorneys, and physicians. Some
townswomen were independent traders. The governed class contained
small master craftsmen and journeyman artisans, small traders, and
dependent servants. The major streets of London were paved with
stone, with a channel in the middle. More water conduits from
hills, heaths, and springs were built to provide the citizens of
London with more water. The sewers carried only surface water
away. Households were forbidden to use the sewers. Privies emptied
into cesspools.

The Merchant Adventurers' Fellowship brought virtually all
adventurers under its control and organized and regulated the
national cloth trade. It had a General Court of the Adventurers
sitting in the London Mercers' Hall. Various companies were
granted monopolies for trade in certain areas of the world such as
Turkey, Spain, France, Venice, the Baltic, and Africa. These were
regulated companies. That is they obtained complete control of a
particular foreign market, but any merchant who cared to join the
company, pay its dues, and obey its regulations, might share in
the benefits of its monopoly. The companies generally confined
trade to men who were primarily merchants and not shopkeepers. In
1553 explorer Sebastian Cabot formed the Muscovy Company, which
was granted a monopoly in its charter for trade with Russia. It
was oriented primarily to export English woolen cloth. It was the
first company trading on a joint stock, which was arranged as a
matter of convenience and safety. The risks were too great for any
few individuals. It hired ships and assigned space to each member
to ship his goods at his own risk. The dividend was return to the
subscribers of the capital put in plus an appropriate share of any
profits made on the voyage. I.e. the money was divided up. The
members began leaving their money with the company for the next
voyage. A general stock grew up. In 1568 were the first industrial
companies: Mines Royal, and Mineral and Battery Works. The cloth,
mining, iron, and woodcraft industries employed full-time workers
on wages. In the ironworks and foundries, the furnace blowing
engines were worked by water wheels or by a gear attached to
donkeys or horses. The forge hammers were worked at first by
levers and later by water wheels. The day and night hammering
filled the neighborhood with their noise.

Land held in common was partitioned. There were leases of mansion
houses, smaller dwelling houses, houses with a wharf having a
crane, houses with a timber yard, houses with a garden, houses
with a shed, shops, warehouses, cellars, and stables. Lands with a
dye-house or a brew-house were devised by will along with their
dying or brewing implements. There were dairies making butter and
cheese.

The knights had 70% of the land, the nobles 10%, the church 10%,
and king 5%.

Citizens paid taxes to the king amounting to one tenth of their
annual income from land or wages. Merchants paid "forced loans"
and benevolences. The national government was much centralized and
had full-time workers on wages. A national commission of sewers
continually surveyed walls, ditches, banks, gutters, sewers,
ponds, bridges, rivers, streams, mills, locks, trenches, fish-
breeding ponds, and flood gates. When low places were threatened
with flooding, it hired laborers, bought timber, and hired carts
with horses or oxen for necessary work. Mayors of cities repaired
water conduits and pipes under their cities' ground.

The organ and the harp, precursor to the piano, were played.

All people generally had enough food because of the
commercialization of agriculture. Even the standard meal of the
peasant was bread, bacon, cheese, and beer or cidar, with beef
about twice a week. Also, roads were good enough for the transport
of foodstuffs thereon. Four-wheeled wagons for carrying people as
well as goods. Goods were also transported by the pulling of
barges on the rivers from paths along the river. A plough with
wheels was used as well as those without.

The matchlock musket came into use, but did not replace the bow
because its matchcord didn't remain lit in rainy weather. The
matchlock was an improvement over the former musket because both
hands could be used to hold and aim the matchlock musket because
the powder was ignited by a device that touched a slow-burning
cord to the powder when a trigger was pulled with one finger.

After the break with Rome, cooperation among villagers in church
activities largely ceased. The altars and images previously taken
care of by them disappeared and the paintings on the walls were
covered with white or erased, and scripture texts put in their
place. People now read the new Bible, the "Paraphrases" of
Erasmus, Foxe's "Book of Martyrs", and the works of Bishop Jewel.
The Book of Martyrs taught the duty and splendor of rising above
all physical danger or suffering. The canon law of the church was
abolished and its study prohibited. Professorships of the civil
law were founded at the two universities. The Inns of Court grew.
Attorneys had more work with the new laws passed to replace the
church canons of the church. They played an important role in town
government and many became wealthy. They acquired town houses in
addition to their rural estates.

Church reforms included abolishing church sanctuaries. Benefit of
clergy was restricted. Parsons were allowed to marry. Archbishops
were selected by the king without involvement by the pope.
Decisions by archbishops in testamentary, matrimonial, and
marriage annulment matters were appealable to the Court of
Chancery instead of to the pope. The clergy's canons were subject
to the King's approval. The control of the church added to the
powers of the Crown to summon and dissolve Parliament, coin money,
create peers [members of the House of Lords who received
individual writs of summons to Parliament], pardon criminals,
order the arrest of dangerous persons without customary process of
law in times of likely insurrection, tax and call men to arms
without the consent of Parliament if the country were threatened
with invasion.

About 1550 there began indictments and executions for
witchcraftery which lasted for about a century. One of the reasons
for suspecting a woman to be a witch was that she lived alone,
which was very unusual.

Henry ordered all alien Anabaptists, who denied the validity of
infant baptism, to leave the realm.

In Switzerland, Theophrastus Paracelsus, an astrologer and
alchemist who later became a physician, did not believe that humor
imbalance caused disease nor in treatment by blood-letting or
purging. He believed that there were external causes of disease,
e.g. toxic matter in food, contagion, defective physical or mental
constitution, cosmic influences differing with climate and
country, or affliction sent Providence. He urged that wounds be
kept clean rather than given poultices. He started clinical
diagnosis and treatment by highly specific medicines, instead of
cure-alls. For instance, he used alkalies to treat disease, such
as gout, indicated by certain substances in the urine, which also
started urinalysis. He perceived that syphillis was caused by
contagion and used mercury to cure it. He found curative powers
also in opium, sulphur, iron, and arsenic. Opium was made by
drying and cooking the capsule of the poppy and was one of the few
really effective early drugs. Paracelsus urged alchemists to try
to prepare drugs from minerals for the relief of suffering. He
claimed to acquire knowledge of cures through spiritual contacts
to occult wisdom. He believed that a human being has an invisible
body as well as a visible one and that it is closely attuned to
imagination and the spiritual aspect of an individual. He noticed
that one's attitudes and emotions, such as anger, could affect
one's health. He sometimes used suggestion and signs to help a
patient form mental images, which translated into cures. He saw
insanity as illness instead of possession by evil spirits.

Understanding of the celestial world began to change. Contemporary
thought was that the nature of all things was to remain at rest,
so that movement and motion had to be explained by causes. The
earth was stationary and the heavens were spherical and revolved
around the earth every twenty-four hours. The universe was finite.
The firmament extended outward in a series of rotating,
crystalline, ethereal spheres to which were attached the various
points of celestial geography. First came the circle of the moon.
The sun orbited the earth. The fixed stars rotated on an outer
firmament. Finally, there was the abode of God and his heavenly
hosts. Different principles ruled the celestial world; it was
orderly, stable, ageless, and enduring. But the world of man
changed constantly due to its mixed four elements of air, earth,
fire, and water each trying to disentangle itself from the others
and seeking to find its natural location. The heavenly spheres
could affect the destinies of men, such as through fate, fortune,
intelligence, cherubim, seraphim, angels, and archangels.
Astrologers read the celestial signs and messages.

Then a seed of doubt was cast on this theory by Nicholaus
Copernicus, a timid monk in Poland, who found inconsistencies in
Ptolemy's work, but saw similarity in the movements of the earth
and other planets. He inferred from planetary movements that their
motion could be explained simply if they were revolving in
circular paths around the sun, rather than around the earth. In
his book of 1543, he also expressed his belief that the earth also
revolved around the sun. This idea so shocked the world that the
word "revolution" became associated with radical change. He
regarded it as more likely that the earth rotated than that the
stars moved with great speed in their large orbits. He proposed
that the earth spins on its own axis about once every twenty-four
hours, with a spin axis at about a 23 1/2 degree tilt from the
orbital axis, thus explaining a slow change in the overall
appearances of the fixed stars which had been observed since the
time of Ptolemy. He deduced from astronomical measurements that
the correct order of the planets from the Sun was: Mercury, Venus,
Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The church considered his ideas
heretical because contradictory to its dogma that man and the
earth were the center of the universe. A central sun evoked images
of pagan practices of sun worship.



                              - The Law -

A person having land in socage or fee simple may will and devise
his land by will or testament in writing.

A person holding land by knight's service may will and devise by
his last will and testament in writing part of his land to his
wife and other parts of his land to his children, as long as 1/3
of entailed land is left to the King.

Anyone serving the king in war may alienate his lands for the
performance of his will, and if he dies, his feoffees or executors
shall have the wardship of his heir and land.

A person who leases land for a term of years, even if by indenture
or without a writing, may have a court remedy as do tenants of
freehold for any expulsion by the lessor which is contrary to the
lease, covenant, or agreement. These termers, their executors and
assigns, shall hold and enjoy their terms against the lessors,
their heirs and assigns. The lessor shall have a remedy for rents
due or waste by a termer after recovering the land as well as if
he had not recovered the land.

A lord may distrain land within his fee for rents, customs, or
services due without naming the tenant, because of the existence
of secret feoffments and leases made by their tenants to unknown
persons.

Anyone seised of land to the use or trust of other persons by
reason of a will or conveyance shall be held to have lawful seisin
and possession of the land, because by common law, land is not
devisable by will or testament, yet land has been so conveyed,
which has deprived married men of their courtesy, women of their
dower, the king of the lands of persons attainted, the king of a
year's profits from felons' lands, and lords of their escheats.
(This was difficult to enforce.)

A woman may not have both a jointure [promise of husband to wife
of property or income for life after his death] and dower of her
husband's land. (Persons had purchased land to hold jointly with
their wives)

A sale of land must be in writing, sealed, and registered in its
county with the clerk of that county. If the land is worth less
than 40s. per year, the clerk is paid 12d. If the land exceeds
40s. yearly, the clerk is paid 2s.6d.

An adult may lease his lands or tenements only by a writing under
his seal for a term of years or a term of life, because many
people who had taken leases of lands and tenements for a term of
years or a term of lives had to spend a lot for repair and were
then evicted by heirs of their lessors.

A husband may not lease out his wife's land.

No woman-covert, child, idiot, or person of insane memory may
devise land by will or testament.

The land of tenants-in-common may be partitioned by them so that
each holds a certain part.

No bishop or other official having authority to take probate of
testaments may take a fee for probating a testament where the
goods of the testator are under 100s., except that the scribe
writing the probate of the testament may take 6d., and for the
commission of administration of the goods of any man dying
intestate, being up to 100s, may be charged 6d. Where the goods
are over 100s. but up to 800s. sterling, probate fees may be
3s.6d. at most, whereof the official may take 2s.6d. at most, with
12d. residue to the scribe for registering the testament. Where
the goods are over 800s. sterling, probate fees may be 5s. at
most, whereof the official may take 2s.6d. at most, with 2s.6d.
residue to the scribe, or the scribe may choose to take 1d. per 10
lines of writing of the testament. If the deceased had willed by
his testament any land to be sold, the money thereof coming nor
the profits of the land shall not be counted as the goods or
chattel of the deceased. Where probate fees have customarily been
less, they shall remain the same. The official shall approve and
seal the testament without delay and deliver it to the executors
named in such testaments for the said sum. If a person dies
intestate or executors refuse to prove the testament, then the
official shall grant the administration of the goods to the widow
of the deceased person, or to the next of kin, or to both, in the
discretion of the official, taking surety of them for the true
administration of the goods, chattels, and debts. Where kin of
unequal degree request the administration, it shall be given to
the wife and, at his discretion, other requestors. The executors
or administrators, along with at least two persons to whom the
deceased was indebted, or to whom legacies were made, or, upon
their refusal or absence, two honest kinsmen, shall make an
inventory of the deceased's goods, chattels, ware, merchandise, as
well moveable as not moveable, and take it upon their oaths to the
official.

No parish clergyman or other spiritual person shall take a
mortuary fee or money from a deceased person with movable goods
under the value of 133s., a deceased woman-covert, a child, a
person keeping no house, or a traveler. Only one mortuary fee may
be taken of each deceased and that in the place where he most
dwelled and lived. Where the deceased's moveable goods are to the
value of 133s. or more, above his debts paid, and under 600s., a
mortuary up to 3s. 4d. may be taken. Where such goods are 600s. or
more and under 800s., mortuary up to 6s.8d. may be taken. Where
such goods are 800s. or above, mortuary up to 10s. may be taken.
But where mortuaries have customarily been less, they shall remain
the same.

Executors of a will declaring land to be sold for the payment of
debts, performance of legacies to wife and children, and
charitable deeds for the health of souls, may sell the land
despite the refusal of other executors to agree to such sale.

A man may not marry his mother, stepmother, sister, niece, aunt,
or daughter.

Any clergy preaching contrary to the King's religious doctrine
shall recant for the first offence. He shall abjure and bear a
faggot (a badge resembling a faggot of wood which would have been
used for burning him as a heretic) for the second offence. If he
refuses to abjure or bear a faggot or offends a third time, he
shall be burned and lose all his goods. If a layperson teaches,
defends, or maintains a religious doctrine other than the King's,
he shall recant and be imprisoned for twenty days for the first
offence. He shall abjure and bear a faggot if he does not recant
or offends a second time. He shall forfeit his goods and suffer
perpetual imprisonment if he does not abjure or bear a faggot or
offends a third time.

The entry of an apprentice into a craft shall not cost more than
2s.6d. After his term, his entry shall not be more than 3s.4d.
This replaced the various fees ranging from this to 40s.

No master of a craft may require his apprentice to make an oath
not to compete with him by setting up a shop after the term of his
apprenticeship.

No alien may take up a craft or occupation in the nation.

No brewer of ale or beer to sell shall make wood vessels or
barrels, and coopers shall use only good and seasonable wood to
make barrels and shall put their mark thereon. Every ale or beer
barrel shall contain 32 of the King's standard gallons. The price
of beer barrels sold to ale or beer brewers or others shall be 9d.

An ale-brewer may employ in his service one cooper only to bind,
hoop and pin, but not to make, his master's ale vessels.

No butcher may keep a tanning-house.

Tanned leather shall be sold only in open fairs and markets and
after it is inspected and sealed.

Only people living in designated towns may make cloth to sell, to
prevent the ruin of these towns by people taking up both
agriculture and cloth-making outside these towns. No one making
cloth for sale may have more than one woolen loom or forfeit 20s.
This to protect the weavers' ability to maintain themselves and
their families from rich clothiers who keep many looms and employ
journeymen and unskillful persons at low wages. No one owning a
fulling mill may own a weaving loom. No weaver may own a fulling
mill.

No one shall shoot in or keep in his house any hand-gun or cross-
bow unless he has 2,000s. yearly.

No one may hunt or kill hare in the snow since their killing in
great numbers by men other than the king and noblemen has depleted
them.

No one shall take an egg or bird of any falcon or hawk out of its
nest on the King's land. No one may disguise himself with hidden
or painted face to enter a forest or park enclosed with a wall for
keeping deer to steal any deer or hare.

Ducks and geese shall not be taken with any net or device during
the summer, when they haven't enough feathers to fly. But a
freeholder of 40s. yearly may hunt and take such with long bow and
spaniels.

No one may sell or buy any pheasant except the King's officers may
buy such for the King.

No butcher may kill any calf born in the spring.

No grain, beef, mutton, veal, or pork may be sold outside the
nation.

Every person with 36 acres of agricultural land, shall sow one
quarter acre with flax or hemp-feed.

All persons shall kill crows on their land to prevent them from
eating so much grain at sowing and ripening time and destroying
hay stacks and the thatched roofs of houses and barns. They shall
assemble yearly to survey all the land to decide how best to
destroy all the young breed of crows for that year. Every village
and town with at least ten households shall put up and maintain
crow nets for the destruction of crows.

No land used for raising crops may be converted to pasture. No
woods may be converted to agriculture or pasture. The efforts to
enforce these proved these prohibitions were not successful.

No one shall cut down or break up dikes holding salt water and
fresh water from flooding houses and pastures.

No one shall dump tin-mining debris, dung, or rubbish into rivers
flowing into ports or take any wood from the walls of the port, so
that ships may always enter at low tide.

A person may lay out a new highway on his land where the old one
has been so damaged by waterways that horses with carriages cannot
pass, with the consent of local officials.

Only poor, aged, and disabled persons may beg. Begging without a
license is punishable by whipping or setting in the stocks 3 days
with only bread and water.

Alien palm readers shall no longer be allowed into the nation,
because they have been committing felonies and robberies.

Butchers may not sell beef, pork, mutton, or veal from carcasses
for more than 1/2 penny and 1/2 farthing [1/4 penny] per pound.

French wines may not sell at retail for more than 8d. per gallon.

A barrel maker or cooper may sell a beer barrel for 10d.

No longer may aliens bring books into the nation to sell because
now there are sufficient printers and book-binders in the nation.

No one may buy fresh fish other than sturgeon, porpoise, or seal
from an alien to put to sale in the nation.

Every person with an enclosed park where there are deer, shall
keep two tall and strong mares in such park and shall not allow
them to be mounted by any short horse, because the breeding of
good, swift, and strong horses has diminished.

A man may have only as many trotting horses for the saddle as are
appropriate to his degree.

No one may maintain for a living a house for unlawful games such
as bowling, tennis, dice, or cards. No artificer, craftsman,
husbandman, apprentice, laborer, journeyman, mariner, fisherman
may play these games except at Christmas under his master's
supervision. Noblemen and others with a yearly income of at least
2,000s. may allow his servants to play these games at his house.

Hemp of flax may not be watered in any river or stream where
animals are watered.

No one shall sell merchandise to another and then buy back the
same merchandise within three months at a lower price. No one
shall sell merchandise to be paid for in a year above the sum of
200s. per 2000s. worth of merchandise. No one shall sell or
mortgage any land upon condition of payment of a sum of money
before a certain date above the sum of 200s. per 2000s. per year.

No one shall commit forgery by counterfeiting a letter made in
another person's name to steal any money, goods, or jewels.

No one shall libel by accusing another of treason in writing and
leaving it in an open place without subscribing his own name to
it.

If any servant converts to his own use more than 40s. worth of
jewels, money, or goods from caskets entrusted to him for
safekeeping by a nobleman or other master or mistress, it shall be
a felony.

If a person breaks into a dwelling house by night to commit
burglary or murder, is killed by anyone in that house, or a person
is killed in self-defense, the killer shall not forfeit any lands
or goods for the killing.

Killing by poisoning shall be deemed murder and is punishable by
death.

A person who has committed a murder, robbery, or other felony he
has committed shall be imprisoned for his natural life and be
burned on the hand, because those who have been exiled have
disclosed their knowledge of the commodities and secrets of this
nation and gathered together to practice archery for the benefit
of the foreign realm. If he escapes such imprisonment, he shall
forfeit his life.

A person convicted or outlawed shall be penalized by loss of life,
but not loss of lands or goods, which shall go to his wife as
dower and his heirs.

Buggery may not be committed on any person or beast.

No one shall slander or libel the king by speeches or writing or
printing or painting.

No one shall steal fish from a pond on another's land by using
nets or hooks with bait or by drying up the pond.

The mayor of London shall appoint householders to supervise
watermen rowing people across the Thames River because so many
people have been robbed and drowned by these rowers. All such
boats must be at least 23 feet long and 5 feet wide.

No man shall take away or marry any maiden under 16 years of age
with an inheritance against the will of her father.

Any marriage solemnized in church and consummated shall be valid
regardless of any prior agreement for marriage.

Sheriffs shall not lose their office because they have not
collected enough money for the Exchequer, but shall have
allowances sufficient to perform their duties.

Butchers, brewers, and bakers shall not conspire together to sell
their victuals only at certain prices. Artificers, workmen and
laborers shall not conspire to work only at a certain rate or only
at certain hours of the day.

No one shall sell any woolen cloth that shrinks when it is wet.

Only artificers using the cutting of leather, may buy and sell
tanned leather and only for the purpose of converting it into made
wares.

A beggar's child above five years may be taken into service by
anyone that will.

Cattle may be bought only in the open fair or market and only by a
butcher or for a household, team, or dairy, but not for resale
live.

Butter and cheese shall not be bought to be sold again except at
retail in open shop, fair, or market.

No man may enter a craft of cloth-making until he has been an
apprentice for seven years or has married a clothiers' wife and
practicing the trade for years with her and her servants sorting
the wool.

No country person shall sell wares such as linen drapery, wool
drapery, hats, or groceries by retail in any incorporated town,
but only in open fairs.

For every 60 sheep there shall be kept one milk cow because of the
scarcity of cattle.

No clothier may keep more than one wool loom in his house, because
many weavers do not have enough work to support their families. No
weaver may have more than two wool looms.

No cloth-maker, fuller, shearman, weaver, tailor, or shoemaker
shall retain a journeyman to work by the piece for less than a
three month period. Every craftsman who has three apprentices
shall have one journeyman. Servants in agriculture and bargemen
shall serve by the whole year and not by day wages.

There shall be a sales tax of 12d. per pound of wool cloth goods
for the Crown.

All people shall attend church on Sundays to remember God's
benefits and goodness to all and to give thanks for these with
prayers and to pray to be given daily necessities.

Anyone fighting in church shall be excluded from the fellowship of
the parish community.

No one shall use a rope or device to stretch cloth for sale so to
make it appear as more in quantity than it is.

No one may sell cloth at retail unless the town where it was
dressed, dyed, and pressed has placed its seal on the cloth. Cloth
may not be pressed with a hot press, but only with a cold press.

Offices may not be bought and sold, but only granted by justices
of the royal courts.

No one going from house to house to repair metal goods or sell
small goods he is carrying may do this trade outside the town
where he lives.

No one may sell ale or beer without a license, because there have
been too many disorders in common alehouses. Offenders may be put
in the town or county gaol for three days.

Only persons with yearly incomes of 1,333s. or owning goods worth
13,333s. may store wine in his house and only for the use of his
household.

No one may sell forged iron, calling it steel, because the edged
tools and weapons made from it are useless.

Parish communities shall repair the highways for four days each
year using oxen, cart, plough, shovels, and spades.

The children of priests are declared legitimate so they may
inherit their ancestor's lands. The priests may be tenants by
courtesy after the death of their wives of such land and tenements
that their wives happened to be seized of in fee simple or in fee
tail, during the spousals.

The King's proclamations shall be observed and kept as though they
were acts of Parliament. The penalty shall not be more than that
stated in the proclamation, except for heresy.

The Year Books ceased in 1535.




                         - Judicial Procedure -

By royal proclamation of 1546, only those admitted by the
Chancellor and two chief justices may practice as counsel or in
legal pleading in any of the King's courts. Also, such a person
must be serjeant-at-law, reader, utter barrister, or an eight-year
fellow of one of the four houses of court, except in the Court of
Common Pleas.

Doctors of the civil law may practice in the church or Chancery
courts.

Justices shall tax inhabitants of the county for building gaols
throughout the nation, for imprisonment of felons, to be kept by
the sheriffs and repaired out of the Exchequer.

Piracy at sea or in river or creek or port are adjudicated in
counties because of the difficulty of obtaining witnesses from the
ship, who might be murdered or who are on other voyages on the
sea, for adjudication by the admiral.

Piracy and murder on ships is punishable by death only after
confession or proof by disinterested witnesses.

Land held by tenants in common may be partitioned by court order,
because some of these tenants have cut down all the trees to take
the wood and pulled down the houses to convert the material to
their own use.

Persons worth 800s. a year in goods shall be admitted in trials of
felons in corporate towns although they have no freehold of land.

Each justice of the high courts may employ one chaplain.

The Privy Council took the authority of the star chamber court,
which organized itself as a specialty court. Also, a specific
group of full-time councilors heard pleas of private suitors.

The bishops, nobility, and Justices of the Peace were commanded to
imprison clergy who taught papal authority. Justices of the Peace
and sheriffs were to watch over the bishops. The Justices of
Assize were to assess the effectiveness of the Justices of the
Peace as well as enforce the treason statute on circuit.

The criminal court went outside the common law to prosecute
political enemies, e.g. by dispensing with a  jury.

Since the nation was now peaceful, expediency was no longer
needed, so judicial procedures again became lengthy and formal
with records.

The Chancery court enforced the obligations known as trusts, in
the name of equity and good conscience. It adopted every analogy
that the common law presented. Its procedure was to force the
defendant to answer on oath the charges that were brought against
him. All pleadings and usually testimony was put into writing.
Much evidence consisted of written affidavits. There was no jury.
The Chancery court did not record its decisions apparently because
it did not see itself s bound by precedents.

Witnesses could be sworn in to state pertinent facts necessary for
full understanding and adjudication of cases, because they are
reliable now that there is no unlicensed livery and maintenance
and because jurors no longer necessarily know all the relevant
facts.

When acting as the highest court, the House of Lords was presided
over by the Chancellor, who sat on his prescribed place on the
wool sacks. It had the following jurisdiction: trial of peers for
high treason and serious felony, appeals on writs of error from
courts of the common law, and impeachment. The House of Lords
served as judge of impeachment cases, whereas the House of Commons
served as fact finders.

The leet court and sheriff's turn court have much less
jurisdiction. They may dispose of presentments of trespasses and
nuisances, but not felony or question of freehold. Such
presentments are made by a set of at least twelve men, and the
presented person is amerced there and then.





                         - - - Chapter 13 - - -



                        - The Times: 1558-1601 -

Queen Elizabeth I was intelligent, educated, and wise about human
nature. When young, she was a brilliant student and studied the
Bible, and Greek and Roman history, philosophy, literature, and
oratory. She wrote in English, Latin, French, and Italian. She
read Greek, including the Greek Testament, Greek orators, and
Greek dramatists at age seven, when the first professorship of
Greek was founded at Cambridge University. Learning from books was
one of her highest values throughout her life.

She was so influenced by her reading of Cicero that she acquired
his style of writing. Her Chief Secretary William Cecil was so
guided by Cicero's "Offices" that he carried a copy in his pocket.
Cicero opined that government officials' duty was to make the
safety and interest of citizens its greatest aim and to design all
their thoughts and endeavors without ever considering personal
advantage. Government was not to serve the interest of any one
group to the prejudice or neglect of the rest, for then discord
and sedition would occur. Furthermore, a ruler should try to
become loved and not feared, because men hated those whom they
feared, and wished dead those whom they hated. Therefore obedience
proceeding from fear could not last, whereas that which was the
effect of love would last forever. An oppressor ruling by terror
will be resented by the citizens, who in secret will choose a
worthier person. Then liberty, having been chained up, would be
unleashed more fiercely than otherwise. To obtain the peoples'
love, a ruler should be kind and bountiful. To obtain the peoples'
trust, a ruler should be just, wise, and faithful. To demonstrate
this, a ruler should be eloquent in showing the people an
understanding better than theirs, the wisdom to anticipate events,
and the ability to deal with adverse events. And this
demonstration should be done with modesty. One cannot get the
peoples' trust by vain shows, hypocritical pretenses, composed
countenances, and studied forms of words. The first goal of a
ruler is to take care that each individual is secured in the quiet
enjoyment of his own property. The second goal is to impose taxes
that are not burdensome. The third goal is to furnish the people
with necessaries. The law should be enforced keeping in mind that
its fundamental purpose is to keep up agreement and union among
citizens.

Elizabeth cared deeply for the welfare of all citizens of whatever
class. She was sensitive to public opinion and was loved by her
people. She respected truth and was sincere, avoiding guile or
fraud. She claimed that she had never dishonored her tongue with a
falsehood to anyone. She expected that any covert manipulations by
monarchs would be found out and therefore would damage their
credibility. "It becometh therefor all of our rank to deal
sincerely; lest if we use it not, when we do it we be hardly
believed."

She was frugal and diplomatically avoided unnecessary wars, saying
that her purse was the pockets of her people. England was a small
Protestant nation threatened by the larger Catholic nations of
France and Spain. When Elizabeth flirted and talked of marriage
with foreign princes, they laid aside any thoughts of conquering
England by war, hoping to obtain it my marriage. Not only did she
not seek to conquer other lands, but she turned down an invitation
to rule the Netherlands. Her credit reputation was so good that
she could always get loans at small rates of interest from other
countries.

Tudor government was paternalistic, curtailing cutthroat
competition, fixing prices and wages, and licensing production
under grants of monopoly to achieve a stable and contented society
and a fair living for all.

Elizabeth prayed for divine guidance as in this prayer: "Almighty
God and King of all kings, Lord of heaven and earth, by whose
leave earthly princes rule over mortals, when the most prudent of
kings who administered a kingdom, Solomon, frankly confessed that
he was not capable enough unless Thou broughtst him power and
help, how much less am I, Thy handmaid, in my unwarlike sex and
feminine nature, adequate to administer these Thy kingdoms of
England and of Ireland, and to govern an innumerable and warlike
people, or able to bear the immense magnitude of such a burden, if
Thou, most merciful Father didst not provide for me (undeserving
of a kingdom) freely and against the opinion of many men. Instruct
me from heaven, and give help so that I reign by Thy grace,
without which even the wisest among the sons of men can think
nothing rightly. Send therefore, O inexhaustible Fount of all
wisdom, from Thy holy heaven and the most high throne of Thy
majesty, Thy wisdom to be ever with me, that it may keep watch
with me in governing the commonwealth, and that it may take pains,
that it may teach me, Thy handmaid, and may train me that I may be
able to distinguish between good and evil, equity and iniquity, so
as rightly to judge Thy people, justly to impose deserved
punishments on those who do harm, mercifully to protect the
innocent, freely to encourage those who are industrious and useful
to the commonwealth. And besides, that I may know what is
acceptable to Thee alone, vouchsafe that I wish, dare, and can
perform it without paying respect to any earthly persons or
things. So that when Thou Thyself, the just Judge, who askest many
and great things from those to whom many and great things are
entrusted, when Thou requirest an exact accounting, charge me not
with badly administering my commonwealth and kingdom. But if by
human thoughtlessness or infirmity Thy handmaid strays from the
right in some thing, absolve me of it by Thy mercy, most high King
and most mild Father, for the sake of Thy Son Jesus Christ; and at
the same time grant that after this worldly kingdom has been
exacted of me, I may enjoy with Thee an eternity in Thy heavenly
and unending kingdom, through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son and
the Assessor of Thy kingdom, our Lord and Mediator. To whom with
Thee and with the Holy Spirit, one everlasting King, immortal,
invisible, only-wise God, be all honor and glory forever and ever,
amen.

Elizabeth promoted commercial speculations, which diffused a vast
increase of wealth among her people. The Elizabethan era was one
of general prosperity. Her good spirits and gayness created a
happy mood in the nation. She loved dancing and madrigal music was
popular. She came to dress elaborately and fancifully. Her dresses
were fitted not only at the waist, but along the torso by a long
and pointed bodice stiffened with wood, steel, or whalebone. Her
skirt was held out with a petticoat with progressively larger
hoops. There were two layers of skirt with the top one parted to
show the bottom one. The materials used were silks, satins,
velvets, and brocades. On her dress were quiltings, slashings, and
embroidery. It was covered with gold ornaments, pearls, gems, and
unusual stones from America. She wore decorated gloves. Ladies
copied her and discarded their simple over-tunics for elaborate
dresses. The under-tunic was now becoming a petticoat and the
over-tunic a dress. Their under-tunics became petticoats. Often
they also wore a fan with a mirror, a ball of scent, a miniature
portrait of someone dear to them, and sometimes a watch. Single
ladies did not wear hats, but had long, flowing hair and low cut
dresses showing their bosoms. Married ladies curled their hair and
wore it in high masses on their heads with jewels interwoven into
it. Both gentlemen and ladies wore hats both indoors and outside
and large, pleated collars around their necks (with the newly
discovered starch), perfume, rings with stones or pearls, and
high-heeled shoes. Gentlemen's' tight sleeves, stiffened and
fitted doublet with short skirt, and short cloak were ornamented
and their silk or velvet hats flamboyant, with feathers. At their
leather belts they hung pouches and perhaps a watch. They wore
both rapiers [swords with cutting edges] and daggers daily as
there were many quarrels. There were various artistic beard cuts
and various lengths of hair, which was often curled and worn in
ringlets. Barbers sought to give a man a haircut that would favor
his appearance, for instance a long slender beard for a round face
to make it seem narrower and a broad and large cut for a lean and
straight face. Men now wore stuffed breeches and stockings instead
of long hosen. Some wore a jewelled and embroidered codpiece
between their legs to emphasize their virility. Both gentlemen and
ladies wore silk stockings and socks over them and then boots.
Coats dipped in boiled linseed oil with resin served as raincoats.
Both men and women wore velvet or wool full length nightgowns with
long sleeves and fur lining and trimming to bed, which was the
custom for the next 150 years. Fashions changed every year due to
the introduction of cheaper, lighter, and less durable cloths by
immigrant craftsmen. When Elizabeth became old, she had a wig made
to match her youthful long red hair. Other ladies then began
wearing wigs.

Every few years, Elizabeth issued a proclamation reminding people
of the apparel laws and reiterating certain provisions which had
been disregarded. For instance, only the royal family and dukes
and marquises in mantles of the garter could wear the color
purple. One had to be at least an earl to wear gold or silver or
sable. Only dukes, marquises, earls and their children, barons,
and knights of the order could wear imported wool, velvet,
crimson, scarlet, or blue, or certain furs. Except that barons'
sons, knights, or men that could dispend at least 200 pounds
yearly could wear velvet in gowns or coats, embroidery, and furs
of leopards. Spurs, swords, rapiers, daggers, and woodknives were
restricted to knights and barons' sons or higher. A man who could
dispend at least 100 pounds per year could wear taffeta, satin,
damask, or cloth made of camels' hair and silk, in his outer
garments. One had to be the son and heir or the daughter of a
knight or wife of said son or a man who could dispend 20 pounds
yearly or had 200 pounds worth in goods to wear silk in one's hat,
bonnet, nightcap, girdle, scabbard, or hose. Yeomen, husbandmen,
serving men, and craftsmen were very restricted in what they could
wear. Poor men wore skirted fustian tunics, loose breeches, and
coarse stockings or canvas leggings.

Women spent much of their time doing needlework and embroidery.
Since so many of the women who spent their days spinning were
single, unmarried women became known as "spinsters".

Children wore the same type of apparel as their elders. They were
given milk at meals for good growth. It was recognized that
sickness could be influenced by diet and herbs. Sickness was still
viewed as an imperfect balance of the four humors.

There were many lifestyle possibilities in the nation: gentleman,
that is one who owned land or was in a profession such as a
attorney, physician, priest or who was a university graduate,
government official, or a military officer; employment in
agriculture, arts, sciences; employment in households and offices
of noblemen and gentlemen; self-sufficient farmers with their own
farm; fisherman or mariner on the sea or apprentice of such;
employment by carriers of grain into cities, by market towns, or
for digging, seeking, finding, getting, melting, fining, working,
trying, making of any silver, tin, lead, iron, copper, stone,
coal; glassmaker.

Typical wages in the country were: fieldworkers 2-3d. a day,
ploughmen 1s. a week with board, shepherd 6d. a week and board,
his boy 2 1/2 d., hedgers 6d. a day, threshers 3-7d. depending on
the grain, thatching for five days 2d., master mason or carpenter
or joiner 4d. a day and food or 8d. without food, a smith 2d. a
day with food, a bricklayer 2 1/2 d. a day with food, a shoemaker
2d. a day with food. These people lived primarily on food from his
own ground.

There was typical work for each month of the year in the country:
January - ditching and hedging after the frost broke, February -
catch moles in the meadows, March - protect the sheep from
prowling dogs, April - put up hop poles, sell bark to the tanner
before the timber is felled, fell elm and ash for carts and
ploughs, fell hazel for forks, fell sallow for rakes, fell horn
for flails, May - weed and hire children to pick up stones from
the fallow land, June - wash and shear the sheep, July - hay
harvest, August - wheat harvest, September and October - gather
the fruit, sell the wool from the summer shearing, stack logs for
winter, buy salt fish for Lent in the town and lay it up to dry,
November - have the chimneys swept before winter, thresh grain in
the barn, December - grind tools, repair yokes, forks, and farm
implements, cover strawberry and flower beds with straw to protect
them from the cold, split kindling wood with beetle and wedge, tan
their leather, make leather jugs, make baskets for catching fish,
and carve wood spoons, plates, and bowls.

There was a wave of building and renovation activity in town and
country. Housing is now, for the first time, purely for dwelling
and not for defense. Houses were designed symmetrically with
decorative features instead of a haphazard addition of rooms.
Windows were large and put on the outer walls instead of just
inside the courtyard. A scarcity of timber caused proportionally
more stone to be used for dwelling houses and proportionately more
brick to be used for royal palaces and mansions. The rest of the
house was plaster painted white interspersed with vertical,
horizontal, and sloping timber, usually oak, painted black. There
were locks and bolts for protection from intruders. The hall was
still the main room, and usually extended up to the roof. Richly
carved screens separated the hall from the kitchen. The floors
were stone or wood, and sometimes tile. They were often covered
with rushes or plaited rush mats, on which incomers could remove
the mud from their boots. Some private rooms may have carpets on
the floor. Walls were smoothly plastered or had carved wood
paneling to control drafts. Painted cloths replaced tapestries on
walls. Iron stands with candles were hung from the ceiling and
used on tables. Plastered ceilings and a lavish use of glass made
rooms lighter and cozy. Broad and gracious open stairways with
carved wood banisters, which replaced the narrow winding stone
steps of a circular stairwell. Most houses had several ornamented
brick chimneys and clear, but uneven, glass in the windows. There
were fireplaces in living rooms, dining rooms, kitchen, and
bedrooms, as well as in the hall and great chamber. Parlors were
used for eating and sitting only, but not for sleeping. Closets
were rooms off bedrooms in which one could read and write on a
writing table, and store one's books, papers, maps, calendar,
medals, collections, rarities, and oddities. Sometimes there was a
study room or breakfast room as well. A gentleman used his study
not only to read and to write, but to hold collections of early
chronicles, charters, deeds, copied manuscripts, and coins that
reflected the budding interest in antiquarianism; and to study his
family genealogy, for which he had hired someone to make an
elaborate diagram. He was inclined to have a few classical,
religious, medical, legal, and political books there. Rooms were
more spacious than before and contained oak furniture such as
enclosed cupboards, cabinets, buffets from which food could be
served, tables, chairs and benches with backs and cushions,
sometimes with arms, lidded chests for storing clothes and linens,
and occasionally chests of drawers or wardrobes, either hanging or
with shelves, for clothes. Chests of drawers developed from a
drawer at the bottom of a wardrobe. Carpeting covered tables,
chests, and beds. Family portraits decorated some walls, usually
in the dining room. Great houses had a wardrobe chamber with a
fireplace in front of which the yeoman of the wardrobe and his
assistants could repair clothes and hangings. Separate bedchambers
replaced bed-sitting rooms. Bedrooms all led out of each other.
The lady's chamber was next to her lord's chamber, and her ladies'
chambers were close to her chamber. But curtains on the four
poster beds with tops provided privacy and warmth. Beds had
elaborately carved bedsteads, sheets, and a feather cover as well
as a feather mattress. Often family members, servants, and friends
shared the same bed for warmth or convenience. Each bedroom
typically had a cabinet with a mirror, e.g. of burnished metal or
crystal, and comb on top. One brushed his teeth with tooth soap
and a linen cloth, as physicians advised. Each bedroom had a
pitcher and water bowl, usually silver or pewter, for washing in
the morning, and a chamber pot or a stool with a hole over a
bucket for nighttime use, and also fragrant flowers to override
the unpleasant odors. The chamber pots and buckets were emptied
into cesspits. A large set of lodgings had attached to it latrines
consisting of a small cell in which a seat with a hole was placed
over a shaft which connected to a pit or a drain. The servants
slept in turrets or attics. Elizabeth had a room just for her
bath.

More than medieval castles and manor houses, mansions were
designed with privacy in mind. Breakfast was substantial, with
meat, and usually eaten in one's bedroom. The great hall, often
hung around with bows, pikes, swords, and guns, was not abandoned,
but the family took meals there only on rare occasions. Instead
they withdrew to a parlor, for domestic use, or the great chamber,
for entertaining. Parlors were situated on the ground floor: the
family lived and relaxed there, and had informal meals in a dining
parlor.

The formal or "state" rooms were on the first floor above the
ground floor, usually comprising a great chamber, a withdrawing
chamber, one or more bedchambers, and a long gallery. Each room
had carved chairs and cabinets. Taking a meal in the great chamber
involved the same ceremonial ritual as in the manorial great
chamber dating from the 1400s. The table was covered with a linen
cloth. Some sat above the fancy silver salt cellar and pepper, and
some sat below. Grace was said before the meal. Noon dinner and
supper were served by sewer, carver, cupbearer, and assistants.
The lady of the house sat in a chair at the upper end of the table
and was served first. Fine clear Italian glass drinking vessels
replaced even gold and silver goblets. They ate from silver dishes
with silver spoons. Some gentry used two-pronged forks. There was
great plenty and variety of meats to all but the poorer classes:
beef, mutton, veal, lamb, kid, pork, hare, capon, red deer, fish
and wild fowl as well as the traditional venison and brawn [boar].
Kitchen gardens and orchards supplied apricots, almonds,
gooseberries, raspberries, melons, currants, oranges, and lemons
as well as the traditional apples, pears, plums, mulberries,
quinces, pomegranates, figs, cherries, walnuts, chestnuts, hazel
nuts, filberts, almonds, strawberries, blackberries, dewberries,
blueberries, and peaches. Also grown were sweet potatoes,
artichokes, cabbages, turnips, broad beans, peas, pumpkins,
cucumbers, radishes, carrots, celery, parsnips, onions, garlic,
leeks, endive, capers, spinach, sorrel, lettuce, parsley, mustard,
cress, sage, tarragon, fennel, thyme, mint, savory, rhubarb, and
medicinal herbs. The well-to-do started to grow apricots, peaches,
and oranges under glass. Sugar was used to make sweet dishes.
Toothpicks made of brass or silver or merely a stiff quill were
used. After the meal, some men and women were invited for
conversation in a withdrawing or drawing chamber. Some might take
a walk in the gardens. After the upper table was served, the food
was sent to the great hall to the steward and high household
officers at the high table and other servants: serving men and
women, bakers, brewers, cooks, pot cleaners, laundresses,
shepherds, hogherds, dairy maids, falconers, huntsmen, and stable
men. What was left was given to the poor at the gates of the
house. Great chambers were used primarily for meals, but also for
music; dancing; plays; masques; playing cards, dice, backgammon,
or chess; and daily prayers if there was no chapel.

The idea of a long gallery was copied from Henry VII and was used
for exercise, recreation such as music and dancing, and private
conversations. Without the necessity of fortifications, the estate
of a noble or gentleman could spread out to include not only a
garden for the kitchen, but extensive orchards and beautiful
formal gardens of flowers and scrubs, sometimes with fountains and
maybe a maze of hedges. Trees were planted, pruned, and grafted
onto each other.

Householders had the responsibility to teach their family and
servants religion and morals, and often read from the Bible to
them. Many thought that the writers of the Bible wrote down the
exact words of God, so the passages of the Bible should be taken
literally. A noble lord made written rules with penalties for his
country household, which numbered about a hundred, including
family, retainers, and servants. He enforced them by fines,
flogging, and threats of dismissal. The lady of the house saw that
the household, held together as an economic and social unit. The
noble's family, retainers, guests, and the head servants, such as
chaplain and children's tutor, and possibly a musician, dined
together at one table. The family included step children and
married sons and daughters with their spouses. Young couples often
lived with the parents of one of them. Chandeliers of candles lit
rooms. There were sandglass clocks. Popular home activities
included reading, conversation, gardening, and music-making.
Smoking tobacco from a clay pipe and taking snuff became popular
with men. For amusement, one of the lord's household would take
his place in managing the estate for twelve days. He was called
the "lord of misrule", and mimicked his lord, and issued comic
orders. Clothes were washed in rivers and wells. At spring
cleanings, windows were opened, every washable surface washed, and
feather beds and pillows exposed to the sun.

Most dwellings were of brick and stone. Only a few were of wood or
mud and straw. The average house was now four rooms instead of
three. Yeomen might have six rooms. A weaver's house had a hall,
two bedrooms, and a kitchen besides the shop. Farmers might have
two instead of one room. A joiner had a one-room house with a
feather bed and bolster. Even craftsmen, artificers and simple
farmers slept on feather beds on bed frames with pillows, sheets,
blankets, and coverlets. Loom tapestry and painted cloth was hung
to keep out the cold in their single story homes. They also had
pewter spoons and plates, instead of just wood or earthenware
ones. Even the poorer class had glass drinking vessels, though of
a coarse grade. The poor still used wooden plates and spoons.
Laborers had canvas sheets. Richer farmers would build a chamber
above the hall, replacing the open hearth with a fireplace and
chimney at a wall. Poorer people favored ground floor extensions,
adding a kitchen or second bedchamber to their cottages. Kitchens
were often separate buildings to reduce the risk of fire. Roasting
was done on a spit and baking in irons boxes placed in the fire or
in a brick oven at the side of the fireplace. Sometimes dogs were
used to turn a spit by continual running in a treadmill. Some
people lived in hovels due to the custom in many places that a
person could live in a home he built on village waste land if he
could build it in one night.

Yeomen farmers still worked from dawn to dusk. Mixed farming
began. In this, some of the arable land produced food for man and
the rest produced food for sheep, cattle, pigs, and poultry. This
was made possible by the introduction of clover, artificial
grasses, and turnip and other root crops for the animals. Since
the sheep ate these crops in the field, they provided manure to
maintain the fertility of the soil. This meant that many animals
could be maintained throughout the winter instead of being
slaughtered and salted.

Farmers' wives used looms as well as spinning wheels with foot
treadles. Since animals could now be kept through the winter,
salted meat and salted fish were no longer the staple food of the
poorer people during the winter. Farm laborers ate soup, porridge,
milk, cheese, bacon, and beer or mead (depending on the district),
and dark barley or rye bread, which often served as his plate.
Gentlemen ate wheat bread. There was a scarcity of fruits and
vegetables that adversely affected the health of the affluent as
well as of the poor due to the overall decline in farming. During
winter, there were many red noses and coughing.

The value of grain and meat rose compared to wool. Grain became
six times its value in the previous reign. Wool fell from 20s.8d.
per tod to 16s. So sheep-farming, which had taken about 5% of the
arable land, was supplanted somewhat by crop-raising and the rural
population could be employed for agriculture. In some places, the
threefold system of rotation was replaced by alternating land used
for crops with that used for pasture. The necessity of manuring
and the rotation of crops and grasses such as clover for
enrichment of the soil were recognized. Wheat, rye, barley, peas,
and beans were raised. There was much appropriation of common land
by individual owners by sale or force. Many farms were enclosed by
fences or hedges so that each holder could be independent of his
neighbors. Red and black currants, rhubarb, apricots, and oranges
were now grown. These independent farmers could sell wool to
clothiers, and butter, cheese, and meat to the towns. They also
often did smithwork and ironwork, making nails, horseshoes, keys,
locks, and agricultural implements to sell. A laborer could earn
6d. a day in winter and 7d. a day in summer. Unfree villeinage
ceased on the royal estates. But most land was still farmed in
common and worked in strips without enclosure. Elizabeth made
several proclamations ordering the enclosure of certain enclosed
land to be destroyed and the land returned to tillage. Windmills
now had vanes replacing manual labor to change the position of the
sails when the wind direction changed. Prosperous traders and
farmers who owned their own land assumed local offices as
established members of the community.

The population of the nation was about five million. Population
expansion had allowed landlords to insist on shorter leases and
higher rents, instead of having to choose between accepting a long
lease and good rent or allowing their estates to pass out of
cultivation. Over 50% of the population were on the margin of
subsistence. 90% of the population lived in the countryside and 5%
in the London and 5% in the other towns. Life expectancy was about
40 years of age. Over 50% was under the age of 23, while only
about 9% were over 60. Fluctuations in rates of population growth
were traceable back to bad harvests and to epidemics and the two
were still closely related to each other: "first dirth and then
plague".

Most of London was confined within the city wall. There were
orchards and gardens both inside and outside the walls, and fields
outside. Flower gardens and nurseries came into existence. No part
of the city was more than a ten minute walk to the fields. Some
wealthy merchants had four story mansions or country houses
outside the city walls. The suburbs of the City of London grew in
a long line along the river; on the west side were noblemen's
houses on both sides of the Strand. East of the Tower was a
seafaring and industrial population. Goldsmiths' Row was replete
with four story houses. A few wealthy merchants became money-
lenders for interest, despite the law against usury. The mayor of
London was typically a rich merchant prince. Each trade occupied
its own section of the town and every shop had its own signboard,
for instance, hat and cap sellers, cloth sellers, grocers,
butchers, cooks, taverns, and book-sellers. Many of the London
wards were associated with a craft, such as Candlewick Ward, Bread
St. Ward, Vintry Ward, and Cordwainer Ward. Some wards were
associated with their location in the city, such as Bridge Ward,
Tower Ward, Aldgate Ward, Queenhithe Ward, and Billingsgate Ward.
People lived at the back or on the second floor of their shops. In
the back yard, they grew vegetables such as melons, carrots,
turnips, cabbages, pumpkins, parsnips, and cucumbers; herbs; and
kept a pig. The pigs could still wander through the streets. Hyde
Park was the Queen's hunting ground. London had a small zoo of ten
animals, including a lion, tiger, lynx, and wolf.

London was England's greatest manufacturing city. By 1600 the
greatest trading companies in London ceased to be associated only
with their traditional goods and were dominated by merchants whose
main interest was in the cloth trade. Ambitious merchants joined a
livery company to become freemen of the city and for the status
and social benefits of membership. The companies still made
charitable endowments, had funeral feasts, cared for the welfare
of guild members, and made lavish displays of pageantry. They were
intimately involved with the government of the city. They supplied
members for the Court of Aldermen, which relied on the companies
to maintain the City's emergency grain stores, to assess and
collect taxes, to provide loans to the Crown, to control prices
and markets, to provide armed men when trouble was expected, and
to raise armies for the Crown at times of rebellion, war, or
visits from foreign monarchs. From about 1540 to 1700, there were
23% involved in cloth or clothing industries such as weavers,
tailors, hosiers, haberdashers, and cappers. 9% were
leatherworkers such as skinners; tanners; those in the heavy
leather crafts such as shoemakers, saddlers, and cobblers; and
those in the light leather crafts such as glovers and pursers.
Another 9% worked in metals, such as the armorers, smiths,
cutlers, locksmiths, and coppersmiths. 8% worked in the building
trades. The victualling trades, such as bakers, brewers, butchers,
costermongers [sold fruit and vegetables from a cart or street
stand], millers, fishmongers, oystermen, and tapsters [bartender],
grew from 9% before 1600 to 16% by 1700. Of London's workforce,
60% were involved in production; 13% were merchants before 1600;
7% were merchants by 1700; 7% were transport workers such as
watermen, sailors, porters, coachmen, and shipwrights; and 5-9%
were professionals and officials (this number declining). Life in
London was lived in the open air in the streets. The merchant
transacted business agreements and the attorney saw his clients in
the street or at certain pillars at St. Paul's Church, where there
was a market for all kinds of goods and services, including
gentlemen's valets, groceries, spirits, books, and loans, which
continued even during the daily service. Some gentlemen had
offices distant from their dwelling houses such as attorneys, who
had a good income from trade disputes and claims to land, which
often changed hands. Plays and recreation also occurred in the
streets, such as performances by dancers, musicians, jugglers,
clowns, tumblers, magicians, and men who swallowed fire. The
churches were continuously open and used by trades and peddlers,
including tailors and letter-writers. Water carriers carried water
in wood vessels on a shoulder from the Thames River or its
conduits to the inhabitants three gallons at a time. A gentleman
concocted an engine to convey Thames water by lead pipes up into
men's houses in a certain section of the city. Soldiers,
adventurers, physicians, apprentices, prostitutes, and cooks were
all distinguishable by their appearances. An ordinance required
apprentices to wear long blue gowns and white breeches with
stockings, with no ornamentation of silk, lace, gold or silver and
no jewelry. They could wear a meat knife, but not a sword or
dagger. Apprentices lived with their masters and worked from 6 or
7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Some people knitted wool caps as they walked to
sell when finished. There were sections of town for booksellers,
butchers, brewers, hosiers, shoemakers, curriers, cooks, poulters,
bow makers, textwriters, pattenmakers, and horse and oxen sellers.
Large merchant companies had great halls for trade, such as the
mercers, grocers, drapers, fishmongers, and goldsmiths. The other
great guilds were the skinners, merchant tailers, haberdashers,
salters, ironmongers, vintners, and clothworkers. Smaller guilds
were those of the bakers, weavers, fruiterers, dyers, Thames
watermen and lightermen, carpenters, joiners, turners, and parish
clerks. The guilds insured quality by inspecting goods for a fee.

About 1571, mercer and Merchant Adventurer Thomas Gresham
established the Royal Exchange as a place for merchants and
brokers to meet for business purposes. It became the center of
London's business life. Its great bell rang at midday and at 6
p.m. Its courtyard was lined with shops that rented at 50s. yearly
and became a popular social and recreational area. Gresham
formulated his law that when two kinds of money of equal
denomination but unequal intrinsic value are in circulation at the
same time, the one of greater value will tend to be hoarded or
exported, i.e. bad money will drive good money out of circulation.

The work-saving knitting frame was invented in 1589 by minister
William Lee; it knit crosswise loops using one continuous yarn and
was operated by hand. The stocking knitters, who knitted by hand,
put up a bitter struggle against its use and chased Lee out of the
country. But it did come into use. Some frame-work stocking
knitters paid frame rent for the use of their knitting frames.
Frame knitting became a scattered industry.

By 1600 basement services were frequently found in town houses
built on restricted sites in London. Lastly, provision of water
supplies and improved sanitary arrangements reflected concern with
private and public health. There was virtually no drainage. In the
case of town houses, some owners would go to considerable effort
to solve drainage problems, often paying cash to the civic
authorities, but sometimes performing some service for the town at
Court or at Westminster, in return for unlimited water or some
drainage. Most affluent households, including the Queen's moved
from house to house, so their cesspits could be cleaned out and
the vacated buildings aired after use. A few cesspits were made
air tight. Otherwise, there was extensive burning of incense.
Refuse was emptied out of front doors and shoveled into heaps on
street corners. It was then dumped into the Thames or along the
highways leading out of town. People put on perfume to avoid the
stench. By 1600, the first toilet and water closet, where water
flushed away the waste, was built. This provided a clean toilet
area all year round. But these toilets were not much used because
of sewer smells coming from them. The sky above London was
darkened somewhat by the burning of coal in houses.

Taverns served meals as well as ale. They were popular meeting
places for both men and women of all backgrounds to met their
friends. Men went to taverns for camaraderie and to conduct
business. Women usually went to taverns with each other. Two
taverns in particular were popular with the intelligentsia. Music
was usually played in the background and games were sometimes
played. Beer made with hops and malt was introduced and soon there
were beer drinking contests. Drunkenness became a problem.

At night, the gates of the city were closed and citizens were
expected to hang out lanterns. The constable and his watchmen
carried lanterns and patrolled the streets asking anyone they saw
why they were out so late at night. Crime was rampant in the
streets and criminals were executed near to the crime scene.

There were a few horse-drawn coaches with leather flaps or
curtains in the unglazed windows to keep out the weather. The main
thoroughfare in London was still the Thames River. Nobles, peers,
and dignitaries living on the Thames had their own boats and
landings. Also at the banks, merchants of all nations had landing
places where ships unloaded, warehouses, and cellars for goods and
merchandise. Swans swam in the clear bright water. Watermen rowed
people across the Thames for a fee. In Southwark were theaters,
outlaws, cutpurses, prostitutes, and prisons. In 1550 Southwark
became the 26th and last ward of the city. In the summer, people
ate supper outside in public.

As of old times, brokers approved by the Mayor and aldermen made
contracts with merchants concerning their wares. Some contracts
included holding wares as security. Some craftsmen and manual
workers extended this idea to used garments and household
articles, which they took as pawns, or security for money loaned.
This began pawn brokerage, which was lucrative. The problem was
that many of the items pawned had been stolen.

Elizabeth had good judgment in selecting her ministers and
advisors for her Privy Council, which was organized like Henry
VIII's Privy Council. The Queen's Privy Council of about twelve
ministers handled foreign affairs, drafted official communiques,
issued proclamations, supervised the county offices: the 1500
justices of the peace, chief constables, sheriffs, lord
lieutenants, and the county militias. It fixed wages and prices in
London, advised Justices of the Peace on wages elsewhere, and
controlled exports of grain to keep prices down and supplies
ample. It banned the eating of meat two days a week so that the
fishing industry and port towns would prosper. When grain was
scarce in 1596, Elizabeth made a proclamation against those
ingrossers, forestallers, and ingraters of grain who increased its
price by spreading false rumors that it was scarce because much of
it was being exported, which was forbidden. There were labor
strikes in some towns for higher wages after periods of inflation.
In 1591, London authorities rounded up the sturdy vagabonds and
set them to work cleaning out the city ditches for 4d. per day.

Elizabeth did not allow any gentleman to live in London purely for
pleasure, but sent those not employed by the Court back to their
country manors to take care of and feed the poor of their
parishes. Her proclamation stated that "sundry persons of ability
that had intended to save their charges by living privately in
London or towns corporate, thereby leaving their hospitality and
the relief of their poor neighbors, are charged not to break up
their households; and all others that have of late time broken up
their households to return to their houses again without delay."
She never issued a license for more than 100 retainers. She was
partially successful in stopping justices of the peace and
sheriffs from wearing the liveries of great men. She continued the
policy of Henry VII to replace the rule of force by the rule of
law. Service of the crown and influence at court became a better
route to power and fortune than individual factions based on local
power structures. At the lowest level, bribery became more
effective than bullying. The qualities of the courtier, such as
wit, and the lawyer became more fashionable than the qualities of
the soldier.

Most of the men in Elizabeth's court had attended a university,
such as Francis Bacon, son of the Lord Keeper, who became a
writer, attorney, member of the Commons, and experimental
philosopher, and Walter Ralegh, the sea-fighter and writer, who
had a humble origin. Many wives and daughters of Privy Councilors
attended the Queen in her privy chamber. Most of the knights or
gentlemen of the royal household were also members of Parliament
or Justices of the Peace for certain districts in the counties.
Instead of the office of Chancellor, which was the highest legal
office, Elizabeth appointed a man of common birth to be Lord
Keeper of the Great Seal; she never made a Lord Keeper a peer.
Elizabeth encouraged her lords to frankly make known their views
to her, in public or in private, before she decided on a course of
action. She had affectionate nicknames for her closest courtiers,
and liked to make puns. The rooms of the Queen were arranged as
they had been under Henry VIII: the great hall was the main dining
room where the servants ate and which Elizabeth attended on high
days and holidays; the great chamber was the main reception room,
where her gentlemen and yeomen of the guard waited; the presence
chamber was where she received important visitors; beyond lay her
privy chamber and her bedchamber. She ate her meals in the privy
chamber attended only by her ladies. She believed that a light
supper was conducive to good health. The Lord Chamberlain attended
the Queen's person and managed her privy chamber and her well-born
grooms and yeomen and ladies-in-waiting. The Lord Steward managed
the domestic servants below the stairs, from the Lord Treasurer to
the cooks and grooms of the stable. The court did not travel as
much as in the past, but became associated with London. Elizabeth
took her entire court on summer visits to the country houses of
leading nobility and gentry. Courtiers adopted symbolic "devices"
as statements of their reaction to life or events, e.g. a cupid
firing arrows at a unicorn signified chastity under attack by
sexual desire. They carried them enamelled on jewels, had them
painted in the background of their portraits, and sometimes had
them expressed on furniture, plate, buildings, or food.

The authority of the Queen was the authority of the state.
Elizabeth's experience led her to believe that it was most
important for a monarch to have justice, temperance, magnanimity,
and judgment. She claimed that she never set one person before
another, but upon just cause, and had never preferred anyone to
office for the preferrer's sake, but only when she believed the
person worthy and fit for the office. She never blamed those who
did their best and never discharged anyone form office except for
cause. Further, she had never been partial or prejudiced nor had
listened to any person contrary to law to pervert her verdicts.
She never credited a tale that was first told to her and never
corrupted her judgment with a censure before she had heard the
cause. She did not think that the glory of the title of monarch
made all she did lawful. To her, clemency was as eminent in
supreme authority as justice and severity.

Secular education and especially the profession of law was now the
route for an able but poor person to rise to power, rather than as
formerly through military service or through the church.

The first stage of education was primary education, which was
devoted to learning to read and write in English. This was carried
out at endowed schools or at home by one's mother or a tutor. The
children of the gentry were usually taught in their homes by
private teachers of small classes. Many of the poor became
literate enough to read the Bible and to write letters. However,
most agricultural workers and laborers remained illiterate. They
signed with an "x", which represented the Christian cross and
signified its solemnity. Children of the poor were expected to
work from the age of 6 or 7.

The next stage of education was grammar [secondary] school or a
private tutor. A student was taught rhetoric (e.g. poetry,
history, precepts of rhetoric, and classical oratory), some logic,
and Latin and Greek grammar. English grammar was learned through
Latin grammar and English style through translation from Latin. As
a result, they wrote English in a latin style. Literary criticism
was learned through rhetoric. There were disputations on
philosophical questions such as how many angels could sit on a
pin's point, and at some schools, orations. The students sat in
groups around the hall for their lessons. The boys and some girls
were also taught hawking, hunting and archery. There were no
playgrounds. The grammar student and the undergraduate were tested
for proficiency by written themes and oral disputations, both in
Latin. The middle classes from the squire to the petty tradesman
were brought into contact with the works of the best Greek and
Roman writers. The best schools and many others had the students
read Cicero, the "De Officiis", the epistles and orations, and
some of Ovid, Terence, Sallust, Virgil, some medieval Latin works,
the "Distichs" of Cato, and sometimes Erasmus and Sir Thomas More.
The students also had to repeat prayers, recite the Lord's Prayer
and the Ten Commandments, and to memorize catechisms. Because the
students came from the various social classes such as gentlemen,
parsons, yeomen, mercers, and masons, they learned to be on
friendly and natural terms with other classes. A typical schoolday
lasted from 7:00 am to 5:00 PM. There were so many grammar schools
founded and financed by merchants and guilds such as the Mercers
and Fishmongers that every incorporated town had at least one.
Grammar schools were headed by schoolmasters, who were licensed by
the bishop and paid by the town. Flogging with a birch rod was
used for discipline.

Many grammar schools had preparatory classes called "petties" for
boys and girls who could not read and write to learn to do so. The
girls did not usually stay beyond the age of nine. This was done
by a schoolmaster's assistant, a parish clerk, or some older boys.
However, the grammar schools did not become the breeding grounds
for humanist ideas because the sovereigns were faced with
religious atomism and political unrest, so used the grammar
schools to maintain public order and achieve political and
religious conformity.

Some founders of grammar schools linked their schools with
particular colleges in the universities following the example of
Winchester being associated with New College, Oxford, and Eton
with King's College, Cambridge. The new charter of Westminster
(1560) associated the school with Christ Church, Oxford and
Trinity College, Cambridge.

The government of Oxford University, which had been Catholic, was
taken from the resident teachers and put into the hands of the
Vice-Chancellor, Doctors, Heads of Colleges, and Proctors.
Cambridge already had a strong reformed element from Erasmus'
influence. Oxford University and Cambridge University were
incorporated to have a perpetual existence for the virtuous
education of youth and maintenance of good literature. The
Chancellors, masters, and scholars had a common seal. Oxford was
authorized to and did acquire its own printing press.
Undergraduate students entered about age 16 and resided in rooms
in colleges rather than in scattered lodgings. The graduate
fellows of the college who were M.A.s of under three years
standing had the responsibility, instead of the university, for
teaching the undergraduates. This led many to regard their
fellowship as a position for life rather than until they completed
their post-graduate studies. But they were still required to
resign on marrying or taking up an ecclesiastical benefice. The
undergraduates were poor scholars or fee-paying members of the
college. Some of the fee-paying members or gentlemen-commoners or
fellow-commoners were the sons of the nobility and gentry and even
shared the fellows' table. The undergraduate students were
required to have a particular tutors, who were responsible for
their moral behavior as well as their academic studies. It was
through the tutors that modern studies fit for the education of a
Renaissance gentleman became the norm. Those students not seeking
a degree could devise his own course of study with his tutor's
permission. Less than about 40% stayed long enough to get a
degree. Many students who were working on the seven year program
for a Master's Degree went out of residence at college after the
four year's "bachelor" course. Students had text books to read
rather than simply listening to a teacher read books to them.

In addition to the lecturing of the M.A.s and the endowed
university lectureships, the university held exercises every
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in which the student was meant
through disputation, to apply the formal precepts in logic and
rhetoric to the practical business of public speaking and debate.
Final examinations were still by disputation. The students came to
learn to read Latin easily. Students acted in Latin plays. If a
student went to a tavern, he could be flogged. For too elaborate
clothing, he could be fined. Fines for absence from class were
imposed. However, from this time until 1945, a young man's
university days were regarded as a period for the "sowing of wild
oats".

All students had to reside in a college or hall, subscribe to the
39 articles of the university, the Queen's supremacy, and the
prayer book. Meals were taken together in the college halls. The
universities were divided into three tables: a fellows' table of
earls, barons, gentlemen, and doctors; a second table of masters
of arts, bachelors, and eminent citizens, and a third table of
people of low condition. Professors, doctors, masters of arts and
students were all distinguishable by their gowns.

Undergraduate education was considered to be for the purpose of
good living as well as good learning. It was to affect the body,
mind, manners, sentiment, and business, instead of just leading to
becoming a better disputant. The emphasis on manners came mostly
from an Italian influence. The university curriculum included
Latin and Greek languages and was for four years. The student
spent at least one year on logic (syllogizing, induction,
deduction, fallacies, and the application of logic to other
studies), at least one year on rhetoric, and at least one year on
philosophy. The latter included physics, metaphysics, history,
law, moral and political philosophy, modern languages, and ethics
(domestic principles of government, military history, diplomatic
history, and public principles of government), and mathematics
(arithmetic, geometry, algebra, music, optics, astronomy). The
astronomy taught was that of Ptolemy, whose view was that the
celestial bodies revolved around a spherical earth, on which he
had laid out lines of longitude and latitude. There were lectures
on Greek and Latin literature, including Aristotle, Plato, and
Cicero. There were no courses on English history in the
universities.

About 1564, the curriculum was changed to two terms of grammar,
four terms of rhetoric, five terms of dialectic (examining ideas
and opinions logically, e.g. ascertaining truth by analyzing words
in their context and equivocations), three terms of arithmetic,
and two terms of music. There were now negative numbers,
irrational numbers such as square roots, and imaginary numbers
such as square roots of negative numbers. The circumference and
area of a circle could be computed from its radius, and the
Pythagorean theorem related the three sides of a right triangle.
Also available were astrology, alchemy (making various substances
such as acids and alcohols), cultivation of gardens, and breeding
of stock, especially dogs and horses. Astronomy, geometry, natural
and moral philosophy, and metaphysics were necessary for a
master's degree. The university libraries of theological
manuscripts in Latin were supplemented with many non-religious
books.

There were graduate studies in theology, medicine, music, and law,
which was a merging of civil and canon law together with
preparatory work for studying common law at the Inns of Court in
London.

In London, legal training was given at the four Inns of Court.
Students were called to dinner by a horn. Only young gentry were
admitted there. A year's residence there after university gave a
gentleman's son enough law to decide disputes of tenants on family
estates or to act as Justice of the Peace in his home county. A
full legal education gave him the ability to handle all family
legal matters, including property matters. Many later became
justices of the Peace or members of Parliament. Students spent two
years in the clerks' commons, and two in the masters' commons.
Besides reading textbooks in Latin, the students observed at court
and did work for practicing attorneys. After about four more
years' apprenticeship, a student could be called to the outer
barre. There was a real bar of iron or wood separating the
justices from the attorneys and litigants. As "Utter Barrister" or
attorney, he would swear to "do no falsehood in the court,
increase no fees but be contented with the old fees accustomed,
delay no man for lucre or malice, but use myself in the office of
an Attorney within the Court according to my learning and
discretion, so help me God, Amen". Students often also studied and
attended lectures on astronomy, geography, history, mathematics,
theology, music, navigation, foreign languages, and lectures on
anatomy and medicine sponsored by the College of Physicians. A
tour of the continent became a part of every gentleman's
education. After about eight years' experience, attorneys could
become Readers and Benchers, the latter of whom made the rules.
Readers gave lectures. Benchers, who were elected by other
Benchers, were entrusted with the government of their Inn of
Court, and usually were King's counsel. Five to ten years later, a
few of these were picked by the Queen for Serjeant at Law, and
therefore eligible to plead at the bar of common pleas. Justices
were chosen from the Serjeants at Law.

Gresham left the Royal exchange to the city and the Mercer's
Company on condition that they use some of its profits to appoint
and pay seven lecturers in law, rhetoric, divinity, music,
physics, geometry, and astronomy to teach at his mansion, which
was called Gresham College. They were installed in 1598 according
to his Will. Their lectures were free, open to all, and often in
English. They embraced mathematics and new scientific ideas and
emphasized their practical applications. A tradition of research
and teaching was established in mathematics and astronomy.

Many people kept diaries. Letter writing was frequent at court.
All forms of English literature were now in print, except for
plays. Many ladies read aloud to each other in reading circles and
to their households. Some wrote poetry and did translations.
Correctness of spelling was beginning to be developed. Printers
tended to standardize it. There was much reading of romances, jest
books, histories, plays, prayer collections, and encyclopedias, as
well as the Bible. In schools and gentry households, favorite
reading was Edmund Spenser's "Faerie Queen" about moral virtues
and the faults and errors which beset them, Erasmus' New
Testament, "Paraphrases", "Colloquies", and "Adages", Sir Thomas
North's edition of Plutarch's "Lives of the Noble Grecians and
Romans", Elyot's "The Book Named the Governor", and Hoby's
translation of "The Courtier". Gentlemen read books on the ideals
of gentlemanly conduct, such as "Institucion of a Gentleman"
(1555), and Laurence Humphrey's "The Nobles: or of Nobilites".
Francis Bacon's "Essays or Counsels Civil and Moral" were popular
for their wisdom. In them he commented on many subjects from
marriage to faction. He cautioned against unworthy authority, mass
opinion, custom, and ostentation of apparent wisdom. He urged the
use of words with their correct meaning.

At a more popular level were Caxton's "The Golden Legend",
Baldwin's "Mirror for Magistrates", Foxe's "Book of Martyrs" about
English protestant who suffered at the stake, sensational stories
and pamphlets, printed sermons (including those of Switzerland's
Calvin), chronicles, travel books, almanacs, herbals, and medical
works. English fiction began and was read. There were some books
for children. Books were copyrighted, although non-gentlemen
writers needed a patron. At the lowest level of literacy were
ballads. Next to sermons, the printing press was kept busiest with
rhymed ballads about current events. Printed broadsheets on
political issues could be distributed quickly. In London, news was
brought to the Governor of the News Staple, who classified it as
authentic, apocryphal, barber's news, tailor's news, etc. and
stamped it. Books were also censored for matter against the state
church. This was carried out through the Stationers' Company. This
company was now, by charter, the official authority over the
entire book trade, with almost sole rights of printing (e.g.
excluding schools). It could burn other books and imprison their
printers.

There were language schools teaching French, Italian, and Spanish
to the aspiring merchant and to gentlemen's sons and daughters.

Italian business techniques were set forth in textbooks for
merchants, using Italian terms of business: debit (debito), credit
(credito), inventory (inventorio), journal (giornal), and cash
(cassa). The arithmetic of accounting operations, including
multiplication, was described in "An Introduction for to Lerne to
Reckonwith the Penne or Counters" in 1537. Accounting advice was
extended to farmers as well as merchants in the 1569 "The Pathway
to Perfectness in the Accomptes of Debitor and Creditor" by James
Peele, a salter of London. It repeated the age-old maxim:
...receive before you write, and write before you pay, So shall no
part of your accompt in any wise decay. The 1589 "Marchants Avizo"
by Johne Browne, merchant of Bristol, gave information on foreign
currencies and keeping of accounts, and included specimens of
various business documents such as insurance policies, and bills
of exchange. It also advised: Take heed of using a false balance
or measure...covet not over familiarity amongst men it maketh thee
spend much loss of time. Be not hasty in giving credit to every
man, but take heed to a man that is full of words, that hath red
eyes, that goeth much to law, and that is suspected to live
unchaste ... When thou promiseth anything be not stuck to perform
it, for he that giveth quickly giveth double ... Fear God...know
thy Prince...love thy parents ...give reverence to thy betters
...be courteous and lowly to all men... be not wise in thine own
conceit. The old prohibitions of the now declining canon law were
still observed. That is one should not seek wealth for its own
sake or beyond what was requisite for a livelihood in one's
station, exploit a customer's difficulties to extract an
extravagant price, charge excessive interest, or engross to
"corner the market".

The printing press had made possible the methodizing of knowledge
and its dissemination to a lay public. Knowledge associated with
the various professions, occupations, and trades was no longer
secret or guarded as a mystery, to be passed on only to a chosen
few. The sharing of knowledge was to benefit the community at
large. Reading became an out-of-school activity, for instruction
as well as for pleasure.

In 1565, graphite was discovered in England, and gave rise to the
pencil. Surveying accuracy was improved with the new theodolite,
which determined directions and measured angles and used a
telescope that pivoted horizontally and vertically. Scientists had
the use of an air thermometer, in which a column of air in a glass
tube sitting in a dish of water contracted or expanded with
changes in the temperature, causing the water to move up or down
the tube.

William Shakespeare, a glove-maker's son, wrote plays about
historical events and plays which portrayed various human
personalities and their interactions with each other. They were
enjoyed by all classes of people. His histories were especially
popular. The Queen and various earls each employed players and
actors, who went on tour as a troupe and performed on a round
open-air stage, with people standing around to watch. In London,
theaters such as the Globe were built specifically for the
performance of plays, which before had been performed at inns. The
audience applauded and hissed. There were costumes, but no sets.
Ordinary admission was 2d. Before being performed, a play had to
be licensed by the Master of the Revels to make sure that there
was nothing detrimental to the peace and public order. Elizabeth
issued a proclamation forbidding unlicensed interludes or plays,
especially concerning religion or government policy on pain of
imprisonment for at least fourteen days. The common people still
went to morality plays, but also to plays in which historical
personages were portrayed, such as Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry
V. Some plays were on contemporary issues. Musicians played
together as orchestras. Music and singing was a popular pastime
after supper; everyone was expected to participate. Dancing was
popular with all classes. Gentlemen played cards, dice, chess,
billiards, tennis, and fenced and had games on horseback. Their
deer-hunting diminished as forests were cut down for agriculture
and the deer was viewed as an enemy eating crops. Falconry
diminished as hedges and enclosures displaced the broad expanses
of land.

Country people enjoyed music, dancing, pantomime shows with masks
of mythological or symbolic characters, riddles, wrestling,
hurling, running, swimming, leap frog, blind man's buff,
shovelboard played with the hands, and football between villages
with the goal to get the ball into one's own village. Football and
shin-kicking matches often resulted in injuries. The bought
ballads from traveling pedlars. Early morning dew gathered in May
and early June was thought to have special curative powers. There
were many tales involving fairies, witches, devils, ghosts, evil
spirits, angels, and monsters enjoyed by adults as well as
children. Many people still believed in charms, curses,
divination, omens, fate, and advice from astrologers. The ghosts
of the earth walked the earth, usually because of some foul play
to be disclosed, wrong to be set right, to warn those dear to them
of peril, or to watch over hidden treasure. Fairies blessed homes,
rewarded minor virtues, and punished mild wrongdoing. When fairies
were unhappy, the weather was bad. There were parties for
children.

The merry guild-feast was no longer a feature of village life.
There were fewer holydays and festivals. The most prosperous
period of the laborer was closing. An agricultural laborer's
yearly wage was about 154s., but his cost of living, which now
included house rent, was about 160s. a year. In 1533, daily wages
in the summer for an agricultural laborer were about 4d. and for
an artisan 6d. In 1563 in the county of Rutland, daily wages for
laborers were 7d. in summer and 6d. in winter; and for artisans
were 9d. in summer and 8d. in winter. Unemployment was widespread.

There were endowed hospitals in London for the sick and infirm.
There were others for orphans, for derelict children, and for the
destitute. They worked at jobs in the hospital according to their
abilities. There was also a house of correction for discipline of
the idle and vicious by productive work. Elizabeth continued the
practice of touching people to cure scrofula, although she could
not bring herself to fully believe in the reality of such cures,
contrary to her chaplain and her physician.

In the towns, shop shutters were let down to form a counter.
Behide this the goods were made and/or stored. The towns held a
market once a week. Fairs occurred once or twice a year. At given
times in the towns, everyone was to throw buckets of water onto
the street to cleanse it. During epidemics in towns, there was
quarantine of those affected to stay in their houses unless going
out on business. Their houses were marked and they had to carry a
white rod when outside. The quarantine of a person lasted for
forty days. The straw in his house was burned and his clothes
treated. People who died had to be buried under six feet of
ground. There was an outbreak of plague in London roughly every
ten years.

There was a pity for the distressed that resulted in towns voting
money for a people of a village that had burned down or been
decimated by the plague.

Communities were taxed for the upkeep and relief of the prisoners
in the gaols in their communities.

Queen Elizabeth was puzzling over the proper relationship between
the crown and the church when Richard Hooker, a humble scholar,
theologian, and clergyman, attempted to find a justification in
reason for the establishment of the Church of England as an
official part of the governing apparatus of the nation. His
thinking was a turning point from the medieval notion that God
ordered society, including the designation of its monarch and its
natural laws. The belief in a divine structure with a great chain
of being, beginning with God and working down through the
hierarchy of angels and saints to men, beasts, and vegetables, did
foster order in society. Hooker restated the concept of Aristotle
that the purpose of society is to enable men to live well. He
wrote that although the monarch was head of state and head of
religion, the highest authority in civil affairs was Parliament,
and in religion, the Convocation. The monarch had to maintain
divine law, but could not make it. From this came the idea that
the state derives its authority from the will of the people and
the consent of the governed.

Protestant women had more freedom in marriage and were allowed to
participate in more church activities compared to Catholic women,
but they were not generally allowed to become pastors. Due to
sensitivities on the part of both Catholics and Protestants about
a female being the head of the church, Elizabeth was given the
title of "Supreme Governor" of the church instead of "Supreme
Head". Elizabeth was not doctrinaire in religious matters, but
pragmatic. She always looked for ways to accommodate all views on
what religious aspects to adopt or decline. Images, relics,
pilgrimmages, and rosaries were discouraged. But the Catholic
practice of kneeling at prayer, and bowing and doffing caps at the
name of Jesus were retained. Also retained was the place of the
altar or communion table at the east end of churches, special
communion wafers instead of common bread, and elaborate clergy
vestments. The communion prayer contained words expressing both
the Catholic view that the wafer and wine contained the real
presence of the body and blood of Christ, and the Protestant view
that they were commemorative only. Communion was celebrated only
at Easter and other great festivals. Church services included a
sermon and were in accordance with a reformed prayer book and in
English, as was the Bible. Care was even taken not to use words
that would offend the Scots, Lutherans, Calvinists, or Huguenots.
People could hold what religious beliefs they would, even atheism,
as long as they maintained an outward conformity. Attendance at
state church services on Sunday mornings and evenings and Holydays
was enforced by a fine of 12d. imposed by the church wardens.
Babies were to be baptized before they were one month old or the
parents would be punished.

Still, the new religion had to be protected. Members of the House
of Commons, lawyers, schoolmasters were to take the oath of
supremacy or be imprisoned and make a forfeiture; a second refusal
brought death. When numerous Anabaptists came from the continent
to live in the port towns, the Queen issued a proclamation
ordering them to leave the realm because their pernicious opinions
could corrupt the church. The new church still accepted the theory
of the devil causing storms, but opposed ringing the holy church
bells to attempt to drive him away. The sins of people were also
thought to cause storms, and also plagues.

In 1562, the Church of England wrote down its Christian Protestant
beliefs in thirty-nine Articles of Religion, which specifically
excluded certain Catholic beliefs. They were incorporated into
statute in 1571 establishing them as the tenets of the official
religion of England. The first eighteen endorsed the ideas of one
God, Christ as the son of God who was sacrificed for all the sins
of men, the resurrection of Christ from the dead and ascension
into heaven, the Holy Ghost proceeding from the father and the
son, the books of the Bible, the original sin of Adam and his
offspring, justification of man by faith in Christ rather than by
good works, goods works as the inspired fruit and proof of faith
in Christ, Christ in the flesh as like man except for the absence
of sin, the chance for sinners who have been Baptised to be
forgiven if they truly repent and amend their lives, the
predestination of some to be brought by Christ to eternal
salvation and their minds to be drawn up to high and heavenly
things, and salvation only by the name of Christ and not by a
sect. Other tenets described the proper functions of the church,
distinguishing them from Roman Catholic practice. Specifically,
the church was not to expound one place of scripture so that it
was inconsistent with another place of scripture. Because man can
err, the church was not to ordain or enforce anything to be
believed for necessity of salvation. Explicitly renounced were the
Romish doctrine concerning purgatory, pardons, worshipping,
adoration of images or reliques, invocation of saints, and the use
in church of any language, such as Latin, not understood by the
people. Only the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper were
recognized. The Lord's Supper was to be a sign of the love that
Christians ought to have among themselves and a sacrament of
redemption by Christ's death. The wine in the cup of blessing as
well as the bread of the Lord's Supper was to be taken by lay-
people and to be a partaking of Christ; there was no Romish mass.
Excommunication was limited to those who openly denounced the
church. Anyone openly breaking the traditions or ceremonies of the
church which were approved by common authority were to be rebuked.
Elizabeth told the bishops that she wished certain homilies to be
read in church, which encouraged good works such as fasting,
prayer, alms-giving, Christian behavior, repentance, and against
idolatry, gluttony, drunkenness, excess of apparel, idleness, and
rebellion. These she considered more instructive and learned that
ministers' sermons, which were often influenced by various
gentlemen and were inconsistent with each other. Consecration of
bishops and ministers was regulated; and they were allowed to
marry. The standard prayer was: "Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth
as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive
us our offenses as we forgive those who have offended against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For
Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever,
amen."

There was difficulty persuading educated and moral men to be
church ministers, even though Elizabeth expressed to the bishops
her preference for ministers who were honest and wise instead of
learned in religious matters. The Bible was read at home and
familiar to everyone. This led to the growth of the Puritan
movement. The Puritans believed in the right of the individual
Christian to interpret the Scriptures for himself by spiritual
illumination. They opposed the mystical interpretation of the
Communion service. The Puritans complained that the church exerted
insufficient control over the morals of the congregation. Their
ideas of morality were very strict and even plays were thought to
be immoral. The Independent Puritans were those Protestants who
had fled from Mary's Catholic reign to the continent, where they
were persuaded to the ideas of John Calvin of Geneva. He stressed
the old idea of predestination in the salvation of souls, which
had in the past been accepted by nearly all English Christian
leaders, thinkers, and teachers, but not stressed. The act of
conversion was a common experience among the early Puritans. The
concomitant hatred of past sins and love of God which was felt in
thankfulness for mercy were proof of selection for salvation. The
good works that followed were merely an obligation showing that
one's faith was real, but not a way to salvation.

But the puritans also accepted Calvin's idea of independent church
government. They therefore thought that ministers and lay elders
of each parish should regulate religious affairs and that the
bishops, who were "petty popes", should be reduced to an equality
with the rest of the clergy, since they did not rule by divine
right. The office of archbishop should be eliminated and the head
of state should not necessarily be governor of the church. These
ideas were widely disseminated in books and pamphletts. The
puritans disrupted the established church's Sunday services,
tearing the surplice off the minister's back and the wafers and
wine from the altar rail. The puritans arranged "lectures" on
Sunday afternoons and on weekdays. These were given gratuitously
or funded by boroughs. They were strict about not working on the
sabbath, which day they gave to spiritual exercises, meditations,
and works of mercy. The only work allowed was preparing meals for
themselves, caring for their animals, and milking the cows. They
enforced a strict moral discipline on themselves. The puritan
movement included William Brewster, an assistant to a court
official who was disciplined for delivering, upon pressure from
the council, the Queen's signed execution order for Mary of
Scotland after the Queen had told him to hold it until she
directed otherwise. The puritans formed a party in the House of
Commons.

The debased coinage was replaced by a recoinage of newly minted
coins with a true silver weight.

Goldsmiths, who also worked silver, often acted as guardians of
clients' wealth. They began to borrow at interest at one rate in
order to lend out to traders at a higher rate. This began banking.

Patents were begun to encourage the new merchant lords to develop
local manufactures or to expand import and export trade. Patents
were for a new manufacture or an improved older one and determined
the wages of its trades. There was chartering of merchant
companies and granting of exclusive rights to new industries as
monopolies. Some monopolies or licenses were patents or copyrights
of inventors. Others established trading companies for trade to
certain foreign lands and supporting consular services. People
holding monopolies were accountable to the government. There were
monopolies on certain smoked fish, fish oil, seal oil, oil of
blubber, vinegar, salt, currants, aniseed, juniper berry liquor,
bottles, glasses, brushes, pots, bags, cloth, starch, steel, tin,
iron, cards, horn, ox shinbones, ashes, shreds of gloves, earth
coal, calamite stone, powder, saltpeter, lead manufacturing by-
products, and transportation of leather.

For far-flung enterprises and those where special arrangements
with foreign countries was required, there was sharing of stock of
companies, usually by merchants of the same type of goods. In
joint-stock companies each member took a certain number of shares
and all the selling of the goods of each merchant was carried on
by the officials of the company. The device of joint stock might
take the form of a fully incorporated body or of a less formal and
unincorporated syndicate. The greatest joint-stock company was
East India Company, chartered in 1600 to trade there in
competition with the Dutch East India Company. It was given a
fifteen year monopoly on trade east of the southern tip of Africa.
Unlike the Muscovy Company, and Merchants of the Staple,
individual members could not trade on their own account, but only
through the corporate body on its voyages. It was regulated as to
each particular voyage and helped with problems by the Crown and
Privy Council, for instance when further subscriptions were
needed, or when carpenters were needed to be pressed into service
for fitting out ships, or to deal with an unsuccessful captain.
Its charter retained many of the aspects of the medieval trade
guild: power to purchase lands, to sue and be sued, to make by-
laws, and to punish offenders against them by fine or
imprisonment. Admission was by purchase of a share in a voyage,
redemption, presentation, patrimony (sons of members who were
twenty-one), and apprenticeship. Purchase of a share in a voyage
was the most common method. A share for the first ship cost 100
pounds. When share purchase did not suffice, redemption for such
cash payments as could be obtained was resorted to. Occasionally
presentation or a faculty "for the making of a freeman" was
granted to some nobleman or powerful member. Members' liability
was limited to their individual subscriptions. Each voyage had 1)
a Royal Commission authorizing the Company to undertake the
expedition and vesting in its commanders powers for punishing
offences during the voyage, and quenching any mutiny, quarrels, or
dissension that might arise; 2) a code of instructions from the
Company to the Admiral and to commanders of ships setting forth in
great detail the scope and objects of the voyage together with
minute regulations for its conduct and trade; 3) authorization for
coinage of money or export of specie (gold or silver); and 4)
letters missive from the sovereign to foreign rulers at whose
ports the ships were to trade. The first voyage brought back
spices that were sold at auction in London for ten times their
price in the Indies and brought to shareholders a profit
equivalent to 9 1/2% yearly for the ten years when the going
interest rate was 8% a year.

Town government was often controlled by a few merchant
wholesalers. The entire trade of a town might be controlled by its
drapers or by a company of the Merchant Adventurers of London. The
charter of the latter as of 1564 allowed a common seal, perpetual
existence, liberty to purchase lands, and liberty to exercise
their government in any part of the nation. It was controlled by a
group of rich Londoners, no more than 50, who owned the bulk of
the cloth exported. There were policies of insurance given by
groups of people for losses of ships and their goods. Marine
insurance was regulated.

New companies were incorporated for many trades. They were
associations of employers rather than the old guilds which were
associations of actual workers. The ostensible reason was the
supervision of the quality of the wares produced in that trade.
(Shoemakers, haberdashers, saddlers, and curriers exercised close
supervision over these wares.) They paid heavily for their patents
or charters.

There was no sharp line between craftsman and shopkeeper or
between shopkeeper and wholesale merchant. In London, an
enterprising citizen could pass freely from one occupation to
another. Borrowing money for a new enterprise was common.
Industrial suburbs grew up around London and some towns became
known as specialists in certain industries. The building crafts in
the towns often joined together into one company, e.g. wrights,
carpenters, slaters, and sawyers, or joiners, turners, carvers,
bricklayers, tilers, wallers, plasterers, and paviors. These
companies included small contractors, independent masters, and
journeymen. The master craftsman often was a tradesman as well,
who supplied timber, bricks, or lime for the building being
constructed. The company of painters was chartered with a
provision prohibiting painting by persons not apprenticed for
seven years.

The prosperous merchants began to form a capitalistic class as
capitalism grew. Competition for renting farm land, previously
unknown, caused these rents to rise. The price of wheat rose to an
average of 14s. per quarter, thereby encouraging tillage once
more. There was steady inflation.

With enclosure of agricultural land there could be more innovation
and more efficiency, e.g. the time for sowing could be chosen. It
was easier to prevent over-grazing and half-starved animals as a
result. The complications of the open system with its endless
quarrels and lawsuits were avoided. Now noblemen talked about
manure and drainage, rotation of crops, clover, and turnips
instead of hunting, horses, and dogs. The breed of horses and
cattle was improved. There were specializations such as the
hunting horse and the coach horse. By royal proclamation of 1562,
there were requirements for the keeping of certain horses. For
instance, everyone with lands of at least 1,000 pounds had to keep
six horses or geldings able for demilances [rider bearing a light
lance] and ten horses or geldings for light horsemen [rode to
battle, but fought on foot]. One with under 100 pounds but over
100 marks yearly had to keep one gelding for a light horseman.
Dogs had been bred into various types of hounds for hunting, water
and land spaniels for falconry, and other dogs as house dogs or
toy dogs. There were no longer any wild boar or wild cattle. The
turkey joined the cocks, hens, geese, ducks, pigeons, and peacocks
in the farmyard. Manure and dressings were used to fertilize the
soil. Hay became a major crop because it could be grown on grazing
lands and required little care.

There are new and bigger industries such as glassware, iron,
brasswares, alum and coppers, gunpowder, paper, coal, and sugar.
The coal trade was given a monopoly. Coal was used for fuel as
well as wood, which was becoming scarce. Iron smelters
increasingly used coal instead of charcoal, which was limited.
Iron was used for fire-backs, pots, and boilers. Good quality
steel was first produced in 1565 with the help of German
craftsmen, and a slitting mill was opened in 1588. Small metal
goods, especially cutlery, was made, as well as nails, bolts,
hinges, locks, ploughing and harrowing equipment, rakes, pitch
forks, shovels, spades, and sickles. Lead was used for windows and
roofs. Copper and brass were used to make pots and pans. Pewter
was used for plates, drinking vessels, and candlesticks.
Competition was the mainspring of trade and therefore of town
life.

The mode of travel of the gentry was riding horses, but most
people traveled by walking. People carried passes for travel that
certified they were of good conduct and not a vagrant or sturdy
rogue. Bands of roving vagabonds terrorized the countryside. After
a land survey completed in 1579 there arose travel books with
maps, itineraries, and mileage between towns in England and Wales.
Also, the Queen sent her official mail by four royal postal routes
along high roads from London to various corners of the nation.
Horses are posted along the way for the mail-deliverer's use.
However, private mail still goes by packman or common carrier. The
nation's inland trade developed a lot. There were many more
wayfaring traders operating from town inns. In 1564, the first
canal was built with locks at Exeter. More locks and canals
facilitated river travel. At London Bridge, water-wheels and pumps
are installed.

New sea navigation techniques improved voyages. Seamen learned to
fix their positions, using an astrolabe or quadrant to take the
altitude of the sun and stars and to reckon by the north star.
They used a nocturnal, read by touch, to help keep time at night
by taking the altitude of the stars. They calculated tides. To
measure distances, they invented the traverse board, which was
bored with holes upon lines, showing the points of the compass; by
means of pegs, the steersman kept an account of the course
steered. A log tied to a rope with knots at equal intervals was
used to measure speed. There were compasses with a bearing dial on
a circular plate with degrees up to 360 noted thereon. Seamen had
access to compilations of Arab mathematicians and astronomers and
to navigational manuals and technical works on the science of
navigation and the instruments necessary for precision sailing.
For merchants there were maps, books about maps, cosmographical
surveys, and books on the newly-discovered lands. In 1569 John
Mercator produced a map taking into account the converging of the
meridians towards the pole. On this chart, a straight line course
would correspond to a mariner's actual course through the water on
the earth's sphere, instead of having the inaccuracies of a
straight line on a map which suggested that the world was flat. It
was in use by 1600.

Christmas was an especially festive time of good fellowship.
People greeted each other with "Good cheer", "God be with you", or
"Against the new year". Carols were often sung and musicians
played many tunes. There was dancing and gambling. There were big
dinners with many kinds of meat and drink. A hearty fire heated
all the house. Many alms were given to beggars.

Parliament enacted laws and voted taxes. The Queen, House of
Lords, and House of Commons cooperated together. There was
relatively little dissension or debating. Bills were read, voted
on, discussed, and passed with the lords, peers, bishops, and
justices sitting in their places according to their degree. The
justices sat on the wool sacks. A bar separated this area from the
rest of the room, where the members of the commons stood. There
were many bills concerning personal, local, or sectional
interests, but priority consideration was given to public
measures. The House of Lords still had 55 members. The Queen
appointed and paid the Speaker, Clerk, and Sergeant at Arms of the
Commons. The knights in the Commons were almost invariably from
the county's leading families and chosen by consensus of knights
with free land of at least 40s. in the county court. In the towns,
the electors might be the town corporation, holders of certain
properties, all the freemen, all the ratepayers, or all the male
inhabitants. Disputed elections were not usually concerned with
political issues, but were rivalries for power. The Commons
gradually won for its members freedom from arrest without its
permission and the right of punishing and expelling members for
crimes committed. Tax on land remained at 10% of its estimated
yearly income. The Queen deferred to the church convocation to
define Christian faith and religion, thus separating church and
state functions.

The Treasury sought to keep a balanced budget by selling royal
land and keeping Crown expenditures down. The Crown carried a
slight debt incurred before the Queen's accession.

Theft and robbery were so usual that there were names for various
techniques used. A Ruffler went with a weapon to seek service,
saying that he was a servitor in the wars, but his chief "trade"
was to rob poor wayfaring men and market women. A Prigman went
with a stick in his hand like an idle person, but stole clothes
off hedges. A Whipjack begged like a mariner, but with a
counterfeit license (called a "gibe"); he mostly robbed booths in
fairs or pilfered ware from stalls, which was called "heaving of
the booth". A Frater had a counterfeit license to beg for some
hospital, but preyed upon poor women coming and going to market. A
Quire Bird was a person recently let out of prison, and was
commonly a horse stealer. An Upright Man carried a truncheon of a
staff and called others to account to him and give him a share or
"snap" of all that they had gained in one month, and he often beat
them. He took the chief place at any market walk and other
assemblies. Workers at inns often teamed up with robbers, telling
them of wares or money travelers were carrying so the robber could
profitably rob them after they left the inn.

Violence was still a part of the texture of everyday life. Private
armories and armed gangs were not uncommon. Agricultural laborers
kept sword and bow in a corner of their fields in the first part
of Elizabeth's reign. Non-political brutal crime and homicides
were commonplace. There were frequent local riots and
disturbances, in the country and in the towns. Occasionally there
were large-scale rebellions. But the rebellion of the Earl of
Essex in 1601 had no aftermath in violence. In 1590, the Queen
issued a proclamation enforcing curfew for London apprentices, who
had been misruly. The Queen issued proclamations to certain
counties to place vagrant soldiers or vagrants under martial law
because of numerous robberies. She ordered the deportation of
vagrant Irishmen in 1594.

After exhausting every other alternative, the Queen reluctantly
agreed with her Privy Council on the execution in 1572 of Mary,
Queen of Scots, who had been involved in a plot to assassinate her
and claim the throne of England. Her Council had persuaded her
that it was impossible for her to live in safety otherwise.

Francis Drake sailed around the world from 1577 to 1580. Walter
Ralegh made an expedition to North America in 1584 with the
Queen's authority to "discover barbarous countries, not actually
possessed of any Christian prince and inhabited by Christian
people, to occupy and enjoy". He found and named the land of
Virginia in honor of the Queen, who was a virgin, and started a
colony on Roanoke Island there. Drake and Ralegh plundered Spanish
ships for cargo such as American gold and silver, much of which
was used to pay for the war with Spain and much going to
investors. There experience fighting Spanish ships led to
improvements in ship design; building ships was no longer merely
by copying another ship or a small model. In 1588, the Spanish
Armada came to invade England, and was for the most part
destroyed. In that battle, Drake and other experienced sea-
fighters led two hundred English ships, of which about 20 were
built to sink other ships rather than to board and capture them.
These new English ships were longer and narrower and did away with
the towering superstructures at bow and stern. This made them more
maneuverable and easier to sail. Also, the English guns were
lighter, more numerous, and outranged the Spanish guns. So the
smaller English ships were able to get close enough to fire
broadside after broadside against the big Spanish troop-transport
galleons, without being fired upon. The direction of the wind
forced the Spanish galleons northward, where most of them were
destroyed by storms. The English seamen had been arbitrarily
pressed into this service.

A royal proclamation of 1601 offered a reward of 100 pounds for
information on libels against the Queen. There had been mounting
demonstrations against her monopolies, which mostly affected
household items. There had been abuses of monopolies, such as the
steel monopoly had been sold for 12 pounds 10s., but steel was
then sold at 5d. per pound instead of the former 2 1/2 d. per
pound. Further the steel was mixed and of a lesser quality. This
so damaged the knife and sword industry that about 2000 workers
lost their jobs from it and became beggars. Monopoly was a severe
burden to the middle and poorer classes. Also, the power of patent
holders to arrest and imprison persons charged with infringing
upon their rights was extended to any disliked person.

When the House of Commons protested against monopolies in 1601,
Elizabeth reduced them. She addressed her Council and the Commons
saying that "Mr. Speaker, you give me thanks, but I doubt me that
I have more cause to thank you all than you me; and I charge you
to thank them of the Lower House from me. For had I not received a
knowledge from you, I might have fallen into the lapse of an error
only for lack of true information. Since I was queen yet did I
never put my pen to any grant but that upon pretext and semblance
made unto me, it was both good and beneficial to the subject in
general, though a private profit to some of my ancient servants
who had deserved well. But the contrary being found by experience,
I am exceedingly beholding to such subjects as would move the same
at the first. And I am not so simple to suppose but that there be
some of the Lower House whom these grievances never touched; and
for them I think they speak out of zeal to their countries and not
out of spleen or malevolent affection, as being parties grieved.
And I take it exceedingly gratefully from them, because it gives
us to know that no respects or interests had moved them other than
the minds they bear to suffer no diminution of our honor and our
subjects' love unto us, the zeal of which affection tending to
ease my people and knit their hearts unto me, I embrace with a
princely care. For above all earthly treasures I esteem my
people's love, more than which I desire not to merit. That my
grants should be grievous unto my people and oppressions to be
privileged under color of our patents, our kingly dignity shall
not suffer it. Yea, when I heard it I could give no rest unto my
thoughts until I had reformed it. Shall they (think you) escape
unpunished that have thus oppressed you, and I have been
respectless of their duty and regardless of our honor? No, no, Mr.
Speaker, I assure you, were it not more for conscience' sake than
for any glory or increase of love that I desire, these errors,
troubles, vexations, and oppressions done by these varlets and low
persons (not worthy the name of subjects) should not escape
without condign punishment. But I perceive they dealt with me like
physicians who, ministering a drug, make it more acceptable by
giving it a good aromatical savor; or when they give pills, do
gild them all over. I have ever used to set the Last Judgment day
before my eyes and so to rule as I shall be judged, to answer
before a higher judge. To whose judgment seat I do appeal that
never thought was cherished in my heart that tended not unto my
people's good. And now if my kingly bounties have been abused and
my grants turned to the hurts of my people, contrary to my will
and meaning, or if any in authority under me have neglected or
perverted what I have commited to them, I hope Good will not lay
their culps [sins] and offenses to my charge. Who, though there
were danger in repealing our grants, yet what danger would I not
rather incur for your good than I would suffer them still to
continue? I know the title of a king is a glorious title, but
assure yourself that the shining glory of princely authority hath
not so dazzled the eyes of our understanding but that we well know
and remember that we also are to yield an account of our actions
before the great Judge. To be a king and wear a crown is a thing
more glorious to them that see it than it is pleasant to them that
bear it. For myself, I was never so much enticed with the glorious
name of a king or royal authority of a queen as delighted that God
hath made me His instrument to maintain His truth and glory, and
to defend this kingdom from peril, dishonor, tyranny, and
oppression. There will never queen sit in my seat with more zeal
to my country, care to my subjects, and that will sooner with
willingness venture her life for your good and safety, than
myself. For it is not my desire to live or reign longer than my
life and reign shall be for your good. And though you have had and
may have many princes more mighty and wise sitting in this seat,
yet you never had or shall have any that will be more careful and
loving."

About 1584, Richard Hakluyt, a Bristol clergyman, wrote "A
Particular Discourse concerning Western Discoveries". This was to
become the classic statement of the case for English colonization.
It held out hope that the English would find needed timber for
masts, pitch, tar, and ashes for soap.

In Rome in 1600, Giordano Bruno, an Italian monk and priest, was
burned alive at the stake by a court of the inquisition for not
recanting, although tortured, his heretical and blasphemous
philosophy. He had opined that Christianity was irrational and had
no scientific basis, that Christ was only a skillful magician,
that the Bible could not be taken literally, that God and nature
were not separate as taught by Genesis, that the Catholic church
encouraged ignorance from the instinct of self-preservation, and
that the earth and planets revolved around the sun, as did other
planets around other suns.

The Jesuits, a new Catholic order brimming with zeal, sent
missionaries to England to secretly convert people to Catholicism.
The practice of Catholicism had gone underground in England, and
some Catholic house-holders maintained Catholic priests in hidden
places in their homes.



                              - The Law -

Although estate tails (estates descendible only to the heirs of
the body of the original feofee) by law could not be sold or given
away, this was circumvented by use of a straw man. In
collaboration with the possessor of the property, this straw man
sued the possessor asserting that the property had been wrongfully
taken from the straw man. The possessor pleaded that the crier of
the court who had warranted it should be called to defend the
action. He failed to appear until after judgment had been given to
the straw man. Then the straw man conveyed it to the possessor or
his nominee in fee simple.

No one shall make false linen by stretching it and adding little
pieces of wood, which is so weak that it comes apart after five
washings.

Timber shall not be felled to make logs for fires for the making
of iron.

No one may take small fish to feed to dogs and pigs. Only nets
with mesh leaving three inches spaces may be used to catch fish.

No attainder shall result in the forfeiture of dower by the
offender's wife nor disinheritance of his heirs.

The following statute of artificers regulated labor for the next
two centuries: No master or mistress may employ a servant for a
term less than one year in the crafts of clothiers, woolen cloth
weavers, tuckers, fullers, clothworkers, shearmen, dyers, hosiers,
tailors, shoemakers, tanners pewterers, bakers, brewers, glove-
makers, cutlers, smith, farriers, curriers, saddlers, spurriers,
turners, cappers, hatmakers, feltmakers, bow-makers, arrow-makers,
arrow-head-makers, butchers, cooks, or millers, so that
agriculture will be advanced and idleness diminished. Also, every
craftsman unmarried or under age 30 who is not working must accept
employment by any person needing the craft work. Also, any common
person between 12 and 60 who is not working must accept employment
in agriculture. And, unmarried women between 12 and 40 may be
required by town officials to work by the year, the week, or day
for wages they determine.

All artificers and laborers hired by the day or week shall work
from 5 am to 7 PM. All artificers must labor at agriculture at
haytime and harvest to avoid the loss of grain or hay. Every
householder who raises crops may receive as an apprentice a child
between 10 and 18 to serve in agriculture until he is age 21. A
householder in a town may receive a child as an apprentice for 7
years, but merchants may only take as apprentices children of
parents with 40s. freehold. (This was designed to inhibit
migration to the towns. It excluded three fourths of the rural
population.)

No one may be a craftsman until he has served seven years as an
apprentice. These artificers may have children as apprentices:
smith, wheelmaker, ploughmaker, millmaker, miller, carpenter,
rough mason, plasterer, a timber sawer, an ore burner, a lime
burner, brickmaker, bricklayer, tilemaker, tiler, layer of slate
roofs, layer of wood shingle roofs, layer of straw roofs, cooper,
earthen potter, linen weaver, housewife who weaves wool for sale
or for household use.

Fish, but no meat, may be eaten on Wednesdays so that there will
be more fishermen and mariners and repair of ports. (This was done
because fishing had declined since the dissolution of the
monasteries. Eating fish instead of meat in Lent in the springtime
remained a tradition.)

For repairing of highways, the supervisors may take the rubbish or
smallest stones of any quarry along the road in their precinct.

Embezzlement or theft by a servant of his master's goods of 40s.
or more is a felony.

No one shall forge a deed of land, charter, sealed writing, court
roll or will.

No one shall libel or slander so as to cause a rebellion.

Cut-purses and pick-purses shall not have benefit of clergy.

A debtor may not engage in a fraudulent collusion to sell his land
and goods in order to avoid his creditors.

A person robbing a house of 5s. by day when no one is there shall
not have benefit of clergy, because too many poor persons who
cannot hire a servant to look after their house when they go to
work have been robbed.

When the hue and cry is raised for a robbery in a hundred, and
other hundreds have been negligent, faulty, or defective in
pursuit of the robber, then they must pay half the damages to the
person robbed, while the hundred in which the robbery occurred
pays the other half. Robbers shall be pursued by horse and by
foot.

The price of barrels shall be set by mayors of the towns where
they are sold.

No man under the degree of knight may wear a hat or cap of velvet.
Caps may not be made of felt, but only knit wool. Only hats may be
made of felt. This is to assist the craft of making wool caps.

Every person over 6 years of age shall wear on Sundays a wool
knitted cap made by the cappers, except for maidens, ladies,
gentlewomen, noble persons, and every lord, knight, and gentlemen
with 2,667s. of land, since the practice of not wearing caps has
damaged the capping industry. This employed cappers and poor
people they had employed and the decrepit and lame as carders,
spinners, knitters, parters, forsers, thickers, dressers, dyers,
battelers, shearers, pressers, edgers, liners, and bandmakers.

Rugs shall weigh 44 pounds at least and be 35 yards at least in
length and at most 3/4 yard wide.

The incorporated company of ship masters may erect beacons and
marks on the seashores and hills above, because certain steeples
and other marks used for navigation have fallen down and ships
therefore have been lost in the sea.

There shall be one sheriff per county, because now there are
enough able men to supply one per county.

Trials of noblemen for treason shall be by their peers.

A native or denizen merchant in wholesale or retail goods who
leaves the nation to defraud his creditors shall be declared a
bankrupt. The Chancellor may conduct an investigation to ascertain
his land, house, and goods, no matter who may hold them. They
shall be appraised and sold to satisfy his debts.

Loan contracts for money lent may not be for more than 200s. for
each 2000s. yearly. All loans of money or forbearing of money in
sales of goods for less than this shall be punishable by forfeit
of the interest only.

No cattle may be put in any enclosed woods that have been growing
less than five years. At the end of five years growth, calves may
be put in. At the end of six years growth, cattle may be put in.

The mother and reputed father of any bastard who has been left to
be kept at the parish where born must pay weekly for the upkeep
and relief of such child, so that the true aged and disabled of
the parish get their relief and to punish the lewd life.

No master at a university may lease any land unless 1/3 of it is
retained for raising crops to supply the colleges and halls for
food for their scholars.

Persons with 100s. in goods or 40s. in lands shall find two able
men in their parish community to repair the highways yearly.

Landowners of Oxford shall be taxed for the repair of the highway
and bridge there.

Woods around London shall not be felled to be converted to coals
for iron-works because London needs the wood to make buildings and
for fireplaces.

Every melter and maker of wax from honeycombs shall put his mark
on every piece of his wax to be sold. Wrought wax such as in
lights, staff-torches, red wax or sealing wax, book candles, or
searing candles shall bear its maker's mark. All barrels of honey
shall bear the mark of the honeymaker.

Wool cloth, cotton cloth, flannel cloth, hose-yarn, hats, and caps
shall be dyed black only with dye from the woad plant and not with
any false black dye.

No one shall take or kill any pheasants with nets or devices at
nighttime because such have become scarce.

Lands, tenements, goods and chattels of accountants teller, or
receiver who are in debt may be obtained by court order to satisfy
the debt by garnishing the heir of the debtor after the heir has
reached 21 and for the 8 years next ensuing.

Fraudulent and secret conveyances made to retain the use of one's
land when one sells the land to a bona fide purchaser for value in
fee simple, fee tail, for life, for lives, or for years are void.

No new iron mills or furnaces for making or working of any iron or
iron metal shall be established in the country around London and
the owners of carriages of coals, mines and iron which have
impaired or destroyed the highways shall also carry coal ashes,
gravel, or stone to repair these highways or else make a payment
of 2s.6d. for each cart load not carried.

No one shall bribe an elector to vote for a certain person for
fellow, scholar, or officer of a college, school, or hall or
hospital so that the fittest persons will be elected, though
lacking in money or friends, and learning will therefore be
advanced.

Cottage and dwelling houses for workmen or laborers in mineral
works, coal mines, or quarries of stone or slate for the making of
brick, tile, lime, or coals shall be built only within a mile from
such works. Dwelling houses beyond this must be supported by four
acres of land to be continually occupied and manured as long as
the dwelling house is inhabited or forfeit 40s. per month to the
Queen. Cottages and dwelling houses for sailors or laborers
working on ships for the sea shall be built only within a mile of
the sea. A cottage may be built in a forest or park for a game
keeper of the deer. A cottage may be built for a herd-man or
shepherd for the keeping of cattle or sheep of the town. A cottage
may be built for a poor, lame, sick, aged, or disabled person on
waste or common land. More families than one may not be placed in
one cottage or dwelling house.

A vagabond or mighty strong beggar [able to work] shall be
whipped.

Any person with land in fee-simple may establish a hospital,
abiding place, or house of correction to have continuance forever
as a corporation for the sustenance and relief of the maimed,
poor, or disabled people as to set the poor to work. The net
income shall not exceed 40,000s. yearly.

Troops of vagabonds with weapons in the highways who pretend to be
soldiers or mariners have committed robberies and murders. So all
vagabonds shall settle down in some service or labor or trade.

Pontage [toll for upkeep and repair of bridges] shall be taken at
certain bridges: carts 2d., horse and pack 1d., a flock of sheep
2d.

Crown officials such as treasurers, receivers, accountants, and
revenue collectors shall not embezzle Crown funds and shall be
personally liable for arrears.

Persons forcibly taking others across county lines to hold them
for ransom and those taking or giving blackmail money and those
who burn barns or stacks of grain shall be declared felons and
shall suffer death, without any benefit of clergy or sanctuary.

No bishop may lease land for more than twenty-one years or three
lives.

No bishop may alienate any possession of their sees to the crown.
Such are void.

Stewards of leet and baron courts may no longer receive, in their
own names, profits of the court over 12d. since they have vexed
subjects with grievous fines and amercements so that profits of
justice have grown much.

Incorrigible and dangerous rogues shall be branded with an "R"
mark on the left shoulder and be put to labor, because banishment
did not work as they came back undetected. If one is caught again
begging, he shall be deemed a felon.

Any innkeeper, victualler, or alehouse keeper who allows drinking
by persons other than those invited by a traveler who accompanies
him during his necessary abode there and other than laborers and
handicraftsmen in towns upon the usual working days for one hour
at dinner time to take their diet in an alehouse and other than
laborers and workmen following their work to any given town to
sojourn, lodge, or victual in any inn, alehouse or victualling
house shall forfeit 10s. for each offense. This is because the use
of inns, alehouses, and victualling houses was intended for relief
and lodgings of travelling people and people not able to provide
their own victuals, but not for entertainment and harboring of
lewd and idle people who become drunk.

If a person marries a second time while the first spouse is still
living, it shall be a felony and thus punishable by death.

Watermen transporting people on the Thames River shall have served
as apprentice to a waterman for five years or have been the son of
a waterman. This is to prevent the loss of lives and goods by
inexperienced watermen.

No one may make any hat unless he has served as apprentice for at
least seven years. This is to prevent false and deceitful hat-
making by unskillful persons.

Spices and potions, including pepper, cloves, mace, nutmeg,
cinnamon, ginger, almonds, and dates, which have usually been
garbled shall be garbled, cleaned, sorted, and sealed by the
Garbler before sale. This is to prevent mingled, corrupt, and
unclean spices and potions from being sold.

Plasterers shall cease painting because it has intruded upon the
livelihoods of painters who have been apprenticed as such.

Pawn brokers accepting stolen goods shall forfeit twice their
value to the owner from whom stolen.

No butcher may cut any hide or any ox, bull, steer, or cow so that
it is impaired or may kill any calf under five weeks old. No
butcher may be a tanner. No one may be a tanner unless apprenticed
as such for seven years or the son or wife of a tanner who has
tanned for four years or a son or daughter of a tanner who
inherits his tanhouse. Tanners may not be shoemakers, curriers,
butchers, or leatherworkers. Only tanners may buy raw hides. Only
leatherworkers may buy leather. Only sufficiently strong and
substantial leather may be used for sole-leather. Curriers may not
be tanners. Curriers may not refuse to curry leather. London
searchers shall inspect leather, seal and mark that which is
sufficient, and seize any that is insufficiently tanned, curried,
wrought, or used.

Fishermen and their guides may continue to use the coastland for
their fishing activities despite the trespass to landowners.

Since sails for ships in recent years have been made in the realm
instead of imported, none shall make such cloth unless he has been
apprenticed in such or brought up in the trade for seven years.
This is to stop the badness of such cloth.

Any person killing any pheasant, partridge, dove, pigeon, duck or
the like with any gun, crossbow, stonebow, or longbow, or with
dogs and nets or snares, or taking the eggs of such from their
nests, or tracing or taking hares in the snow shall be imprisoned
for three months unless he pays 20s. per head or, after one
month's imprisonment, have two sureties bound for 400s. This is
because the past penalty of payment hasn't deterred offenders, who
frequently cannot pay.

Persons affected by the plague may not leave their houses or be
deemed felons and suffer death. This is to avoid further
infection. The towns may tax their inhabitants for the relief of
infected persons.

Tonnage [tax per ton] and poundage [tax per pound] on goods
exported and imported shall be taken to provide safeguard of the
seas for such goods.

All persons must go to the established church on Sundays and holy
days. The penalty was at first forfeiture 12d. along with church
punishment, and later, 20 pounds per month and being bound by two
sureties for 200 pounds for good behavior, and if the 20 pounds is
not paid, then forfeiture of all goods to be applied to the amount
due and two-thirds of one's land.

These laws were directed against Catholicism, but were laxly
enforced as long as worship was not open and no one wore priestly
clothes:

The writing, preaching, or maintaining of any foreign spiritual
jurisdiction shall be punished by forfeiture of goods or, if the
goods are not worth 20 pounds, one year imprisonment, for the
first offence; forfeiture of goods and lands and the King's
protection, for the second offence; and the penalty for high
treason for the third offence.

Any person leading others to the Romish [Catholic] religion is
guilty of high treason. The penalty for saying mass is [2,667s.]
200 marks and one year's imprisonment. The penalty for hearing
mass is [1,333s.] 100 marks and one year's imprisonment. If one is
suspected of being a Jesuit or priest giving mass, one must answer
questions on examination or be imprisoned.

Papists [those who in conscience refused to take the oath of
supremacy of the Crown over the church] must stay in their place
of abode and not go five miles from it, unless licensed to do so
for business, or forfeit one's goods and profits of land for life.
If a copyholder, land is forfeited to one's lord. But if the goods
are not worth 800s. or the land is not worth at least 267s., the
realm must be abjured. Otherwise, the papist is declared a felon
without benefit of clergy.

If a child is sent to a foreign land for Catholic education, he
cannot inherit lands or goods or money, unless he conforms to the
established church on his return. There is also a 100 pound
penalty for the persons who sent him.

Devising or speaking seditious rumors are penalized by the pillory
and loss of both ears for the first offense; and 200 pounds and
six months imprisonment for the second offence. Slandering the
Queen is penalized by the pillory and loss of one ear, or by
[1,333s.] 100 marks and three months imprisonment, at the choice
of the offender. The second offence is a felony. Printing,
writing, or publishing seditious books is a felony without benefit
of clergy. Wishing the Queen dead, prophesying when she would die,
or who would succeed her to the Crown is a felony without benefit
of clergy. Attainders for these felonies shall not work corruption
of the blood [heirs may inherit the property of the felon].

Because the publication of many books and pamphlets against the
government, especially the church, had led to discontents  with
the established church and to the spreading of sects and schisms,
the Star Chamber in 1585 held that the printing trade was to be
confined to London, except for one press at Oxford and one at
Cambridge. No book or pamphlet could be printed unless the text
was first seen, examined, and allowed by the Archbishop of
Canterbury or the Bishop of London. Book publishers in violation
were to be imprisoned for six months and banned from printing;
their equipment was to be destroyed. Wardens were authorized to
search wherever "they shall have reasonable cause of suspicion",
and to seize all such books and pamphlets printed. But printers
continued to print unlicensed material.



                         - Judicial Procedure -

Jurors shall be selected from those people who have at least 80s.
annual income instead of 40s. because sheriffs have been taking
bribes by the most able and sufficient freeholders to be spared at
home and the poorer and simpler people, who are least able to
discern the causes in question, and most unable to bear the
charges of appearance and attendance in such cases have been the
jurors. Also there had been inflation.

Defendants sued or informed against upon penal statutes may appear
by attorney so that they may avoid the inconvenience of traveling
a long distance to attend and put to bail.

No only sheriffs, but their employees who impanel juries or
execute process in the courts shall take an oath of office.

A hundred shall answer for any robbery therein only if there has
been negligence or fault in pursuit of the robber after a hue and
cry is made because the past law has been too harsh and required
payment for offenses from people unable to pay who have done
everything reasonable to catch the robber.

The Star Chamber became the central criminal court after 1560, and
punished perjury, corruption, malfeasance throughout the legal
system such as jury corruption and judicial bribery, rioting,
slander, and libel. Its procedure was inquisitory rather than
accusative. It heard witnesses in camera [not in the presence of
the suspected]. Trial was by systematic interrogation of the
suspected on oath, with torture if necessary in treason cases.
Silence could be taken for a confession of guilt. There was no
jury. Queen Elizabeth chose not to sit on this court. Punishments
were imprisonment, fines, the pillory, ear cropping or tacking,
whipping, stigmata on the face, but not death or any dismemberment
except for the ears. (The gentry was exempt from whipping.)

The Ecclesiastical High Commission [later called the Court of High
Commission or High Court of Ecclesiastical Causes] took over
criminal cases formerly heard by the church courts. It also heard
matters of domestic morals. It was led by bishops and Privy
Council members who in 1559 were authorized by a statute of
Parliament to keep order within the church, discipline the clergy,
and punish such lay offenses as were included in the
ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Obstinate heresy is still a capital
crime, but practically the bishops have little power of forcing
heretics to stand trial. If anyone maintains papal authority, he
forfeits his goods; on a third conviction, he is a traitor. The
clergyman who adopts a prayer book other that the prescribed one
commits a crime. Excommunication has imprisonment behind it.
Elizabeth gave this court the power to fine and imprison, which
the former church courts had not had. At first, the chief work was
depriving papists of their benefices.

Suits on titles to land were restricted to the common law courts
and no longer to be heard in the Star Chamber, Chancery Court, or
in the Court of Requests (equity for poor people).

The Queen's Privy Council investigated sedition and treason,
security of the regime, major economic offenses, international
problems, civil commotion, officials abusing their positions, and
persons perverting the course of justice. It frequently issued
orders to Justices of the Peace, for instance to investigate riots
and crimes, to enforce the statutes against vagrancy and illegal
games, to regulate alehouses, to ensure that butchers, innkeepers,
and victuallers did not sell meat on fish days, and to gather
information needed from the counties. The Justices of the Peace
decided misdemeanors such as abduction of heiresses, illegal
entry, petty thievery, damage to crops, fence-breaking, brawling,
personal feuds, drunken pranks, swearing, profanation of the
Sabbath, alehouse nuisances, drunkenness, perjury, and malfeasance
by officials. They held petty and quarter sessions. The Justices
of the Peace had administrative duties in control of vagrancy,
upkeep of roads and bridges, and arbitration of lawsuits referred
to them by courts. They listed the poor in each parish community,
assessed rates for their maintenance, and appointed overseers to
administer the welfare system, deploying surplus funds to provide
houses of correction for vagrants. Raw materials such as wool,
flax, hemp, and iron were bought upon which the able-bodied
unemployed could be set to work at the parochial level. They
determined wages in their districts, with no statutory ceiling on
them, for all laborers, weavers, spinsters, workmen and workwomen
working by the day, week, month, or year, or taking any work at
any person's hand. There were about 50 Justices of the Peace per
county. All were unpaid. They performed these duties for the next
200 years.

The Justices of Assize rode on circuit twice a year to enforce the
criminal law and reported their assessment of the work of the
Justices of the Peace back to the Privy Council.

The duty to hear and determine felonies was taken from Justices of
the Peace by 1590. The Justices of Assize did this work. Accused
people could wait for years in gaol before their case was heard.
Felonies included breach of prison, hunting by night with painted
faces, taking horses to Scotland, stealing of hawks' eggs,
stealing cattle, highway robbery, robbing on the sea, robbing
houses, letting out of ponds, cutting of purses, deer-stealing at
night, conjuring and witchcraft, diminution of coin,
counterfeiting of coins, and impenitent roguery and idleness. The
penalty was death. Many people were hanged for the felony of theft
over 12d. Some bold men accused of felony refused to plead so that
they could not be tried and found guilty. They died of heavy
weights being placed on their bodies. But then their property
could go to their heirs.

The Court of Queen's Bench and Exchequer indirectly expanded their
jurisdiction to include suits between citizens, formerly heard
only the Court of Common Pleas or Chancery. Chancery interrogated
defendants. Chancery often issued injunctions against suits in the
common law courts. Trial by combat was very rare.

Benefit of clergy may not be had for stabbing a person who has no
weapon drawn, if he dies within six months.

Pleadings had to be in writing and oral testimony was given by
sworn witnesses. Case decisions are in books compiled by various
reporters who sit in on court hearings rather than in year books.

In the common law, trespass has given rise to the offshoot branch
of "ejectment", which becomes the common means of recovering
possession of land, no matter what kind of title the claimant
asserts. Trespass on the case has given rise to the offshoot
branch of "trover" [finding another's goods and converting them to
one's own use]. Trover gradually supplants detinue, in which there
is compurgation.

In the common law courts, the action of assumpsit for enforcing
certain promises is used more than the action of debt in those
cases where there is a debt based on an agreement. The essential
nature of "consideration" in contract is evolving from the
procedural requirements for the action of assumpsit. Consideration
may consist in mutual promises, a precedent debt, or a detriment
incurred by one who has simultaneously received a promise related
to the detrimental action. Consideration must be something, an
act, or forbearance of an act that is of value. For instance,
forbearance to sue a worthless claim is not consideration.

The abstract concept of contract as an agreement between two
parties which is supported by consideration is developing as the
number of various agreements that are court enforceable expands.
For instance the word "consideration" is used in Hayward's Case in
1595 in the Court of Wards on the construction of a deed. Sir
Rowland Hayward was seised in fee of the Doddington manor and
other lands and tenements, whereof part was in demesne, part in
lease for years with rents reserved, and part in copyhold, by
indenture, "in consideration of a certain sum of money" paid to
him by Richard Warren and others, to whom he demised, granted,
bargained and sold the said manor, lands and tenements, and the
reversions and remainders of them, with all the rents reserved
upon any demise, to have and to hold to them and their assigns,
presently after the decease of Sir Rowland, for the term of 17
years. It was held that the grantees could elect to take by
bargain and sale or by demise, each of which had different
consequences.

In another case, A delivered 400s. to B to the use of C, a woman,
to be delivered to her on the day of her marriage. Before this
day, A countermanded it, and called home the money. It was held in
the Chancery Court that C could not recover because "there is no
consideration why she should have it".

In a case concerning a deed, A sold land to B for 400s., with
confidence, that it would be to the use of A. This bargain "hath a
consideration in itself ... and such a consideration is an
indenture of bargain and sale". It was held that the transaction
was not examinable except for fraud and that A was therefore
estopped.

A court reporter at the King's Bench formulated two principles on
consideration of the case of Wilkes against Leuson as: "The heir
is estopped from falsifying the consideration acknowledged in the
deed of feoffment of his ancestor. Where a tenant in capite made a
feoffment without consideration, but falsely alleged one in the
deed on an office finding his dying seised, the master of the
wards cannot remove the feoffees on examining into the
consideration, and retain the land until &c. and though the heir
tended, still if he do not prosecute his livery, the Queen must
admit the feoffees to their traverse, and to have the farm, &c."
The court reporter summarized this case as follows: Wilkes, who
was merchant of the staple, who died in February last past, made a
feoffment in the August before his death to one Leuson, a knight,
and his brother, and another, of the manor of Hodnel in the county
of Warwick; and the deed,(seen) for seven thousand pounds
[140,000s.] to him paid by the feoffees, of which sum he made
acquittance in the same deed (although in fact and in truth not a
half-penny was paid), gave, granted, and confirmed &c "habendum
eir et hoeredibus suis in perpetuum, ad proprium opus et usum
ipsorum A. B. et C. in perpetuum," and not "hoeredum suorum,"
together with a clause of warranty to them, their heirs and
assigns, in forma proedicta: and notwithstanding this feoffment he
occupied the land with sheep, and took other profits during his
life; and afterwards his death was found on a diem clausit
extremum by office, that he died seised of the said manor in fee,
and one I. Wilkes his brother of full age found his next heir, and
a tenure in capite found, and now within the three months the said
feoffees sued in the court of wards to be admitted to their
traverse, and also to have the amnor in farm until &c. And
although the said I. Wilkes the brother had tendered a livery, yet
he had not hitherto prosecuted it, but for cause had discontinued.
And whether now the master of the wards at his discretion could
remove the feoffees by injunction out of possession upon
examination of the said consideration of the said feoffment which
was false, and none such in truth, and retain it in the hands of
the Queen donec et quousque &c. was a great question. And by the
opinion of the learned counsel of that court he cannot do it, but
the Queen is bound in justice to give livery to him who is found
heir by the office, or if he will not proceed with that, to grant
to the tenderers the traverse, and to have the farm, &c. the
request above mentioned. And this by the statutes ... And note,
that no averment can be allowed to the heir, that the said
consideration was false against the deed and acknowledgment of his
ancestor, for that would be to admit an inconvenience. And note
the limitation of the use above, for divers doubted whether the
feoffees shall have a fee-simple in the sue, because the use is
not expressed, except only "to themselves (by their names) for
ever;" but if those words had been wanting, it would have been
clear enough that the consideration of seven thousand pounds had
been sufficient, &c. for the law intends a sufficient
consideration by reason of the said sum; but when the use is
expressed otherwise by the party himself, it is otherwise. And
also the warranty in the deed was "to them, their heirs, and
assigns, in form aforesaid," which is a declaration of the intent
of Wilkes, that the feoffees shall not have the use in fee simple;
and it may be that the use, during their three lives, is worth
seven thousand pounds, and more &c. And suppose that the feoffment
had been "to have to them and their heirs to the proper use and
behoof of them the feoffees for the term of their lives for ever
for seven thousand pounds," would they have any other estate than
for the term of their lives in the use? I believe not; and so in
the other case.

A last example of a case concerning consideration is that of
Assaby and Others against Lady Anne Manners and Others. The court
reporter characterized the principle of the case as: "A. in
consideration of his daughter's marriage covenants to stand seised
to his own use for life, and that at his death she and her husband
shall have the land in tail, and that all persons should stand
seised to those uses, and also for further assurance. After the
marriage he bargains and sell with fine and recovery to one with
full notice of the covenants and use; this is of no avail, but on
the death of A. the daughter and her husband may enter." The court
reporter summarized this case as follows: A. was seised of land in
fee, and in consideration of a marriage to be had between his
daughter and heir apparent, and B. son and heir apparent of C. he
covenanted and agreed by indenture with C. that he himself would
have, hold, and retain the land to himself, and the profits of
during his life, and that after his decease the said son and
daughter should have the land to them and to the heirs of their
two bodies lawfully begotten, and that all persons then or
afterwards seised of the land should stand and be seised
immediately after the marriage solemnized to the use of the said
A. for the term of his life, and after his death to the use of the
said son and daughter in tail as above, and covenanted further to
make an assurance of the land before a certain day accordingly &c.
and then the marriage took effect; and afterwards A. bargained and
sold the land for two hundred marks [2,667s.](of which not a penny
is paid) to a stranger, who had notice of the first agreements,
covenants, and use, and enfeoffed divers persons to this last use,
against whom a common recovery was had to his last use; and also
A. levied a fine to the recoverers before any execution had, and
notwithstanding all these things A. continued possession in taking
the profits during his life; and afterwards died; and the son and
daughter entered, and made a feoffment to their first use. And all
this matter was found in assize by Assaby and others against Lady
Anne Manners and others. And judgment was given that the entry and
feoffment were good and lawful, and the use changed by the first
indenture and agreement. Yet error was alleged. The judgment in
the assize is affirmed.

The famous Shelley's Case stands for the principle that where in
any instrument an estate for life is given to the ancestor, and
afterwards by the same instrument, the inheritance is limited
whether mediately, or immediately, to his heirs, or heirs of his
body, as a class to take in succession as heirs to him, the word
"heirs" is a word of limitation, and the ancestor takes the whole
estate. For example, where property goes to A for life and the
remainder goes to A's heirs, A's life estate and the remainder
merge into a fee in A. A can sell or devise this interest.

Edward Shelley was a tenant in tail general. He had two sons. The
older son predeceased his father, leaving a daughter and his wife
pregnant with a son. Edward had a common recovery (the premises
being in lease for years) to the use of himself for term of his
life, after his decease to the use of the male heirs of his body,
and of the male heirs of the body of such heirs, remainder over.
After judgment and the awarding of the writ of seisin, but before
its execution, Edward died. After his death, and before the birth
of his older son's son, the writ of seisin was executed. The
younger son entered the land and leased it to a third party.
Afterwards, the son of the older son was born. He entered the land
and ejected the third party. It was held that the younger son had
taken quasi by descent until the birth of the older son's son. The
entry by the older son's son was lawful. The third party was
lawfully ejected. (Shelley's Case, King's Bench, 1581, English
Reports - Full Reprint, Vol. 76, Page 206.)





                         - - - Chapter 14 - - -



                        - The Times: 1601-1625 -

Due in part to increasing population, the prices of foodstuffs had
risen sixfold from the later 1400s, during which it had been
stable. This inflation gradually impoverished those living on
fixed wages. Landlords could insist on even shorter leases and
higher rents. London quadrupled in population. Many lands that
were in scattered strips, pasture lands, waste lands, and lands
gained from drainage and disafforestation were enclosed for the
introduction of convertible agriculture (e.g. market-oriented
specialization) and only sometimes for sheep. The accompanying
extinguishment of common rights was devastating to small tenants
and cottagers. Gentry and yeomen benefited greatly. There was a
gradual consolidation of the land into fewer hands and demise of
the small family farm. In towns, the mass of poor, unskilled
workers with irregular work grew. Prices finally flattened out in
the 1620s.

Society became polarized with a wealthy few growing wealthier and
a mass of poor growing poorer. This social stratification became a
permanent fixture of English society. Poverty was no longer due to
death of a spouse or parent, sickness or injury, or a phase in the
life cycle such as youth or old age. Many full-time wage earners
were in constant danger of destitution. More subdivided land
holdings in the country made holdings of cottagers miniscule. But
these were eligible for parish relief under the poor laws. Beside
them were substantial numbers of rogues and vagabonds wandering
the roads. These vagrants were usually young unmarried men. There
were no more licensed liveries of lords.

During the time 1580 to 1680, there were distinct social classes
in England which determined dress, convention in comportment which
determined face-to-face contacts between superiors and inferiors,
order of seating in church, place arrangement at tables, and rank
order in public processions. It was influenced by power, wealth,
life-style, educational level, and birth. These classes lived in
separate worlds; their paths did not cross each other. People
moved only within their own class. Each class had a separate
existence as well as a different life style from the other
classes. So each class developed a wariness of other classes.
However, there was much social mobility between adjacent classes.

At the top were the gentry, about 2% of the population. Their's
was a landed wealth with large estate mansions. They employed many
servants and could live a life of leisure. Their lady wives often
managed the household with many servants and freely visited
friends and went out shopping, riding, or walking. They conversed
with neighbors and made merry with them at childbirths,
christenings, churchings, and funerals. Gentlemen usually had
positions of responsibility such as lords of manors and leaders in
their parishes. These families often sent the oldest son to
university to become a Justice of the Peace and then a member of
Parliament. They also served as justices and as county officers
such as High Constable of their hundred and grand jury member.
Their social, economic, and family ties were at least county-wide.
They composed about 700 gentle families, including the peers, who
had even more landed wealth, which was geographically dispersed.
After the peers were: baronets (created in 1611), knights,
esquires, and then ordinary gentlemen. These titles were acquired
by being the son of such or purchase. Most gentry had a house in
London, where they spent most of their time, as well as country
mansions. About 4/5 of the land was in the hands of 7,000 of the
nobility and landed gentry due in part to entails constructed by
attorneys to favor hereditary interests. The gentry had also
profited by commerce and colonial possessions. The country life of
a country squire or gentleman dealt with all the daily affairs of
a farm. He had men plough, sow, and reap. He takes part in the
haying and getting cut grass under cover when a rain came. His sow
farrows, his horse is gelded, a first lamb is born. He drags his
pond and takes out great carps. His horses stray and he finds them
in the pound. Boys are bound to him for service. He hires
servants, and some work out their time and some run away. His hog
is stabbed. Knaves steal his sheep. He and a neighbor argue about
the setting up of a cottage. He borrows money for a daughter's
dowry. He holds a leet court. He attends church on Sunday and
reads the lesson when called upon. He visits the local tavern to
hear from his neighbors. Country folk brawl. Wenches get pregnant.
Men commit suicide, usually by hanging. Many gentlemen spent their
fortunes and died poor. New gentlemen from the lower classes took
their place.

The second class included the wealthier merchants and professional
men of the towns. These men were prominent in town government.
They usually had close family ties with the gentry, especially as
sons. When wealthy enough, they often bought a country estate. The
professional men included military officers, civil service
officials, attorneys, some physicians, and a few clergymen. The
instabilities of trade, high mortality rates in the towns, and
high turnover rate among the leading urban families prevented any
separate urban interest group arising that would be opposed to the
landed gentry. Also included in this second group were the most
prosperous yeomanry of the countryside.

The third class was the yeomanry at large, which included many
more than the initial group who possessed land in freehold of at
least 40s., partly due to inflation. Freehold was the superior
form of holding land because one was free to sell, exchange, or
devise the land and had a political right to vote in Parliamentary
elections. Other yeomen were those who possessed enough land, as
copyholder or leaseholder, to be protected from fluctuations in
the amount of the annual harvest, that is, at least 50 acres. A
copyholder rented land from a lord for a period of years or lives,
usually three lives including that of the widow, and paid a
substantial amount whenever the copyhold came up for renewal. The
copyholder and leaseholder were distinguished from the mere
tenant-at-will, whose only right was to gather his growing crop
when his landlord decided to terminate his tenancy. The average
yeoman had a one and a half story house, with a milkhouse, a
malthouse, and other small buildings attached to the dwelling. The
house would contain a main living room, a parlor, where there
would be one or more beds, and several other rooms with beds. No
longer was there a central great hall. Cooking was done in a
kitchen or over the open fire in the fireplace of the main room.
Furniture included large oak tables, stools, settes or forms,
chests, cupboards, and a few hard-backed simple chairs. Dishware
was wood or pewter. The yeomen were among those who governed the
nation. They often became sureties for recognizances, witnesses to
wills, parish managers, churchwardens, vestrymen, the chief civil
officers of parishes and towns, overseers of the poor, surveyors
of bridges and highways, jurymen and constables for the Justices
of the Peace, and sheriffs' bailiffs. The families and servants of
these yeomen ate meat, fish, wheaten bread, beer, cheese, milk,
butter, and fruit. Their wives were responsible for the dairy,
poultry, orchard, garden, and perhaps pigs. They smoked and cured
hams and bacon, salted fish, dried herbs for the kitchen or of
lavender and pot-pourri for sweetening the linen, and arranged
apples and roots in lofts or long garrets under the roof to last
the winter. They preserved fruits candied or in syrup. They
preserved wines; made perfumes, washes for preserving the hair and
complexion, rosemary to cleanse the hair, and elder-flower water
for sunburn; distilled beverages; ordered wool hemp, and flax to
spin for cloth (the weaving was usually done in the village);
fashioned and sewed clothes and house linens; embroidered; dyed;
malted oats; brewed; baked; and extracted oils. Many prepared herb
medicines and treated injuries, such as dressing wounds, binding
arteries, and setting broken bones. Wives also ploughed and sowed,
weeded the crops, and sheared sheep. They sometimes cared for the
poor and sold produce at the market. Some yeomen were also
tanners, painters, carpenters, or blacksmiths; and as such they
were frequently brought before the Justices of the Peace for
exercising a craft without having served an apprenticeship. The
third class also included the freemen of the towns, who could
engage independently in trade and had political rights. These were
about one-third of the male population of the town.

The fourth class included the ordinary farmer leasing by copyhold,
for usually 21 years, five to fifty acres. From this class were
drawn sidesmen [assistants to churchwardens] and constables. They
had neither voice nor authority in government. Their daily diet
was bacon, beer, bread, and cheese. Also in this class were the
independent urban craftsmen who were not town freemen. Their only
voice in government was at the parish level.

The fifth and lowest class included the laborers and cottagers,
who were usually tenants at will. They were dependent on day
labor. They started work at dawn, had breakfast for half an hour
at six, worked until dinner, and then until supper at about six;
in the summer they would then do chores around the barns until
eight or nine. Some were hedgers, ditchers, ploughmen, reapers,
shepherds, and herdsmen. The cottagers' typical earnings of about
1s. a day amounted to about 200 shillings a year, which was almost
subsistence level. Accordingly they also farmed a little on their
four acres of land with garden. Some also had a few animals. They
lived in a one or two room cottage of clay and branches of trees
or wood, sometimes with a brick fireplace and chimney, and few
windows. They ate bread, cheese, lard, soup, and greens. If a
laborer was unmarried, he lived with the farmer. Theirs was a
constant battle for survival. They often moved because of
deprivation to seek opportunity elsewhere. The town wage-earning
laborers ranged from journeymen craftsmen to poor casual laborers.
The mass of workers in London were not members of guilds, and the
crime rate was high.

The last three classes also contained rural craftsmen and
tradesmen, who also farmed. The variety of trades became very
large, e.g. tinsmiths, chain smiths, pewterers, violin makers, and
glass painters. The curriers, who prepared hides for shoemakers,
coachmakers, saddlers, and bookbinders, were incorporated.

The fourth and fifth classes comprised about three fourths of the
population.

Then there were the maritime groups: traders, shipowners, master
and seamen, and the fishers.

Over one fourth of all households had servants. They were the
social equals of day laborers, but materially better off with food
and clothing plus an allowance of money of two pounds [40s.] a
year. Those who sewed got additional pay for this work. There was
no great chasm between the family and the servants. They did not
segregate into a parlor class and a kitchen class. The top
servants were as educated as their masters and ate at the same
table. Great households had a chaplain and a steward to oversee
the other servants. There was usually a cook. Lower servants ate
together. Servants were disciplined by cuffs and slaps and by the
rod by master or mistress. Maids wore short gowns, a large apron,
and a gypsy hat tied down over a cap. Chamber maids helped to
dress their mistresses. Servants might sleep on trundle beds
stored under their master's or mistress's bed, in a separate room,
or on the straw loft over the stables. A footman wore a blue tunic
or skirted coat with corded loop fasteners, knee-britches, and
white stockings. He walked or ran on foot by the side of his
master or mistress when they rode out on horseback or in a
carriage and ran errands for him, such as leading a lame horse
home or running messages. A good footman is described in this
letter: "Sir, - You wrote me lately for a footman, and I think
this bearer will fit you: I know he can run well, for he has run
away twice from me, but he knew the way back again: yet, though he
has a running head as well as running heels (and who will expect a
footman to be a stayed man) I would not part with him were I not
to go post to the North. There be some things in him that answer
for his waggeries: he will come when you call him, go when you bid
him, and shut the door after him; he is faithful and stout, and a
lover of his master. He is a great enemy to all dogs, if they bark
at him in his running; for I have seen him confront a huge
mastiff, and knock him down. When you go a country journey, or
have him run with you a-hunting, you must spirit him with liquor;
you must allow him also something extraordinary for socks, else
you must not have him wait at your table; when his grease melts in
running hard, it is subject to fall into his toes. I send him to
you but for trial, if he be not for your turn, turn him over to me
again when I come back..."

Dress was not as elaborate as in Elizabethan times. For instance,
fewer jewels were worn. Ladies typically wore a brooch, earrings,
and pearl necklaces. Men also wore earrings. Watches with
elaborate cases were common. Women's dresses were of satin,
taffeta, and velvet, and were made by dressmakers. Pockets were
carried in the hand, fastened to the waist by a ribbon, or sewn in
petticoats and accessible by a placket opening. The corset was
greatly reduced. Women's hair was in little natural-looking curls,
a few small tendrils on the forehead with soft ringlets behind the
ears, and the back coiled into a simple knot. Men also wore their
hair in ringlets. They had pockets in their trousers, first as a
cloth pouch inserted into an opening in the side seam, and later
sewn into the side seam. The bereaved wore black, and widows wore
a black veil over their head until they remarried or died. Rouge
was worn by lower class women. The law dictating what clases could
wear what clothes was difficult to enforce and the last one was in
1597.

Cotton chintzes, calicoes, taffetas, muslins, and ginghams from
India were fashionable as dress fabrics. Simple cotton replaced
linen as the norm for napkins, tablecloths, bed sheets, and
underwear. Then it became the fashion to use calicoes for
curtains, cushions, chairs, and beds. Its inexpensiveness made
these items affordable for many. There was a cotton-weaving
industry in England from about 1621, established by cotton workmen
who fled to England in 1585 from Antwerp, which had been captured.
By 1616, there were automatic weaving looms in London which could
be operated by a novice. Toothbrushes, made with horsehair, were a
new and costly luxury.

Even large houses now tended to do without a courtyard and became
compacted into one soaring and stately whole. A typical country
house had deep-set windows of glass looking into a walled green
court with a sundial in it and fringed around with small trees.
The gables roofs are steep and full of crooks and angles, and
covered with rough slate if there was a source for such nearby.
There was an extensive use of red tile, either rectangular or
other shapes and with design such as fishscales. The rooms are
broad and spacious and include hall, great parlor, little parlor,
matted chamber, and study. In the hall was still the great, heavy
table. Dining tables were covered with cloth, carpet, or printed
leather. Meals were increasingly eaten in a parlor. Noble men
preferred to be waited upon by pages and grooms instead of by
their social equals. After dinner, they deserted the parlor to
retire into drawing rooms for conversation and desserts of sweet
wine and spiced delicacies supplemented by fruit. Afterward, there
might be dancing and then supper. In smaller parlors, there was
increasing use of oval oak tables with folding leaves. Chests of
drawers richly carved or inlaid and with brass handles were coming
in. Walls were wainscotted and had pictures or were hung with
tapestry. Carpets, rugs, and curtains kept people warm. There were
many stools to sit on, and some arm chairs. Wide and handsome open
staircases separated the floors, instead of the circular stone
closed stairwells. Upstairs, the sitting and bedrooms open into
each other with broad, heavy doors. Bedrooms had four-post beds
and wardrobes with shelves and pegs. Under the roof are garrets,
apple-lofts, and root-chambers. Underneath is a cellar. Outside is
a farmyard with outbuildings such as bake house, dairy, cheese-
press house, brewery, stilling house, malt house, wood house, fowl
house, dove cot, pig stye, slaughter-house, barns, stable, and
sometimes a mill. There were stew-ponds for fish and a park with a
decoy for wild fowl. There was also a laundry, carpenter's bench,
blacksmith's forge, and pots and equipment of a house painter.

In the 1600s, towns were fortified by walled ditch instead of
relying on castles, which couldn't contain enough men to protect
the townspeople. Also in towns, water was supplied by local pumps
and wells. Also, floors were of polished wood or stone and strewn
with rushes in the country. A ladies' attendant might sleep the
same bedroom on a bed which slid under the ladies' bed.
Apprentices and shop boys had to sleep under the counter. Country
laborers slept in a loft on straw. Bread was made in each
household. There were bedroom chairs with enclosed chamber pots.

Wood fires were the usual type. Coal was coming in to use in the
towns and near coal mines. Charcoal was also used. Food was
roasted on a spit over a fire, baked, or broiled. People still
licked their fingers at meals. The well-to-do had wax candles.
Tallow dips were used by the poor and for the kitchen. People
drank cordials and home-made wines made with grapes, currants,
oranges, or ginger. Some mead was also drunk.

Tobacco, potatoes, tea, asparagus, kidney beans, scarlet runners,
cardoons (similar to artichokes), horse-radish, sugar-cane, and
turkeys for Christmas, were introduced from the New World, China,
and India. Tea was a rare and expensive luxury. Coffee was a new
drink. With the cane sugar was made sweetened puddings, pies, and
drinks. The potato caused the advent of distillation of alcohol
from fermented potato mashes. There was a distiller's company by
1638. Distilleries' drinks had higher alcoholic content than wine
or beer.

The Merchant Adventurers sold in town stores silks, satins,
diamonds, pearls, silver, and gold. There were women peddlers
selling hats and hosiery from door to door and women shopkeepers,
booksellers, alehouse keepers, linen drapers, brewers, and ale-
wives. London had polluted air and water, industrial noise, and
traffic congestion.

Work on farms was still year-round. In January and February,
fields were plowed and harrowed and the manure spread. Also, trees
and hedges were set, fruit trees pruned, and timber lopped. In
March and April, the fields were stirred again and the wheat and
rye sown. In May gardens were planted, hop vines trained to poles,
ditches scoured, lambs weaned, and sheep watched for "rot". In
June sheep were washed and sheared, and fields were spread with
lime and clay, and manured. In July hay was cut, dried, and
stacked. In August crops were harvested, which called for extra
help from neighbors and townsmen who took holidays at harvesting.
Then there was threshing, and the sowing of winter wheat and rye.
In the autumn, cider from apples and perry from pears may be made.
By November the fall planting was finished and the time had come
for the killing of cattle and hanging up their salted carcasses
for winter meat. Straw would be laid down with dung, to be spread
next spring on the fields. Stock that could not live outdoors in
winter were brought into barns.

Government regulated the economy. In times of dearth, it ordered
Justices of the Peace to buy grain and sell it below cost. It
forbade employers to lay off workers whose products they could not
sell. It used the Star Chamber Court to enforce economic
regulations.

There were food riots usually during years of harvest failure, in
which organized groups seized foodstuffs being transported or in
markets, and enclosure riots, in which organized groups destroyed
hedges and fences erected in agrarian reorganization to restrict
access to or to subdivide former common pasture land. These self-
help riots were last resorts to appeals and were orderly. The
rioters were seldom punished more than a fining or whipping of the
leaders and action was taken to satisfy the legitimate grievances
of the rioters.

The poor came to resent the rich and there was a rise in crime
among the poor. Penal laws were frequently updated in an effort to
bring more order.

Enclosures of land were made to carry on improved methods of
tillage, which yielded more grain and more sheep fleece. Drainage
of extensive marsh land created more land for agriculture. Waste
land was used to breed game and "fowling" contributed to farmers'
and laborers' livelihoods. Killing game was not the exclusive
right of landowners, but was a common privilege. The agricultural
laborer, who worked for wages and composed most of the wage-
earning population, found it hard to make ends meet.

In 1610, weekly wages for a mason were 8s. or 5s., for a laborer
were 6s. or 4s., for a carpenter 8s. or 6s. An unskilled laborer
received 1s. a day.

There were conventions of paternalism and deference between
neighbors of unequal social status. A social superior often
protected his lessers from impoverishment For instance, the
landlord lessened rents in times of harvest failure. A social
superior would help find employment for a lesser person or his
children, stand surety for a recognizance, intervene in a court
case, or have his wife tend a sick member of his lesser's family.
A social obligation was felt by most of the rich, the landlords,
the yeomen farmers, and the clergy. This system of paternalism and
social deference was expressed and reinforced at commonly attended
village sports and games, dances, wakes and "ales" (the proceeds
of which went to the relief of a certain person in distress),
"rush-bearings", parish feasts, weddings, christenings,
"churchings" to give thanks for births, and funerals. Even the
poor were buried in coffins. Also there was social interaction at
the local alehouse, where neighbors drank, talked, sung, and
played at bowls or "shove goat" together.

Quarrelling was commonplace. For instance, borough authorities
would squabble over the choice of a schoolmaster; the parson would
carry on a long fight with parishioners over tithe hens and pigs;
two country gentlemen would continue a vendetta started by their
great-grandfathers over a ditch or hunting rights; the
parishioners would wrangle with the churchwardens over the
allocation of pews. The position of one's pew reflected social
position. Men tried to keep the pews of their ancestors and the
newly prosperous wanted the recognition in the better pews, for
which they had to pay a higher amount. But, on the other hand,
farmers were full of good will toward their neighbors. They lent
farm and kitchen equipment, helped raise timbers for a neighbor's
new barn, sent food and cooked dishes to those providing a funeral
feast and to the sick and incurable.

Village standards of behavior required that a person not to drink
to excess, quarrel, argue, profane, gossip, cause a nuisance,
abuse wife or children, or harbor suspicious strangers, and to pay
scot and bear lot as he was asked. Neighbors generally got along
well and frequently borrowed and loaned small sums of money to
each other without interest for needs that suddenly arose. Bad
behavior was addressed by mediation and, if this failed, by
exclusion from holy communion. There was also whipping and the
stocks.

Marital sex was thought to be good for the health and happiness of
the husband and enjoyable by wives. The possibility of female
orgasm was encouraged. Both women and men were thought to have
"seed" and drank certain potions to cause pregnancy or to prevent
birth. Some argued that orgasm of both partners was necessary for
the "seed" of the male and female to mix to produce pregnancy.
Most women were in a virtual state of perpetual pregnancy. Both
Catholics and Protestants thought that God wanted them to multiply
and cover the earth. Catholics thought that the only goal of sex
was procreation. Men were considered ready for marriage only when
they could support a family, which was usually at about age 30.
Brides were normally virgins, but there was bridal pregnancy of
about 20%. Women usually married at about age 25. Marriages were
usually within one's own class and religion. The aristocracy often
initiated matches of their children for the sake of continuity in
the family estates and tried to obtain the consent of their
children for the match in mind. The age of consent to marry was 14
for boys and 12 for girls. Girls in arranged marriages often
married at 13, and boys before they went to university. But the
girls usually stayed with their parents for a couple of years
before living with their husbands. If married before puberty,
consummation of the marriage waited for such time. In other
classes, the initiative was usually taken by the child. Dowries
and marriage portions usually were given by the parents of the
bride. Wet-nurses frequently were used, even by Puritans. There
were no baby bottles. Many babies died, causing their parents much
grief. About 1/4 of women's deaths occurred during childbirth. A
child was deemed to be the husband's if he was within the four
seas, i.e. not in foreign lands, for an agreed length of time.
Illegitimacy was infrequent, and punished by church-mandated
public penance by the mother and lesser penance and maintenance by
the father. Adultery was subject to church court sanctions as was
defamation for improper sexual conduct.

The established church still taught that the husband was to be the
authority in marriage and had the duty to provide for, protect,
and maintain his wife. Wives were to obey their husbands, but
could also admonish and advise their husbands without reproach. In
literature, women were portrayed as inferior to men intellectually
and morally as well as physically. In reality wives did not fit
the image of women portrayed by the church and literature.
Quarrels were not uncommon and were not stopped by a husband's
assertion of authority. Wives were very active in the harvesting
and did casual labor of washing, weeding, and stone-picking.
Farmers' and tradesmen's wives kept accounts, looked after the
garden, orchard, pigs, and poultry; brewed beer; spun wool and
flax; and acted as agents in business affairs. Wives of craftsmen
and tradesmen participated actively in their husbands' shops.
Wives of weavers spun for their husband's employers. Wives of the
gentry ran their households with their husbands. The lady of a
large mansion superintended the household, ordering and looking
after the servants, and seeing to the education of her children.
Mothers handed down their recipes to their daughters. Women still
did much needlework and embroidering for clothing and house, such
as cushions, screens, bed curtains, window curtains, hangings,
footstools, book covers, and small chests of drawers for
valuables. Liking simplicity, Puritan women did less of this work.

Naming one's wife as executor of one's will was the norm.
Jointures were negotiated at the betrothal of ladies. Widows of
manorial tenants were guaranteed by law one-third of family real
property, despite creditors. But most testators went beyond this
and gave a life interest in the farm or family house. So it was
customary for a widow to remain in occupation of the land until
her death or remarriage. Few widow or widowers lived with one of
their children. Widows usually had their husband's guild rights
and privileges conferred upon them, e.g. to receive apprentices.
In London, custom gave 1/3 of a deceased husband's estate to his
wife on his death, but 2/3 if there were no children. The other
part went according to his will. If a widows did not remarry in
memory of her husband, she was esteemed. But remarriage was common
because the life expectancy after birth was about 35 years.

Sons of the well-to-do went into law, the Church, the army, or the
navy. If not fit for such, they usually went into a trade,
apprenticing, for instance, with a draper, silk-merchant, or
goldsmith. Sometimes a son was sent to the house of a great man as
a page or esquire to learn the ways of courtiers and perhaps
become a diplomat.

The guild with its master and their employees was being replaced
by a company of masters.

About 5% of the population was Catholic, although it was against
the law to practice this religion. Indeed it long been the
practice to sequester their lands, punish them for going to mass,
fine them for not attending the established church, banish their
priests, and imprison those who aided priests. There was a
Catholic plot in 1605 to blow up Parliament and the king with
gunpowder and to restore Catholicism as the state religion with a
Catholic king. It was discovered and the conspirators were
executed. Then there was a crack-down on Catholics, with houses
being searched for hiding places for priests. Also, legislation
was passed barring Catholics from many offices.

James I ruled over both England and Scotland. He had come from
Scotland, so was unfamiliar with English love of their rights and
passion for liberty and justice. When he came to the throne, he
had a conference with a group of Puritans who asked for certain
reforms: ceremonies such as the cross in baptism and the ring in
marriage should not be used, only educated men competent to preach
should be made ministers, bishops should not be allowed to hold
benefices that they did not administer, and minor officials should
not excommunicate for trifles and twelve-penny matters. He not
only denied their requests, but had the English Bible revised into
the King James version, which was published in 1611. This was to
replace the popular Geneva Bible written by English protestant
refugees from Catholic Queen Mary's reign, which he did not like
because some of its commentary was not highly favorable to kings.
Religion was much discussed by all and scripture was frequently
quoted. James didn't believe a king had to live by the law; he
hadn't as king of Scotland. He tried to imbue into England the
idea of a divine right of kings to rule that he had held in
Scotland. The established church quickly endorsed and preached
this idea.

The selection of the clergy of the parish churches was now often
in the hands of the parishioners, having been sold to them by the
patron lord of the manor. Some patrons sold the right of selection
to a tradesman or yeoman who wished to put in his son or a
relative. Some rights of selection were in the hands of bishops,
the colleges, and the Crown. The parish clergyman was appointed
for life and removed only for grave cause. Most parishoners wanted
a sermon created by their minister instead of repetitious homilies
and constant prayer. They thought that the object of worship in
church was to rouse men to think and act about the problems of the
world.

In 1622, the king mandated that clergymen quote scripture only in
context of the Book of Articles of Religion of 1562 or the two
Books of Homilies and not preach any sermon on Sunday afternoon
except on some part of the Catechism or some text out of the
Creed, Ten Commandments, or the Lord's Prayer.

The Puritan movement grew. About 5% of the Protestants were
Puritans. These included country gentlemen and wealthier traders.
They dressed simply in gray or other drab colors and wore their
hair short to protest the fashion of long curls. They lived simply
and disapproved of dancing because it induced lasciviousness and
of theater because of its lewdness. Theaters and brothels still
shared the same neighborhoods, the same customers, and sometimes
the same employees. Prostitutes went to plays to find customers;
men shouldered and shoved each other in competing to sit next to
attractive women to get to know them. The Puritans also
disapproved of cock fights because they led to gambling and
disorder, and Maypole celebrations because of their paganism.
There was less humor. Many became stoics. The Puritan church
ceremonies were plain, with no ornamentation. Puritans prayed
several times a day and read the Bible to each other in family
groups to look for guidance in their conduct and life. They asked
for God to intervene in personal matters and looked for signs of
his pleasure or displeasure in happenings such as a tree falling
close but not touching him, or his horse throwing him without
injury to him. When there was an illness in the family or
misfortune, they examined their past life for sins and tried to
correct shortcomings. They circulated records of puritan lives
including spiritual diaries. They believed in the equality of men
and that a good man was better than a bad peer, bishop, or king.
Puritan influence made families closer and not merely dependent on
the will of the husband or father. There was a sense of spiritual
fellowship among family members as individuals. They emphasized
the real need of a lasting love relationship between husband and
wife, so a mutual liking that could develop into love between a
young couple in an arranged match was essential.

Most Puritans felt that the bishops were as tyrannical as the pope
had been and that more reform was needed. They favored the
Presbyterian form of church government developed by John Calvin in
Switzerland. The presbyter was the position below bishop. Parishes
were governed by boards consisting of a minister and lay elders
elected by the parishioners. These boards sent elected
representatives to councils. All lay elders and ministers had
equal rank with each other. The Calvinist God preordained
salvation only for the elect and damnation and everlasting
punishment for the rest of humanity, but the Puritans had an
optimism about avoiding this damnation. They believed that at his
conversion a person received grace and became predestined for
salvation. They rejected all ecclesiastical institutions except as
established by each parish over its own elected pastor and
members. They rejected the established church's control from the
top by bishops. They believed in negotiating directly with God for
the welfare of the soul without the priest or church organization.

The fear of witchcraft grew with Puritanism. Poor decrepit old
defenseless women, often deformed and feeble-minded, were thought
to be witches. Their warts and tumors were thought to be teats for
the devil to suck or the devil's mark. Cursing or ill-tempers
(probably from old age pains) or having cats were further
indications of witchery.

When the king learned in 1618 that the Puritans had prevented
certain recreations after the Sunday service, he proclaimed that
the people should not be restrained from lawful recreations and
exercise such as dancing, archery for men, leaping, vaulting, May-
games, Whitsunales, Morris-dances, and May-pole sports. Also women
could carry rushes to decorate the church as they had done in the
past. (Still unlawful on Sunday was bear and bull baitings and
bowlings.) His stated purpose was to prevent people such as
Catholics from being deterred from conversion, to promote physical
fitness for war, and to keep people from drinking and making
discontented speeches in their ale houses.

Besides the Puritans, there were other Independent sects, such as
the Congregationalists, whose churches gathered together by the
inspiration of Jesus. This sect was started by English merchants
residing in Holland who set up congregations of Englishmen under
their patronage there; they kept minister and elders well under
their control. The Baptists emerged out of the Independents. They
believed that only adults, who were capable of full belief, and
not children, could be baptized. They also believed that it was
the right of any man to seek God's truth for himself in the
scriptures and that obedience to the state should not extend
beyond personal conscience.

One fourth of all children born did not live to the age of ten,
most dying in their first year. Babies had close caps over their
head, a rattle, and slept in a sturdy wood cradle that rocked on
the floor, usually near the hearth. Babies of wealthier families
had nurses. The babies of ladies were suckled by wet nurses.
Parents raised children with affection and tried to prepare them
to become independent self-sustaining adults. There was less
severity than in Tudor times, although the maxim "spare the rod
and spoil the child" was generally believed, especially by
Puritans, and applied to even very young children. In disciplining
a child, an admonition was first used, and the rod as a last
resort, with an explanation of the reasons for its use. There were
nursery rhymes and stories such as "Little Bo-Peep", "Jack and the
Beanstalk", "Tom Thumb", "Chicken Little", and Robin Hood and King
Arthur tales, and probably also "Puss in Boots", "Red Ridinghood",
"Cinderella", "Beauty and the Beast", "Bluebeard" and Aesop's
Fables. "Little Jack Horner" who sat in a corner was a satire on
the Puritan aversion to Christmas pudding and sense of conscious
virtue. Toys included dolls, balls, drums, and hobby horses.
Children played "hide and seek", "here we go around the Mulberry
bush", and other group games. School children were taught by "horn
books". This was a piece of paper with the alphabet and perhaps a
religious verse, such as the Paternoster prayer, that was mounted
on wood and covered with thin horn to prevent tearing. Little
girls cross-stitched the alphabet and numerals on samplers. Block
alphabets were just coming in. Most market towns had a grammar
school which would qualify a student for university. They were
attended by sons of noblemen, country squires [poor gentlemen],
merchants, and substantial yeomen, and in some free schools, the
poor. School hours were from 6:00 a.m. to noon or later.
Multiplication was taught. If affordable, families had their
children involved in education after they were small until they
left home at about fifteen for apprenticeship or service.
Otherwise, children worked with their families from the age of
seven, e.g. carding and spinning wool, until leaving home at about
fifteen.

There were boarding schools such as Winchester, Eton, Westminster,
St. Paul's, and Merchant Taylors'. There, senior boys selected for
conduct and ability supervised younger boys. They thereby got
experience for a future in public life. The system was also a
check on bullying of the weak by the strong. The curriculum
included Lilly's "Grammar", Aesop, Terence's Roman comic plays,
Virgil's "Aeneid", the national epic of Rome, Cicero's "Letters"
reflecting Roman life, Sallust's histories showing people and
their motives, Caesar's "Commentaries" on the Gallic and civil
wars, Horace's "Epistles" about life and poetry, poet Ovid's
"Metamorphoses" on adventures and love affairs of deities and
heros, or "Fasti" on Roman religious festivals and customs,
Donatus' grammar book, and other ancient Latin authors. Football,
with hog bladders, and tennis were played. These schools were
self-supporting and did their own farming.

Private schools for girls were founded in and around London. They
were attended by daughters of the well-to-do merchant class,
nobility, and gentry. They were taught singing, playing of
instruments, dancing, French, fine sewing, embroidery, and
sometimes arithmetic. Fewer served in the house of some noble lady
as before. Most commonly, the sons and daughters of gentlemen and
nobles were taught by private tutors. A tutor in the house
educated the girls to the same extent as the boys. There were not
many girls' boarding schools. Frequently, the mother educated her
daughters. A considerable number of girls of other backgrounds
such as the yeomanry and the town citizenry somehow learned to
read and write.

Boys began at university usually from age 14 to 18, but sometimes
as young as 12. The universities provided a broad-based education
in the classics, logic and rhetoric, history, theology, and modern
languages for gentlemen and gave a homogenous national culture to
the ruling class. There was a humanist ideal of a gentleman
scholar. The method of study based largely on lectures and
disputations. Each fellow had about five students to tutor. In
many cases, he took charge of the finances of his students, paying
his bills to tradesmen and the college. His reimbursement by the
students' fathers put them into friendly contact with the family.
The students slept in trundle beds around his bed and had an
adjacent room for study. Scholasticism was only starting to give
way to modern studies. Aristotle, whose authority was paramount,
remained the lynch pin of university studies, especially for logic
and dialectic. The study of rhetoric was based on Quintilian, the
Latin writer, and the Greek treatise of Hermogenes of Tarsus. Also
studyed was Cicero's orations as models of style. Examination for
degrees was by disputation over a thesis of the student. The B.A.
degree was given after four years of study, and the M.A. after
three more. There were advanced degrees in civil law (after seven
more years of study), medicine (after seven years), divinity
(required more than seven years), and music. Many of the men who
continued for advanced degrees became fellows and took part in the
teaching. Most fellowships were restricted to clerics. Oxford and
Cambridge Universities operated under a tutorial system. Access to
grammar schools and universities was closed to girls of whatever
class. Oxford University now had the Bodleian Library. In the
universities, there were three types of students: poor scholars,
who received scholarships and also performed various kinds of
service such as kitchen work and did errands for fellows such as
carrying water and waiting on tables; commoners, who paid low fees
and were often the sons of economical gentlemen or businessmen;
and the Fellow Commoners (a privileged and well-to-do minority,
usually sons of noblemen or great country gentlemen). The Fellow
Commoners paid high fees, had large rooms, sometimes had a
personal tutor or servant, and had the right to eat with the
Fellows at High Table. Here, gentlemen made friends with their
social equals from all over the country. Students wore new-
fashioned gowns of any colors and colored stockings. They put on
stage plays in Latin and English. The students played at running,
jumping, and pitching the bar, and at the forbidden swimming and
football. They were not to have irreligious books or dogs. Cards
and dice could be played only at Christmas time. Students still
drank, swore, and rioted, but they were disallowed from going into
town without special permission. Those below a B.A. had to be
accompanied by a tutor or an M.A. They were forbidden from
taverns, boxing matches, dances, cock fights, and loitering in the
street or market. Sometimes a disputation between two colleges
turned into a street brawl. Punishment was by flogging. Each
university had a chancellor, usually a great nobleman or
statesman, who represented the university in dealings with the
government and initiated policies. The vice-chancellor was
appointed for a year from the group of heads of college. He looked
out for the government of halls, enforced the rules of the
university, kept its courts, licensed wineshops, and shared
control of the town with the mayor.

Tutors were common. They resided at the boy's house or took boys
to board with them at their houses in England or on the continent.
The tutor sometimes accompanied his student to grammar school or
university. Puritans frequently sent their sons to board in the
house of some Frenchman or Swiss Protestant to learn the Calvinist
doctrines or on tour with a tutor. Certain halls in the
universities were predominately Puritan. Catholics were required
to have their children taught in a home of a Protestant, a
relative if possible.

The Inns of Court were known as "the third university". It served
the profession of law, and was a training ground for the sons of
nobility and the gentry and for those entering the service of the
commonwealth. Some American colonists sent their sons there. The
Inns were self-governing and ruled by custom. Students were
supposed to live within the Inn, two to a room, but often there
were not enough rooms, so some students lived outside the
quadrangles. Every student was supposed to partake of Commons or
meals for a certain fraction of the year - from eight weeks to
three months and there to argue issues in cases brought up by
their seniors. In hall the students were not allowed to wear hats,
though caps were permitted, nor were they to appear booted or
spurred or carrying swords. For the first two years, they would
read and talk much of the law, and were called Clerks Commoners.
After two years they became Mootmen or Inner Barristers. In five
or six years they might be selected to be called to the bar as
Utter Barristers, whose number was fixed. There was no formal
examination. The Utter Barrister spent at least three more years
performing exercises and assisting in directing the studies of the
younger men. After this time, he could plead in the general courts
at Westminster, but usually carried on law work in the offices of
other men and prepared cases for them. Participating in moots
(practice courts) was an important part of their education.
Lectures on statutes and their histories were given by Readers

Physicians were licensed by universities, by the local bishop, or
in London, by the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Most were
university graduates, and because of the expense of the education,
from well-to-do families. For the B.A., they emphasized Greek. For
the M.A., they studied the works of Greek physicians Claudius
Galen and Hippocrates, and perhaps some medieval authorities.
After the M.A., they listened to lectures by the Regius Professor
of Medicine and saw a few dissections. Three years of study gave
them a M.B., and four more years beyond this the M.D. degree. A
physician's examination of a patient cost 10s. and included asking
him about his symptoms and feelings of pain, looking at this eyes,
looking at his body for spots indicative of certain diseases,
guessing whether he had a fever, feeling his pulse, and examining
urine and stools, though there were no laboratory tests. Smallpox
was quickly recognized. It was treated by red cloth being wrapped
around the person and put up to cover the windows; this promoted
healing without scarring. Gout was frequent. Syphilis was common
in London and other large centers, especially in Court circles. It
was ameliorated by mercury. An imbalance of the four humors:
blood, phlegm, choler, bile was redressed by blood-letting,
searing, draining, and/or purging. Heart trouble was not easily
diagnosed and cancer was not recognized as a life-threatening
disease. Childbirth was attended by physicians if the patient was
well-to-do or the case was serious. Otherwise women were attended
only by midwives. They often died in childbirth, many in their
twenties.

The theory of nutrition was still based on the four humors and
deficiency diseases were not understood as such. Physician William
Harvey, son of a yeoman,  discovered the circulation of the blood
from heart to lungs to heart to body about 1617. He had studied
anatomy at Padua on the continent and received an M.D. there and
later at Cambridge. Then he accepted a position at the hospital of
St. Bartholomew to treat the poor who came there at least once a
week for a year. He agreed to give the poor full benefit of his
knowledge, to prescribe only such medicines as should do the poor
good without regard to the pecuniary interest of the apothecary
accompanying him, to take no reward from patients, and to render
account for any negligence on his part. He also dissected animals.
Then he ascertained that the heart was a pump and that the valves
in the veins prevented backflow and he followed the course of the
circulation. The language of medicine became that of physics and
mechanics, e.g. wheels and pulleys, wedges, levers, screws, cords,
canals, cisterns, sieves and strainers. This diminished the
religious concept that the heart was the seat of the soul and that
blood had a spiritual significance and was sacred.

A visit by a physician cost 13s.4d. Melancholia, which made one
always fearful and full of dread, and mania, which made one think
he could do supernatural things, were considered to be types of
madness different from infirmities of the body. Despite a belief
held by some that anatomical investigation of the human body was a
sin against the holy ghost, physicians were allowed to dissect
corpses. So there were anatomy textbooks and anatomy was related
to surgery. Barber-surgeons extracted teeth and performed surgery.

The physicians turned surgery over to the surgeons, who received a
charter in 1605 by which barbers were excluded from all surgical
work except blood-letting and the drawing of teeth. Surgeons dealt
with skin disease, ulcers, hernia, bladder stones, and broken
bones, which they had some skill in setting. They performed
amputations, which were without antiseptics or anesthesia.
Internal operations usually resulted in death. Caesarian section
was attempted, but did not save the life of the mother.
Apprenticeship was the route to becoming a surgeon. A College of
Surgeons was founded. Students learned anatomy, for which they
received the corpses of four executed felons a year.

The apothecaries and grocers received a charter in 1607, but in
1618, the apothecaries were given the sole right to purchase and
sell potions, and to search the shops of grocers and stop the sale
by them of any potions. In London, the apothecaries were looked
over by the College of Physicians to see that they were not
selling evil potions or poisons. In 1618 was the first pharmacy
book.

There were three hospitals in London, two for the poor, and Bedlam
[Bethlehem] Hospital for the insane. Others were treated at home
or in the physician's home.

Theaters were shut down in times of plague to prevent spread of
disease there. Towndwellers who could afford it left to live in
the country.

Shakespeare wrote most of his plays. Most popular reading was
still Bibles, prayer books, psalm books, and devotional works.
Also popular were almanacs, which started with a single sheet of
paper. An almanac usually had a calendar; information on fairs,
roads, and posts; farming hints; popularized scientific knowledge;
historical information; sensational news; astrological
predictions; and later, social, political, and religious comment.
Many households had an almanac. Books tried to reconcile religion
and science and religion and passion or sensuality. Walter
Ralegh's "History of the World", written while he was in prison,
was popular. Ben Johnson wrote poetry and satiric comedies.
Gentlemen read books of manners such as James Cleland's
"Institution of a Young Noble Man (1607). In 1622, the first
regular weekly newspaper was started.

Although there was a large advance in the quality of boys'
education and in literacy, the great majority of the people were
unable to read fluently. Since writing was taught after one could
read fluently, literacy was indicated by the ability to sign one's
name. Almost all gentlemen and professional men were literate.
About half the yeomen and tradesmen and craftsmen were. Only about
15% of husbandmen, laborers, servants, and women were literate.

The royal postal system carried private as well as royal letters,
to increase income to the Crown. Postmasters got regular pay for
handling without charge the mail of letters that came from or went
to the letter office in London. The postmaster kept horses which
he let, with horn and guide, to persons riding "in post" at 3d.
per mile. The post was to travel 7 mph in summer and 5 mph in
winter and sound his horn four times in every mile or whenever he
met travelers.

Wool and animals for butchering were sold in London with the
sellers' agent in London taking the proceeds and paying out to
their order, the origin of check writing.

Scriveners drew up legal documents, arranged mortgages, handled
property transactions, and put borrowers in touch with lenders.
They and the goldsmiths and merchants developed promissory notes,
checks, and private paper money.

The influx of silver from the New World was a major factor in the
second great inflation in England and in the devaluation of money
to about one third of what it had been. Also contributing to the
inflation was an outracing of demand over supply, and a debasement
of the coinage. This inflation benefited tenants to the detriment
of their lords because their rents could not be adjusted upward.

There was an increase in bankruptcies.

The Elizabethan love of madrigal playing gradually gave way to a
taste for instrumental music, including organs and flutes. The
violin was introduced and popular with all classes. Ballads were
sung, such as "Barbary Allen", about a young man who died for love
of her, after which she died of sorrow. When they were buried next
to each other, a rose from his grave grew around a briar from her
grave. The ballad "Geordie" relates a story of a man hanged for
stealing and selling sixteen of the king's royal deer. The ballad
"Matty Groves" is about a great Lord's fair young bride seducing a
lad, who was then killed by the Lord. In the ballad "Henry
Martin", the youngest man of three brothers is chosen by lot to
turn pirate to support his brothers. When his pirate ship tries to
take a merchant ship, there is sea fight in which the merchant
ship sinks and her men drown. The ballad "The Trees They Do Grow
High" tells of an arranged marriage between a 24 year old woman
and the 14 year old son of a great lord. She tied blue ribbons on
his head when he went to college to let the maidens know that he
was married. But he died at age 16, after having sired a son.

May Day was a holiday with dancing around a Maypole and people
dressed up as characters such as Queen of the May, Robin Hood,
Little John, Friar Tuck, Maid Marion, the fool, and the piper. New
Year's Day was changed to January 1st.

Golf was played in Scotland, and James introduced it into England.
James I was the last monarch to engage in falconry.

Francis Bacon wrote the "Advancement of Learning" and "Novum
Organum" (New Learning) in which he encouraged the use of the
inductive method to find out scientific truths and also truths in
general, that is reasoning from a sample to the whole. According
to him, the only way to arrive at the truth was to observe and
determine the correlations of facts. He advocated a process of
elimination of ideas. His "New Learning" showed the way out of the
scholastic method and reverence for dogma into the experimental
method. He wrote "Natural and Experimental History". He also
studied the effect of cold in preventing animal putrefaction.

Galileo Galilei, professor of mathematics at the University of
Padua in Italy, conducted experiments, e.g. throwing objects off
the tower of Pisa in 1590 to show that all, whether light or
heavy, fall at the same rate. This disproved the widely held
theory that heavier objects fall faster than light objects. He
proved that the force of gravity has the same effect on all
objects regardless of their size or weight. His law stated that
the speed of their descent increases uniformly with the time of
the fall, i.e. speed = gravity times time. Galileo determined that
a pendulum, such as a hanging lamp, swings back and forth in equal
intervals of time. For this he measured time with water running
out of a vessel. Also, the rate of oscillation varies inversely as
the square of their cord length, regardless of material or weight.
From his observation that an object sliding along a plane slows
down at a decreasing rate and travels increasingly farther as the
surfaces become smoother and more lubricated, he opined that the
natural state of a body in motion is to stay in motion, and that
it is slowed down by a force: friction. He conceived of the air
offering a resistant force to an object in motion. He expanded on
Aristotle's idea of an object in a state of rest or of uniform
motion in a straight line, so that the former is just a special
case of the latter. He opined that bodies at rest stay at rest and
bodies in motion stay in uniform motion, unless and until acted
upon by some force. So motion need not be explained by the
continuing force of a prime mover. He drew a graph of distance
versus time for the rolling ball, which indicated that the
distance traveled was a square of the time elapsed. He realized
that the movement of a projectile involved a horizontal and a
vertical component and guessed that the effects of falling were
independent of the horizontal motion. He demonstrated that a
projectile follows a path of a parabola, instead of a straight
line, and that it too descends a distance which is the square of
the time taken to fall. That is, a thrown object will strike the
ground in the same amount of time as an object simply dropped from
the same height.

The telescope was invented in 1608. The next year, Galileo built a
greatly improved telescope using a lens to look at the skies. He
observed that the surface of the moon had mountains, valleys, and
craters much like the earth, and was illuminated by reflected
light. He noticed that the planet Jupiter has moons orbiting it.
He noted that the planet Venus progresses through phases similar
to those of the moon orbiting the earth and that it was very large
with a crescent shape or very small with a round shape. This
apparent change in size could only be explained if Venus revolved
around the sun, rather than around the earth. Thus more credence
was given to the Copernican theory that the earth and all planets
revolve around the sun, so Galileo was denounced by the church. He
argued against a literal interpretation of the Bible. His
observation that certain sun spots were on certain locations of
the sun but changed over time suggested that the sun might be
rotating. He observed that when air was withdrawn by a suction
pump from the top of a long glass tube whose lower open end was
submerged in a pan of water, the water rose to a height of 34 feet
and no higher. He had demonstrated that there was such a thing as
a vacuum, which was above the level of the water. About 1600,
Galileo invented the first thermometer by heating air at the top
of a tube whose open end was in a bowl of water; as the top end
cooled, the air contracted and water rose partway up the tube; the
column of water rose or fell with every change of temperature.
Galileo invented the compound refracting microscope, which used
more than one lens, about 1612.

Galileo's book on the arguments for and against the Copernican
theory was unexpectedly popular when published in 1632. The
general public was so persuaded by the arguments that the earth
revolved around the sun that Papal authority felt threatened. So
Galileo was tried and convicted of heresy and sentenced to prison
as an example to others who might question church doctrine, even
though the seventy year old Galileo recanted and some of the
inquisition judges who convicted him believed the Copernican
theory and their decision did not assert the contrary.

John Napier, a large Calvinist landholder in Scotland who had
built his own castle, did mathematics in his older years. He
explored imaginary numbers such as the square roots of negative
numbers. By 1614, he had started and developed the theory of
logarithms: the relationships among positive and negative
exponents of numbers. This simplified calculations because the
multiplication and division of numbers would be equivalent to
addition and subtraction of their exponents. His table of
logarithms, which took him twenty years to compile, was used in
trigonometry, navigation, and astronomy. It reduced the enormous
labor involved in trigonometric calculations.

Johannes Kepler was a mathematician from Germany who made his
living as an astrologer. He was in contact with Galileo by letter,
as most scientists of Europe were with each other. Kepler was
fascinated with perfect geometric shapes, which he tried to relate
to celestial phenomenon. He discerned that the orbit of Mars was
not perfectly circular. He knew that the apparent path of the sun
with respect to the constellation of fixed stars differed in speed
at different times of the year. He opined that this showed that
the speed of the earth revolving around the sun varied according
to the time of year. Then he measured the angles between the earth
and the sun and the earth and Mars as they changed through the
Martian year. He noted when the earth, Mars, and the Sun were on
the same straight line. Then he deduced the earth's true orbit,
and from this the true orbits of the other planets. Then by trial
and error, he attempted to match this empirical data with regular
mathematically defined shapes, until he discovered in 1609 that
these paths were elliptical. Also, the planets each move faster
when they are nearer the sun and more slowly when they are farther
from the sun so that in equal time intervals, a line from the
planet to the sun will sweep out equal areas. This observation led
him to opine that there is a force between the sun and each
planet, and that this force is the same as that which keeps the
moon in its orbit around the earth. Thirdly, in 1619, he found
that the square of the time for each planet's orbit about the sun
is proportional to the cube of that planet's mean distance from
the sun, so that the farther planets orbit at a slower speed. He
connected the earth's tides with the gravitational pull of the
moon. Kepler also confirmed that the paths of comets were governed
by a law and were farther from the earth from the moon. This
contradicted the church's explanation that what lies within the
moon's orbit pertains to the earth and is essentially transitory
and evil, while what lies beyond belongs to the heavens and is
permanent and pure.

In 1637, Renee Descartes, a philosopher, mathematician, and
scientist from France, invented analytic [Cartesian] geometry, in
which lines and geometric shapes can be described by algebraic
equations and vice-versa. An algebraic equation with two unknowns,
or variables, could be represented as a shape on a coordinate
system in which each point is represented by a pair of numbers
representing distances from the two axis lines. He started the
convention of representing unknown quantities by x, y, and z and
known quantities by a, b, and c. So, for instance, a circle with
center at point 2,3 and a radius of 4 was represented by the
equation:  (x-2) squared + (y-3) squared = 4. All conic sections,
e.g. ellipses, parabolas, and hyperbolas, could be represented by
equations. Analytic geometry aided in making good lenses for
eyeglasses. The glass was first manufactured with attention to
quality. Then, after it cooled and solidified, the clearest pieces
were picked and their surfaces ground into the proper curvature.
Descartes pioneered the standard exponential notation for cubes
and higher powers of numbers. He formulated the sine-law of
refraction, which determines in general the way a light ray is
deflected, according to the density of the media through which it
passes. This explained why a rainbow is circular. In 1644, he
described the universe in terms of matter and motion and suggested
that there were universal laws and an evolutionary explanation for
such. He opined that all effects in nature could be explained by
spatial extension and motion laws that 1) each part of matter
retains the shape, size, motion, or rest unless collision with
another part occurs; 2) one part of matter can only gain as much
motion through collision as is lost by the part colliding with it;
and 3) motion tends to be rectilinear. These ideas did not
correlate with the Biblical notion of the creation of the universe
by God in seven days, so Descartes feared persecution by the
church. Descartes believed in a good and perfect God, and thought
of the world as divided into matter and spirit. The human mind was
spirit and could exist outside the human body. The human mind had
knowledge without sense experience, e.g. the truths of mathematics
and physics. Ideas and imagination were innate. His observation
that sensory appearances are often misleading, such as in dreams
or hallucinations, led him to the conclusion that he could only
conclude that: "I think, therefore I am." He rejected the doctrine
that things had a proper behavior according to their natures, e.g.
the nature of acorns is to develop into oak trees. As an example
of erroneous forming of conceptions of substance with our senses
alone, he pointed out that honeycomb has a certain taste, scent,
and texture, but if exposed to fire, it loses all these forms and
assumes others. He expressed that it was error to believe that
there are no bodies around us except those perceivable by our
senses. He was a strong proponent of the deductive method of
finding truths, e.g. arguing logically from a very few self-
evident principles, known by intuition, to determine the nature
of the universe.

Christian Huygens, a Dutch physicist, used the melting and the
boiling point of water as fixed points in a scale of measurements,
which first gave definiteness to thermometric tests.

In 1600 William Gilbert, son of a gentleman, and physician to
Queen Elizabeth, wrote a book on terrestrial magnetism which
founded the science of electricity. He cultivated the method of
experiment and of inductive reasoning from observation and
insisted on the need for a search for knowledge not in books but
in things themselves. He showed that the earth was a great magnet
with a north pole and a south pole, by comparing it to loadstones
made into spheres in which a north and south pole could be found
by intersecting lines of magnetism indicated by a needle on the
stone. The vertical dip of the needle was explained by the
magnetic attraction of the north pole. He showed how a loadstone's
declination could be used to determine latitude at sea. He showed
how the charge of a body could be retained some time by covering
the body with some non-conducting substance, such as silk. He
distinguished magnetism from electricity, giving the latter its
name. He discovered that atmospheric conditions affected the
production of electricity, dryness decreasing it, and moisture
increasing it. He expounded the idea of Copernicus that the earth
revolves around the sun in a solar system. However, the prevailing
belief was still that the earth was at the center of the universe.

There was much mining of coal, tin, copper, lead, and iron in the
1600s. Coal was transported from the coal pits down to the rivers
to be loaded onto ships on coal wagons riding on wooden rails. The
full coal cars could then be sent down by gravity and the empty
wagons pulled up by horses. Sheet metal, e.g. lead, was used for
roofing. Coal was much used for heating houses, and for laundry,
cooking, and industrial use, such as extraction of salt, soap
boilers, and manufacture of glass, bricks and tiles for buildings,
anchors for ships, and tobacco pipes. It was used in the trades:
bakers, confectioners, brewers, dyers, sugar refiners, coopers,
starch makers, copper workers, alum makers, and iron workers.

In 1604 the Haberdashers, who sold imported felt for hats, got a
charter of incorporation.

A tapestry factory was established in 1619.

Flax-working machines came into existence.

As Attorney General, Edward Coke was impassioned and melodramatic.
He once described the parts of the penalty of treason as follows:
being drawn to the place of execution reflected the person's not
being worthy any more to tread upon the face of the earth; being
drawn backward at a horse tail was due to his retrograde nature;
being drawn head downward on the ground indicated that he was
unfit to breathe the common air; being hanged by the neck between
heaven and earth indicated that he was unworthy of either; being
cut down alive and his privy parts cut off and burnt before his
face indicated he was unworthily begotten and unfit to leave any
generation after him; having his bowels and inners taken out and
burnt indicated he had inwardly conceived and harbored such
horrible treason; his head cut off, which had imagined the
treason, and his body to be quartered and the quarters set up to
the view and detestation of men a prey for the fowls of the air.
Coke was subsequently elevated to the position of Chief of Common
Pleas and then to Chief of the King's Bench. But there Coke
propounded a doctrine of the supremacy of the law over the king as
well as over Parliament. For instance, Coke would not agree to
stay any case in which the king had a concern in power or profit,
to consult with him. But the other eleven justices did agree.
Since James I believed in the divine right of kings, he therefore
dismissed Coke from his position as Chief Justice of the King's
Bench. James even believed that he could suspend any law for
reasons known only to him and issue proclamations that were not
limited to the reinforcement of old laws, but made new offenses
with punishment of fine and/or imprisonment.

Coke then became a member of Parliament and led the Commons, where
he exalted the authority of Parliament vis a vis the king; that
is, the king could not make any changes in law, religion, or
taxation without consent of Parliament. James arrested Coke and
two other members of the Commons and put its leader John Pym under
house arrest for their outspoken opinions against the King's
intended alliance with Catholic Spain and intended taking of a
Spanish wife. Because of the deadlock that developed between the
king and Parliament, certain matters could not be addressed by
legislation and were left to be decided judicially. This made
judicial review important.

James vastly increased the number of peerages, selling many, for
example for 10,000 pounds. Since there was a tacit understanding
that members of Parliament would not accept remuneration, this
restricted eligibility for membership to the rich. The House of
Commons was composed mostly of attorneys, merchants from the large
towns, and country gentlemen. The gentry members had 600 pounds
[12,000s] annual income from land and the burgess members had 300
pounds [6,000s.] In addition to the two knights from every county
(elected by men holding at least forty-shilling freeholds), four
representatives from London, and one or two from every other
borough (generally elected by the top business families), there
was a representative from each of the two universities. For
Speaker, they always chose someone suggested to them by the Crown.
He decided who would talk and could hasten or delay bills, usually
for the benefit of the Crown. The Clerk, a lifetime appointment of
the Crown, wrote out the bills and their amendments and kept track
of proceedings. Many in the Commons were Puritan in sympathy. In
1607, the House of Commons developed a committee system to avoid
being presided over by the royally designated speaker. A committee
could consist of all the members of the House of Commons with an
elected chairman. An increasing number of issues were discussed in
committee before coming to the Commons and the Commons came to
ratify readily what had been done in committee.

By 1610, there had developed in the House of Commons an opposition
to feudal tenures, purveyance, wardships, and impositions (special
import and export duties on aliens set by the king without the
consent of Parliament that were supposed to be for the purpose of
regulating trade instead of for revenue). There was also a call
for free speech and an end to the King's habit at the end of
Parliament of imprisoning for a time those who had been too
outspoken. The Commons also asserted itself into foreign affairs
by expressing an opinion against a treaty proposed by the king on
which war could ensue. The treaty was abandoned. In London,
organized groups such as the apothecaries, the skinners, and the
grocers, were circulating printed statements of their cases to
members of committees of the House of Commons rather than just
seeking out a friendly Privy Council member. In 1621, the protests
made to committeemen about monopolies sold by James frightened him
into canceling many of them. He had made many grants against
competition in violation of law. The right of the Commons to expel
a member was asserted by the expulsion of a monopolist. By 1629,
the speeches of prominent members and the course of proceedings
were copied by stationers and sold in a weekly news report.

The King's Privy Council dealt constantly with foreign affairs,
and also with the great companies, and problems arising such as
gold leaving the country, the Dutch ships increased efficiency in
transporting goods, the declining market for English cloth,
strikes in the mining industry, decaying harbor works, the quality
of food and drink, the wrongs done to the poor, and above all, the
general peace and order. They formed commissions to study
situations and sent orders to Justices of the Peace on methods to
address certain problems and to Sheriffs to carry out certain
acts. About 1618, a group within the Privy Council began to
concentrate on foreign affairs, especially "cabinet counsels",
that is, with secret matters. James sold high offices of state to
supplement his income. His income from customs had increased so
much that it was now three times that from Crown lands.

The Sheriff looked after Crown lands and revenues in his county.
He gathered the rents, the annuities, the stray animals, the
deodands, the fees due to the King, the goods of felons and
traitors. He was still a means of communication between the Privy
Council and the county. He announced new statutes of Parliament
and proclamations by the king at the county courts and in the
markets. He used posse comitatus to disperse riots. He was the
functionary of the assize court, impaneling its juries, bringing
accused men before it, and carrying out its penalties. He carried
out elections of members of the House of Commons.

There were two high constables for each hundred. They were chosen
by the Justices of the Peace at quarter sessions, and were usually
small gentry or well-to-do yeomen. They were the intermediaries
between the justices and the petty constables. The petty constable
was the executive official of the village. He was usually elected
by the suitors to the leet court of the manor for a year. He might
be a farmer, an artisan, a carpenter, a shoemaker, or many times a
tradesman, a butcher, or baker. He often visited the alehouse to
learn of any trouble in the making. He would intervene in quarrels
and riots and tell the participants to desist in the King's name.
If they didn't, he could call on all bystanders to help him "force
a quiet". He had to lead the rioters and causers of injuries to
others, hold them there until he could bring him before the
nearest justice. He would inform the justice of plots to trespass
or forcibly enter land to take possession. He saw to it that no
new cottages were built in the villages without due authority. He
supervised markets and inns. He reported lapses of care for
apprentices by their masters to the justice. At harvest time, he
called upon all able bodied persons to assist and punished those
who didn't respond by putting them in the stocks or fining them
forty shillings. He arrested and whipped vagrants and sturdy
rogues and sent them back to their place of birth through
constables on the way. If a horse was stolen, he raised the hue
and cry to all neighboring constables. He made inquiry into the
paternity of the coming child of an unmarried pregnant girl to
make him take responsibility for the child and pay her 8d. a week
lest it fall into the responsibility of the village. In a town, he
might have watchmen to help him see that the streets were peaceful
at night. The constable assisted the Justice of the Peace, the
high constable, and the Sheriff. He pressed men into military
service. He collected taxes for the Sheriff and collected the
money for purveyance, the money for the poor, maimed soldiers, and
various kinds of prisoners, which the parish had to pay. He was
often the spokesman for the village in village concerns, such as
too many alehouses, brought to the attention of justices at
quarter sessions. The constable and churchwardens together
collected money for the parish, looked after the needy, and kept
in close touch with the overseers of the poor, who cared for the
sick and old, found work for the idle, took charge of bastards,
apprenticed orphan children, and provided supplies for the
workhouse.

In 1609 the East India Company was given a monopoly by the Crown
that was indefinitely long as long as it was profitable to the
realm in the King's opinion. Interlopers were to forfeit their
ships and goods, one-half to the Company and one-half to the
Crown. Monopoly status made the Company competitive with the Dutch
and Portuguese monopoly companies. The Crown received a gift or a
loan from the Company in return. At first, the Company raised
capital for each separate voyage. But voyages tried to undercut
each other and rival factions squabbled over cargoes. So the
company then raised a "terminable joint-stock" for a period of
years. The first of these was issued in 1613-16 and financed a
fleet every year for four years. Subscriptions were called in by
yearly installments and dividends paid out yearly. The voyage of
1613 brought shareholders a profit equivalent to about 11% a year.
By 1620, the Company operated thirty to forty "tall ships", many
built in its own dockyards. These dockyards were so
technologically advanced that they were daily viewed by visitors
and ambassadors. Here, besides wet and dry docks, there were
timber yards, a foundry and cordage works for supplying the ships'
hardware and a bakery and saltings for their provisioning. More
than 200 craftsmen were directly employed in the yard. Overall the
company was one of London' largest employers.

In 1606, the first charter of the Virginia Company was issued for
trading purposes. It gave the settlers "all liberties, franchises,
and immunities" they had in England. To oversee this colony, the
Crown appointed a council. Virginia established the Episcopal
Church by law. It became a joint-stock company in 1609. But
exports were few (timber, soap ashes, pitch, tar, and dyes) for
several years, and then tobacco emerged as a source of profit.
King James imposed a heavy duties on imported tobacco because it
corrupted man's breath with a stinking smoke.

In 1607, the Muscovy Company, hired Henry Hudson to find a
northwest passage through North America to the Pacific Ocean.

Life was difficult for Puritan Separatists, who wanted to separate
from the established church. They were imprisoned and their houses
were watched day and night for illegal meetings. In 1620, after
trying Holland and when there was a depression in England, a few
Puritan Separatists, along with other pilgrims, left for Virginia
in the Mayflower, but landed in New England and founded Plymouth
Colony. They were led by William Bradford and William Brewster,
their spiritual leader. They planted fields and made friends with
the Indians. In 1621, they secured a patent to the merchants and
planters together for a voluntary joint-stock company in New
England. Later, it became the self-governing Massachusetts Bay
Colony.

The canons of the church of 1604 provided for excommunication for
anyone who propounded that the king did not have the same
authority in ecclesiastical matters as the godly kings among the
Jews and Christian emperors in the primitive church, that the
Church of England was not a true and apostolic church, that
worship according the Book of Common prayer and administration of
sacraments was corrupt or superstitious, or that other methods of
the church were wicked, unchristian, or superstitious.

Church sanctuary was abolished for those accused of criminal
offenses because it had been abused by thieves paying their rent
by thieving at night. It remained available to those accused of
civil offenses.



                              - The Law -

Churchwardens of every parish shall oversee the poor in their
parish. They shall, with consent of the Justices of the Peace, set
to work children whose parents cannot maintain them and also set
to work married or unmarried persons who have no trade and no
means to maintain themselves. Churchwardens shall tax every
inhabitant, including parson and vicar and every occupier of land
and houses as they shall think fit. There will be a convenient
stock of flax, hemp, wool, thread, iron and other necessary ware
and stuff to set the poor on work. There will be competent sums of
money for the relief of the lame, impotent, old, blind, and others
not able to work, and also for the putting out of children to be
apprentices. Child apprentices may be bound until 21 years of age
or until time of marriage. They shall account to the Justices of
the Peace for all money received and paid. The penalty for absence
or neglect is 20s. If any parish cannot raise sufficient funds,
the Justices of the Peace may tax other nearby parishes to pay,
and then the hundred, and then the county. Grandparents, parents,
and children of every poor, old, blind, lame, or impotent person
not able to work, being of sufficient ability, shall at their own
charge, relieve and maintain every such poor person in that manner
and according to that rate as Justices of the Peace of that county
determine, or forfeit 20s. per month. Two Justices of the Peace
may commit to gaol or house of correction persons refusing to work
and disobedient churchwardens and overseers. The overseers may,
with the consent of the lord of the manor, build houses on common
or waste land for the poor at the expense of the parish, in which
they may place more than one family in each houses.

Every parish shall pay weekly 2-10d. toward the relief of sick,
hurt, and maimed soldiers and mariners. Counties with more than
fifty parishes need pay only 2- 6d. The county treasurer shall
keep registers and accounts. Soldiers begging shall lose their
pension and shall be adjudged a common rogue or vagabond subject
to imprisonment and punishment.

Sheriffs summoning defendants without a writ shall pay 200s. and
damages to the defendant, and 400s. to the King.

Persons stealing crops from lands or fruit from trees shall be
whipped.

Since administrators of goods of people dying intestate who fail
to pay the creditors of the deceased often can't pay the debts
from their own money, the people (who are not creditors) receiving
the goods shall pay the creditors.

Every person shall receive the holy communion in church at least
once a year or forfeit 20 pounds for the first year and 40 pounds
for the second year, and threescore pounds for every year after
until he takes the said sacrament.

No person convicted of Catholicism may practice the common law as
a counsellor, clerk, attorney, or solicitor, nor may practice
civil law as advocate, or proctor, nor shall be justice, minister,
clerk, or steward in any court, nor practice medicine, nor perform
as apothecary, nor be officer in a town, in the army, or navy, or
forfeit 100 pounds. Nor may they be administrators of estates, or
have custody of any child as guardian. Nor may they possess any
armor, gunpowder, or arms. Nor may anyone print or import Popish
books rosaries, or forfeit 40s.

No merchant may dress black rabbit skins, nor export them, unless
dressed by skinners and bought from them because the skinners have
been thus deprived of their livelihoods to their impoverishment
throughout the realm.

Beer may be exported when malt is at 16s. per quarter because
exporting beer instead of barley and malt will (1) increase the
export tax to the King, (2) increase income for coopers and
brewers, and (3) provide more jobs in transporting beer, which is
more voluminous, to the great comfort of the port towns.

Spawning and growing fish in harbors may not be taken by any nets
or weirs because this practice has hurt fishermen and the realm.

London may make a trench to bring water to the north part of the
city and shall compensate the owners of lands by agreement with
them of an amount or an amount determined by commissioners.

Actors profaning God, Jesus, or the Holy Ghost on stage are to be
penalized 200s.

No one shall sell beer or ale to an unlicensed alehousekeeper
because abuses there have become intolerable.

Every person convicted of drunkenness shall be penalized 5s. or
else placed in the stocks for six hours, because the loathsome and
odious sin of drunkenness has grown into common use lately and it
is the root of many other sins, such as bloodshed, stabbings,
murder, swearing, fornication, and adultery, and is detrimental to
the arts and manual trades and diverse workmen, who become
impoverished. Offenders convicted a second time shall be bound
with two sureties to the sum of 200s.

No person at least 18 years of age may be naturalized or restored
in blood after being attainted unless he takes the sacrament and
the Oath of Supremacy [of the king over the church of England],
and Oath of Allegiance [to the king].

Money given by will for the apprenticeship of poor children shall
be managed by incorporated towns and unincorporated parishes.
Masters receiving such apprentices shall become bound with
sufficient sureties.

Houses of correction shall be built in every county.

Lewd women, having bastards, chargeable to the parish, shall be
committed to the house of correction to be punished and set to
work for one year.

Persons deserting their families shall be deemed incorrigible
rogues and punished as such.

Persons such as sorters who purloin or embezzle wool or yarn
delivered to them by clothiers and the receivers thereof, knowing
the same, shall recompense the party grieved or else be whipped
and set in the stocks.

All hospitals and abiding places for the poor, lame, maimed, and
impotent persons or for houses of correction founded according to
the statute of Elizabeth shall be incorporated and have perpetual
succession.

Only lands and hereditaments paying rents to the Crown within the
last sixty years shall be claimed by the Crown; the title of all
persons and corporation who have enjoyed uninterruptedly against
the Crown for the last sixty years are confirmed against the
Crown.

A seminal patent-protection law was passed in 1624. It stated that
all monopolies to any person or persons, bodies politic or
corporate for the sole buying, selling, making, working, or using
of anything within the realm are void. This does not include
London or towns. Parties aggrieved by such may recover treble
damages in the superior courts, with double costs. Excepted are
existing patents, for 21 years or less, for new inventions and for
future patents for 14 years or less. Excepted also are patents for
printing or making saltpeter, gunpowder, shot or ordinance, etc.;
patents concerning allum mines or Newcastle coal or glass making
or export of calves' skins or making smalts [deep-blue pigment or
glass] or melting iron ore; grants of office; and licenses for
taverns.

Because benefit of clergy is not allowed to women convicted of
felony by reason whereof many women suffer death for small causes,
any woman convicted for the felonious taking of any money, goods
or chattels greater than 12d. and less than 10s. other than
burglary or robbery on the highway or from the person of any man
or woman without their knowledge, shall be branded and marked in
the hand upon the brawne of the left thumb with a "T" and
imprisonment, whipping, stocking, or sending to the house of
correction for a year or less.

No one may take more than 8% interest on loans because 10% has
caused many, including gentry, merchant, farmer, and tradesman, to
sell their land and forsake their trade to pay their debts.

Mothers concealing the death of a bastard baby shall suffer as for
murder, unless one witness proves the child was born dead.

Papists running a school must forfeit 40s. a day for such. Anyone
conveying a child beyond the seas to be educated in popery may not
sue in the courts, may not hold any office, and shall forfeit 100
pounds and all lands. But the child returning may have his family
lands restored to him if he receives the sacrament of the lord's
supper in the established church after reaching 18 years of age.

In 1604 it was decided that it was not necessary to prove
witchcraft caused the death of a person for there to be punishment
for it. All that was necessary now was the practice of witchcraft.
The punishment was death by hanging. Also, consulting or feeding
an evil spirit was felony.

As Attorney General, Coke introduced the crime of "seditious
libel" in a case before the Star Chamber in 1606. These written
slanders or libels were viewed as incitements to disorder and
private vengeance. Because the tendency to cause quarrels was the
essence of the crime, the truth of the libel was not a defense,
but might be an aggravation of criminality.

Edward Coke, former Chief Justice of both the Court of Common
Pleas and Court of the Queen's Bench, wrote his Reports on court
cases of all kinds through forty years and his Institutes on the
law, in which he explained and systemized the common law and which
was suitable for students. This included a commentary and update
of Littleton, published in 1627; old and current statutes; a
description of the criminal law; and lastly an explanation of the
court system, the last two published in 1644. Coke declared that
"a man's house is his castle".

Coke waged a long battle with his wife over her extensive property
and the selection of a husband for their daughter. In his
institutes, he described the doctrine of coverture as "With
respect to such part of the wife's personality as is not in her
possession, as money owing or bequeathed to her, or accrued to her
in case of intestacy, or contingent interests, these are a
qualified gift by law to the husband, on condition that he reduce
them into possession during the coverture, for if he happen to
die, in the lifetime of his wife, without reducing such property
into possession, she and not his representative will be entitled
to it. His disposing of it to another is the same as reducing it
into his own possession." He further states that "The interest of
the husband in, and his authority over, the personal estate of the
wife, is, however, considerably modified by equity, in some
particular circumstances. A settlement made upon the wife in
contemplation of marriage, and in consideration of her fortune,
will entitle the representatives of the husband, though he die
before his wife, to the whole of her goods and chattels, whether
reduced into possession or not during the coverture. ... A
settlement made after marriage will entitle the representative of
the husband to such as estate in preference to the wife. ... A
court of equity will not interfere with the husband's right to
receive the income during the coverture, though the wife resist
the application."



                         - Judicial Procedure -

Defendants may not petition to remove a case to the Westminster
courts after a jury is selected because such has resulted in
unnecessary expense to plaintiffs and delay for defendants in
which they suborn perjury by obtaining witnesses to perjure
themselves.

In 1619, by the writ of quo warranto, a government office or
official could be made to explain by what right he performed
certain acts.

James I asserted an authority to determine the jurisdiction
between the various courts.

The Court of High Commission heard mostly matrimonial cases, but
also moral offences both of clergy and laity, and simony,
plurality, drunkenness, and other clerical irregularities.

The Star Chamber Court still was primarily directed against force
and fraud and defended the common people from over-mighty lords
and over-pliable Justices of the Peace, for instance by deterring
enclosure. It also enforced monopolies. However, there was a
growing tendency for King James, who sat on it, to abuse its power
with high fines. A lord accused with foul language by a huntsman
of following hounds of a chase too closely threatened to use his
horse whip on the huntsman's master when the huntsman threatened
to complain to his master. The lord was fined 10,000 pounds.
James' council used torture to obtain information from accused
felons about possible conspiracies against him.

The ordinary administrative court of first instance is formed by
the single Justices of the Peace, who issue orders regarding
public safety, order, public morals, health, the poor, highways,
water, fields, forests, fisheries, trade, building, and fire, and
particularly begging and vagrancy as well as regulations of wages,
servants, apprentices, and day laborers. For more important
resolutions, the special sessions of the Justices of the Peace of
a hundred for a court of intermediate instance and appointed
overseers of the poor. All Justices of the Peace were present at
the quarter sessions, which were held at least four times a year,
and are primarily a court of appeal from penal sentences, but also
make the county rate, appoint county treasurers and county prison
and house of correction governors, regulate prices and wages,
settle fees of county officials, grant licenses for powder mills,
and register dissenting chapels. It heard appeals expressly
allowed by statute. The central courts also heard appeals by writ
of certiorari as to whether an administrative act was in
accordance with existing law, whether the court is competent, and
whether the administrative law has been rightly interpreted. This
writ of certiorari ceased in the 1700s.

Justices of the Peace who have the power to give restitution of
possession to tenants of any freehold estate of their lands or
tenements which have been forcibly entered and withheld, shall
have like power for tenants for term of years, tenants by copy of
court roll, guardians by knight service, tenant by elegit statute
merchant and staple of lands or tenements.

The Justices of the Peace were chosen by the Crown, usually by the
Chancellor. The qualifications were residence in the county,
suitability of moral character, religious uniformity, and the
possession of lands or tenements with twenty pounds a year. They
were almost exclusively country gentlemen, except in the towns. In
the corporate towns, the mayor, bailiff, recorder, and senior
aldermen were ex officio [by virtue of the office] Justices of the
Peace. Their main duty was to keep the peace. If a justice heard
of a riot in the making, he could compel individuals at the place
to give bonds of good-a-bearing and cause a proclamation to be
made in the King's name for them to disperse. Two justices or more
had the authority to arrest the rioters and send a record of it to
the assizes and to the Privy Council. If the riot had taken place
before their arrival, they could make an inquiry by a jury and
certify the results to the King and his Council. The justices had
men brought before them on many kinds of charges, on their own
summons, or on initiative of the petty constable. They tried to
draw these men into confession by questioning. After indictment, a
person had the choice of a petty jury trial or paying a fine. The
Justices of the Peace could insist upon presentment juries or
surveys of offenses by local officers, but, without the
institution of policemen, not many crimes were prosecuted because
victims were unwilling or could not afford to initiate judicial
action. Their unwillingness was partly due to the severity of
penalties, e.g. death for the theft of over 12s. and whippings and
fines for misdemeanors. Further, the offender was frequently a
neighbor with whom one would have to live. Mediation by the local
constable often took place. When there an outbreak of lawlessness
in an area, a commission might be set up especially for that area
to enforce the law.

Assault cases were common in courts of assize and courts of
quarter sessions. The quarter sessions were those of a number of
Justices of the Peace held for a couple of days four times a year
for the more important cases in the jurisdiction of the Justices
of the Peace. Assault was violence or threat of imminent violence.
Fines were graduated according to the means of the offender, who
was usually bound over to keep the peace. Most involved offenders
and victims who were neighbors and included people of substantial
standing in the village. Also, a sizable minority were directed
against local officers such as constables, bailiffs, or tax-
collectors.

Three-fourths of all assize indictments and many quarter-sessions
indictments were for various types of theft, including petty
larceny, grand larceny, housebreaking, burglary, sheep stealing,
and robbery. These offenses were mostly opportunistic rather than
planned, except for London's underworld of professional thieves
and the cutpurses of country markets and highway robbers on lonely
roads. There were substantial peaks in theft in periods of harvest
failure and industrial depression, especially by vagrants. But
most of the poor never stole.

The Justices of the Peace usually deferred to the learned Justices
of Assize for cases of felony, murder, rape, highway robbery, and
witchcraft. Most homicides were the result of an impassioned
argument leading to blows inflicted by nearby commonplace items
picked up and used as weapons. Only 18% of homicides were within
the family. Men were still declared outlaw if they failed to come
to court after repeated summons.

The Lord Keeper regularly advised the assize justices, before each
circuit departure, to relieve the poor, supply the markets,
maintain the roads (which were frequently impassable in winter for
wagons or coaches), enforce church attendance, suppress
superfluous and disorderly alehouses, and put down riots,
robberies, and vagrancy, and in times of dearth, to suppress
speculation in foodstuffs, prevent famine, and preserve order. In
fact, the justices were most attentive to offenses which affected
them as rate payers for the poor. These were offenses against
cottaging laws (e.g. erection of cottages which lacked the
statutory four acres of land), harboring of "inmates", disputes of
settlement of paupers, bastardy, vagrancy, church nonattendance,
and above all, disorderly alehouses. Alehousing had been a well-
established means of poor employment since the 1200s, so it was
hard to enforce licensing laws. Further, alehouses were the
centers of social life for the common people; both women and men
met their friends there. If an attorney or solicitor delays his
client's suits to work his own gain or over charges his client,
the client can recover his costs and treble damages and the
attorney and solicitor shall be disbarred. None may be admitted to
any court of the king but such as have been brought up in the same
court or is otherwise well-practiced in soliciting of causes and
has been found by their dealings to be skillful and honest. An
attorney who allows another to use his name shall forfeit 400
shillings and be disbarred.

Offenders shall pay the charge of their own conveyance to gaol or
the sum shall be levied by sale of their goods so that the King's
subjects will no longer be burdened thereby.

Plaintiffs' costs shall be paid by the defendants where there is a
judgment against the defendant in all actions in which the
plaintiff is entitled to costs on judgment for him, to discourage
frivolous and unjust suits.

By 1616, Chancery could order injunctions to stop activities.

In Slade's case of 1602, the Court of the Queen's Bench held that
assumpsit may be brought in place of the action of debt. So
assumpsit supplants debt for recovering liquidated sums and is
then called "indebitatus assumpsit".

A statute of 1623 gave rights for adverse possession. It provided
that all writs of formedon [right to land by gift of a tail] in
descender, formedon in remainder, and formedon in reverter for any
manors, lands, tenements, or hereditaments shall be sued within
twenty years, for the quieting of men's estates and avoiding of
suits. In default thereof they shall be excluded from such entry
except children under 21 years, women-covert, non compos mentis,
imprisoned or overseas shall have an additional 10 years after
their disability ceases if the 20 years have expired. The
limitation for bringing actions on the case (except slander),
account, trespass, replevin, debt, detinue for goods and chattels
and the action of trespass, quare clausum fregit [damages for
unlawful entry on land], is within 6 years; for trespass of
assault, battery, wounding, imprisonment is within 4 years; and
for actions upon the case for words is within 2 years.

The trial of Sir Walter Ralegh in 1603 began a call for a right to
confront and question one's accusers. Before trial, privy
counselors who in theory sat as impartial justices, cross-examined
Ralegh in prison. With a carefully selected jury present, the
trial began with reading of the indictment, which Ralegh had not
yet seen. He was charged with treason in plotting with Catholic
Spain to put Arabella Stuart on the throne. Arabella was to write
to Spain promising peace, toleration of Catholics in England, and
direction by Spain in her marriage choice. He pled not guilty and
took no exception to any jurors, stating that he knew them all to
be honest men. Next, Attorney General Edward Coke, his enemy and
rival, and he engaged in a debate about who was right, with Coke
outright bullying him. Coke then produced a signed confession by
Lord Cobham that implicated him in the alleged conspiracy and
accepting 10,000 crowns for his part. Ralegh was given permission
to speak. He said that Cobham had retracted his confession. He
ridiculed the idea that he would betray England to Spain for gold
after fighting against Spain, including risking his life three
times, and spending 4,000 pounds for the defeat of Spain. He
pointed to a treatise he had written to the king on the present
state of Spain and reasons against peace. Then there was a
discussion on the validity of Cobham's confession. Cecil gave an
oration of Ralegh. Coke gave a speech. Ralegh asked to have his
accuser brought before him face to face. He cited law that two
witnesses were necessary for a conviction for treason. Chief
Justice Popham replied that only one witness was necessary under
common law, which applied to his case, and that the trial was
properly by examination of the defendant. Coke added that it would
be improper to call Cobham because he was a party. Then Coke
surprised Ralegh with a letter from Cobham stating that Ralegh had
asked Cobham to procure him an annual pension of 1500 pounds from
Spain for disclosing intelligence. Ralegh acknowledged that a
pension was offered, but denied that he had ever intended to
accept it. He admitted that it was a fault not to inform
authorities of this offer. The jury deliberated for fifteen
minutes and returned with a verdict of guilty. The Chief Justice
delivered the sentence for treason: drawing, hanging,
disembowelling, beheading, and quartering. The whole trial was not
so much to access guilt, but to show the general public that the
person was guilty.

Church courts were revived after a period of disuse. They could
annul an unconsummated or legally invalid marriage (e.g.
consanguinity, impotence, a witnessed precontract to marry) and
order judicial separations in case of adultery, cruelty, or
apostasy. Annuled marriages made a person's children illegitimate.
An action at common law for "criminal conversation" [adultery]
with the plaintiff's spouse or for assault and battery could
result in an order for separation. But only a private statute of
Parliament could grant a divorce, which allowed remarrige. It was
granted in only a few cases and only to the very wealthy. Church
officials spied upon people's conduct to draw them into their
courts and gain more money from the profits of justice.

In 1610, Edward Coke, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas,
decided that the statute giving the Royal College of Physicians
power to imprison and fine those practicing without a license was
invalid and unenforceable because it gave the college half of each
fine awarded, which was a conflict of interest with its role as an
adjudicator. Coke said that a maxim of the common law was that no
man ought to be judge in his own cause. By this decision, he
asserted a court supremacy over Parliament with respect to the
validity of statutes. He opined that the courts should not only be
independent of the Crown, but should act as arbiter of the
Constitution to decide all disputed questions. In his words, "When
an Act of Parliament is against common right and reason, the
common law will control it and adjudge such Act to be void."

Justices still explained and in some degree interpreted
legislative acts of Parliament as they had since the 1500s, but
their right to do so was coming into question and was slowly lost.

Female scolds were still dunked into water as punishment.

Only barristers, who were called to the bar after being in long
residence in one of the Inns of Court, could practice before the
King's court. Attorneys and solicitors prepared cases for
barristers and practiced before minor courts.

The king appointed the justices, with the advice of the
Chancellor. James I often intimidated the justices to see things
his way.

The oath of a justice was: "Well and and truly ye shall serve the
King and his people. And ye shall take no fee or livery of none
but the King, nor gift or reward of none that hath a do before you
except it shall be meat or drink of small value, as long as the
plea hangs before you. And ye shall do equal law and execution of
Right to all the King's subjects rich and poor, without regard to
any person. Ye shall counsel our Sovereign Lord the King in his
need. And ye shall not delay any person of common right for the
letters of the King or of any person or for any other cause ... So
help you God."

The courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas, and the Chancery all
met simultaneously in Westminster Hall. Throngs passed up and down
the middle aisles between the courts, including booksellers,
stationers, scriveners, and vendors of bread and hot meat. The
hall was so cold that people kept on their coats and hats.

The last court case concerning villeinage was in 1618.





                         - - - Chapter 15 - - -



                        - The Times: 1625-1642 -

The entourage of Charles I came to be called "Cavaliers". They
were named by their opponents for the Spanish caballero who was a
Catholic who prosecuted Protestants. Their hair had long, curled,
and flowing locks. They wore a broad-rimmed decorated hat. Their
fancy jackets and breeches were loose. Boots were wide and folded
over at the top. Young men wore earrings and painted their faces.
A lady wore her hair in ringlets on each side of her face. Her
dress was fitted at the waist, with a peaked bodice. It was low at
the shoulders with a scoop neckline in front. She often wore much
lace, especially at the neck down to the bust line. Her outer
dress and under-skirt that was revealed in front were full and
made of satin and stiff silk or velvet. Only hose of silk was worn
at court.

A majority of prosperous industrial towns and fee farmers, led
sometimes by lords or old landed gentry were Puritans. They
dressed plainly and in somber colors such as black, grey, and
buff, with no ornamentation except plain white collars and cuffs
of linen rather than of lace. Wool replaced silk and velvet. No
jewelry was worn. The Puritan women also wore long white aprons.
The Puritan men for a time had short-cut hair. The Puritan-
Parliamentarians were given the name "Roundheads" after the crop-
headed London apprentices whose rioting had marked every stage of
the conflict between king and Parliament. The Puritan women
smoothed their hair back into little knobs and covered their hair
and head with a white covering. Both Puritan men and women wore
broad-rimed hats and plain shoes. The ordinary country man wore a
felt hat, broadcloth coat, woolen trousers, hand-knitted worsted
stockings, and plain, strong shoes.

Nine-tenths of the people were Protestant. Religion was a favorite
and serious topic of discussion, even among the illiterate. On the
whole, they were more inclined to salvation by grace than to
salvation by good works. Popular reading included guides for good
manners such as "The Rich Cabinet" by Thomas Gainsford, and
"Youths Behavior" translated from the French by Francis Hawkins.
It advised not to sit with one leg on the other, but with the feet
even; not to spit on one's fingers; and not to sniffle in the
sight of others. Books for ladies such as "Delights for Ladies" by
Hugh Platt told them how to adorn themselves, tables, closets, and
distillatories with beauties, banquets, perfumes, and waters. It
taught preserving and comfit making, cooking, and housewifery.
Gervase Markham wrote advice for men in "Hobsons Horse-load of
Letters", which addressed serious negotiations, private
businesses, amorous accomplishment, wanton merriment, and the
defense of honor and reputation. "A Helpe to Discourse" by W.B.
and E.P. primed a man to meet company with suggested questions and
answers, epigrams, riddles, and jests. In Henry Peacham's "The
Compleat Gentleman" (1622), the model Cavalier is portrayed in
terms of horsemanship, tilting, sports, choice of companions,
reserved and dignified conduct, good scholarship, and
responsibility. This popular book was a guide to university, where
there was a seven year course of classroom lectures. It advised
conversation with men of the soundest reputation for religion,
life, and learning, but recreation with those of the same rank and
quality. First place was to be given to religion, so that the
foundation of all studies would be the service of God. Following
in importance were: speaking and writing in English or Latin
(grammar, syntax, and rhetoric), astronomy, astrology, geography
(whose authorities were Pliny, Strabo, and the pagan writers of
the first century), chorography, mathematics, including arithmetic
and geometry, poetry (reading, writing, and criticizing), music,
including part-music, drawing, limning, painting, art history,
exercise (riding, running, leaping, tilting, throwing, wrestling,
swimming, shooting, and falconry), logic and disputation if
related to one's intended profession such as the law, philosophy
(Plato and Aristotle), and some medicine and botany.

The Flemish Johann Baptista van Helmont demonstrated that metals
dissolved in acid can be recovered through chemical means and
enunciated the doctrine that each thing in nature has its own
specific organization.

Richard Brathwaite's "The English Gentleman" portrays the sombre
Puritan who accepts the gospel of work. He is a staid and serious
businessman. "Matrimonial Honour" by Daniel Rogers opined that for
success, a marriage must be godly, with the parties equally
religious, worshipping together in private and in public. A hasty
or worldly marriage would bring repentance. The spouses should
agree, but keep to their spheres. Children should not be spoiled.

Large households were more or less self-supporting and were
managed by their ladies. Work included ordering wool, hemp, and
flax; making cloth and dying it; dairy work; brewing; malting;
baking; preserving wines; extracting oils; distilling perfume; and
putting on banquets. Couches were coming into use in parlors.

The king and his court entourage settled for most of the year in
Whitehall instead of travelling around the country. The king let
the public into Hyde Park for recreation. The City of London and
Westminster were still separate, but a mass of hovels was
springing up in between them. The water carrier was still active
and the night transport of sewage necessary. In certain areas
there lived in crowded houses, those wanted for minor offenses,
small thefts, and debt. Bailiffs did not dare venture into them
because the inhabitants hid and defended each other unless the
offense was a major one. The penalty for stealing even small sums
was still death.

Indigo Jones was the first architect of consequence. He had
studied in Italy and designed and built the Banqueting House at
Whitehall in London in 1622. It had classical proportions and nice
shaping and dressing in stone. He was now an arbiter of taste for
the King Charles and his Queen and built many structures for them,
including the Queen's Chapel at St. James Palace and her bedroom
in the Queen's Hose in Greenwich. All over London and the country
he and his pupils built many classical buildings, including
houses, churches, stables, lodgings, out-buildings, staircases,
galleries, watergates, and archways. They stood in stark contrast
to the Tudor buildings around them. In the 1632, Jones started
town-planning in London with Covent Garden fruit and vegetable
market with terraced houses around a central piazza surrounded by
open arcades with a Tuscan church at one end. In 1634, a man from
the suburb of Hackney introduced a line of coaches rented at 1s.
per hour. They soon became very popular.

A large part of England was rebuilt as yeomen expanded their
houses and others lower in rank replaced mud and wood hovels with
brick and stone cottages. A separate kitchen appeared. The ground
floors are boarded over to create bedrooms. Permanent stairs
replace ladders. Glass appears in windows. Glass and crockery
replace wood and pewter, Chairs replace benches. Knives and forks
become common.

About 1640 began travel between towns by covered wagons called
stage coaches. They carried passengers and goods and stopped at
inns for stabling and repairs.

Work was begun in 1630 to make canals that would make waters run
to the sea. Barges on canals were the most efficient mode of
transportation. A barge could carry 50 tons on a canal and only 30
on a river. A single horse could haul a wagon on iron rails with 8
tons, on a soft road with 8 tons, and on his back 1/8 of a ton.

Real wages, which had been falling, reached their low point and
the gap between the poor and others widened. There were
depressions from 1629-32 and from 1636 to about 1640, which called
for Royal proclamations for the relief and distress, especially
among the poor. The Book of Orders, for the relief of distress in
earlier reigns, was to be reissued. The assize of beer and bread
maintaining quality, prices, weights, and measures, was to be duly
kept. Hoarding of foodstuffs was to be punished. Fish days and
lent were to be observed to maintain the fishers. Abstaining from
suppers on Fridays and on the eves of feasts was ordered in all
taverns and commended to private families. City corporations were
to give up their usual feasts and half the charge given to the
poor. Foreign ships were not to be victualled for long voyages.
The revised Book of Orders also covered the regulation of beggary,
the binding of apprentices, and the general relief of the poor.
All magistrates were to enforce the rules and raise special rates
from all the parishes, the richer of these to help the poorer.

A new trend of spring-sown crops led to better crop balance and
reduced the risks of scarcity in a bad year. But the economy was
still volatile.

There were riots in London in 1640-1 from a complete breakdown in
political consensus, the factions being the Royalist City elite
versus the middling and lesser merchants and craftsmen.

In 1631, the clock makers broke away from the control of the
Blacksmiths. The gunmakers also broke away from the Blacksmiths.
The tinplate workers broke away from the Ironmongers.

"Searching" for bad cloth became more difficult as the industry
became more diversified. For instance, a new machine called a gig-
mill did the work of many hand finishers. In 1633, Charles issued
a commission for the reformation of the cloth industry with minute
directions for the manufacture of cloth. But there were many
disagreements over the details of manufacture and reform was
difficult to enforce.

By the 1630s, many parishes had a resident intellectual for the
first time. The parish priests came from gentry, upper yeomanry,
urban tradesmen and clerical families. They were educated and
highly learned. They had libraries and were in touch with
contemporary religious debates. They saw their role primarily as
pastoral care. Many wanted to improve the religious knowledge and
moral conduct of their parishioners. Puritan influence deepened as
they forbade dancing, games, minstrels, and festivals. They
punished superstitious conduct. They initiated prosecutions in
church courts for sexual lapses and drunkenness. The church court
had little coercive power and its punishments were restricted to
penance or excommunication. Many Puritan sects espoused equality
for women. By the 1640s women were preachers, e.g. in the Baptist
and Anabaptist religions and, until 1660, prophetesses. These
sects were mostly composed of the lower echelons of society.

The poor people did not respond to sermons as did the well-to-do.
Nor were they as involved in church activity, attending church
only for marriages, baptisms, and funerals.

Charles I not only believed in the divine right of kings and was
authoritarian; he was the ultimate autocrat. He had an unalterable
conviction that he was superior to other men, who were
insignificant and privileged to revolve around him. He issued
directives to reverse jury verdicts. Parliamentarians Oliver
Cromwell and other educated men opposed this view. The Commons
voted not to grant Charles the usual custom-dues for life, making
it instead renewable each year, conditioned on the king's
behavior. Charles dissolved Parliament before this passed. He
continued to take tonnage and poundage.

He wanted money for war so he imposed many taxes, but without the
consent of Parliament. They included many of which had fallen into
disuse. He imposed a compulsory "loan" on private individuals,
which the courts held was illegal, and imprisoned, those who
refused. Bail was denied to these men. Simpler people who refused
were threatened with impressment into the Navy, which included
being landed on shore to fight as marines and soldiers. They
sought to revive the old writ of habeas corpus [produce the body]
to get released, but to no avail. The old writ had been just to
bring to court those persons needed for proceedings, but Coke in
1614 had cited the writ with a new meaning "to have the body
together with the cause of detention". Charles billeted unpaid and
unruly soldiers in private homes, which they plundered. It was
customary to quarter them in inns and public houses at royal
expense. Martial law was declared and soldiers were executed. But
the citizens did not want martial law either.

The Magna Carta got attention as a protector of basic liberties.
Both attorneys and laymen read "The Pastyme of People" written by
John Rastell in 1529, which described the history of the Magna
Carta from 1215 to 1225. Also read was the "Great Abridgment" of
the English law written by Rastell in 1527, and Coke's volume of
his Institutes which dealt with the Magna Carta, which the Crown
took to prevent being published until 1642, when Parliament
allowed it. Broad-scale pamphleteering turned England into a
school of political discussion. Oxford University favored the
established church and Cambridge University was Puritan.

The estates of the members of the House of Commons were three
times the extent of the members' of the House of Lords. Bishops'
estates had diminished considerably because of secularization. The
members of the House of Commons were elected by the people. For
these reasons, the House of Commons asserted a preeminence to the
House of Lords.

The House of Commons drew up a Petition of Right in 1627, which
expanded upon the principles of Magna Carta and sought to fix
definite bounds between royal power and the power of the law. It
protested the loans compelled under pain of imprisonment and
stated that no tax or the like should be exacted without the
common consent of Parliament. It quoted previous law that "...no
freeman may be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his
freeholds or liberties, or his free customs, or be outlawed or
exiled; or in any manner destroyed, but by the lawful judgment of
his peers, or by the law of the land" and that "...no man of what
estate or condition that he be, should be put out of his land or
tenements, nor taken, nor imprisoned nor disinherited, nor put to
death without being brought to answer by due process of law". It
continued that "... divers of your subjects have of late been
imprisoned without any cause showed; and when for their
deliverance they were brought before your Justices by your
Majesty's writs of Habeas Corpus, there to undergo and receive as
the court should order, and their keepers commanded to certify the
causes of their detainer, no cause was certified, but that they
were detained by your Majesty's special command, signified by the
Lords of your Privy Council, and yet were returned back to several
prisons, without being charged with anything to which they might
make answer according to the law." It also protested the billeting
of soldiers in private houses and martial law trying soldiers and
sailors. If these terms were agreed to by the King, he was to be
given a good sum of money. Since he needed the money, he yielded.
He expected tonnage and poundage for the Navy for life, as was the
custom. But he got it only for one year, to be renewable yearly.
The King agreed to the petition, quietly putting his narrow
interpretation on it, and it was put into the statute book.

In 1629 Parliament distinguished between treason to the king and
treason to the Commonwealth.

The Chief Justice held in 1638 that acts of Parliament to take
away the King's royal power in the defense of his kingdom were
void; the king may command his subjects, their persons, their
goods, and their money and acts of Parliament make no difference.
But the people refused to pay these taxes.

Charles thought of more ways to obtain money and disregarded his
agreement to the Petition of Right.

Without the consent of Parliament, he extended ship money to all
the kingdom instead of just the ports. It was used to outfit ships
for the protection of the coasts. Hampden refused to pay it on
principle and the courts ruled against him in the case of King v.
John Hampden and he was sent to prison. When distraints were
tried, the common people used violence to prevent them. The
bailiffs were pelted with rocks when they came to distrain. One
man used his pitchfork to take back his steer being taken by the
bailiff. If distraint were successful, people would refuse to buy
the distrained property of their neighbors.

Charles revived the right of the Crown to force knighthood on the
landed gentry for a fee.

Charles sold monopolies in such goods as soap, leather, salt,
wine, coal, and linen rags although they had been abolished in the
last Parliament of James. This made employment uncertain for
workers and prices high for the public, and put masters in danger
of loss of capital.

Fines were levied on people for the redress of defects in their
title deeds. Crown forest boundaries were arbitrarily extended and
landowners near Crown forests were heavily fined for their
encroachments on them. Money was extorted from London by an
illegal proclamation by which every house had to pay three years'
rental to the Crown to save itself from demolition.

But what incensed the people more than the money issue were the
changes in the established church. High churchmen, called
Ritualists, enforced ceremonies offensive to Puritan feeling in
every parish. The centrally placed communion tables were to be
placed at the east end within railings and called "altars", or
"mercy seats" as if for mass. They were to be ornamented with
crucifixes, images, conceits, books, candles and rich tapestries.
Bowing was to be done when approaching them. Clergymen were to be
called "priests" and their authority treated as divine. Worship
was to be done in prescribed forms and ritual with pomp and
ceremony, including kneeling for communion. It was to be done in
accordance with the Romish Breviars, Rituals, and Mass-books.
Rings were to be used in marriages and crosses used in baptisms.
Churches, fonts, tables, pulpits, chalices and the like were to be
consecrated, thereby putting holiness in them. Churches that did
not do this but used unconsecrated or "polluted" articles were
closed by interdiction. Regard was to be had with regard to days,
postures, meats, and vestments. The clergy was to wear supplices
[white linen vestments flowing to the foot with lawn sleeves] and
embroidered copes [vestment over the head]. A Bishop wore a four-
cornered cap, cope and surplice with lawn-sleeves, tippet (long,
black scarf), hood, and canonical coat. Churchwardens were to take
oaths to inform against any who disobeyed. The law still required
that all attend Sunday sermons. But parishes had some control over
who was their preacher, even though a minister could be put upon a
parish by the bishops without the consent of the patron or people.
By increasing the meager pay of a parish clergyman, they could
chose one with a compatible theology or employ a lecturer from
outside. The Ritualists scolded clergymen for "gospel preaching"
and suppressed Puritan preaching in public meetings. Preaching or
printing matter concerning the controversy of free will versus
predestination was forbidden. Geneva Bibles, which were popular
among laymen, were prohibited from being imported. Many were
excommunicated for sitting instead of kneeling at communion. The
clergy prohibited marriage if they liked by withholding their
license, and they licensed marriages without banns. The Ritualists
encouraged certain sports to be played after church on Sunday. The
Puritans protested vehemently to this because they wanted to
strictly observe the sabbath. The Puritans saw the high churchmen
as wanting to return to the doctrine and customs they thought to
be Papist. The Ritualists were absolutists in their political
views and accepted the King's intervention in church matters. The
ecclesiastical Court of High Commission enforced the edicts of the
church, excommunicating those who did not conform and expelling
clergymen who, for instance, did not bow at the name of Jesus or
wear the surplice. It was used against the Puritans and imposed
high fines and imprisonment for religious eccentricity and Puritan
preaching. Charles supported the established church in this
endeavor because it agreed that he had a divine right to rule.

The universities and high churchmen were beginning to adopt the
doctrine of free will over predestination. Parliamentarian and
Puritan Oliver Cromwell and others feared this presaged a return
to justification by works and the popish faith. In Parliament, he
spoke out against the tyranny of the bishops, whose offices he
wanted abolished, and the elaborateness of church services.

To avoid persecution, many Puritans emigrated to Virginia and New
England. They were led by magistrates, country gentlemen,
prominent businessmen, attorneys, and other professionals. In
1629, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was chartered at the
instigation of John Winthrop as a Puritan refuge. Its leaders led
a migration of Puritans organized to include five each of
armorers, bakers, blacksmiths, carpenters, shoemakers, merchants;
three each of clothiers, chandlers, coopers, military officers,
physicians, and tailors; two each of fishermen, herdsmen, and
masons; on tanner, and one weaver. The fare was five pounds and an
applicant was interviewed to make sure he was a Puritan. He got 50
acres, or more for a larger family. But if he paid 50 pounds into
the common stock he received 200 acres of land, plus 50 more for
each dependent. Maryland was founded in 1632 as a haven for
Catholics, but its charter precluded a government-established
religion. It was granted to Lord Baltimore to hold in free socage
and was named after King James II's Queen, who was overtly
Catholic. Catholics in England could practice their religion only
in their homes and could not carry arms.

As hostility grew, censorship of books and plays accelerated and
the number of authorized printers was reduced in 1637 by decree of
the Star Chamber. In 1640s effective government control of the
press collapsed. Then there were many pamphlets and newspapers
with all variety of interpretation of the Bible and all sorts of
political opinion, such as on taxation, law and the liberties of
the subject, religion, land and trade, and authority and property.
Twenty-two pamphlets were published in 1640 and 1,996 in 1642.

In 1640 the canons of the church included a requirement for
parsons to exclaim divine right of kings every year. The Commons
soon resolved that this was contrary to the fundamental laws and
liberties of the realm.

The Short Parliament of 1640 was dissolved soon because the
Commons demanded redress of its grievances. The Long Parliament of
1640-1653 requested by the House of Lords was agreed to by Charles
because he still wanted money. In election of members to the Long
Parliament, voters wanted to know where contenders stood on
certain political issues. In this Parliament, the Commons ceased
to agree on all issues and started to rely on majority rule.

The House of Commons was led by John Pym, a middle class
landholder with extensive commercial interests. The Commons
treated the King's refusal to act with them as a relinquishment of
his power to Parliament. When it met at the Long Parliament, Pym
expressed the grievances of the King's actions against the
privileges of Parliament, against religion, and against the
liberties of the subjects. Specifically, he decried the disregard
of free speech and of freedom from prosecution afterward, and the
arbitrary dissolution of Parliament. Secondly, he alleged popery
had been encouraged and the ecclesiastical jurisdiction enlarged.
Thirdly, he protested the patent monopolies given to favorites to
the detriment of the buying public, the imposition of ship money
levies beyond the need of national defense and without the consent
of Parliament, the revival of the feudal practice of imposing a
fine for refusal to accept a knighthood with its attendant
obligations, the enlargement of the King's forests and driving out
from hence tenants with lucrative holdings, extra judicial
declarations of justices without hearing of counsel or argument in
many criminal matters, and the abuses of the prerogative courts in
defending monopolies. Parliament's assertion into religious
matters and foreign affairs was unprecedented, those areas having
been exclusively in the power of the King.

The Long Parliament begun in 1640 removed many of the King's
ministers and forbade clergy from sitting in Parliament or
exercising any temporal authority. It passed measures which were
not agreed to by the King. It undid the lawless acts of the King
and the court decision in the case of King v. Hampden. Ship money
was declared illegal. The new concept that the present Parliament
should not be dissolved but by its own consent was adopted. The
Star Chamber and Court of High Commission were abolished. The oath
ex officio, an oath to answer all questions, was originally meant
for facts at issue, but had been extended by these courts to
opinions, beliefs, and religion and had led to abuses. The Star
Chamber had been the only court which punished infractions of the
Kings' edicts, so now his proclamations were unenforceable.
Protection against self-incrimination was given by the provision
that no person be forced "to confess or accuse him or herself of
crime, offense, delinquency, or misdemeanor, or any neglect... or
thing whereby, or by reason whereof, he or she shall or may be
liable or exposed to any censure, pain, penalty, or punishment
whatsoever, as had been the practice in the Star Chamber and the
Court of High Commission.

These measures were also adopted: No one may be compelled to take
knighthood nor undergo any fine for not so doing. The forest
boundaries are returned to their former place. All subjects may
now import gunpowder; they may also make and sell gunpowder and
import saltpeter.

The Root and Branch Petition of 1640 complained about pressure on
ministers by bishops on threat of dismissal not to preach about
predestination, free grace, perseverance, original sin remaining
after baptism, the sabbath, doctrine against universal grace,
election for faith foreseen, free-will against anti-Christ, non-
residents, or human inventions in God's worship. It also
complained about the great increase of idle, lewd, and dissolute,
ignorant and erroneous men in the ministry who wanted only to wear
a canonical coat, a surplice, and a hood, bow at the name of
Jesus, and be zealous of superstitious ceremonies. It also
complained about the swarming of lascivious, idle, and
unprofitable books, pamphlets, play-books, and ballads, such as
Ovid's "Fits of Love", "The Parliament of Women", Barn's "Poems",
and Parker's "Ballads". Further it opposed the restraint of
reprinting books formerly licensed without relicensing. It
protested the growth of popery and increase of priests and
Jesuits, the strict observance of saints' days whereby large fines
were imposed on people working on them, the increase of whoredoms
and adulteries because of the bishops' corrupt administration of
justice and taking of bribes, and the practice of excommunicating
for trivial matters such as working on a holy day or not paying a
fee. It further protested the fining and imprisoning of many
people; breaking up men's houses and studies; taking away men's
books, letters, and writings; seizing upon their estates; removing
them from their callings; and separating them from their wives, to
the utter infringement of the laws and of people's liberties. It
complained that these practices caused many clothiers, merchants,
and others to flee to Holland, thus undermining the wool industry.
It finally complained of the multitude of monopolies and patents,
large increase of customs, and ship-money. Many Londoners signed
this petition.

The House of Commons decided to forbid bowing at the name of
Jesus. When the House of Lords disagreed with this, the House of
Commons claimed that it represented all the people and didn't need
the concurrence of the House of Lords. The House of Commons
ordered that all communion tables be removed from the east end of
churches, that the railings be taken away, and all candles and
basins be removed from it. Further, all crucifixes, images of the
Virgin Mary, and pictures of any of the Trinity were to be
demolished, which was done to even those in markets and streets.
Further, all bowing at the name of Jesus or toward the east end of
the church or toward the communion table was forbidden. All
dancing or other sports on Sunday was forbidden. Enforcement was
to be done by Justices of the Peace and Mayors. But these orders
never became statutes.

Enforcement of the law for not coming to church was not now
regularly enforced, so Catholics had a respite.

Rebellion of Irish Catholics against England and English
Protestants broke out in Ireland in 1641. Parliament didn't trust
the King with an army that he could use against themselves so it
passed the following two measures expanding the Navy and calling
out the militia and naming certain persons to be Lieutenants of
each county.

The Admiral shall impress as many seamen as necessary for the
defense of the realm. This includes mariners, sailors, watermen,
ship carpenters, but no one over the age of 50 or masters or
masters' mates. If one hides, he shall be imprisoned for three
months without bail.

Justices of the Peace shall impress as many soldiers as the king
may order for war in Ireland. This is despite the right of a
citizen to be free from being compelled to go out of his county to
be a soldier because the danger from Ireland is imminent. Excluded
are clergymen, scholars, students, those rated at a subsidy of
land of three pounds or goods of five pounds, esquires or above,
the sons of such or their widows, those under eighteen or over
sixty years of age, mariners, seamen, and fishermen. The penalty
for disobeying is imprisonment, without bail or misprise, and a
fine of ten pounds. If an offender can't pay the fine, he shall be
imprisoned a year more, without bail or misprise.

The right to call out the county militia had been a prerogative of
the Crown, so the King issued a Proclamation ordering the soldiers
to ignore this order and obey him. So Parliament declared this
Proclamation void.

The King accused five leaders of Parliament, including Pym, of
trying to subvert the government of the kingdom, to deprive the
King of his regal power, to alienate the affections of the people
toward their King, forcing the Parliament to their ends by foul
aspersions, and inviting the Scots to invade England. In 1642, the
King entered Parliament with 300 soldiers to arrest these five.
They had flown, but Parliament was shocked that the King had
threatened the liberties of Parliament with military force. The
citizens of London, in their fear of popery, rose in arms against
the King, who left the city. Both sides raised big armies. The
goal of the Parliamentarians was to capture the King alive and
force him to concessions.

When the Parliamentarians took Oxford in 1648, they purged its
faculty of royalists.



                              - The Law -

From 1625 to 1627 these statutes were passed:

No one shall engage in sports or any pastimes outside his own
parish or bearbaiting, bullbaiting, interludes, plays or other
unlawful pastimes inside his parish on Sundays because such has
led to quarrels and bloodshed and nonattendance at church. The
fine is 3s.4d. or if the offender does not have the money or goods
to sell to pay, he shall be set in the public stocks for three
hours.

No carrier with any horse or wagon or cart or drover with cattle
may travel on Sunday or forfeit 20s.

No butcher may kill or sell any victual on Sunday or forfeit
6s.8d.

Every innkeeper, alehousekeeper, and other victualler permitting a
patron who is not an inhabitant of the area to become drunk shall
forfeit 5s. or be place in the stocks for six hours. Offenders
convicted a second time shall be bound by two sureties to the sum
of 200s.

As of 1627, a parent sending a child out of the country to go to a
Catholic school were to forfeit 100 pounds, one half to the
informer and one half to the king.

The Petition of Right herebefore described was passed as a statute
in 1627.



                         - Judicial Procedure -

The Star Chamber decided cases as diverse as a case of
subordination of witnesses, cases of counterfeiters of farthing
tokens, and cases of apothecaries compounding ill medicines. It
tried to keep down the prices of foodstuffs for the benefit of the
poor; it repressed extortion and false accusations, and disbarred
an attorney for sharp practices; it punished defamation, fraud,
riots, forgery of wills; it forbade duels. A special virtue of its
position was that it could handle without fear matters in which
men of social or local influence might intimidate or overawe
juries or even country justices. It punished a lord who caused
records to be forged, unlawfully entered lands, and seized tithes.
It disciplined a nobleman for drawing a sword on a lord hunting
hare.

In one of its cases, Sir Edward Bullock, a knight wanting to
enclose a common of a thousand acres threatened his neighbor
Blackhall when he would not sell his lands and rights. The knight
hired a man to break down the hedges and open a gate that had been
staked up, so that his neighbor's cattle would stray. He sued his
neighbor three times for trespass, lost his cases, and threatened
revenge on all the witnesses who testified against him. He had the
house of one pulled down. The pregnant wife and a naked child were
turned out and had to lie in the streets because no one dared to
take them in, even when a justice so directed. The witness, his
wife, and family took refuge in an unheated outbuilding in the
winter. He and his wife and one child died there. The knight had
another witness cudgeled so that she was black and blue from the
waist up, and could not put on her clothes for a month. The knight
threatened to set fire to the house of another witness, and sent
his men to pull him out of doors and keep him prisoner for some
hours. The Star Chamber imprisoned the knight and his men. The
knight was fined 1,000 pounds and the men 50 pounds each. The
knight also had to pay one witness 100 pounds in reparation to the
surviving children of the family whose house had been pulled down.

But the power of the Star Chamber was abused by King Charles I.
For instance, one lord was accused by another of calling him a
base lord. The evidence was paltry. But he was fined eight
thousand pounds, one-half going to the King. A lord who was
accused of converting agricultural land to pasture was fined four
thousand pounds. The lord was fined ten thousand pounds. A person
who exported fuller's earth, contrary to the King's proclamation,
was pilloried and fined two thousand pounds. A man who defaced a
stained-glass window in a church was fined 500 pounds and ordered
to pay for a plain glass replacement. A man who became sheriff of
a county and had taken the oath which bound him to remain in the
county was elected to Parliament and stood in opposition to the
king on many matters. He was imprisoned for many years until he
made a humble submission and had to pay a heavy fine. A London
importer who was alleged to have said "That the Merchants are in
no part of the world so screwed and wrung as in England; That in
Turkey they have more encouragement" was fined 2,000 pounds for
seditious and slanderous words against his majesty's happy
government. A Scottish minister circulated a book appealing to the
Parliament to turn out the bishops and to resist its own
dissolution by the King. In it he called the bishops men of blood,
anti-Christian, satanical, ravens, and magpies, preying on the
state. He was against kneeling at the sacrament and denounced the
Queen for her religion. He blamed the state for the death of
citizens of a certain town by famine. For as he did "scandalize
his Majesties Sacred Person, his Religious, Wise, and just
Government, the Person of his Royal Consort the Queen, the Persons
of the Lords and Peers of this realm, especially the Reverend
Bishops", he was fined 10,000 pounds, was to be unfrocked (which
was done by the Court of High Commission), and was whipped,
pilloried, one ear nailed to the pillory and cut off, his cheek
branded, and his nose slit. Then he was imprisoned for life, but
only served ten years, being released by a statute of the Long
Parliament. A Puritan writer Pyrnne wrote a book that included a
condemnation of masks and plays, and all who took part, and all
who looked on as sinful, pernicious, and unlawful. It opined that
Nero had attended plays and deserved to be murdered. Since Charles
had attended plays and the Queen had taken part in a mask, it was
inferred that Pyrnne meant them harm. His indictment alleged that
"he hath presumed to cast aspersions upon the King, the Queen, and
the Commonwealth, and endeavored to infuse an opinion onto the
people that it is lawful to lay violent hands upon Princes that
are either actors, favorers, or spectators of stage plays". The
justices saw in the book an attempt to undermine authority. The
Chief Justice called the book a most wicked, infamous, scandalous,
and seditious libel. Pyrnne was sentenced to be degraded by Oxford
and disbarred by Lincoln's Inn, to be fined 5,000 pounds, to be
pilloried and to have his ears cut off, and then to be imprisoned
for life. Three men who wrote attacks on the bishops and
ecclesiastical courts, such as alleging that the bishops
suppression of fasts and preaching had brought the pestilence upon
the people and that the bishops had dishonored God and exercised
papal jurisdiction in their own names, were each sentenced to
5,000 fine, the pillory, where their ears were cut off, and to
life imprisonment. One, who had been convicted for libel before,
was branded on both cheeks: "S.L." for Seditious Libeller. Others
printed similar material. In vain the Star Chamber limited the
number of London printers to twenty, and made licensing stricter.
These prisoners were set free by the Long Parliament.

Charles I intimidated justices to obey him in decision-making even
more than James I.

Charles I so abused the power of the Star Chamber court that it
was abolished by the Long Parliament and with it, the involvement
of the King's Council in civil and criminal cases.

The regular church courts punished people for heresy, non-
attendance at church, sexual immorality, working on the sabbath or
a holy day, non-payment of tithes, and lending money at interest.
The special ecclesiastical court, the Court of High Commission,
was composed of clerics appointed by the king and decided cases of
marriage annulment, alimony, adultery, married couples living
separately, cruelty of husbands to wives, and habitual
drunkenness. But it also took on cases of schismatics and extended
its power over them to include staid and solid Puritans, who
uniformly believed that salvation was the only worthy earthly aim.
Acting on information attained through secret channels or from
visitations, it would summon the accused, who was required to
give, under oath, "full, true, and perfect" answers to broad and
undetailed charges made by secret informants. Refusal to take the
oath resulted in commitment for contempt of court. If he denied
the charges and fled, the court could hold the hearing without
him. Many fled out of the country or went into hiding in it. If
the accused went to the hearing, he could not take an attorney
with him. Most of the issues involved clergy refusing to use the
litany, to make the sign of the cross in baptism, to wear the
surplice, or to publish the Book of Sports, and insistence on
extempore prayer and preaching. Other issues were clergy who from
the pulpit inveighed against ship-money and unjust taxes, and
spoke rudely against the bishops and tyrannical princes. One case
is that of Samuel Ward, the town preacher of a large town, heard
in 1635. He neglected bowing or kneeling on coming to his seat in
church and preached against the Book of Sports. He did not read
the set prayers from the official book, but said prayers he had
himself conceived. To this he replied that a parrot could be
taught to repeat forms and an ape to imitate gestures. But his
most serious offenses had to do with his utterances from the
pulpit derogatory to the tenets and discipline of the church. He
was accused of saying that he believed that congregations still
had the right of election of all officers, including ministers.
Also, he allegedly said that in preaching on the Christmas
holidays he told his people "that in the following days they might
do their ordinary business, intending to cross that vulgar
superstitious belief, that whoever works on any of those twelve
days shall be lousy". He allegedly warned his people to beware of
a relapse into popery. Ward was convicted of depraving the
liturgy, tending toward schism, frightening the people, and
encouraging the overthrow of all manner of government. He was
removed from his position, deprived of his ministerial function,
suspended and silenced during the King's pleasure. He was ordered
to make submission and recantation both in court and in his church
and to give bond for 200 pounds. When he did not do this, he was
sent to prison and lay there nearly four years, and died a few
months later. In another case, a Mrs. Traske was imprisoned for at
least eleven years for keeping Saturday as her sabbath. Many
people were excommunicated and books censored for essentially
political reasons.

In 1637, the king proclaimed that the common law courts could not
intervene in ecclesiastical courts.

The Court of High Commission was abolished by the Long Parliament.

Justices of the Peace had general and quarter sessions, the latter
of which were held four times a year with all Justices of the
Peace attending. It was primarily a court of appeal from penal
sentences. But it was also an administrative body to determine
taxes and make appointments of officials and grant licenses for
businesses.

In 1638, in distributing a deceased person's estate, the Chancery
court upheld a trust for an heiress which would not become her
husband's property.

At the request of Parliament, the King had all justices serve
during their good behavior instead of serving at the King's will,
which had been the practice for ages. This increased the
independence of the judiciary.

The rack was used for the last time in 1640 before the Long
Parliament met. It was used to torture a rioter before hanging.

Men were still pressed to death for failure to plead, pickpockets
still executed for the first offence, and husband murderers still
burned.





                         - - - Chapter 16 - - -



                        - The Times: 1642-1660 -

For four years, there was civil war between the King, backed
generally by the upper class, the established church, and most of
the gentry, against the Parliamentarians, backed generally by
middle class yeomen, town dwellers, some of the gentry, most of
the great corporations, the City of London, the ports, the seamen,
and the Navy. Oxford University was royalist, and Cambridge
University was Puritan in sympathy. Archery was not used, having
become just sport by 1633. Flint-lock pistols, which relied on
flint striking steel to ignite the powder, as well as swords were
used by horsemen in the civil war. Footmen were musketeers using a
match lock with a cord boiled in vinegar as the match and dressed
in leather doublets and an iron-pot headpiece, or pikemen with
long wooden poles with spearheads of iron or steel and short
swords, and dressed in armor. This was the last time armor was
used. The Parliamentarians wore orange scarves to distinguish
themselves from their enemy. Cromwell, who had a natural aptitude
for military matters, selected for his troops, Puritan zealots
with a Puritan code of behavior which included no drinking or
swearing. He selected horsemen based on ability rather than social
class. He was regarded as one of the leaders of the Independents,
who wanted total abolition of the monarchy and of the aristocracy.
When made a leader of the New Model Army, Cromwell dressed all his
foot men in red with only the facings being regimental colors. The
New Model Army had been assembled because there had been
disagreement about policy among the members of Parliament who held
commissions. Almost all members gave up their commissions. For
their continued support, many wives and also prostitutes put on
men's clothing and followed the troops. They nursed the wounded.
Those many wives who stayed at home pleaded and answered in court;
petitioned to the House of Commons, e.g. for release of debtors
from prison, high taxes, lack of work, and arbitrary government;
and made other public appearances. Puritan and royalist newspapers
printed the news at least once weekly. Poet John Milton pled for
civil and religious freedom, freedom of social life, and freedom
of the press. He stated: "Give me the liberty to know, to utter,
and to argue freely, according to conscience, above all
liberties."

The Mayor and citizens of London were given authority in 1642 to
fortify all highways leading to the city and levy a tax on
inhabitants for this purpose. When London was deprived of coal
during the war, trees and flowers again flourished there.

Officers and seamen in navy ships were authorized in 1642 to take
one-third of all prize goods captured, the other two-thirds going
to the state.

Parliament approved certain persons to set forth ships at their
own expense to defend the realm in 1643. They were allowed to keep
any ships, goods, ammunition, or moneys they seized.

Saltpeter men were appointed by Parliament in 1643 and later times
to search and dig for saltpeter in pigeon houses, stables, and
outhouses, but not dwelling, shops, or milkhouses. They had to
repair any damage done to the contentment of the owners.

Complaints were made to Parliament that there were scandalous and
ill-affected fomenters of the civil war and disobeyers of the
ordinaries of Parliament and deserters of their ordinary places of
residence. These complaints were made by members of the University
of Cambridge, students, clergy in surrounding counties, and
schoolmasters. So a committee was established in 1643 to
investigate and sequester their lands and goods, excepting one-
fifth of the estate for the wife and children.

When Charles was captured in 1646, the episcopacy of the bishops
was abolished. When Parliament was about to reinstate Charles as
king with weakened powers and establish a Presbyterian state
church, the soldiers, who were religious Independents and who
still had not been fully paid (the infantry pay was 18 weeks in
arrears and the cavalry 43 weeks) despite plans to disband them,
spontaneously took the King by force. They demanded liberty of
conscience to practice their own religion and their pay. Cromwell
sided with the army and then became leader of the House of
Commons. Charles dissembled in his negotiations with the army
generals. He felt freed from his promises as soon as the pressure
was removed. The army could not forgive Charles' duplicity and
deceitfulness and insisted upon his death as the only way to bring
peace. Cromwell gave up hope on negotiations with Charles when he
intercepted a letter by Charles to his Queen decreeing the final
doom of the army adherents in favor of the Scottish Presbyterians.
During protracted negotiations over months between the army and
Parliament over a new constitution, a renewed support for the
King, which was inspired by him, necessitated a second civil war
to put down this revolt and subdue its Scot supporters. Eventually
the army took control of Parliament by force, only allowing the
few members who agreed with them on the trial of the King into
Parliamentary meetings. So Charles was tried in 1649, found guilty
of "an unlimited and tyrannical power to rule according to his
will, and to overthrow the rights and liberties of the people ...
which by the fundamental constitutions of this kingdom were
reserved on the peoples' behalf in the right and power of frequent
and successive parliaments or national meetings in council", and
maintaining a war against his subjects, which amounted to treason.
To prevent his adherents from trying to reinstate him, he was
condemned to death and beheaded in January 1649.

Parishes had to give maintenance to maimed soldiers and provision
for the livelihood to the wives and children of killed soldiers.
Masters of apprentices who became soldiers had to take them back
as apprentices without loss for their absence in defense of the
Commonwealth. Masters who received considerable loss by the
absence of their apprentices received reasonable satisfaction from
the public stock.

To pay for the civil war, an assessment tax on the yearly value of
rents, annuities, and offices was often levied. The main burden of
this tax fell on the gentry rather than the merchants and smaller
men of property, as previous taxes had. An excise tax, a tax on
consumption, was begun on ale and beer and then extended to meat,
salt, starch, soap, and paper. It was gradually extended to many
goods. The excise taxes were paid, as was the customs tax, by
manufacturers on goods made in England and by foreign
manufacturers on goods at the ports.

From 1640-60, Royalists were purged from Oxford and a group of
Baconians moved into the university behind Parliamentary armies.
At the two universities, books were no longer chained to the
bookcases. The universities were freed from taxation.

After the civil wars, Cromwell led the country. He was a military,
political, and religious leader. He had become a Puritan zealot
after a youth of gambling, drinking, debauchery, and rioting. He
believed that military success was a reflection of divine favor
and he regarded himself as one the few elect preordained for
salvation. Those in power in the new Commonwealth tended to
explain their regime in terms of popular consent, and the takeover
from Charles I as due to his breaking of a contract with the
people.

Most people dressed in Puritan fashion. A Puritan's favorite
readings were the Old Testament, Epistles of St. Paul, and
Switzerland's John Calvin.

Wealth and prosperity steadily increased in spite of the civil
wars. During Cromwell's tenure, there was a marked revival of
economic prosperity. By the mid-1600s, landlords had been able to
shorten their leases so that a lease of twenty-one years was the
predominant form of landholding.

Patent protection was given in 1642 to the inventors of a device
for salvaging ships' goods and cannons from the seas for seven
years. With it they could convert to their own use one half and
items retrieved, the other half going to the Navy and Parliament.
Patent protection was given in 1650 to George Manby on his new
invention for boiling liquors and making salt with less coal and
wood and iron, lead, and copper for fourteen years. Patent
protection was given in 1651 to Jeromy Buck for melting iron,
lead, tin, copper, brass, and other metals with coal without
burning charcoal, for fourteen years.

Dutchman Stevinus showed that the pressure at the bottom of a
column of liquid is proportional to the height of the column, and
not to its bulk, about 1634. He also studied oblique forces, and
the balancing of such that could bring about "stable equilibrium".

Evangelista Torricelli, an Italian student of Galileo, discovered
in 1643 that any fluid will be supported at a definite height,
according to its relative weight, as compared with air. He
realized that a mercury column, 30 inches in height, in a long
glass tube inverted in a cup of mercury, was being supported by
air pressure exerted on the mercury in the cup. When he observed
that this height changed with the weather, he had invented the
mercury barometer. His creation of a vacuum, above the mercury in
the tube, astonished philosophers, who had thought that nature
abhored a vacuum and would prevent it.

Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician, physicist, and religious
philosopher, constructed a calculator in 1644 to assist his
father, who was involved in local administration, in tax
computations. Around 1646, he proved his law that pressure applied
to a confined liquid is transmitted undiminished through the
liquid in all directions regardless of the area to which the
pressure is applied. Around 1653, he laid the foundations for the
theory of probabilities, including the creation of "Pascal's
Triangle" of coefficients of (a=b) raised to the nth power.

Jean Ray from France concluded from his experiments that every
piece of material has a given weight, including air and fire.

The Merchant Adventurers were incorporated again in 1643 to have a
monopoly. It was required to admit into membership for 100 pounds
anyone free of London and bred as a merchant, and for 50 pounds
any non-inhabitant of London. The penalty for trading for one who
was not free of the corporation was forfeiture of his goods.

In 1648, the House of Commons abolished the monarchy and in 1649
the House of Lords. Also in 1649 it declared that England "should
thenceforth be governed as a commonwealth and free state by the
supreme authority of this nation, the representatives of the
people in Parliament." It made a new constitution.

John Milton defended the Commonwealth as superior to the monarchy
because it could not deteriorate into tyranny in his books: "First
Defense of the People of England" in 1651, and "Second Defense" in
1654. He lauded Cromwell as great in war and great in peace, and
exemplifying the principle that "nature appoints that wise men
should govern fools".

Thomas Hobbes, the son of a clergyman, and tutor to students,
wrote "Leviathan" in 1651 on his theory of sovereignty. Hobbes
thought that states are formed as the only alternative to anarchy,
barbarism, and war, so that supremacy and unity of a sovereign
power is essential to a civilized life and the protection of the
citizenry. A sovereign may be a man or body of men as long as his
or its authority is generally recognized. There must be a social
contract among the citizenry to obey a certain sovereign. To avoid
religious conflict, there must be a complete subordination of the
church to the state and the religion of a state must be dependent
upon its secular sovereign. Hobbes thought that knowledge of the
world came through experience and not reason alone. Only matter
exists, and everything that happens can be predicted in accordance
with exact, scientific laws. He regarded human societies as purely
mechanical systems set in motion by human desires. He saw self
interest as the mainspring of moral law. Conflicting self
interests transformed into a lawful system of agreements. Hobbes
opined that all power really originated in the people and that the
end of all power was for the people's good.

On the other hand, James Harrington, who wrote "The Commonwealth
of Oceana" in 1656, opined that a stable society depended on a
direct relationship between the distribution of property and
political power; no one with property worth more than 2,000 pounds
should be allowed to acquire more and property should be divided
among children. A senate of mature property owners were to make
and debate the laws while an assembly elected by universal
suffrage was to vote on them because "a popular assembly without a
senate cannot be wise and a senate without a popular assembly will
not be honest". A third of the Senate would turn over every year.
John Milton defended the execution of the King in "The Tenure of
Kings and Magistrates" in which he maintained that the people may
"as often as they shall judge it for the best either to choose
him or reject him or depose him, though no tyrant, merely by the
liberty and right of freeborn men to be governed as seems to the
best". He also wrote in favor of liberty of the press. Ordinary
speech found its way into prose writing.

Lands of more than 700 Royalists, including church lands, were
confiscated and sold or leased by county committees. Many
Royalists put their lands into trusts or turned them over to
relatives or sold them outright to prevent confiscation. It was an
upheaval comparable to the dissolution of the monasteries. Also,
specified Papists who had taken up arms against the realm lost
their lands and goods and money and rents and two-thirds of their
personal estates. But allowance was made for the maintenance of
their wives and children.

The Book of Common Prayer was abolished because of its burdensome
ceremonies. It was replaced by a Directory for Public Worship.
According to this, the Sunday service was to include reading of
the Scriptures, prayer, and a sermon, ordinarily on some text of
scripture which would be explained with reasons therefore and
applied to peoples' lives so they could see it they had sinned or
not. The ending of episcopal patronage gave some parishes the
right to elect their own ministers.

All festivals and holy days were abolished, e.g. Christmas,
Easter, Whitsuntide. Instead, scholars, apprentices, and servants
were to have recreation and stores were to be closed every second
Tuesday of the month. The usual merry-making, music, dancing, and
sports after the Sunday service were discontinued.

A day for fasting: the last Wednesday of every month, was declared
by statute. This day was to be "kept with the more solemn
humiliation, because it may call to remembrance our sins, and the
sins of our forefathers, who have turned this Feast, pretending
the memory of Christ into an extreme forgetfulness of him, by
giving liberty to carnal and sensual delights, being contrary to
the life which Christ himself led here upon earth, ...". This
statute lasted for only five years from 1644 because observance of
it was not consistent throughout the country.

Educational opportunities such as in grammar schools were more
widespread and stronger than ever before or since until the 1800s.
About 78% of men in London were literate, and 30% of men
nationwide. About half the women in London were literate by 1700.

In 1645, the marshalls of the admiralty and five major ports were
ordered to search all ships for stolen children since it had been
a problem in London.

The elderships of the church were given power in 1645 to suspend
from the sacrament of the Lord's Supper all ignorant and
scandalous persons. Ignorance was lack of knowledge that there is
a God and this is the one true God we worship, that this God is
one, yet three persons" Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that God
created man in his own image, that all have sinned and therefore
shall die, that there is one mediator between God and man: Jesus
Christ, who died on the cross to save men from their sins, that he
rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand
of God, and intercedes for us, that Christ and his benefits are
applied only by faith, that the souls of the faithful live with
Christ in blessedness, that non-believers and non-repenters shall
perish eternally, that the sacraments are baptism and communion,
and that the is a judgment day on which the righteous will be
given life eternal and the wicked shall receive everlasting
punishment. Scandalous persons are those who blasphemously speak
or write anything of God, his holy work or the sacraments; an
incestuous person; an adulterer; a fornicator; a drunkard; a
profane swearer or cursor; a murderer; a worshipper of images,
crosses, crucifixes, relics, saints, or angels; makers of images
of the trinity; one who professes not to be in charity with his
neighbor; any challenging another to fight or accepting such
challenge; on the Lord's day, dancing, dicing, cards, masking,
wake, shooting, bowling, football, wrestling, plays, interludes,
fencing, bullbaiting, bearbaiting, hawking, hunting, coursing,
fishing, fowling, selling wares, travel without reasonable cause;
brothel-house keeper, one who solicits the chastity of another;
one who consents to the marriage of his child to a Papist or
marries a Papist; own who goes for advice to a witch, wizard,
fortune-teller; assault his parents, or any magistrate, minister,
or elder in the execution of his office; one attainted of
barratry, forgery, extortion, or bribery. If such a person
persists, he shall be excommunicated.

Cromwell did not disapprove of activities prohibited because of
the recreation they provided, but thought that they had become too
central to people's lives. He did not close the taverns or ale
houses.

In 1653 it was required that public preachers be approved by a
commission nominated by the Lord Protector and Parliament because
there had been too many "weak, scandalous, popish, and ill-
affected" ones. In 1654 named persons were ejected as scandalous,
ignorant and insufficient ministers and schoolmasters.

In 1649 a corporation was established to teach the Gospel of Jesus
Christ in New England to Indians.

Because the poorer parishes of London were having problems
supporting their poor, a Corporation for the poor of London was
established in 1647 with authority to erect workhouses and houses
of correction.

Imprisoned debtors who had less than five pounds and less that
five pounds worth of trade tools and clothing and bedding for his
family were ordered released in 1649.

Wardship was abolished. Military tenures were abolished. Feudal
tenures were converted into freehold in 1646.

In 1653 those living in Crown forest land were given free socage
in that land. The game laws were not enforced, so people could eat
deer.

Enclosures were increasing and Parliament was disinclined to
protect copyholders against enclosures, favoring those with rights
of ownership. Enclosure was no longer deterred especially after
abolition of the Star Chamber. The legal device of "strict
settlement" evolved to prevent heirs from breaking up estates
enabled families to concentrate land and capital into large units.
The oldest son inherited the land and the younger sons now
received money. Clover seed was sold in London by 1650. It
revolutionized the cultivation of barren land. England began to
export instead of import grain. But vagrancy increased from people
dispossessed of land. And the village artisan, when deprived of
his field and of this rights of common, could not continue to work
at home, but had to accept the wages offered to him in an
employer's workshop.

Employers and entrepreneurs were now free from control by the
Crown. There were no more attempts to supervise quality of
manufactures or to fix prices or regulate wages. There was greater
freedom established in relations between employers and workers.
The government no longer tried to compel employers to keep
employees in times of economic slump. The requirement of seven
year apprenticeships and being the son of a freeholder to be an
apprentice were not enforced.

The economy was still volatile due ostensibly to variable
harvests, amount of gold and money in circulation, and balances of
trade, and to periods of plague. Wages rose steadily. The rise in
prices ended about 1650, and prices remained stable until about
1775. There was more mobility of people. Taxation became regular
and it was controlled by representatives of the taxpayers.
Population growth gradually stabilized.

Capitalism was coming into being. For instance, the clothier was
now a manufacturer. He had become a contractor, taking wool to the
specialist spinner, the yarn to the specialist weaver, the rough
cloth to be washed and stretched, and finally to the dyer. This
cloth was sold at retail by the drapers. Tin on the surface was
exhausted, so capital was used to drive deep shafts in tin mines.
No longer did a single man with a single ship sail around until he
found a market, but company trading overseas had their ships,
wharves, and depots furnished by men's savings put into a common
stock. The first major capitalist industries were coal mining,
iron mining, and foreign trade because they all needed large
investments, and thus joint-stock company organization.

Cromwell reconstituted the East India Company on a wider and more
permanent basis. He gave it a new charter in 1657 which included
authority to make stock permanent, thus ensuring a continuity of
capital. This solved the problem of the competition of overlapping
voyages which still occurred despite their terms of several years.
The company became one of the first permanent joint-stock
companies. Now the stock was never wound up. The Company had
permanent capital which could grow. The absence of competition
among voyages made the Company stronger in the face of a common
enemy, such as a rival trading county or Indian groups. The
charter also authorized the company to fortify and colonize any of
its establishments and to transport to them settlers, stores, and
ammunition.

Later in 1657, the Company threw open the freedom of the Company
to the public for a nominal sum of five pounds. Now the Merchant
Adventurers and private traders could participate. It provided
that dividends were to be paid only in cash and not in kind
(goods). It also provided for appraisals of the Company's property
to be made every three years, so any shareholders could redeem
their shares proportionately. His shares would then be resold.
People began to buy and sell their shares among each other. The
Company made the minimum subscription 100 pounds. Each person
holding 500 pounds worth of shares had one vote. Holding 1,000
pounds worth of shares qualified one for election to the committee
of twenty-four. The seats of the members of this committee and of
the Governor and Deputy Governor could no longer be permanent, but
had limited and staggered terms. The continuity of capital took
the place of the permanence of the governing body in providing
stability. There was a regular scale of salaries for employees,
and rules of conduct such as the one disallowing any clerk of the
India House from going to play houses, dancing schools, or
taverns. The Company established almshouses for its widows and
orphans.

In 1657 the Muscovy Company, renewed its charter for trade in
Russia and established a New General Stock. If a man bought a
share, he bought freedom of the company. An annual dividend was
declared from the annual profits.

Commercial men regularly kept accounts with bankers. Merchants
used division to apportion profits or losses to the parties whose
capital was involved. Simple and compound interest were used. The
concept of contract became a familiar one.

Regular private bankers of London emerged from the Goldsmiths from
1640 to 1675. They issued bank notes and paid checks.

Cromwell increased trade by seizing territories, establishing
colonies, and warring with competitors for master of the seas and
trade. In 1649 it was provided that no one who paid his assessment
for soldiers' pay would have to quarter any of them.

Authority was given in 1649 to impress seamen: mariners, sailors,
watermen, surgeons, gunners, ship carpenters, caukers, coopers,
whoymen, and carmen for carriage of victuals.

English ships were embellished with decoration. Their sail area
was increased by triangular fore and aft sails. The Navy increased
from 39 to 80 vessels.

After serving in foreign wars, ex-soldiers were allowed in 1654 to
practice any trade without serving a seven year apprenticeship.

Colonies New Hampshire and Maine were established in 1635,
Connecticut in 1636, and Rhode Island in 1638, as offshoots from
other colonies.

About 1650, steel was hardened by repeated quenchings and
temperings when the steel had reached certain colors. Brass was
made from copper and zinc alloyed together.

There were power-driven rolls for the coinage from 1657. Strips of
silver were passed between engraved rolls. Then coins were punched
out and their edges serrated.

In the 1650s, Huygens invented the pendulum clock, which increased
the accuracy of time-keeping tenfold.

There was a thermometer which used liquid such as water or alcohol
in a glass tube instead of air.

Dutchman Stevinus showed that the pressure at the bottom of a
column of liquid is proportional to the height of the column, and
not to its bulk, about 1634. He also studied oblique forces, and
the balancing of such that could bring about "stable equilibrium".

At a time when mathematics was only a business of traders,
merchants, seamen, carpenters, and surveyors, mathematician John
Wallis, the son of a minister, studied sections of cones as curves
of the second algebraic degree. He worked with negative and
fractional exponents. Around 1655 he invented the infinite
arithmetic and introduced the symbol for infinity. He determined
that the area under any curve defined by the equation y = (x to
the nth power), was x to the (n+1)th power divided by n+1. ,

Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician, physicist, and religious
philosopher, constructed a calculator in 1644 to assist his
father, who was involved in local administration, in tax
computations. Around 1646, he proved his law that pressure applied
to a confined liquid is transmitted undiminished through the
liquid in all directions regardless of the area to which the
pressure is applied. Around 1653, he laid the foundations for the
theory of probabilities, including the creation of "Pascal's
Triangle" of coefficients of (a=b) raised to the nth power. He and
lawyer and mathematician Pierre Fermat invented the theory of
probabilities. Fermat also proved that the law for refraction
(bending) of light results from light's following the path that
takes the shortest time. He founded number theory. Fermat
formulated the notion of a line tangent to a curve and started the
development of differential calculus, in which a rate of change is
expressed as a function of time in equation form and also as a
tangent to the curve associated with that equation.. This work
helped lay the foundation for analysis. He and German Gottfried
Leibniz formulated the principle that an equation with two unknown
quantities can represent a curve. Leibnitz believed that man's
mind can arrive at truths about entities by pure thought.

Since the Puritans forbade music in churches, but enjoyed it in
domestic circumstances, much secular music was composed,
published, and played. There were many musical clubs. The violin
became very popular. Solo songs were much sung. The first English
opera: "The Siege of Rhodes" was written and performed with women
on stage. Writers of the time included John Milton, political
philosopher James Harrington, poet Edmund Waller, Thomas Fuller,
poet Abraham Cowley, and biographer Issak Walton. John Aubrey
wrote anecdotes about famous men. Jeremy Taylor, chaplain to
Charles I, wrote on theology. People still read French romances
translated into English. Dancing was still popular. Coffee houses
came into prominence as places of social discourse. The first
coffee house was established in London in 1652; ten years later,
there were 82 coffee houses in the City. There were elegant
pleasure gardens, with a fee for access. They were used for
promenades and picnics. Ladies and their gallants rendezvoused
there. Cromwell introduced the habit of port drinking to England.

In 1657, one general Post Offices was established with one
Postmaster General for all of England. No other person could have
the horsing of the through-posts. It cost 2d. for a letter to or
from 80 miles of London and 3d. for one outside 80 miles of
London.

There was continual problem with Catholics. Where Papists or
others had caused rebellion and insurrection and plundered,
robbed, pillaged, murdered and raped, mayor, Justices and capital
burgesses of such towns were given the power in 1642 to call,
assemble, train, and arm soldiers for defense. The Committee of
the Militia of London was given authority in 1647 to search all
houses and places for Papists and to search for and seize any
arms, ammunition, and war materials in custody of such persons. In
1648, all Papists and soldiers of fortune who had borne arms
against Parliament were ordered to depart from within twenty miles
of London and Westminster or be imprisoned as traitors. In 1657
convicted Papists and people marrying convicted Papists were
required to take an oath renouncing the pope and Catholic Church
or lose two-thirds of their lands and estate, retaining their
house on the remaining one-third. If one went to mass in an
ambassador's house, the fine was 100 pounds and imprisonment for
six months, one half going to the informer. In 1659 all
householders in London and Westminster had to give a list of
persons lodging in their house, and the horses and arms there. But
the laws against Catholics practicing their religion were not
rigorously enforced, nor were those against adherents of the
formerly established Church of England.

The Society of Friends was founded by the son of a weaver. They
greeted everyone as "friend" and did not bow, remove their hat (as
was the custom when before the king or an earl), or otherwise show
any reverence to anyone. From 1650, they were called Quakers
because they trembled when religiously stirred. They reverted to
the ancient "thou" and "thee" appellations. Their dress was
particularly simple, with no buttons, lace, ruffles, or
embroidery. They hated ritual so much that they rejected baptism
and communion. They did not observe the sabbath as a special day
different from other days. They derided the holiness of churches.
No clergy were admitted into their sect. When they met for divine
worship, each rose to deliver extemporaneous inspirations of the
Holy Ghost. Women were admitted to teach the brethren and were
considered proper vehicles to convey the dictates of the spirit.
Quakers believed that every man, in his own life, could be fully
victorious over sin. The denied any clerical authority and all
texts. They believed in the separation of church and state. They
refused to swear to any oath, e.g. in court, or to participate in
war. They refused to take off their hats to anyone but God. It was
their practice to turn the other cheek when one cheek had been
struck. If asked for his cloak, a Quaker would give it. He never
asked more for his wares than the precise sum which he was
determined to accept. The Quakers developed a value of making
provision for children from a first spouse when remarrying. They
carefully selected masters and mistresses who wanted to take on
child apprentices for their suitability for such responsibility.
The education of Quaker women did not decline, as it did for other
women. From the fervor of their zeal, the Quakers broke into
churches, disturbed public worship, and harassed the clergyman and
audience with railing and reproaches. When brought before a
magistrate, they show no reverence but treated him as an equal.
Sometimes they were thrown into mad house or prisons and sometimes
whipped or pilloried. They endured stoically under this suffering.
Mary Fisher from Yorkshire introduced Quakerism to New England.

In 1653 there were separation agreements between spouses as to
property, e.g. support and maintenance.

Cromwell had bad experiences with Parliaments. The Rump Parliament
was a remnant of the Long Parliament. The army and then Cromwell,
although a member, came to believe that its members were self-
interested, preoccupied with perpetuating themselves in seats of
power, and corrupt. They thought that their own hopes of reform in
the law, in the church, and in public finances were being
deliberately frustrated. Cromwell came to doubt that it would ever
give the people adequate government and protection. He started to
believe that one man as chief executive could do this better.
Cromwell dismissed the Rump Parliament in 1653. A new constitution
created a Puritan "Parliament of Saints". These men were nominated
in various ways, such as by church parishes, and selected by
Cromwell. This one-house Parliament of Saints in 1653 made
Cromwell Lord Protector for life with executive power of the
state, with responsibility for making peace and establishing order
after a decade of civil strife and political chaos. He was to
administer the government and be the chief magistrate. It also
provided for triennial Parliaments (consisting of one house), and
religious freedom for all except Roman Catholics and adherents of
the formerly established Church of England. Cromwell did not
tolerate the ritual of the formerly established English church nor
allow any of its adherents to have any office under him. His was a
purely Puritan government. He did not sell offices. The Parliament
of Saints challenged many vested interests in property such as
sales of delinquents' and Papists' lands. It clashed severely over
the continuation of tithes to the church. It became disorderly
when some declared the Parliament dissolved and left. Others
remained in their seats. To avoid a Parliamentary crisis, Cromwell
had soldiers close the Parliament of Saints and lock its doors.
The people supported this action because they were dissatisfied
with the state of public affairs. The next Parliament that was
tried was elected on a new constitutional basis of men with 200
pounds, but these men voted to make Parliament sovereign without a
chief executive, thereby abolishing the protectorate. Cromwell was
distressed that this Parliament had also voted themselves to be
the sole determinors of atheism and blasphemy instead of advancing
liberty of religious conscience and religious toleration as
Cromwell had advocated. dissolved this Parliament, declaring that
it was not acting for the public good. A last Parliament was also
dissolved by Cromwell for tending to loosen the bonds of
government and thereby threatening the peace of the nation.

Cromwell had first ruled as a democratic leader who did not
believe in force, but preferred to persuade with reason. He
initially believed that people would do the right thing according
to their consciences, but was disillusioned and then became
autocratic. He came to rule as a military dictator. Payment of
taxes was enforced by distraint. After 1654, he issued about 100
proclamations covering public amusements, roads, finances, the
condition of prisons, the imprisonment of debtors, banning of
dueling and cockfighting, law reform, control of religion and
education, and reorganization of the army. The singing of ballads
was banned. The Court of Chancery was reformed by proclamation.
The established church was reformed and the power to interfere
with different faiths was denied to it. Each parish could choose
its form of service, whether Presbyterian, Congregational,
Baptist, or any other seen as fundamental by the Puritans. No one
was compelled to attend any particular church or to accept the
discipline of any particular minister. But the Book of Common
Prayer was forbidden. There was freedom of worship for
Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, Quakers, Catholics, and
Jews (who had secretly migrated to England to avoid persecution on
the continent), but not Prelatists (those favoring government of
the church by bishops).

In 1655, Cromwell placed major generals in charge of eleven newly-
established provinces. As their Governors, they had authority to
levy troops, exact taxes imposed by the Protector, disarm
Royalists and Catholics, examine into the conduct of the clergy
and schoolmasters, arrest dangerous and suspicious persons, and
prevent unlawful assemblies, and to enforce the existing laws
against immorality and blasphemy. The only appeal was to the
Protector. Since they were Puritans, they ordered public ale
houses to close as dusk, banned idlers, minstrels, and actors,
forbade exercising of horses on Sunday and the holding of markets
on Saturday as well as Sunday, censored the press, and proscribed
newspapers. Horse races, which meetings were used for seditious
purposes, were closed. Theaters were closed. Dancing was
discontinued. Organs and choirs in churches prohibited. Court
masks continued because they provided soothing music. After a
year, Cromwell withdrew the major-generals. From this time, men of
property hated the idea of a standing army.

In 1657, the officers of a new Parliament modified the
constitution and Cromwell approved it, to secure liberties of the
people as they never before had. Under the modified constitution,
there were again two houses. The Commons regained its old right of
exclusively deciding on the qualification of its members.
Parliamentary restrictions were imposed on the choice of members
of the Council, officers of state, and officers of the army. A
fixed revenue was voted to the Protector. No moneys were to be
raised except by consent of Parliament. Liberty of worship was
guaranteed to all except Papists, Prelatists, Socinians (who
denied the divinity of Jesus), for those who denied the
inspiration of the Scriptures. Liberty of conscience was secured
for all. In 1658, Cromwell tried another Parliament, but dissolved
it because it wrangled without resolution.

After Cromwell died, the people demanded the return of a genuine
and free Parliament. The old constitution was restored and a new
House of Commons was elected. It called Charles II to return to be
king if he promised religious freedom and backpay to the army,
which had not recently been paid. When Cromwell's Puritan soldiers
were disbanded, they did not drift into thievery as royalists
soldiers had before, but took up honest work such as baker, mason,
brewer, baker, or haberdasher. Puritanism now made itself felt not
by the sword, but in literature and politics. It affected the
character of the English, who tend to be stoics, and imbued
capitalists with a hard-working attitude.



                              - The Law -

After the civil wars, the law against enclosure was not enforced.

What was passed in Parliament in Cromwell's time were called
statutes, but after Cromwell's time, these statutes were not
recognized as legitimate.

"whereas Public Sports do not well agree with Public Calamities,
not Public Stage-plays with the Seasons of Humiliation, this being
an Exercise of sad and pious Solemnity, and the other being
Spectacles of Pleasure, too commonly expressing lascivious Mirth
and Levity ... Public Stage Plays shall cease, and be forborne
instead of which are recommended to the People of this Land the
profitable and seasonable considerations of Repentance,
Reconciliation, and Peace with God, ..."

No book or pamphlet may be printed, bound, stitched, or sold or
imported unless licensed and entered into the Register Book of the
Company of Stationers. Officials of this company and of Parliament
may search all places which they shall think meet for all
unlicensed printing presses and all suspected printing houses,
warehouses, and shops and other places for unlicensed books and
pamphlets and papers and seize them and apprehend all authors,
printers, and other involved people and bring them before
Parliament or the Committee on Examinations for punishment.
Justices of the peace and other officers may order doors and locks
broken for this purpose. The fine is ten pounds for authors, five
pounds for printers, two pounds for booksellers, and one pound for
buyers who conceal a book bought. One half of each fine shall go
to the person who discovers and prosecutes the offender, and the
other half shall go to the poor. This law suppressed royalist
newspapers but was enforced only with great difficulty.

All shall observe Sunday and days of Thanksgiving in their "duties
of Piety and true Religion publicly and privately" and none may
sell wares or goods, including fruit or herbs upon pain of
forfeiture of such. None may, without reasonable cause, travel,
carry burdens, or do any worldly labors or work whatsoever or pay
a fine of 10s. This work shall include grinding grain, fulling in
mills, burning turf or earth, gathering taxes, melting wax for
candles, brewing, baking, butchering cattle, tailors fitting or
carrying clothes, barbers trimming hair, being present at fairs or
markets, or washing, whiting, or drying clothes. Nor may any one
maintain or be present at wrestlings, shooting, bowling, ringing
of bells for pleasure or pastime, masks, wake, church-ale,
dancing, games, sport or, for those over 14, forfeit 5s., and for
those having care or education of a child under 14, 12d. Maypoles,
a "Heathenish vanity, generally abused to superstition and
wickedness", shall be taken down by officers or forfeit 5s. per
week. If any offender can't pay his fine, he shall be put in the
stocks for three hours. However meat maybe dressed in private
families, and victual sold in inns and victualling houses in a
moderate way, and milk sold before 9a.m. or after 4p.m.

Persons of the trinity, angels, or saints shall be demolished.
Altar and communion tables must not be raised but leveled. There
may be no copes, surplices, superstitious vestments, or holy water
fonts. There may be no crosses, crucifixes, pictures of the
trinity, angels or saints on plates. All organs must be taken
away.

The fine for using the Book of Common Prayer is five pounds for
the first offense, ten pounds for the second offense, and one year
imprisonment without bail for the third offense. The penalty for
writing or preaching against the Directory for Public Worship is
five to fifty pounds.

Blasphemies and heresies such as teaching or writing or printing
that there is no God, that God is not almighty, that Jesus was not
divine, that the resurrection of Jesus did not occur, that the
Bible is not the word of God, or that there is no judgment day
after death, are felony without benefit of clergy. If such an
offender recants, he shall stay in gaol until he obtains two
sureties. If he offends again after recantation, it is felony
without benefit of clergy.

In 1650 adultery was declared to be a felony, except if the
husband had been beyond the seas for three years or had been
reputed to be dead. Incest was also declared to be a felony. It
was defined as marrying or having carnal knowledge of one's
grandparent, parent, sibling, mother's brother or sister, father's
wife, mother's husband, son's wife, daughter's husband, wife's
mother or daughter, or husband's father or son. Fornication was
given a punishment of three months imprisonment and until security
was obtained for one year for good behavior. It was defined as
carnal knowledge of a virgin, unmarried woman, or widow. A common
bawd or one keeping a brothel or bawdy house was to be whipped,
set in the pillory, marked in the forehead by a hot iron with the
letter: B, and then imprisoned for three years without bail and
until there were sureties for good behavior for life. The second
offense was felony without benefit of clergy. There was to be no
corruption of the blood. However, juries were reluctant to convict
for adultery and incest.

There shall be no profane swearing or cursing of forfeit by a lord
30s., a baronet or knight 20s., an esquire 10s., a gentleman
6s.8d., and all others 3s.4d.There is a double fine for the second
offense. For the tenth offense, the offender shall be bound by
sureties for good behavior for three years.

A person equating himself or another with God or not believing in
God shall be imprisoned for six months without bail. For the
second offense, he shall be banished from the nation.

No longer shall people be punished for nonattendance at church on
Sunday or days of Thanksgiving, but may be at some other place of
prayer, preaching, reading, or the scriptures.

Hawkers and ballad singers have been libelous, so are to be
whipped as common rogues and then dismissed. Also, their ballads
and pamphlets are to be confiscated. Vagrant, idle, loose,
dissolute and disorderly persons and fiddlers in inns, alehouses,
and taverns are to be punished as rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy
beggars, that is, whipped.

In 1649, treason against Parliament was defined as writing,
printing, or declaring that the government is tyrannical, usurped,
or unlawful or that Parliament is not the supreme authority or the
nation, or plot, contrive, or endeavor to stir up or raise force
against the government. Attainder for such would not work
corruption of the blood.

Treason to the Protector was defined the same as it was to the
King.

Army deserters are to be corporally punished or executed.

Fellable wood and underwood, but no timber trees, may be cut
within 60 miles of London because fuel is needed, especially by
the poor. This will be supervised by overseers appointed by
Parliament.

No one may import foreign hats or hatbands to relieve that
industry in England.

As of 1656, certain food could not be exported when the prices of
such exceeded a stated amount. For instance, 5 pounds for a 36
gallon barrel of beef, 6d. for a pound of bacon, 4 pounds and 10s.
for a 224 gallon barrel of butter, and 24s. for 64 pounds of rye,
pease, or beans. The customs for such items was more for
foreigners than for natives, for instance 3s. for natives and 5s.
for foreigners for a barrel of beef.

Butter for sale must not be corrupt and be properly weighed.

One must obtain a license to buy wheat or other grain and put it
to sale in meal or flour or forfeit three times the value.

All books of the law, writs, pleadings, and patents shall be in
English or forfeit 20 pounds.

No deer may be killed or forfeit 15 pounds, half to the informer
and half to the poor.

Interest may not exceed 6 pounds for a loan of 100 pounds yearly
as of 1651.

No goods are to be imported from America, Asia, or Africa except
in English ships or forfeit all goods and the ship, one half of
which goes to the one who seizes the goods and prosecutes. None
may be imported from Europe except in English ships or ships from
the country of origin of the goods. No salt fish may be imported
or exported but in English vessels.

There is a 10 pound reward for discovery of highwaymen and
burglars or persons who break and enter into houses and there use
violence.

No cart or wagon or carriage on the road may be drawn by more than
five horses or six oxen and a horse except for military vehicles.

Notice of intended marriages shall be published once a week for
three weeks in a public meeting place called church or a public
market place next to church. Exceptions to the marriage shall be
noted by the Register and considered by the Justice of the Peace
before the marriage is performed. The words used shall be:
"...promise to be unto thee a loving and faithful husband..." and
"promise to be unto thee a loving, faithful, and obedient
wife...".

There shall be no cock-fighting because it disturbs the peace and
usually is accompanied by gaming, drinking, swearing, and
quarreling.

Anyone challenging or accepting a challenge to duel shall be
imprisoned for six months without bail, and must acquire two
sureties for a year. Anyone fighting a duel in which death ensues,
shall be banished for life.

Horse races were forbidden in 1654 for six months to discourage
mischievous plots and designs by enemies of the state. The penalty
was forfeiting the horse. Attendees were to be brought to justice.

As of 1657, a house or building built within ten miles of the
walls of the City of London not having at least four acres had to
pay a fine of one year's rent. All houses within London or
Westminster or the suburbs must be brick or stone, and built
straight up without protruding into the street or forfeit 100
pounds.

As of 1657 persons living extravagantly without visible estate or
calling may be made by Justices of the Peace to acquire sureties
for good behavior or go to gaol. They would also be sent to the
house of correction to work for three months for the first offense
and for a time specified by the Justice of the Peace for the
second offense.

Anyone winning at betting or playing at cards, dice, tennis, and
horse races shall forfeit double his winnings.

Excluded from pardon were buggery with man [sodomy] or animal
[bestiality], carnal ravishment of women, and bigamy.

Drunkenness was much punished.

Husbands were responsible for their wives' oaths and fathers for
their daughters'.



                         - Judicial Procedure -

The Protector is the supreme magistrate of the Commonwealth, with
power to pardon all crimes, except murder and treason.

Parliament was no longer a court.

Use of the torture was proscribed in 1649.

In 1652, the justices were given a salary of 1,000 pounds and
forbidden to take fees or rewards. They also got tenure, thus
freeing them from government pressure. Now civil justice was
honestly dispensed and justices were learned and honest.

The jurisdiction of Admiralty court was defined to include: ships
and vessels with tackle, apparel and furniture thereof; repairing,
victualling, and furnishing provisions of ships and vessels for
sea; all cases of bottomry [ship-owner indemnified if the vessel
were lost, but paid over a substantial share of the profits if it
reached its destination safely], contracts beyond the seas
concerning shipping or navigation; charter, parties, contracts for
freight; bills of lading; mariners wages; damage of goods on board
ships; and damage by one ship to another including by anchors or
want of laying buoys. It did not include contracts between
merchants.





                         - - - Chapter 17 - - -



                          - Times: 1660-1702 -

The monarchy was restored and Charles II came to the throne. The
episcopacy of the bishops and the Book of Common Prayer were
restored. This book retained all its ceremonies, despite
opposition by the Presbyterians. The confiscated Royalist, church,
and Crown lands were ordered to be restored, and most were.
Charles II was presented with the traditional rights of choosing
his own Privy Council, ministers of state, and justices; making
foreign policy; controlling the armed forces; and approving
statutes. He was also presented with the power to call and dismiss
Parliament, but later, in 1694, a statute required that Parliament
be held at least once every three years, to avoid royal schemes of
non-parliamentary government. The House of Lords was reestablished
and there were again bishops in it, though fewer than before
(about 1/8 instead of about 1/3). There were 160 peers for the
next century. The House of Commons was elected in the usual way,
but without a king's writ. The Commons was composed mostly of
royalist established church members. Its leaders were important
members of the King's Privy Council.

The feudal tenures of the crown, such as knights' service, were
converted into free socage. They were discharged of homage,
reliefs, escuage, and aids. Charles relinquished purveyance,
wardships, and forfeitures of marriage. In return, Parliament
granted him a fixed yearly income of 100,000 pounds from excise
tax on beer, cider, and tea.

Several hundreds of dissenter ministers and school teachers were
ejected, but later those who were not Baptists were returned by
statute of Parliament. (Baptists did not believe in an established
church.)

Charles II was an easygoing and kindly man and hard to ruffle. He
had a weariness in the folly of men and a cynical disbelief in
human virtue. His wit and great sense of humor softened many a
potentially tense situation. His restoration to the throne brought
in a time of enjoyment of life in reaction to the Puritanism of
before. At his succession, the elected Parliament was oriented
toward royalty and the established church. He was voted an income
of 1,200,000 pounds a year. He also sold many of the last crown
lands. But he always had great debts, which he described as a
"desperate but not serious" situation. This was in part due to his
generous maintenance of several successive mistresses and more
than about a dozen illegitimate children. His entourage also
included physicians, surgeons, a librarian, a poet laureate,
chaplains, painters, an historiographer, musicians, a royal
composer, and an astronomer. Charles even joked on his deathbed
that "I am sorry gentlemen, for being such an unconscionable time
a-dying."

The day of Charles II's restoration and birthday was designated as
a day of thanksgiving when all were to participate in prayers and
the singing of psalms at some church or other suitable public
place.

Charles initiated the return of Sunday afternoon wrestling,
archery, music, and dancing. Theaters reopened with actresses
playing women's parts, an audience only in front of the stage
instead of around it, a drop curtain, and painted two-dimensional
scenery. Actresses were allowed pursuant to royal proclamation so
that plays should become "useful and instructive representations
of human life" rather than "harmless delights". Charles went to
plays regularly. Actresses were assumed to be mistresses of
patrons in return for their jobs, but one fourth were actually
chaste women married to actors. Comedies were the preferred plays.
Courtesans were sympathetically and even admirably treated in
plays, which mocked all restraints and glorified immorality with
the exception of pornography, which was banned. Bad actors were
hissed off the stage. Henry Purcell wrote religious music for
churches, ceremonial music for the English court, and theater
music for English opera. Opera made music a vehicle for human
emotions. The gentry sang to the lute and danced to string
instruments. Many owned and played musical instruments. Humble
people had folksongs and instruments like the pipe and tabor for
dancing. Singing in parts was popular in town and country. In 1672
John Banister started the first regular series of public concerts
in his house. There were lovely formal gardens in which to walk,
to see fireworks, and to buy the new ice cream. Charles did much
garden and park planning and let the public enjoy the royal St.
James Park. He loved hunting too and had the royal forests
replenished with deer after poaching during the Cromwell era had
greatly reduced their numbers.

Charles II introduced sailing and yacht racing for pleasure. He
also participated in and promoted horse racing. The breeding of
thoroughbred horses began with breeding to Arab mares. Gelding
horses were now preferred over stallions. There were trotters,
cart horses, and some "fast" race horses. Boxing (with no gloves
nor ring) was a national sport. Ice skating with iron blades was
popular. Valentine's day was celebrated. Italian puppet shows
played in London.

Dress returned to elaborateness. Gentlemen wore Cavalier-style
long wigs with curls, despite the church's dislike of wigs. This
could hide the short hair of a former Puritan Roundhead. In 1666,
Charles introduced a new mode of inexpensive court dress which was
made entirely from English textiles. This gave rise to gentlemen's
weskits to below the knee with a coat of the same length and full
sleeves. Stockings and shoes replaced the long fitted boots.
Charles set a court tradition of men wearing a scarf tied around
the neck. Ladies often wore their hair in masses of ringlets with
little corkscrew curls on each side of their heads, and later
piled their hair up elaborately on their heads. They wore satin or
silk dresses fitted at the waist with a pointed bodice, and full
skirt. The shoulder line was low and the sleeves full and open at
the front with fastenings of jeweled clasps. The only fast colors
were reds, blues, purple, and yellow, but not green. They kept
their hands warm in muffs. Women wore perfume, rouge, and face
patches. Some women put on a lot of make-up. Many men dressed
effeminately with rouge, face patches, heavily scented clothing,
muffs, and many ribbons of many colors. The facial beauty patches
were in shapes such as stars, crescent moons, and hearts; they
diverted attention from the common smallpox scars. There were
Oxford shoes, which laced up the front through eyelets. The
members of the House of Commons dressed like the gentry and
assumed their manners. There was exaggeration in all complimentary
and ceremonial language.

The gentry were beginning to be thought of as a "squirearchy".
They owned about half the land of the country.

The population according to class was as follows:

Number of       Social Ranks,                   Household  Household
Households      Degrees, Titles                      size     yearly
                                                              income
                                                           in pounds

    160         Temporal lords                         40      3,200
     26         Spiritual lords                        20      1,300
    800         Baronets                               16        880
    600         Knights                                13        650
  3,000         Esquires                               10        450
 12,000         Gentlemen                               8        280
  5,000         Persons in greater offices and places   8        240
  5,000         Persons in lesser offices and places    6        120
  2,000         Eminent merchants and traders by sea    8        400
  8,000         Lesser merchants and traders by sea     6        198
 10,000         Persons in the law                      7        154
  2,000         Eminent clergymen                       6         72
  8,000         Lesser clergymen                        5         50
 40,000         Freeholders of the better sort          7         91
120,000         Freeholders of the lesser sort          5.5       55
150,000         Farmers                                 5         42.5
 15,000         Persons in liberal arts and sciences    5         60
 50,000         Shopkeepers and tradesmen               4.5       45
 60,000         Artisans and handicrafts                4         38
  5,000         Naval officers                          4         80
  4,000         Military officers                       4         60
 50,000         Common seamen                           3         20
364,000         Laboring people and out-servants        3.5       15
400,000         Cottagers and paupers                   3.25       6.5
 35,000         Common soldiers                         2         14
 25,000         Vagrants, as gypsies, thieves, beggars

As can be seen, agriculture is still the most common occupation.

Great houses now had a central dining chamber [saloon] for dining,
with sets of lodgings [suites], usually for couples, around it.
Each lodging had an ante-chamber and/or drawing room, and then a
bedchamber, off of which there was a servant's room and a closet
[cabinet]. No longer did personal servants bed down in the drawing
room or outside their master's door or in a trunkle bed at his
feet. The servant's room was connected to a back staircase for use
by servants. Secret guests also used it. The closet room was the
innermost sanctum for privacy and gave its name to the later
cabinet of the government.

There were fewer servants and they were of a lower social status
than before. They were often sons of merchants, clergymen, and
army officers. Gentlemen no longer advanced by service to a great
man, but instead through grammar school and university education,
commerce, the law, or the armed services. This change came about
because the state now maintained reasonable law and order. There
were more female servants, who were paid less to cook and to clean
as well as doing laundry and nursing. Servants were kept more in
the background, preferably out of sight. The elaborate ceremonial
ritual with sewer, carver, and cupbearer was gone. A butler
replaced the yeomen of the buttery, ewery, and pantry, and footmen
began to wait on the table at which the lord, his lady, and other
couples sat. Servants no longer had meals in the hall, which now
had a grand staircase up to the dining chamber. The highest
servants, the officers: clerk of the kitchen, clerk of the check
[comptroller], head cook, butler, and groom of the chambers, and
female housekeeper ate in the gentleman-of the-horse's room,
although at a separate table. The kitchen staff ate in the
kitchen. The footmen, underbutler, porters, coachmen, grooms,
stable-boys, gardeners, maids ate in a servant's room. The steward
was no longer the chief household officer, but had a room near the
kitchen. The bulk of the servants slept in the basement or
subordinate wings of the house.

Great houses of nobles had more rooms, such as a chapel, library,
parlors, dressings rooms, and galleries; there was a variety of
architectural floor plans. The structure of a noble household of
an earl was as follows: The chief official was the receiver
general. He had financial responsibility for the household and
prepared accounts for the household and for the tenants' estates.
These were checked by an auditor. The receiver general was often
the son of a country gentleman and had a salary of 50 pounds
raised to 100 pounds with longevity. He had a servant and an
assistant. If married, he had a house on the property. There was
perhaps an attorney on retainer [paid for a certain number of
hours per week or month}. The gentleman of the chamber [privy
purse] kept the accounts of the family and bought them apparel and
toiletries. He was in close personal attendance upon the earl. His
salary was 20 pounds a year. Besides the receiver general and the
gentleman of the chamber, the tutor and chaplain had the closest
personal contact with the family. The lady had a gentlewoman with
a maid servant. The receiver general supervised most of the staff.
There was a steward of 40 pounds a year. He supervised a clerk of
the kitchen and a house bailiff of 20 pounds a year. The bailiff
had responsibility for the produce of the estate, e.g. the
gardens, the deer park, and the fish ponds. Under the clerk of the
kitchen was the cook man and kitchen boys, the latter of whom were
clothed and fed but not paid. The steward also supervised the 4
pound yearly porters, who kept the gates; the watchmen outside;
and the head housekeeper, usually a woman of 2 to 6 pounds yearly.
She supervised the laundry maid and general maids, who spent much
of their time sewing. The steward was also responsible for the
wine cellar. A dozen footmen belonged partly to the house and
partly to the stables and received 2 to 6 pounds yearly. They
waited on the lord and lady in the house and accompanied them in
travels and did errands for them. The gentleman of the horse
supervised the stables, coach, dogs, kennels, and 16 pound yearly
huntsman. Boy pages also worked partly in the house and partly in
the stables. They were clothed and fed, but not paid. The head
gardener received 80 pounds for tending the flowers, vegetables,
and fruit trees. He had casual workers as needed to assist him.
The steward was also responsible for the London house. Here there
was a housekeeper, a watchman, and a 40 pound a year gardener, all
there permanently. When the lord was there, bargemen were employed
for his barge. The salaries for the family estate totaled about
600 pounds a year. Sometimes married sons' or daughters' families
stayed for months at the family estate; then they would pay for
their part of the food.

Well-to-do people drank imported tea and coffee, sometimes from
porcelain ware, and usually after dinner or supper. Most tea
leaves were brewed first for the family and guests and a second
time for the servants; then they were given to the servants'
relatives or friends. Queen Mary encouraged the fashion of
collecting Chinese porcelain. The rich had red or black and gilt
lacquered cabinets and cupboards. Oak gave way to walnut, with its
variegated surfaces. There were grandfather clocks. Some
fireplaces now had cast-iron firebacks. Stuffing began to be
upholstered to woodwork benches. Chairs were taller in the back.
Ladies did needlework to cover them and also made patchwork
quilts. Cane seats came into fashion.

From the spring of 1665 to the end of 1666 there was a Great
Plague, mostly in London. It was the last and worst plague since
the Black Death of 1348. It lasted over a year and about one-third
died from it. Households with a plague victim were walled up with
its residents inside to reduce contagion, and then marked with a
red cross. Church bells tolling their requiems clanged in
ceaseless discord. The mournful cry "bring out your dead" echoed
in deserted streets. At night groups of people shoveled the
corpses into open graves. To prepare for this revolting task, they
often first became drunk out of their senses. People took wild
beliefs in hope of avoiding the plague. For instance, at one time
it was thought that syphilis would prevent it, so maddened hordes
stormed the brothels. At another time, it was rumored that the
plague could be burned out of the air, and all one day bonfires
blazed outside every door and people sweltered in the heat. Other
localities posted sentries on the road to keep Londoners out of
their areas to prevent the plague from spreading there. Since
sneezing was thought to be the first sign of a person getting the
plague, it became common to ask God to bless a person who sneezed.
In London, statistics were collected on the number of plague
victims and their places of death to try to determine the cause of
the plague.

In 1666 a fire destroyed three-fourths of the City of London. The
blazing buildings were so hot that people with leather buckets of
water, hand squirts, and manually operated water-pumping machines
could not get near them. There was a lot of noise from falling
buildings. Panic and desperation were widespread. There was a lot
of crying out and running about distractedly. People saved some of
their possessions by burying them or removing them from the fire's
path as they moved to different lodgings. The streets were full of
carts piled high with furniture and merchandise. The Thames River
was thick with heavily laden barges. Melting lead from St. Paul's
church ran down the streets in a stream. The Tower of London,
upwind of the fire, was saved by blowing up surrounding buildings.
Eventually the wind abated and the fire was put out. A Fire Court
with royal justices was created to offer settlements that were
free, fair, fast, and final. Army tents and supplies, and soup
kitchens sustained the citizens in the fields.

After the fire, buildings had to be brick or stone rather than
wood, except for doors and windows. Also, more plaster and tile
was used. All roofs had to be of tile or slate, rather than
thatch. There was a general use of tile for roofing. About 1714,
came slate for roofings. All buildings had to be at least two
stories high, with flat facades rather than overhanging upper
floors. They had to have wide brick walls around them to avoid the
spread of fires. Many streets, squares, and alleys were
professionally planned, after the example of Indigo Jones who had
continued his town planning with Lincoln's Inn field's open square
surrounded by houses with iron balconies and Leiscester Square.
Main streets had to be wide enough to stop a fire. The street
selling that had caused so much congestion was removed to new
market places. The massive rebuilding of London ended the monopoly
of the building trade claimed by the Mason's Company. Astronomer
and geometrician Christopher Wren designed and built a new St.
Paul's Cathedral and many churches in London, becoming England's
first architect. He worked up from a square base through all sorts
of shapes to a circular double dome on top. The fire put an end to
Whitehall as a royal residence and St. James Palace was used
instead. But at least one fire hazard remained. That was the
practice of lighting new fires by taking buckets of hot coals from
one room or house to another. This was faster than the several
minutes it took to use a tinder box to start a flame, i.e.
striking a piece of flint upon a piece of steel making a spark
which was dropped onto tinder and then blown upon. Matches were
invented in this period, but expensive and unsafe.

Nicholas Barbon began fire insurance in the 1670s. If fire broke
out on an insured premises, the insurance company's firemen would
come with leather buckets and grappling irons, and later small
hand pumps. Barbon also redeveloped many districts in London,
tearing down old buildings without hesitation. He started the
system of selling off leases to individual builders, who hoped to
recover their building costs by selling their houses before they
were completed and before substantial payments on the lease became
due. Entrepreneurial master-builders subcontracted work to
craftsmen and took a large profit or a large loss and debt.
Aristocrats bought large parcels of land on which they built their
own mansions surrounded by lots to be rented to building
contractors and speculators like Barbon. The houses built on these
lots were sold and the underlying land rented. These rentals of
land made the mansions self-supporting. Barbon built rows of
identical townhouses. Sometimes houses were built on all the lots
around a square, which had gardens reserved for the use of those
who lived on the square. Most of the new building was beyond the
old City walls. Marine insurance for storms, shipwreck, piracy,
mutiny, and enemy action was also initiated. Before the fire, e.g.
in Tudor times, the writing of risks had been carried on as a
sideline by merchants, bankers, and even money-lenders in their
private offices and was a private transaction between individuals.

London was residential and commercial. Around the outside were
tenements of the poor. From 1520 to 1690, London's population had
risen tenfold, while the nation's had only doubled. London went
from 2% to 11% of the nation's population. In 1690, London's
population was about half a million. After 1690, London's
population grew at the same rate as the nation's. The first
directory of addresses in London was published in 1677. Business
began to follow the clock more strictly and many people thought of
their watches as a necessity.

London coffee houses, which also sold wine, liquors, and meals,
became specialty meeting places. They were quieter and cheaper
than taverns; for a penny, one could sip a cup of coffee by the
fire, read the newspapers, and engage in conversation. Merchants,
stock jobbers, politician groups, soldiers, doctors and clergymen,
scholars, and literary men all had special coffee house meeting
places. Notices and letters of general interest were posted
therein. Many merchants, brokers, and underwriters, especially
those whose houses had been burned in the fire, conducted their
business at their coffee house and used it as their business
address. Men in marine insurance and shipping met at Lloyd's
Coffeehouse, which was run by Edward Lloyd who established it for
this purpose in 1687. Lloyd provided reliable shipping news with a
network of correspondents in the principal ports at home and on
the continent and circulated a handwritten sheet of lists of
vessels and their latest movements at his coffeehouse. The patrons
cheered safe arrivals and shared their grief over ships lost. They
insured their own risks at one moment and underwrote those of
their friends the next. Auctions of goods and of ships and ship
materials which had been advertised in the newspapers were
conducted from a pulpit in the coffeehouse.

French wine was consumed less because of heavy taxation and
spirits and beer were consumed more. The streets were alive with
taverns, coffee houses, eating houses, and hackney coaches past 9
p.m. at night. Coffee houses were suppressed by royal proclamation
in 1675 because "malicious and scandalous reports" defaming his
majesty's government were spread there, which disturbed the peace
and quiet of the realm. But this provoked such an uproar that it
was reduced to a responsibility of the owner to prevent scandalous
papers and libels from being read and hindering any declarations
any false and scandalous reports against the government or its
ministers.

London air was filthy with smoke from coal burning. In 1684 the
streets were lit with improved lights which combined oil lamps
with lenses and reflectors. Groups of householders combined to
hire lighting contractors to fulfill their statutory
responsibility to hang candles or lights in some part of their
houses near the street to light it for passengers until 9:00 p.m.,
and later to midnight. In 1694 a monopoly was sold to one lighting
company. In 1663 a body of paid watchmen was established in
London. An office of magistrate was created and filled with
tradesmen and craftsmen, who could make a living from the fines
and fees. This was to supplement the unpaid Justices of the Peace.
The public was encouraged to assist in crime prevention, such as
being witnesses, but most policing was left to the parishes.
Crowds punished those who transgressed community moral standards,
threatened their economic or social interests, or offended their
religious or patriotic beliefs. Often a crowd would react before
the call of "stop thief" or the hue and cry from the local
constable. Pickpockets would be drenched under a pump. Cheats
would be beaten up. Dishonest shops and brothels would be
ransacked or destroyed. The most common targets were promiscuous
women and pregnant servants.

There were many highway robberies and mob actions in London. Mobs
in the thousands would turn out against the Catholics, especially
at times of unemployment and trade depression. Working people
still saw demonstrations and violence as the best way to achieve
their economic goals, since strikes didn't work. For example, the
silk workers used street violence to get protective legislation
against imports and mechanization in 1675. The manufacture of silk
material had been brought to England by French workers driven from
France. In 1697, three thousand London silk weavers demonstrated
outside the Commons and East India House against the importation
of raw silks by the East India Co., and a couple months later,
they attacked a house in the city owned by a gentleman of the
company. In 1701, heavy duties were imposed on the import of
Indian silks and wearing of Indian silks was prohibited by
statute. Sometimes mobs would break open the prisons to release
fellow rioters or take action against strike breakers or
informers. Parish constables elected by their neighbors could not
control the mobs and stayed within their parishes. Dueling was
still prevalent, even though against the law.

In London and Westminster, it was hard to enforce the requirement
that inhabitants keep the street in front of their house clean and
store the filth until the daily raker or scavenger came with cart
and dung pot. So a commission was made responsible for paving and
keeping clean the streets, making and repairing vaults, sewers,
drains, and gutters, and removing encroachments. It compensated
those with encroachments of over 30 years. It assessed inhabitants
of such streets 16d. per square yard from the front of their
building to the center of the street. Women continued to empty
their pails and pans outside their doors and did their washing on
stools in the streets. There was a penalty of 5d. for throwing
filth in front of one's house, and 20d. for throwing it elsewhere
in the streets. Scavengers and rakers could lodge their coal
ashes, dust, dirt, and other filth in such vacant public places as
the commission deemed convenient for accommodating country carts
returning otherwise empty after their loads were sold.

However, this system did not work because people would not pay
their assessments. So there was a return to the former system of
requiring citizens to sweep and clean the streets in front of
their buildings twice a week and keep the filth until a scavenger
or raker came. The penalty for not doing so was 3s.4d., later
raised to 10s. Any one throwing coal ashes, dust, dirt, rubbish,
or dung onto the streets or lanes incurred a fine of 5s. There was
a fine of 20s. for hooping or washing any pipes or barrels in any
lane or open passage or repairing coaches, sawing wood, or
chiseling stones in the streets. Pigs kept in or about one's house
had to be forfeited.

One way that people traveled was to be carried in sedan chairs
held up by two horizontal poles with one man at the front ends and
another man in back. There were so many sedan chairs and coaches
for hire in London that the watermen lost business. All hackney
coaches in London or Westminster were required to be licensed and
marked with their owner's distinctive mark so that complaints
could be made. Their maximum rate was 10s. for a 12 hour day, and
18d. for the first hour and 12d. for every hour thereafter.
Licensed coachmen were not allowed to practice any other trade.
The coaches paid the commission 5 pounds yearly. Hay sold along
the road brought 6d. per load, and straw 2d. per load, to the
commission. There had to by paid 3d. for every cart load of hay
sold at the hay market and 1d. for every cart of straw, to go
towards paving and repairing the hay market street. Overall,
agriculture improved. Fields that would have been left fallow were
planted with new crops which restored indispensable chemical
elements to the soil. At the same time, they supplied winter food
for stock. The size and weight of animals for slaughter grew.
There was so much stock breeding that it was more economical for a
family to buy meat, milk, and eggs, than to maintain animals
itself. There was an explosion in the growing of beans, peas,
lettuce, asparagus, artichokes, and clover. The demand for food in
London and other urban areas made enclosure for crop cultivation
even more profitable than for sheep grazing. The government made
no more attempts to curtail the enclosure of farm lands. The
number of enclosures grew because copyholders were not successful
in obtaining the legal security of tenure. But most land was not
enclosed.

In 1661 in Essex, the wages for mowing one acre of grass were
1s.10d.; for reaping, shearing, binding one acre of wheat 4s.; and
for threshing a quarter of wheat or rye 1s.

Wives participated with their husbands in general agricultural
chores and did the dairy work including making cheese. Every
householder kept chickens because egg production was cheap, their
market price being only 1s. for a hundred. Wives also took care of
the gardening work and traditionally kept for their own the cash
that came in from garden, dairy, and poultry products. A wife made
jellies and preserves when the fruit trees, bushes, and vines were
bearing. Imported sugar enabled fruit to be preserved as jam in
jars sealed with a layer of mutton fat to make them airtight. She
was likely to concoct medications from her herbs. Meat had to be
smoked or salted when there was not enough fodder to keep animals
alive through the winter. She saw to it that the soap was boiled
and the candles molded. She cooked the daily meals, did the
washing, produced cloth for the family's use, and sewed the
family's clothing.

Women had less work and lower pay than men. Since most cottages
had a spinning wheel, spinning work was readily available to
wives. In the 1670s, a female weaver or spinner was paid 2-4d. per
day. A domestic servant, who was usually female, was paid 40-80s.
a year. Men in the trades objected to competition from lower-paid
women. Aristocratic ladies actively managed their family's
household and estates. The only work available to a high middle-
class woman who was waiting to get married was to be a governess
in another household or a lady-in-waiting to a gentlewoman.
Children often worked; this was recommended so that they were
under the direct supervision of their parents rather than getting
into mischief in the village. The mother typically mingled
severity with gentleness, but the father did not dare to err on
the side of leniency. Discipline was by whipping. Children were
treated as little adults. The lack of a conception of childhood
innocence even extended to the practice of adults to tell bawdy
jokes in their presence or play with their children's genitals.

About 1660, the Royal Society for science was founded by Charles
II, who became its patron. It was formed from a discussion group
of the new experimental philosophy. It included the Baconians
formerly at Oxford and Cambridge, who were ejected at the
Restoration, and a group of Gresham professors of geometry and
astronomy. The Royal Society met at Gresham College. Its goal was
to compare ideas in mathematics and science and identify specific
aims of science. Charles himself had his own laboratory and
dabbled in chemistry and anatomy. Similar societies were formed
all over the world. Theologicians warned that scientific research
was dangerous. But it's advances improved agriculture,
manufactures, medicine, surgery, navigation, naval architecture,
gunnery, and engineering.

Issac Newton was a genius, who in his childhood designed and built
model windmills, water wheels, water clocks, and sundials. He came
from a family which had risen from the yeomen ranks to the gentry.
For a few years after graduating from Cambridge University in
1665, he secluded himself in the countryside to study. Here, using
the work of Wallis, he formulated the binomial theorem that
expands (A+B) raised to the nth power, where n is an integer,
fraction, or negative number. When n was a negative number, the
expansion never terminated; instead of a finite sum, there is an
infinite series. He then developed the notion of a number being
the limit of an infinite converging series of partial sums, such
as the limit of 1+(1/2)+(1/4)+(1/8)...= 2. By considering the
state of motion of a mass-point in an infinitely short time under
the influence of an external force, he developed rules for finding
areas under algebraic curves [integration], such as the hyperbola,
and finding tangents to algebraic curves [differentiation], which
he recognized as inverse processes. That is, taking the integral
and then the differential of a function results in a return to
that function.

Newton discovered that colors arose from the separation rather
than a modification of white light, that is natural sunlight. He
did this using a prism to dissect the white light into its
spectrum of constituent colors and then using a prism and lens to
recombine the colors to reconstitute white light. The spectrum was
the same as that of a rainbow.  He determined the angle of
refraction of each color by beaming white light through a prism,
and then through a hole in a board which isolated one color, to
another prism. When he discovered that all colors reflect from a
mirror at the same angle, he invented and built the reflecting
telescope, which used a parabolic concave mirror and a flat mirror
instead of a convex lens,  thereby eliminating the distortions and
rainbow coloring around the edges that resulted from the
refraction of different colors at different angles. He deemed a
ray of light to consist of a rapidly moving stream of atomic
particles, rather than Robert Hooke's pulses or Christian Huygens'
waves, because shadows showed a sharp boundary between the light
and the absence of light. He reasoned that if light was made up of
pulses or waves, it could spread around obstacles or corners as
sound seemed to do. He approximated the speed of sound.

Newton opined that an object moves because of external forces on
it rather than by forces internal to the object. He connected the
concepts of force and acceleration with a new concept: mass. He
found that the acceleration of a body by a force is inversely
proportional to its mass, and formulated the equation that force
equals mass time acceleration. Another law was his principle of
inertia that any body, in so far as it is able, continues its
state either of rest or in uniform, rectilinear motion.  His next
law was that when a body A exerts a force on a body B, then B also
exerts a force on A which is equal in amount but opposite in
direction.

Newton had a radically novel idea that equated instantaneous
acceleration to the gravity force which provoked it. He theorized
that the same gravity force that pulled an apple down from a tree
extended out to the moon hold it in its orbit around the earth. He
connected these movements by  imagining a cannon on a mountain
shooting a series of cannonballs parallel to the earth's surface.
The first shot had only a tiny charge of explosive, and the
cannonball barely makes it out of the muzzle before falling to the
ground. The second shot is propelled by a larger charge, and
follows a parabolic arc as it falls, The next shots, fired with
increasingly more propellant, eventually disappear over the
horizon as they fall. Lastly, with enough gunpowder, a speeding
cannonball would completely circle the earth without hitting it.
He combined the inductive and deductive methods of inquiry, first
making observations, and then generalizing them into a theory, and
finally deducing consequences from the theory which could be
tested by observation. He carried mathematization of data from
experiments as far as possible. His universal theory of
gravitation is based on the idea of forces between objects rather
than from one object to another; e.g. the apple exerts a force
toward the earth as well as receiving a force from the earth. His
law of gravitation explains how the whole universe is held
together. This law holds that every object in the universe
attracts every other object with a single gravitational force that
is directly proportional to the product of their masses and
inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their
centers. Newton had first believed in the Cartesian system of
celestial vortices of aether than swirled the planets and comets
around their orbits. The gross features of the universe led to his
recognition that the attraction between two bodies decreased
inversely to the square of the distance between them. Then he came
to accept Hooke's hypothesis that planets are kept in their orbits
by the combination of an attractive power of the sun and of motion
in a straight line that was tangential to their orbits. From
astronomical data, he calculated this centrifugal acceleration of
each planet to be the inverse square of its distance from the sun.
He also calculated the "centripetal" accelerations necessary to
bring the planets into their orbits. His experiments had shown
that he centripetal force in a circular orbit was equal to the
mass of the body times the square of its velocity, all divided by
the radius of the circular path. He used calculus and differential
equations to determine centripetal forces of elliptical orbits,
where the distance from the sun, the velocity, and the
acceleration were variables. He correlated the moon's orbit with
the measured acceleration of gravity on the surface of the earth.
Then he formulated the idea that the ultimate agent of nature was
a force acting between bodies rather than a moving body itself.
Gravity did not act in proportion to the surfaces of bodies, but
in proportion to quantity of matter, its penetration to the very
center of all bodies without diminution, its propagation to
immense distances decreasing in exact proportion to the square of
the distance. Newton showed that a single gravitational force
could account for the way falling objects descend to the ground,
the parabolic trajectory of projectiles, the motion of the moon in
its orbit around the earth,  the course of the tides every twelve
hours, the lower densities of the earth's atmosphere at greater
heights, the paths of  Jupiter's satellites, and the ellipitical
motions of the planets in their orbits around the sun. It had been
thought that invisible angels moved the planets. He proved from
his law of gravitation and his three laws of motion the truth of
Kepler's laws of ellipitical planetary motion. He demonstrated
from data collected from the comet of 1680 that comets moved
according to his law of gravitation. Non-periodic comets were
observed to follow hyperbolic paths. He used the concept of a
common center of gravity as a reference point for other motions.
The fact that the center of gravity of the solar system was within
the body of the sun verified that the sun was indeed at the center
of it.

Newton's "Principia Mathematica Philosophia Naturalis", was
published in 1687. The church denounced it as being against the
scripture of the Bible. Newton did not agree with the established
church on many points, such as the trinity, and was considered a
heretic. He had his own interpretations of the Bible and doubted
the divinity of Jesus. But it was accepted for dissenters like
Newton to qualify for full civil rights by maintaining an outward
conformity and taking the sacrament in the established church once
a year. Newton was given a royal dispensation from taking holy
orders as prescribed by the rules for tenure of fellows of his
college at Cambridge University. He did believe in a God who
created the universe and who had a ubiquitous presence in all
space. When Catholic King James II tried to have a Catholic monk
admitted to the degree of a Master of Arts at Cambridge University
without taking the oath of  adherence to the established
Protestant church,  in order to participate in the business of the
university,  Newton was active in the opposition that defeated
this attempt.

When Newton's laws were applied to the paths of the moons of
Jupiter, it was noticed that the moons were a few minutes ahead of
time at that time of year when Jupiter was nearest to the earth
and a few minutes behind time when Jupiter was farthest from the
earth. Olaus Roemer, a Danish astronomer, postulated that
Jupiter's eclipses of its moons lasted seconds longer the farther
away Jupiter was from the earth because it took their light longer
to reach the earth. He concluded that light does not travel
instantaneously, but at a certain speed, which he calculated in
1676.

In 1668, Christian Huygens formulated the law of conservation of
momentum [mass times velocity], which held that when objects
collide, they may each change direction, but the sum of all their
velocities will remain the same. Huygens also recognized the
conservation of what was later called "kinetic energy", which is
associated with movement. In 1690, he posited the theory that
light consists of a series of waves. It states that all points of
a wave front of light in a vacuum may be regarded as new sources
of wavelets that expand in every direction at a rate depending on
their velocities. He thought this a better explanation of bending
and interference of light than Newton's particle theory.

In 1661, Robert Boyle, called the father of modern chemistry,
defined an element as a substance that cannot be further
decomposed and distinguished it from a mixture, which is easily
separable, and a compound, which is not easily separable. He used
a pump he developed and a glass jar to create a confined air space
for experiments. He noted that burning objects such as candles and
coal, when placed in the receiver of his air pump, went out after
a time although air was still present. He opined that animals were
dependent upon a fresh supply of air to live. He studied the
relationship between the volume, density, and pressure of gases.
He proved by experiment that the volume of a gas at a constant
temperature varies inversely to the pressure applied to the gas.
Since gas is compressible, he opined that gases must be composed
of discrete particles separated by void, and also that basic
physical properties were due to motions of particles, or atoms,
which was an ancient Greek conjecture. This cast doubt on the
theory that everything was composed from the four basic elements:
air, water, fire, and earth. Boyle's laboratory at Oxford was
denounced by the Oxford clergy as destroying religion. In 1679,
the steam pressure cooker was developed.

Robert Hooke, the son of a minister who died when he was thirteen,
helped Boyle build his air pump. He was a genius with innate
mechanical skill. He applied a spiral spring to regulate the
balance of watches. A lord financed him as a Gresham lecturer for
50 pounds a year. In 1666, he used a pendulum to measure the force
of gravity and showed that the center of gravity of the earth and
moon is a point describing an ellipse around the sun. In 1667, he
explained the scintillation of the stars by irregular atmospheric
refractions. He formulated the theory that light is composed of
pulses. Hooke's Law states that the amount an elastic body bends
or stretches out of shape is in direct proportion to the force
acting on it. He invented the odometer, a wheel to measure
distances. He constructed an arithmetical machine. He invented the
universal joint, which can move in many angles. At his death,
Hooke had thousands of pounds stored in an iron chest.

Wallis wrote a treatise on algebra which was historical as well as
practical. In 1668, he postulated the correct theory of impacts of
inelastic bodies, based on the principle of conservation of
momentum. During this time, he also deciphered enemy messages for
royalty and was made a royal chaplain.

Royal astronomer and genius Edmond Halley, the son of a soap
maker, studied tides, magnetism, and the paths of comets and
stars. He went on voyages to study the heavens from different
positions, thereby laying the foundations of physical geography.
He showed that the stars change in position in relation to each
other. With Newton's help, he calculated the orbit of a comet he
saw in 1682 to be elliptical rather than parabolic and then proved
it was the same comet that had appeared in 1531 and 1607,
indicating it's regularity; it was then named "Halley's comet".
However, the Church of England still embraced the idea that comets
and eclipses were evidence of God's wrath. Greenwich Observatory
was built in 1675. Halley used a barometer to measure the density
of the atmosphere and related its readings to elevations into the
atmosphere and to weather. He determined that the cause of the
tropical trade winds was the sun warming the tropical air at the
equator, causing it to rise blow away from the equator to replace
cooler air. He illustrated the tropical winds with the first
meteorological map. He made a descent in a diving bell, which was
used to try to reach wrecked treasure ships. He compiled a table
of mortality, which originated the science of life-statistics. He
studied fossils and perceived them as remnants of living beings
that had died long ago, and imagined a succession of living
things. Halley surveyed the tides and coasts of the British
Channel for the king in 1701.

In 1675, apothecary Nicolas Lemery divided substances into
mineral, vegetable, and animal. He wrote a dictionary of
pharmaceuticals.

John Ray and Francis Willughby were friends who traveled together
to study plants and animals respectively. John Ray started the
science of zoology with his edition of Francis Willoughby's
"Ornithology" on birds and his own "History of Fishes". He also
attempted the first scientific classification of animals in his
"Synopsis of Quadrupeds". Ray compared anatomies and experimented
on movements of plants and the ascent of sap. He knew what fossils
were. Ray first suggested the concept of species in classification
of animals and plants. He opined that the goodness and wisdom of
God was shown not only by the usefulness of animals to man's uses
as taught by the church, but also by the adaption of animals to
their own lives and surroundings. The vast array and dispersal of
animals found by world explorers all over the world cast doubt on
the biblical story of Noah putting two of every kind of animal on
an ark. The science of botany began with Ray's "History of
Plants", and the researches of Robert Morrison, who was Charles'
physician and keeper of his gardens. The idea from fossils that
existing species of animals were modifications of predecessor
animals conflicted with the religious belief that Noah's ark had
preserved all the varieties of animals. The idea that fossils were
remnants of dead animals existing before man conflicted with the
religious idea that Adam's fall began sin and caused death.

Nicholaus Steno, a Danish physician, demonstrated in 1669 that
layers of strata of rock are always deposited with the oldest
layers on the bottom and the youngest layers on the top, which
began the science of geology. John Aubrey described Stonehenge,
thus founding prehistoric archaeology. He thought it to be a Druid
temple.

The telescope and compound microscope, which has an objective lens
and an eyepiece lens for producing a wide range of magnifications,
were further developed. Nehemia Grew, the son of a grammar school
master who later became a physician, observed and drew plant
anatomy, including leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, ovules, pollen
grains, and stamens. He was the first to observe the existence of
sex in plants. Italian Marcello Malpighi, a physician, used the
new compound microscope to study human skin, spleen, kidneys, and
liver and also compared the livers of several types of animals.
Dutchman Anton van Leeuwenhock, a cloth manufacturer who made
microscopes to inspect the quality of cloth, turned them to use in
understanding the life cycles of mites, lice, and fleas. He
correctly described human blood cells. When he found what he
described as tiny animals (bacteria, protezoa, and rotifers), he
sent clear descriptions of them to the Royal Society in London as
proof against the theory of spontaneous generation, which held
that lower forms of life could arise from nonliving matter. This
started the science of bacteriology. The cellular basis of life
was discovered. Human blood vessels were examined. When the egg in
the female reproductive system was discovered, the status of women
was lifted.

Physician Thomas Willis, son of a farmer, dissected brains of men
and animals to study the anatomical relations of nerves and
arteries. Excess urine had been associated with a wasting disease.
Willis identified diabetes mellitus with excess of urine with
sweetness. Physician Thomas Sydenham, son of a gentleman,
observed epidemic diseases of London over successive years, thus
founding epidemiology. He also furthered clinical medicine by
emphasizing detailed observations of patients and maintaining
accurate records. He wrote a treatise on gout and identified
scarlet fever. He introduced a cooling method of treating
smallpox. But he still relied on the big three treatments: blood-
letting, purging, and sweating. Blood-letting was to draw off bad
blood so that it could be replaced by a better fluid. Another
treatment used was cupping, whereby a vacuum was created by heated
glass cups to draw blood to the surface of the skin. John Locke
performed one of the first successful operations on a kind of
abscess of a man's liver. It was common for people who felt ill to
take a laxative and rest at home.

In 1690, physicians opened the first dispensaries, which gave
treatment and medicine together, to take business away from their
rivals: the apothecaries. London's apothecaries were released in
1694 from jury service and serving as constable, scavenger, or
other parish or ward office because it was necessary that they be
available to attend the sick at all times. Peruvian bark which had
quinine as its alkaloid had been introduced as a proven cure for
the ague, a fever with chills usually due to malaria, in 1653. The
English ceased to believe in holy wells, but went to spas such as
Bath for treatment for disease.

There was more bathing because private homes in towns now had
indoor baths. The public baths came into disuse.

For childbirth, only rich women were attended by physicians. Most
physicians used talismen such as the eagle stone at deliveries.
Caesarian section almost always led to the death of the mother.
Midwives were licensed by the church and could baptize babies.
Jane Sharp wrote "The Midwives Book" with anatomical
illustrations.

Women over thirty had fewer children and the last child born was
at an earlier age than before. This was in part due to birth
control such as coitus-interruptus, long breast-feeding of a
current child and/or the taboo against sex if the wife was still
breast-feeding. Women who were rich often employed wet-nurses.
Babies seldom thrived, or even survived, without out a regular
supply of breast milk.

John Locke, an Oxford don, physician, and son of an attorney,
expressed a view that the monarchy was based on a contractual
relationship with the people. This idea which was first adopted by
revolutionists and then became accepted as orthodoxy. Furthermore,
he articulated the right of resistance, the supremacy of
legislative assemblies, and the responsibility of rulers to answer
to their subjects. He theorized that men turn to forming a civil
government when there is a need to protect accumulated property.
This, along with the protection of life and liberty, was the
primary function of government, before royal pleasure, national
pride, or foreign conquest. He wrote theories on the interaction
of supply, demand, interest rates, rents, coinage, and foreign
exchange rates. He believed that interest rates should be the
natural ones determined by market forces rather than by the
legislature, especially if there was an attempt to lower interest
rates underneath their natural rate, which was not only
undesirable but easily circumvented. He thought that attempting to
legislate contrary to natural economic laws, e.g. prices, was
doomed to failure from unexpected consequences. He agreed with
most mercantilists that by maintaining a large inflow of precious
metals through consistent export of surpluses in foreign trade
would lead to low interest rates, increased trade, increased
capital stock, high employment, and high prices, and therefore a
healthy economy and enrichment of the nation.

John Locke theorized that propositions have probability rather
than certainty. His "Thoughts on Education" was a great book on
the formation of character. Locke also wrote about the large field
for knowledge in labor-saving and economic inventions. He espoused
freedom of thought in "Letters on Toleration" and wrote "An Essay
Concerning Human Understanding", which described how the mind
functions in learning about the world and which attempted to
reconcile science and Christianity.  He was a great admirer and
friend of Newton and they shared religious views. He thought that
knowledge comes primarily from experience rather than from the
mind, so that observation and experimentation are necessary to
find truth. Immanuel Kant from Prussia, who became a professor of
logic and metaphysics, was also impressed by Newton's findings and
expressed his philosophy that man has perceptions in space and
time and can have some descriptive knowledge of his world by using
purely intellectual concepts such as possibility, existence,
necessity, and substance. He thought of God as theological
perfection, and morality as practical perfection. The British
primarily adopted the views of their own Hobbes and Locke, and
Bacon before them.

At Oxford and Cambridge Universities, there were the most
enlightened theologians, classicists, orientalists, philologists,
mathematicians, chemists, architects, and musicians. There were
professors of Anglo-Saxon, Hebrew, and Arabic. John Locke's
influence caused modern philosophy to supercede traditional
scholasticism. There were no more disputations to qualify for
degrees. Some of the students were the sons of noblemen and sat at
meals with the heads, tutors, and fellows of the colleges. Most
students were the sons of landowners, clergymen, professional men,
or prosperous men of business. They were known as the gentlemen
commoner students. The few poor students were known as servitors
and paid for their education by menial work. Corporal punishment
ceased. Instead there were fines, suspension, and expulsion.
Fellows of colleges had common rooms for drinking and smoking
together as they had done in taverns outside college walls. The
king had authority to grant licenses in sell or give land in
perpetuity, to encourage founding and augmenting colleges and
schools. The two universities were vested with the presentation of
benefices that had belonged to Papists.

English nonconformists such as Presbyterians were excluded from
Oxford and Cambridge Universities, so they were educated at
Glasgow in Scotland.

Grammar schools were blamed for the past civil war by educating
too many people above their station, so ecclesiastical control now
stifled them. A few dissenting schools were established. Charity
was given to schools for children of the poor for placement as
apprentices, but not to educate them above their stations.

In the 1670s, about 70% of males in London were literate. By 1680,
illiteracy was a special characteristic of the poor instead of a
characteristic of the vast majority of common people as in 1580.
Fountain pens came into use.

Many books written tended to be about the author's experiences,
for instance Samuel Pepys' "Diary", Gilbert Burnet's "History of
my own Times", John Evelyn's lifelong diary with vivid
descriptions of striking events of the day, and nonconformist
Celia Fiennes' description of her tour of England on horseback.
There were many political biographies. Historians did not yet
study history as a continuous process, but narrated self-contained
stories to instruct by example. William Fleetwood wrote about
economic history in "Chronicon Preciogum". George Hicks put
together a "Thesaurus" of the northern languages. Thomas Hyde
wrote on ancient Persian religion. John Spenser compared Jewish
rites with those of other Semitic people, thus starting
comparative religion. Richard Bentley, William's librarian, wrote
a "Dissertation" on the ancient Greeks. He compared the ancient
Greek life with modern life. He also confuted atheism on the
Newtonian system. A translated version of "Critical History of Old
Testament" by Frenchman Richard Simon identified the old testament
as history instead of divine revelation. John Milton wrote
"Paradise Lost", which retells the Biblical story of the Creation
and the fall of Adam and Eve against the backdrop of Satan's
rebellion and expulsion from heaven and emphasized God's justice
in spite of everything. The poem deals with the puritan struggling
against evil and the problem of sin and redemption. It has a cold
and severe conception of moral virtue and stoical self  repression
in its characters. There is no sympathy with the human condition.
Reading this book made the English more serious, earnest, and
sober in life and conduct and more firm in the love of freedom.
John Bunyan wrote "Pilgrim's Progress" in which a tinker takes a
journey to find the Everlasting City of heaven and on the way
meets people who try to harm him. But he derives strength from his
adversities. The journey is a metaphor for the Christian soul
trying to find salvation. It is Puritan in its sympathies and has
insights into human nature. John Dryden wrote on large social,
political, and humanistic issues, often by political satire.
William Congreve wrote plays such as a comedy on manners. William
Wycherley wrote cynical satires and portrayed folly, affection,
and vice. John Vanbrugh wrote plays satirizing London high society
and social institutions. John Toland wrote "Christianity and
Mysterious" on deism. "Puss in Boots", "Red Ridinghood", and
"Cinderella" became available in print. There were many female
poets, bookwriters, and playwrights. Anne Finch, later Vicountess
Conway, wrote the philosophical book: "Principle of the Most
Ancient and Modern Philosophy" to reconcile the new science with
Christian belief. In it every creature had a body and a spirit.
Mrs. Aphra Behn wrote "Oroonoko", one of the first novels. Basua
Makin, governess of the little sister of Charles II wrote an essay
to revive the education of women, arguing that women's activity in
wartime showed that they were fit to be educated. Elizabeth
Elstob, who studied Teutonic languages, was one of the founders of
women's education. Mary Astell proposed a college for women. Some
women painted portraits.

There were rigid censorship acts from 1662 to 1695. The first
required that no one could print a book without first registering
it with the Company of Stationers of London and having it licensed
by appropriate authority: common law books by the Lord Chancellor
or the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, affairs of state and history
books by the Secretaries of State, heraldry books by the Earl
Marshall or Kings of Arms Garter, university books by the
Chancellor or Vice Chancellor of either of the universities, and
all others including divinity, physics, and philosophy by the
Archbishop of Canterbury, or Bishop of London. Books could be
imported only into London and not sold until approved by the
Archbishop of Canterbury or Bishop of London after being opened
and viewed by a scholar appointed by these bishops and a
representative of the Company of Stationers. If heretical,
seditious, scandalous, schismatic or otherwise dangerous or
offensive, the importer could be punished. No one could print or
import copies of any books without consent of the owner with right
by letters patent. The penalty for not doing so was to forfeit
6s.9d. for each such book, of which the king would receive one
half and the owner one half. Printers had to set their own name to
the books they printed and also the name of the author or forfeit
such book. Only freemen of London who were members of the Company
of Stationers could sell books. The Company of Stationers had the
authority accompanied by a constable to search all houses and
shops where they knew or had "probable reason" to suspect books
were being printed. They could search houses of persons of other
trades only by special warrant. They could examine books found to
determine if they were licensed and, if not, to seize them.
Justices could imprison offenders. The first offense by offending
printers was to be punished by suspension from printing for three
years, the second offense by permanent disallowance from printing,
fine, imprisonment, and corporal punishment not extending to life
or limb. This statute was enforced by frequent prosecutions, such
as of publishers of pornographic books.

The only newspapers to appear between 1660 and 1679 were official
government sheets. But in 1695 freedom of the press was
established by the abolition of the licensing of publications,
including newspapers. Locke had argued for this freedom, stating
"I know not why a man should not have liberty to print whatever he
would speak and to be answerable for the one just as he is for the
other..."In 1702 the first daily newspaper in the world came into
existence in England. The Stationer's Company monopoly of printing
also ended in 1695. Printing was not regulated and no longer
criminal just because it was unauthorized. Printing could be done
in other places than London, York, Oxford, and Cambridge.

The rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Many successful
merchants and manufacturers bought landed estates and established
a line of country squires or baronets or even peers. The fashion
started in the nobility and the richest mercantile families that
their wives should become ladies of leisure. For workers though,
there was constant underemployment. In periods of economic crisis
industrial workers lost their jobs. Much work was seasonal. Anyone
who could work most of the time was fortunate. Laboring and out-
servants, who comprised one fourth of the population, and
cottagers and paupers, who comprised another fourth of the
population, had to spend more than they earned. The poor rate
collected for the cottagers and paupers was 3d. per week. There
was an agricultural depression that was deepest in the 1680s after
the collapse of a boom. It was the only bad depression experienced
in peace time. There was famine in 1698.

Any person receiving relief from any parish and his family members
cohabiting with him was required to wear a badge with a "P" which
identified his parish. This was to differentiate them from idle,
sturdy, and disorderly beggars who were not entitled to relief.

There were more poor people and, despite the poor laws, many
became rogues or vagabonds or starved to death. Many went from
parish to parish to build cottages and consumed all the wood there
and then went to another parish. So the parishes were allowed by
statute to remove any person coming to settle in any tenement
under the value of ten pounds who was likely to be chargeable to
it. They were then removed to the last parish were they had
resided for at least forty days. Excepted were people temporarily
moving to another parish to work at harvest time. The overall
effect was to decrease the mobility of people. But a later statute
permitted greater movement of poor people by allowing those who
were poor for want of work to go to another parish where labor was
wanted. They had to bring a certificate of their present parish
membership to the new parish, where they could settle if they
rented a tenement worth ten pounds a year or served in a parish
office. Later, settlement had to be given to inhabitants paying
its rates, and unmarried inhabitants hired for one year, and
apprentices bound by indenture. But parishes were displeased with
the requirement to give settlements to these people because they
feared they would become poor and need parish assistance, thereby
increasing the rates to be paid.

Parish poor houses were converted into spinning schools to obtain
an income. Parishes of large towns were combined to set up large
workhouses, where the poor could be set to unskilled manufacture,
but the managers lacked the character and education to make them
work.

Because prisoners often died before trial and the poor prisoners
became instructed in the practice of thievery in prison, they were
set to work on materials provided to them at public expense. No
parish was rated at more than 6d. per week for such. The president
and governors of corporations oversaw rogues, vagrants, sturdy
beggars, and idle or disorderly persons working in corporations or
workhouses.

Assessments were made for building and repairing gaols in order to
maintain the health and safe custody of the prisoners. Also, gaol
fever, a virulent form of typhus, was so prevalent in the large
prisons for criminals and debtors that it frequently spread
through the adjacent towns. During some assizes, it killed
sheriffs, lawyers, and justices.

In 1692, London lands were taxed for the relief of orphans.
Churchwardens could seize the goods and chattels of putative
fathers and mothers deserting bastard children.

From 1691 to 1740, Societies for the Reformation of Manners
prosecuted poor people for moral offenses.

All hackney coaches and stage coaches in all the realm became
required to be licensed. The turnpike system came into use. Tolls
were paid for road upkeep and repair by private companies. The
local parishes ceased to have this responsibility. John Ogilby
wrote the first road book based on actual surveys of the roads.
Stage coaches cost a shilling for every five miles and went 40-50
miles a day. The trip from London to Oxford was twelve hours. The
company of Coach and Coach Harness Makers was founded with the
consent of the king. The body of a coach hung from the frame by
leather braces. One axle pivoted for turns. Plate glass was used
in the windows. Rivers improved so that most places were no more
distant from navigable waters than a long day's haul on land.

The several post offices were put under the authority of one
Postmaster General appointed by the king for the purpose of speed
and safety of dispatches, which were carried by horseback. One
sheet letter going less than 80 miles cost 2d., and more than 80
miles, 4d.

When the army was disbanded after the Restoration, its officers
and soldiers were allowed return to their trades and their
apprenticeships without serving the usual seven years. Parishes
were required to provide for poor and maimed officers and soldiers
who served Charles I or Charles II. The Royal Hospital founded by
Charles as a home for veteran soldiers opened in 1692. Greenwich
palace was converted to a hospital for seamen and their widows and
children to encourage men to become seamen: mariner, seaman,
waterman, fisherman, lighterman, bargeman, keelman, or seafaring
man in the king's Navy. Also, disabled seamen's children were to
be educated at the expense of the hospital.

Charles retained one regiment from which he started a small
standing army, which slowly increased in size ever after. The army
was primarily mercenary, as it had been in medieval times, with
officers buying their commissions. Colonels were the proprietors
of their regiments and captains were the proprietors of their
companies. The soldiers were ill mannered, swearing and cursing
and stealing, sometimes from peoples' homes, and intimidating
people with their swords. The bayonet was invented to attach onto
a gun, which were muzzle-loading with a match lock. So pikemen
with their long spears became obsolete. Hand grenades and small
explosive bombs came into use about 1670. Explosives were also
used in mines.

There was resort to many devices to fund wars. The land tax was
still the primary tax. The customs and excise taxes were often
extended to more goods and wares. Sometimes there were duties
imposed on marriages, births, and deaths. Also, hawkers, peddlers,
and other trading persons going from town to town to other men's
houses on foot or on horse carrying wares had to buy a license.
There were also loans from privileged companies such as the Bank
of England, East India Co., and the South Sea Co. Commissioners
were appointed to take and state the account of all money in the
public revenue. This discouraged the prevalent corruption of
government officials and thereby the people were encouraged to pay
their taxes.

The Goldsmiths loaned money to the king and to private persons and
to the Exchequer. Receipts from Goldsmiths for storage in strong
boxes had become a de facto paper currency. But when the
Goldsmiths had no more money to lend, the Bank of England was
founded in 1694 under whig auspices to provide money for war. It
was the first institution to issue notes in excess of its total
deposits. However, it was not allowed to lend money to the Crown
without the consent of Parliament. It was incorporated as the
first English joint-stock bank and had about 1,300 shareholders.
These original subscribers were individuals from London from many
walks of life, including well-to-do tradesmen and about 12% of
whom were women: wives, widows, or spinsters. Not many
corporations were original subscribers. Holders of at least 500
pounds could vote, of 2000 pounds could be directors, and of 4000
pounds could be Governor. The Bank issued notes payable to bearer
and discounted bills, but these were not legal tender. It lent at
8% to the Crown and occasionally to corporations. Money was also
borrowed by offering annuities on single lives. This was the first
time the government borrowed directly from the public on a long-
term basis.

In 1695 there was inflation due to over issue by the Bank because
of inexperience, pressure from government, and the Bank's greed
for business. After a dividend of 5% in 1695, the next year there
was no dividend and so the bank stock price fell. In 1696, five
pound and ten pound short term bonds were sold to the public. Also
in that year was the first run on the bank. This occurred two days
after clipped money lost currency; people wanted the new recoined
money, but the Mint had not supplied the Bank with sufficient
supplies. Interest instead of cash was given for notes. Cash was
short for months. The Bank's credit was much shaken. It was then
given a monopoly so that its notes would not have competition.
Thereafter, its dividends were good - about 12% per year. Because
of its monopoly, its dividends were about 3% above the current
going rate of interest. About this time, Exchequer Bills, with
interest, were started by the Exchequer and circulated by the Bank
of England. They were frequently endorsed many times by successive
holders.

The Bank simply took over from the goldsmiths its main everyday
business of deposit; running cash note [cashier's note, specie
note, cash note], which was payable on demand and normally did not
bear interest; and drawn note [precursor to the check, but not on
special paper]. The Bank gradually convinced many of its clients
to use its "check" [cheque] paper when drawing. The check paper
was unique to the Bank and embellished with distinctive scroll
work to serve as an obstacle to fraud. Over time the running cash
note tended to be for round sums of at least twenty pounds and
multiples of five pounds. The Bank of England had a monopoly on
issuing notes in the London area. Country banks arose and issued
bearer notes payable on demand and interest-bearing notes in their
areas. The Bank of England gave to its depositors the service of
paying annually to a designee without further order.

A decision of the common law courts held that bills of exchange
(written orders to pay a given a sum on a given date) were
transferable to other people by successive endorsements. So long
distance payments no longer had to be made in coin, with all the
dangers of highway robbery.

The financial revolution of the 1690s meant that the merchant
elite could invest in government bonds or company bonds at 5-6%,
or London leases at 10%, as opposed to income from landed estates,
which was under 3%. Shareholders were no longer personally liable
for company losses. Interest on loans was no longer considered
sinful as long as it was not oppressive. The greater ability to
borrow spurred the growth of capitalism.

All brokers and stock jobbers in London and Westminster of bank
stock, bank bills, shares and interests in joint stock must be
licensed by the mayor, which shall necessitate their taking an
oath to exercise their office without fraud or collusion to the
best of his skill and knowledge as of 1697. This is to avoid the
collusion of fixing values to their own advantage.

The science of statistics made life insurance possible. But it was
administered by ad hoc offices rather than companies and was not
reliable in making payments.

Charles instituted a hearth tax of 2s. per year in 1662, with
constables and offiers authorized to verify the number of hearths
and stoves in houses. It was repealed in 1688 because it could not
be enforced except by exposing every man's house to be entered and
searched at pleasure by persons unknown to the people, which was
oppressive and a badge of slavery.

By bribes, Charles built up a body of support in Parliament which
could be relied upon for a majority. They came to be called
"tories" by their opponents. "Tory" had been a term of abuse for
Irish Catholic bandits. The tory and whig groups were known by
their disagreement over the authoritarianism of the Crown. The
tories were sympathetic to the doctrine of divine right and
favored a doctrinally high church. The tories represented landed
property and the established church, and usually wore blue in
contrast to the purple of royalty. Many royalists became tories.
The whigs refused to accept the sacrosanct character of the
monarchy. The whigs opined that government depended upon consent
of the people and that the people had a right of resistance. They
subordinated the Crown to Parliament. The whigs represented the
dissenters and the mercantile classes, and often wore red. Many
former Puritans became whigs. "Whig" had been a term of abuse for
Scots Presbyterian rebels and horse thieves. The gout and venereal
disease were common among political leaders. A primitive condom
just introduced to the aristocracy from France helped deter
syphillus; It was uncomfortable and unreliable.

Under Charles II, the Treasury as a supreme financial body
separated from the Exchequer as a depository of revenue. A gold
guinea coin was issued. From 1690, government policy was
controlled by specific appropriations. Money bills had to
originate in the Commons, and could not be amended by the House of
Lords.

Boards became independent of the king's Privy Council and
answerable to the secretary of state.

In the 1680s, Charles compelled some of the livery companies in
London to give up their charters to him and he called in many
corporation charters of boroughs whenever some light excuse could
be found to justify it. This was done by the use of the writ of
quo warranto before a court. In London he had the tory mayor
revive an ancient custom of selecting a sheriff by drinking to him
at the annual feast. Two tory sheriffs were installed into office.
All these actions gave the king a voice in selection of the
officers of London and boroughs, since Royal commissioners would
then determine who the officers would be. This was to assure
London's representation in Parliament by Crown loyalists as London
had been whig. It also allowed influenced selection of sympathetic
jurors.

Criminal seditious libel was brought into the common law courts in
1664, when Benjamin Keach was tried for writing a book containing
contradictions of the doctrine of the established church. He wrote
against infant baptism and asserted that laymen might preach the
gospel. The justice intimidated the jury to find him guilty. He
was sentenced to be fined, to spend two hours in the pillory in
two successive weeks, and his book to be burned before his face.
He was to be imprisoned until he found sureties for his good
behavior and renunciation of his doctrine and for his future
appearance in court. Juries were loath to find anyone guilty of
seditious libel.

James II succeeded Charles II to the throne and fostered Roman
Catholicism by appointments and by attempting to suspend laws
unfavorable to Catholics. He commanded all bishops to read in the
churches his Declaration of Indulgence exempting both Catholic and
Protestant dissenters from all penal statutes based on religion.
Seven bishops refused to obey and jointly petitioned him, stating
that his action was illegal according to Parliament. He prosecuted
them for seditious libel in the petition. The jury found them not
guilty. James discharged the two justices of the five who had
rejected the seditious libel doctrine which had been created by
the Star Chamber Court. This roused the whigs and tories in turn
to discharge him by joining in inviting protestants William of
Orange and Mary to take the throne in his place. James was
effectively chased out of England by William's advancing army in
the Glorious Revolution of 1688-9, which took away the powers of
final authority from the king, but without transferring them to
any other body. A "Bill of Rights" stated that


1.  The king may not suspend laws or dispense with them
    without consent of Parliament.

2.  The establishment of a Court of Commissioners and like
    bodies for ecclesiastical causes is illegal.

3.  The king may not levy money or extend an authorized levy
    without consent of Parliament.

4.  Subjects have a right to petition the king without
    prosecution.

5.  The king may not raise or keep a standing army within the
    country in time of peace without the consent of Parliament.

6.  Protestants may have arms for their defense as allowed by
    law.

7.  The elections of members of Parliament should be free.

8.  The freedom of speech or debates or proceedings in
    Parliament should not be impeached or questioned in any
    court or place outside of Parliament.

9.  Excessive bail should not be required, nor excessive
    fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted
    (so no more men were whipped to death)

10. Jury selection should not be tampered with, and jurors
    who try men for high treason should be freeholders.

11. All grants and promises of fines and forfeiture of
    particular persons, before conviction, are illegal and void.

12. Parliament should be held frequently for redress of
    grievances and for the amending, strengthening, and
    preserving of the laws.

13. All Protestants may freely exercise their religion and
    the king will maintain the Protestant religion and the law
    and liberty of the realm.

The right of the peoples' representatives to select and depose the
king and to change the order of succession was established. There
was no divine right or hereditary right to the Crown. An English
monarch was created by an act of Parliament. The king still called
and dissolved Parliaments, except that Parliament continued for
six months after the death of a king. From 1689, Parliament sat
every year. Freedom of speech for members of Parliament was
established by a resolution overturning a King's Bench felony
conviction of Sir John Elliot.

By the act of settlement of 1701, no officer or pensioner of the
king could be a member of Parliament. All resolutions by the Privy
Council had to be signed by the members consenting to them. No one
born outside the realm could be a member of the Privy Council or
of Parliament, or could have any civil or military office or place
of trust, or any grants of land or tenements from the king.
Justices served during good behavior instead of at the pleasure of
the king.

After the Glorious Revolution, Tories tended to accept of the Whig
principles of limited constitutional monarchy instead of rule by
divine right.

Under William and Mary, the ministers were first chosen by them
but could be impeached by the Commons and then removed by the
Parliament. The Commons removed anyone who disagreed with them as
soon as he made a mistake. But the king could pardon anyone
convicted by Parliamentary bill of attainder. This was
inconsistent, so no one was allowed to plead pardon by the king in
an impeachment by the Commons. Thus Parliament gained control of
who would be ministers.

The Glorious Revolution favored the capitalists and the commercial
magnates even though it had been started by the landed families,
with whom they now intermarried. There were companies in the
fishing, silk, baize [a coarse wool], sugar, rope, paper, iron,
hardware, gunpowder, saw milling, and pottery trades. The largest
pottery workshops employed about six men. One man shaped the pots,
another made the handles and put them on, while the others did the
decoration, the glazing, and the firing. New companies could be
formed without royal or Parliamentary consent. There were no more
commercial monopolies. Regulated companies declined. The Merchant
Adventurers lost their last monopoly privileges; their entrance
fees were abolished. Their method of limiting the volume of their
exports of English cloth to Germany to keep up prices was
obsolete. Now they tried to capture the market by selling cheap.
There were more joint-stock companies and on a larger scale. They
also no longer restricted output to keep prices high, but geared
to export many inexpensive goods. The Stock Exchange was
incorporated about 1694.

The domestic or "putting out" system came into use. In this
system, the worker usually owned his own machinery and the
capitalist owned the material, which he put out to the worker at
home. The merchant manufacturer bought raw wool and had it carded,
spun, woven, fulled, and dressed at his own expense. Some farmers
became spinners in the winter when outside work was impossible.
The manufacture of nails was also done by this system.
Accordingly, the guilds and municipal corporations in towns ceased
to control the recruiting, conditions of work, and pay of
industries. New industries for the manufacture of silk, paper, and
cutlery were organized on capitalist lines rather than being
subject to guilds. That is, production was controlled by men with
money and the means of manufacture. Only a quarter of 200 towns
had any organized guilds at all. Growing Birmingham was not a
chartered borough, so never was encumbered with guild regulations.
The guild and apprentice regulations were effectively enforced
only in agriculture. Artisans became known as tradesmen. Work was
usually irregular, some seasonal. In bad years, when a worker had
to borrow money, he used work tools, such as his loom, as
security. In this way, work tools often became the property of a
merchant. Some merchant clothiers also owned a fulling mill and a
shop where it was sold. The capitalists first became owners of the
materials, then of the implements, and then of the work places.
But production was still confined to the known wants of its
habitual market. Men used to working at home were generally not
inclined to go to work in a factory. So there was an assortment of
unskilled factory labor, such as country people driven from their
villages by the growth of large estates, disbanded soldiers, and
paupers. They had to be taught, trained, and above all
disciplined.

In 1670, Vauxhall glass works were opened with workmen brought
from Venice to blow their fine glass and make mirrors.

The capitalist organization of the mining, glass manufacture,
salt, soap, wire and other monopolized industries was made
possible only by government support.

From the mid-1500s to 1700, coal production increased fourteen
times. Sir Ambrose Crowley, an iron maker with coal works,
established disability and medical benefits and pensions for his
workers.

Smiths used trip hammers powered by water mills which turned an
axle with cams on it. They made iron gates, fences, balconies, and
staircases with hammer, anvil, and chisel. Cast iron was made by
running liquefied metal into molds. This was harder but more
brittle than the tough but malleable wrought iron. Tinkers went
from house to house to repair metal items such as pots and pans.

Salt and glass manufacture expanded. Glass drinking vessels were
in common use. Mirrors of blown plate glass were manufactured in
England. Some plate glass by casting was imported. Plate glass was
a large and strong glass piece, which was formed by the liquid
glass being poured on a table. This glass was not distorted, so
mirrors could be made perfectly reflective. Then plate glass for
coaches, mirrors, and windows became manufactured in England; this
new industry was organized on capitalist lines.

The East India Company had about half the trade of the nation. Its
shares were frequently bought and sold. It responded to anger over
its semi-monopoly status by granting liberty to all English
subjects below the age of forty to live in its Indian settlements
and to trade practically everywhere. Bombay, India became subject
to the East India Company. Charters gave the East India Company
the right to coin money, to exercise jurisdiction over English
subjects, to levy taxes, to build and command fortresses, to
command English and Indian troops, to make peace and war, and to
enter into alliances with Indian rulers. The Company always paid
high dividends and the market price of its shares generally rose.
100 pound stock was worth 130 pounds in 1669, 245 pounds in 1677,
280 pounds in 1681, 360 and even up to 500 pounds in 1683, and 190
pounds in 1692. In 1693 a new charter for the Company included
loss of monopoly status by resolution of the Commons. With this
resolution, Parliament assumed the right of regulating commerce,
now no longer the king's province. Thereafter the Commons
regulated trade with India and determined who could participate in
trade there. Political issues developed, which initiated
corruption at elections by entertainment and bribes to candidates,
which was later proscribed. The trade opened up to many more
traders and investors. Ordinary investors came to include women
and Quakers.

When there was a surplus of grain, it was exported. About 1696,
the king set up a board of trade of eight paid members and great
officers of state, who nominally belonged to it, and a staff. This
was to achieve a favorable balance of trade. For instance, it
imposed tariffs to protect internal markets and put restraints on
imports of goods producible in the country, e.g. live cattle,
dairy products, and woolen goods. It also restricted the export of
raw wool. England led the way in protectionist measures.

Exports included grain, silk, metal wares, foodstuffs, lead, and
tin. Cloth and manufactures were exported to America. Dyeing and
dressing of cloth became the norm and undressed cloth exports fell
sharply. Imports included linen, flax, hemp, timber, iron, silk
(raw, thrown, and woven), wine, brandy, fruit, coffee, chocolate,
cauliflower, and oil. From America came molasses, sugar, tobacco,
and dyes. The East India Company imported calico, silk, pepper,
spices, China tea, potions, and saltpeter. Tonnage of English
shipping doubled by 1688. Exports and imports increased 50% by
1700.

Parliament required an oath of allegiance to the new sovereigns
William and Mary from all those in public functions, including the
clergy. By extending this rule to the clergy, Parliament asserted
a supremacy of Parliament over the church. It also asserted a
supremacy over the king by requiring all monarchs to take a
coronation oath promising to govern according to the statutes,
laws, and customs of Parliament, to make judgments with law and
justice in mercy, and to maintain the Protestant religion
established by law.

Drinking of gin, which had first been made by a Flemish physician,
became popular under King William, who was Dutch. The year of his
accession, the gin monopoly ended.

England competed with other nations for land in the New World.
Carolina, named for Charles II, was colonized for commerce in
1663. The Episcopal Church, an analogue of the Church of England,
was established there by law. The whole coast became English after
war with the Netherlands gave New York, named for Charles II's
brother the Duke of York, and New Jersey to England in 1667.
Presbyterians and Baptists fled from religious tests and
persecutions in England to colonize New Jersey. For free passage
to the English colonies, people became indentured servants,
agreeing to serve the master of the ship or his assigns with a
certain kind of labor for a term of a few years according to a
written contract made before departure. Also, various statutes
made transportation to any part of America to the use of any
person who will pay for his transportation, for a term of years,
usually seven, a new possible penalty for offenses. In 1636,
Harvard College was founded in New England to advance literature,
arts, and sciences, as well as to train ministers.

In 1682, Quaker William Penn, son of an Admiral, founded the
colony of Pennsylvania for Quakers in a "Holy Experiment" in
political and religious freedom. The king had granted proprietary
rights to this land to him to discharge a Crown debt to his
father. When Penn refused to take off his hat before King Charles
and asked why Charles took off his own, Charles, unruffled,
replied that "It's the custom of this place that only one man
should remain uncovered at a time". The Pennsylvania Charter of
1701 went beyond Magna Carta and England's law in guaranteeing
right to counsel and giving a right to defendants to summon
witnesses in all criminal cases. It gave Penn absolute authority
and he established liberty of conscience (freedom of religion) and
freedom from arbitrary arrest. In 1751, some Quakers founded a
small hospital in Pennsylvania as an asylum for the insane, where
they would be treated humanely.

Proprietary colonies, in which an individual or syndicate held
under the crown a sort of feudal overlordship, were founded in
America: namely, Virginia, Maryland, Carolina, New York and New
Jersey in 1663, and Pennsylvania and Delaware in 1682. New
Hampshire was made a royal province in 1680 to cut off the
expansion of Massachusetts, which had been avoiding the trade
laws. These colonies were distinguished from the corporate
colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and Rhode
Island, which made their own arrangements for internal government
without a royal executive. Charles persuaded the Chancery Court to
declare the charter of Massachusetts void; it was given a new
charter in 1691 which made it a royal province. New York was made
a royal province in 1691. Maryland's proprietor gave way to a
royal governor in 1692. Soon all colonies except Rhode Island,
Connecticut, Pennsylvania were royal provinces, with governors
nominated by the Crown. This bringing of union to the colonies was
done for maintenance of order, to coordinate defense, and to
enforce trade laws.

In 1670, the Hudson's Bay Company was incorporated to engage in
fur trade with Indian trappers in the Hudson Bay and to find a
northwest passage to China.

In 1701 the founding of the "Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel in Foreign Parts" by the Church of England created many
missionaries in the colonies, where they called their churches
"Episcopalian".

Increase Mather and his son Cotton Mather were Puritan ministers
in Boston. Increase was for a time the President of Harvard
College and participated in obtaining the new charter of
Massachusetts of 1691. He and his son tried to maintain the
principles of the Puritan founders of Massachusetts, which
included the theories of diabolical possession and witchcraft. But
the thought of Presbyterians, Anglicans, and Baptists became
influential also. In 1692 in the small town of Salem,
Massachusetts, some hysterical girls showing strange spasms and
sounds charged they had been bewitched by certain other residents.
Victims were deluded, flogged, or tortured into forced confessions
and then excommunicated from the church. They were then hanged and
their property confiscated. One man endured being pressed to death
for refusal to plead so that his property would be inherited by
his family rather than confiscated. Eventually, some prominent
citizens including judges were accused. Then the more thoughtful
people began to doubt the whole phenomenon and admitted error. The
excommunications were revoked. Cotton Mather came to accept
Newton's science and advocated inoculation. He encouraged
Puritanism into a simpler piety and charity. This influenced
American Protestantism toward a generalized concern with good
works, morality, and social leadership.



                              - The Law -

Any sale of land or lease or estate of freehold or copyhold shall
be in writing and signed. An interest in land given orally shall
have only the force of estates at will. All contracts for sale of
goods or merchandise for the price of at least 10 pounds shall be
in writing and signed by the parties or shall be accompanied by
part payment or partial acceptance of the goods. This is to deter
fraud. This statute caused many small freeholders, including
yeomen, who paid rent by custom to be dispossessed.

Mortgagees can hold the land of any mortgagor who borrows money
upon security of the land or obtains another mortgage without
prior notice to the initial mortgagee. The mortgagor has six
months to pay off the mortgage and all interest and charges or
vacate the land and lose his equity therein. But a widow's dower
will not be affected if she did not join with her husband in the
mortgage.

If rent is not paid in a reasonable time, the renter's goods and
grain may not only be distrained, but sold.

One coparcener of a joint tenancy or tenancy in common may have a
court partition the property without the presence of other
coparceners, because such coparceners are often difficult to find.
This is to avoid wasting of land lying uncultivated and unmanured.

After the intestate death of a father of any sons or daughters
without wives or children of their own in the life time of their
mothers, the mother and every brother and sister shall share
equally except the customs of London and York shall not be
affected. Administrators have to make an inventory. They have to
account on request by an interested person. They must be bonded by
two sureties.

Executors and administrators of estates of deceased persons must
pay the debts of the deceased person rather than waste or convert
the goods and chattels to their own use. Creditors may recover
their debts from heirs or devisees of the will of a debtor.

Men gone beyond the sea who could not be accounted for were deemed
dead after seven years, so their life estates could be terminated.

Whereas lawful games are not to be used as constant callings for a
livelihood, and young people are deceived and debauched and their
money taken, anyone "winning" money by deceitful or fraudulent
gambling shall forfeit three times his "winnings".

When a bill of exchange drawn to at least five pounds is not paid
on demand at the time it is made payable, the person who accepted
it may make a protest in writing before a notary public, which
shall be served on the maker of such bill, who must pay it and all
interest and charges from the date of the protest. But if a bill
of exchange is lost or miscarried, another shall be given in its
place.

No one may take more than 6 pounds in interest for a 100 pound
loan.

Persons seeking election to Parliament may not give or promise
money, meat, drink, entertainment, present or gift to any elector.

Because the gaols were full of people in debt due to the late
unhappy times such as the London fire, all prisoners for debt were
to be released upon taking an oath that they had no property over
ten pounds nor had disposed or conveyed property to defraud
creditors. Creditors not wanting them released had to contribute
to their maintenance in gaol.

The making or selling of fireworks is forbidden or forfeit 5
pounds. Firing or throwing such from one's house onto or across
the street is a common nuisance with a penalty of 20s. This is to
avoid the loss of life and of eyes.

Treason to the king is to compass, imagine, or intend death or any
bodily harm tending to death, or maiming or wounding, or
imprisonment, or restraint as well as trying to depose him or levy
war against him. Also included is printing, writing, preaching, or
malicious speaking. Traitors shall suffer death and forfeiture as
in high treason.

Any malicious and willful burning or destroying of stacks of hay,
grain, or barns, or killing any horses, sheep, or cattle at
nighttime shall be felony and punished by transportation to the
American colonies for seven years.

Any person apprehending a thief or robber on the highway will be
rewarded 40 pounds from the local sheriff, to discourage the many
robberies and murders which have made travel dangerous. Also,
executors or persons murdered while trying to apprehend a robber
shall have the reward.

No more than 20 people may petition the king nor more than 10
people may assemble to present a petition to the king, because
more has been tumultuous and disorderly.

Anyone may without fee set up a hemp business including breaking,
hatchelling [separating the coarse part and broken pieces of the
stalk from the fine, fibrous parts by drawing the material through
long iron teeth set in a board], and dressing it or flax; making
and whitening thread, spinning, weaving, making, whitening, or
bleaching hemp or flax cloth; making twine or nets for fishing or
stoveing of cordage; or tapestry or hanging because the daily
importation of such has in effect taken the work from the poor and
unemployed of England.

Retailers of wine may not add to imported wines cider, honey,
sugar, molasses, lime, raisin juice, or herbs.

Butter sold must be of one sort and not contain bad butter mixed
in with good butter. Butter pots must bear the name or mark of
their potter.

Salt may be sold only by weight, to avoid deceit by retailers and
wrong to buyers.

No sheep, wool, woolfels, shearlings, yarn, fuller's earth, or
fulling clay may be exported as has secretly been done, so that
the poor of the realm may have work.

Fishermen may sell their fish to others than Fishmongers at
Billingsgate fish market because the Fishmongers have forestalled
the market and set their own prices. The buyers of such fish may
resell them in any other London market by retail, except than only
Fishmongers may sell in shops or houses.

No tanned or untanned skin or hide of any ox, steer, bull, cow, or
calf may be exported because the price of leather has risen
excessively and leather workers can't get enough raw material to
carry on their trade and because poor people cannot afford leather
items they need.

The newly incorporated Company of Silk Throwers (drew the silk off
the cocoon) employs many of the poor, but others practice the
trade, so an apprenticeship of seven years is required to practice
the trade in the realm. Winders or doublers who purloin or
embezzle and sell silk from the thrower who employs him and the
buyer of such silk shall make such recompense as ordered by a
Justice of the Peace or be whipped or set in the stocks for the
first offence.

The regulation of the Silk Throwers company restricting the number
of spindles to be worked at one time is voided because it has
taken livelihoods away and caused foreign thrown silk to be
imported.

Buttons on garments must be made of silk, mohair, gimp, and thread
and by needle to keep employed the many throwers, twisters,
spinners, winders, and dyers preparing the materials for these
buttons. No button may be made of cloth or wood.

No tobacco maybe grown in England because the colonies would be
discouraged from growing it and the king would not receive customs
from it.

No goods are to be imported to or exported from America, Asia, or
Africa except in English ships, with masters and 3/4 of the
mariners Englishmen. No manufacture of Europe may be imported into
any colony or territory except shipped from England in English
ships manned by Englishmen. As of 1672, if bond is not given for
colonial exports of sugar, ginger, tobacco, cotton, indigo, cacao
nuts, or fustic [tree that yields a yellow dye] and other dye-
woods going to England, a duty must be paid. As of 1696, no
colonial goods are to be imported or exported or carried from from
one colony to another, except in ships owned and built in England,
Ireland, or the colonies with the masters and three fourths of the
mariners from such places. These navigation acts were strictly
enforced.

Only persons with lands and tenements or estate worth over 100
pounds per year or having a lease of at least 99 years worth 150
pounds per year and owners and keepers of forests or parks may
have any guns, bows, greyhounds, hunting dogs such as setting
dogs, snares, or other hunting equipment. These persons may kill
hare, pheasants, partridges, and other game. Gamekeepers
authorized by Justices of the Peace may search houses and
outhouses and seize unlawful hunting equipment. If hunting
equipment or game is found in a house without good account to the
Justices of the Peace, they shall impose a fine of 5s. to 20s.,
one-half going to the informer and one-half going to the poor of
the parish.

Anyone killing, hurting, or taking away deer from any forest or
park or other ground without consent of the owner or custodian
shall pay a 20 pound fine. This was later increased to 20 pounds
for hunting deer and 30 pounds for wounding or killing deer, with
the pillory for one hour on market day and gaol for a year without
bail for those who couldn't pay.

Any person privately and feloniously stealing any goods, including
horses, by day or night, in any shop, warehouse, coach stable, or
stable, whether there is a break-in or not, and whether or not the
owner is present, or anyone assisting or hiring such person may
not have benefit of clergy. Any person who apprehends and
prosecutes such person is discharged from parish and ward offices.
An offender being out of prison who informs against two other
offenders who are convicted is to be pardoned. Any person
convicted of theft or larceny and having benefit of clergy is to
be burnt in the cheek nearest the nose instead of on the hand.

Army officers or soldiers who desert or mutiny shall suffer death
or such other  punishment as decided by a court martial of senior
officers rather than the usual form of law, which is too slow.

Seamen not showing up on board after notice shall serve six months
without pay, but shall not suffer as deserters. Seamen do not have
to perform service in the Army.

Pirates may be punished by death and loss of all lands and
chattels. Any person aiding, advising, or concealing pirates may
be likewise punished. Officers and seamen killed or wounded in the
defense of a ship or who seize or destroy pirates may be paid by
the owners an amount up to 2 pounds per 100 pounds of freight as
determined by a group of disinterested merchants and the judge.
The amount due to a man killed will be paid to his widow and
children. This is to be done when the ship arrives in port. Any
person who informs of any combinations or confederacies planning
to run away with or to destroy a ship shall be rewarded by the
commander or master of such 10 pounds for a ship 100 tons or
under, and 15 pounds for a ship over 100 tons. The trial may be in
England or the American colonies, whose authorities may issue
warrants for arrest of alleged pirates. Deserters from ships,
because they often become pirates, shall forfeit all wages.
Masters forcing any man fit to travel to stay or shore or
willfully leaves him behind shall suffer three months in prison
without bail.

Persons may mine for ores on their own land, but must turn it over
to the king who will give compensation for it, including gold,
silver, copper (16 pounds per tun), lead (9 pounds per tun), tin
(40s. per tun), and iron (40s. per tun).

The fine for having, buying, or selling clipped coins is 500
pounds, one-half going to the informer, and one-half going to the
king. The offender shall also be branded in the right cheek with
the letter "R". He shall be imprisoned until he pays the 500
pounds. No hammered coins are lawful. Anyone except a smith in the
king's mint making tools or presses or other machines that can
make counterfeit coins or having such which were stolen from the
mint shall be guilty of high treason.

By statutes of 1660 and 1662, when goods have been carried off
ships without customs being paid, the Chief Magistrate of the
place where the offense was committed or the adjoining place, or
the Lord Treasurer, or a Baron of the Exchequer may, upon oath,
issue out a warrant to any person to enter, with the assistance of
a sheriff, constable or other public official, any house, shop,
cellar, warehouse, or room in the day time where the contraband
goods are "suspected to be concealed", and in case of resistance,
to break open doors, chests, trunks, or other packages and to
seize such goods, provided that if the information whereupon any
house is searched proves to be false, the injured party shall
recover his full damages and costs against the informer by action
of trespass. This was extended to the colonies in 1696.

The penalty for cursing or swearing by a servant, day laborer,
soldier, or seaman is 1s. For others, it is 2s. The fine is
doubled for the second offense, and tripled for the third offense.
If an adult offender can't pay, he shall be put in the stocks for
one hour. If a child offender can't pay, he shall be whipped by
the constable or by a parent in the presence of the constable.

The equity courts are conceding limited proprietary rights to
married women by enforcing premarital settlements or trust
arrangements that designated certain property as a wife's separate
estate and exempted it from control by the husband. Such
protective devices generally reflected a father's desire to shield
his daughter from poverty and benefited only the landed
aristocracy in practice. Also, husbands are not allowed to punish
and beat their wives as before. But the lower rank of men were
slow to give this up. A wife could have the security of the peace
against her husband. He could restrain her liberty only for gross
misbehavior.

In 1685, the courts ruled that apprenticeships were necessary only
for servants hired by the year, thus exempting most wage laborers.

There were many variations in religious practices for statutes to
address. The Quakers and Baptists were opposed to any state
church. The Independents and Presbyterians accepted the idea of a
state church. The members of the established church and Roman
Catholics adhered to the state church as it had been for them in
the past. Atheism had a bad reputation. In 1662, the Jews
established the first synagogue in London. The Privy Council
recognized their religious status as long as they were peaceful
and obeyed the laws. They engaged in pawn-broking as well as
money-lending.

There were various statutes enacted over the course of time
regarding religion, as follows:

All ministers, school teachers, mayors and other town officials,
including magistrates, were required to take the oaths of
allegiance and supremacy [of the King over the church] or be
removed from office.

A great number of people refused to come to their parish church or
other public place where common prayer and sacraments were
administered and the word of God was preached according to the
established church. The morning and afternoon Sunday services with
sermons, sometimes by guest preachers, continued. So factions and
schisms developed. In response, the king changed the Book of
Common Prayer and its prayers were required by statute in 1662 to
be read by some priest or deacon in all the churches and places of
public worship wherever and whenever there was any preaching or
lecturing. Attendance at one's local parish church was never again
required.

As of 1665, no nonconformist minister, i.e. one who endeavored any
alteration of government either in church or state, was allowed to
live or visit within five miles of any corporate town or any place
where he had acted as minister or forfeit 40 pounds. Persons not
frequenting the established church were not allowed to teach in
any public or private school or forfeit 40 pounds.

By statute of 1670, anyone at least sixteen years old who is
present at any assembly, conventile [private meeting of religious
dissidents to pray and expound scripture], or meeting under
pretence of any exercise of religion in other manner than
according to the established Church of England at which there are
at least five persons present shall be fined 5s. for the first
offense and 10s. for the second offense. (This does not include
members of the same household meeting in their home.) Anyone who
preaches or teaches at such a meeting shall pay 20 pounds for the
first offense, and 40 pounds for further offenses. The householder
who permits such a meeting shall pay 20 pounds. A justice or
Justice of the Peace or chief magistrate may break open doors and
enter by force any house or other place where they have been
informed of any such meeting and take persons there into custody
for prosecution. This is to discourage the growing of dangerous
seditious persons under pretence of tender consciences.

Religious nonconformity continued especially among the humble
people. The penal statutes caused hundreds of these nonconformists
to be put in gaol. From time to time, the king would release them
and suspend these laws. Sometimes, Charles II allowed dissenters
to meet in private for worship if they got a license from him.
Religious gatherings grew in numbers, size, and geographical
extent. Dissenters were then allowed by statute to meet behind
locked or barred doors. But they had to pay tithes and could be
prosecuted in the ecclesiastical courts for not doing so. By
statute, all congregations and assemblies for religious worship
had to register with the local bishop or archbishop. Disturbers of
religious worship were required to find two sureties for the
amount of 50 pounds.

Attendance at the established Church of England was never again
required. Nor was preaching or lecturing constrained. Instead, a
statute was passed in 1677 that: Every person shall be pious and
exercise religion publicly and privately on Sunday. No work may be
done or goods sold or forfeit 5s. or the goods respectively. No
one may travel or forfeit 5-20s. In a further statute of 1688,
because some ease to scrupulous consciences in the exercise of
religion may be an effectual means to unite Protestant subjects in
interest and affection, Protestant nonconformists who took the
oaths (or declaration in the case of Quakers) and a declaration
that they were not Catholic, did not adore the Virgin Mary or any
saint, and did not go to mass were declared not liable for
punishment in any ecclesiastical court by reason of their
nonconformity to the Church of England, except Protestant
dissenters meeting behind locked doors. But payment of tithes and
performance of parish duties were still obligatory. Non-conformist
preachers had to subscribe to the tenets of belief listed in the
first eighteen Articles of Religion, but were exempted from the
articles on expounding inconsistencies in scripture, the
traditions of the church, homilies, and consecration of bishops
and ministers of the Elizabethan statute and the statute on
uniformity of prayers and sacraments of Charles II.

Quakers were active in the countryside. They were about one tenth
of the population and did not believe in a state church. There
were some Quakers schools and some Quaker workhouses to give work
to the poor. For the reason that they met together in large
numbers to the great endangering of public peace and safety and to
the terror of the people, and because they had secret
communications and separated themselves from the rest of the
people and from the usual places of worship, a statute was passed
in 1662, that any Quakers who assembled to the number of five or
more under the pretense of unauthorized religious worship and any
person maintaining that taking an oath before a magistrate was
unlawful and contrary to the word of God or refusing to take a
required oath was to forfeit 5 pounds for the first offence or be
imprisoned for 3 months if he couldn't pay. For the second
offence, the penalty was 10 pounds or imprisonment for 6 months
with hard labor. The third offence required abjuring the realm or
being transported to a plantation of the king beyond the seas. The
policy of Charles II was to allow Quakers to meet undisturbed, to
keep their hats on before magistrates, and to not come to the
parish church. But this policy was only partially adopted in the
country. From 1689, by statute, the Quakers were allowed to affirm
or declare instead of making the customary oath.

Many Presbyterians became Unitarians, who rejected the trinity of
"Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" and doubted the divinity of Jesus,
but accepted revelation. This statute was then passed in 1697: Any
person having been educated in or having at any time made
profession of the Christian religion who, by writing, printing,
teaching, or advised speaking, denies the Holy trinity, asserts
that there is more than one god, or that the Bible is not of
divine authority, shall be disabled for any ecclesiastical, civil,
or military office. The penalty for a second offense is being
disabled from suing or pleading any action in any court, being
guardian of any child, or executor or administrator of any estate,
or receiving any legacy or deed of gift and imprisonment for three
years without bail or mainprize.

Catholicism was always disfavored. Catholic priests were executed
with little evidence. At times, Charles commuted the death penalty
for them to banishment. Sometimes there were effigies of the pope
burned in the streets. Such burnings were later banned. At times
Charles allowed Catholics to attend mass.

By statute of 1672, all civil and military officers and king's
officials must take the oaths of supremacy and allegiance and take
the sacrament of the established Church of England or be incapable
of office. They also had to make a declaration that they believed
that there is not any transubstantiation in the sacrament of the
Lord's Supper, or in the elements of bread and wine, when they
were consecrated. This is to prevent dangers from Papists. As of
1678, no one may be a member of Parliament if he has refused to
take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy and the declaration
that they were not Catholic, did not adore the Virgin Mary or any
saint, and did not go to mass.

Papists were made to pay higher taxes. Every temporal and
spiritual person, corporation, and guild had to pay taxes to
subsidize the king in the amount of 2s.8d. for every pound's worth
of personal property and money. But Papists had to pay 5s.4d. for
such. Persons and corporations having land worth at least 20s.
yearly, had to pay 4s. for every pounds' worth. But Papists and
aliens had to pay 8s. for such.

But Charles' sucessor, King James II was Catholic and gave many
offices to Catholics. This prompted a reaction against Papism and
more statutes restricting them. After James II was chased out of
England, a statute of 1688 required suspected Papists in London to
make a declaration that they were not Catholic, did not adore the
Virgin Mary or any saint, and did not go to mass, or stay ten
miles outside of London, excluding tradesmen and manual workers,
sho must only register. All Papists had to forfeit their arms and
any horse worth more than 5 pounds. Also, no monarch or spouse of
such could be a Papist, but must make the declaration as members
of Parliament, and join in the communion of the established Church
of England. As of 1696, a person who is serjeant at law,
counsellor at law, barrister, advocate, attorney, solicitor,
proctor, clerk, or notary must take the oath of supremacy and
allegiance. As of 1698, Papists who kept a school or tried to
educate the young were threatened with perpetual imprisonment.
Also, Popish parents were prohibited from forcing their children
inclined towards Protestantism to become Catholic by refusing them
suitable maintenance. As of 1699, a reward of 100 pounds was
offered to any person who apprehended a Popish bishop, priest, or
Jesuit saying mass. Also, no Papist may buy land.



                         - Judicial Procedure -

As of 1679, no man could be held in prison but on a charge or
conviction of crime or for debt. Every prisoner on a criminal
charge could demand as a right from the Court of the King's Bench
the issue of a writ of "habeas corpus" which bound his gaoler to
produce the prisoner and the warrant on which he was imprisoned
for review as to legality. This forced trials to be speedy, which
they had not hitherto been. Now it was impossible for the Crown to
detain a person for political reasons in defiance of both
Parliament and the courts, as Charles I had done. The writ was
suspended in times of war and domestic unrest: 1689,1696, 1708.

In 1670, William Penn was arrested for sedition for delivering a
sermon in London, contrary to the statute that only the Church of
England could conduct meetings for worship. The jurors would not
convict him, so were gaoled and fined by the justices. The jurors
filed a writ of habeas corpus in the Court of Common Pleas, which
held in their favor. Thereafter the English jury had full
independence to decide to verdicts. By court decision of 1679,
jurors were held not to be responsible to the justice for their
verdict.

After 1688, hearsay was inadmissible as evidence, which Coke had
recommended. The old system of original writs was abandoned, and
the general concept or a wrong to person or property took its
place.

A person who was sergeant at law, counselor at law, barrister,
advocate, attorney, solicitor, proctor, clerk, or notary in the
courts had to take the required oaths of allegiance and supremacy.

As of 1692, persons outlawed could appear by attorney as well as
in person to argue reversal of such outlawry, except in cases of
treason and felony.

As of 1696, persons accused of high treason where there might be
corruption of the blood or for misprison [concealing knowledge] of
such treason had to be taken before a grand jury for indictment
within three years of the offense. Those indicted or outlawed for
such were given a copy of the whole indictment, but not the names
of witnesses, at least five days before trial in order to prepare
their defense. They could have a copy of the panel of jurors at
least two days before trial. They could be represented in their
defense by not more than two counsel learned in the law and
assigned by the court. Their counsel had free access to them at
all reasonable hours. They could make proof through lawful
witnesses under oath. In a trial of commoners for their lives, a
jury of twelve freeholders had to all agree on acquittal or
conviction. In a trial of a peer, the others peers in Parliament
determined the outcome by a majority vote.

Jurors were required to have at least 20 pounds income from
freehold land or rents in fee, fee tail, or for life. This
increase in the quality of the jury enabled it to better discern
the issues in dispute.

Jury sympathy was determined by the sheriff who chose the jury. So
if a sheriff was popularly elected, as in London, he chose jurors
who favored individual and corporate liberty. If the king selected
the sheriff, he chose tories, who supported the Crown.

Issues of bastardy or lawfulness of marriage had to be tried by a
jury.

Trespass on the case has now branched into assumpsit, trover,
deceit, negligence, and libel and slander. The latter supplements
bad words punished by the local courts and defamation punished by
the church courts. Trover becomes the normal mode of trying the
title to moveable goods as the courts oblige the defendant to
answer the charge of conversion without permitting him to dispute
the loss and finding.

This is an example of a writ for trespass on the case:
The King to the sheriff &c. as in Trespass to show: wherefore
(e.g.:___) he fixed piles across the water of Plim along which,
between the Humber and Gaunt, there is a common passage for ships
and boats, whereby a certain ship, with thirty quarters of malt of
him the said A, was sunk under water, and twenty quarters of the
malt of the price of one hundred shillings perished; and other
wrongs &c. as in trespass.

This is an example of a writ for trespass on the case in
assumpsit:
The King to the sheriff greeting &c. as in Trespass to show:
wherefore whereas he the Said X undertook well and competently to
cure the right eye of the Said A, which was accidentally injured,
for a certain sum of money beforehand received, he the same X so
negligently and carelessly applied his cure to the said eye, that
the said A by the fault of him the said X totally lost the sight
of the said eye, to the damage of him the said A of twenty pounds,
as he saith, and have there &c. wherefore whereas he the said X
undertook to make and build three carriages for conveying victuals
of him the said A to parts beyond the sea for a certain sum of
money beforehand received, within a certain term between them
agreed; he the said X did not take care to make and build the
carriages aforesaid within the term aforesaid, by which he the
said A hath wholly lost divers his goods and chattels, to the
value of one hundred marks, which ought to have been conveyed in
the carriages aforesaid, for want thereof to the great damage of
him the said A as it is said: and have there &c.

This is an example of a writ for case on indebitatus assumpsit:
The King to the sheriff &c. as in Trespass to show: for that,
whereas the said X heretofore, to wit (date and place) was
indebted to the said A in the sum of for divers goods wares and
merchandises by the said A before that time sold and delivered to
the said X at his special instance and request, and being so
indebted, he the said X in consideration thereof afterwards to wit
(date and place aforesaid) undertook and faithfully promised the
said A to pay him the said sum of money when he the said X should
be thereto afterwards requested. Yet the said X, not regarding his
said promise and undertaking but contriving and fraudulently
intending craftily and subtly to deceive and defraud the said A in
this behalf, hath not yet paid the said sum of money or any part
thereof to the said A (although oftentimes afterwards requested).
But the said X to pay the same or any part thereof hath hitherto
wholly refused and still refuses, to the damage of the said A of
------ pounds as it is said. And have you there &c.

This is an example of a writ for case for trover:
The King to the sheriff greeting &c. as in Trespass to show: for
that, whereas the said A heretofore to wit [date and place] was
lawfully possessed as of his own property, of certain goods and
chattels to wit, twenty tables and twenty chairs of great value to
wit of the value of ___ pounds of lawful money of great Britain;
and, being so possessed thereof he the said A afterwards, to wit
(date and place aforesaid) casually lost the said goods and
chattels out of his possession: and the same afterward, to wit
(date and place aforesaid) came into the possession of the said X
by finding; Yet the said X well knowing the said goods and
chattels to be the property of the said A and of right to belong
and appertain to him, but, contriving and fraudulently intending
craftily and subtly to deceive and defraud the said A in this
behalf, hath not as yet delivered the said goods and chattels, or
any part thereof, to the said A (although often requested so to
do) but so to do hath hitherto wholly refused and still refuses;
and afterwards to wit (date and place aforesaid) converted and
disposed of the said goods and chattels to his the said X's own
use, to the damage of the said A of ____ pounds as it is said; and
have you there &c.

The rigid writs with specific forms of action for common law cases
start to fall into disuse. Later, trespass on the case bifurcates
into misdemeanor and the tort of trespass.

Persons in prison on suspicion of treason could not be released on
bail as of 1688.

If one of several defendants of a case was acquitted, all
defendants recovered their costs from the plaintiffs. A person
found guilty of malicious prosecution  recovered his costs from
his accuser.

Mercantile cases were decided in light of mercantile custom rather
than according to the strict rules of the common law.

Merchants and traders could settle their trade disputes by
arbitration, which decision could be enforced by court order.

After the Restoration, all legal decisions of the Commonwealth and
Protectorate were confirmed subject to a right of appeal.

The Star Chamber was not restored, and Parliament assumed its
control of the press. The King's Bench succeeded to most of the
Star Chamber's jurisdiction. No longer could the Privy Council
influence criminal cases and the general supervision of legal
processes through the Star Chamber.

The High Commission court was not restored, but church courts
were, but with depleted powers. They accepted subordination to the
common law courts. Because the church's administration was
inefficient and corrupt and its punishments inadequate, they
gradually lost their power to the common law justices and Justices
of the Peace. They had virtually no authority over laymen. They
could still punish heresy, but lost jurisdiction over the law of
libel and slander, which then were transformed by the civil
courts, and over prostitution and scandalous lewdness. Local
ordinances for suppression of brothels, which were run by madams,
were founded on breach of the peace. In 1678, the death sentence
was taken away from the church courts. In 1697, church sanctuary
was abolished.

The county courts faded into insignificance, as the Justices of
the Peace took on more jurisdiction.

In 1668, new justices were issued patents with "at pleasure"
instead of "during good behavior" describing their tenure. Charles
II and James II frequently dismissed justices not favorably
disposed to the Crown. In 1697, they were to have fixed salaries
instead of the profits of justice. By statute of 1701, justices'
commissions were to be made with an established salary determined
by Parliament and a tenure to last during good behavior. They
could be removed only by the address of both Houses of Parliament.
This gave them independence from the king. Their tenure lasted for
the life of the monarch.

The chief justice could empower persons by commission to take
affidavits from people in the country for court proceedings in
Westminster.

Judgments were docketed so they could easily be found e.g. by
heirs, executors, administrators, purchasers, and mortgagees.

Court judgments and fines could be challenged for error only
within twenty years.

Court decisions were still appealable to the House of Lords. In
1668, Skinner v. East India Company held that the House of Lords
could not exercise original jurisdiction in civil cases between
commoners as it had claimed, but retained its appellate
jurisdiction. In 1675, the House of Lords acquired the new
judicial function of hearing appeals from the Chancery Court by
virtue of the case of Shirley vs. Fagg.

Any gaol keeper allowing a prisoner to escape in return for money
lost his office forever and had to forfeit 500 pounds.

The last burning of the occasional burnings of a woman as a
penalty for an offense was in 1688.

The last bill of attainder, which condemned a person to death,
occurred in 1697.

The pillory was still in use.

Benefit of clergy was taken away from those who stole cloth or
woolen manufactures from their drying racks or who embezzled
military stores or ammunition worth at least 20s, or stole goods
of over 5s. value from a dwelling house with a person therein put
in fear, a dwelling house in daytime with a person therein, or by
day or night a shop or warehouse.

A statute of 1661 gave jurisdiction to naval courts-martial to
decide cases at sea, e.g. insubordination; failure to fight the
enemy, a pirate, or rebels; not assisting a friend, mutiny,
drunkenness, creating a disturbance to protest the quality of the
food, quarreling, sleeping on watch, sodomy, murder, robbery,
theft, and misdemeanors. Usually the penalty was to be determined
by the courts-martial, but sometimes death was decreed.

In the American colonies, judges were still appointed by the royal
governors and paid by the local legislatures. They still served at
the pleasure of the king.




                         - - - Chapter 18 - - -



                          - Times: 1702-1776 -

Dress was plainer than before. Gentlemen wore white linen shirts;
waistcoats fitted at the waist and covering the trunk at least;
long lawn ties wound around the throat and tied in front with the
tails tucked in, knee-length coats that were wide in the skirts
and in the sleeve cuffs and having large gold, silver, or bronze
buttons which didn't reach to the buttonholes on the other side of
the coat; knee breeches of cloth, knitted wool, thread, and silk;
and silk stockings rolled up at the knee. Some shoes had metal
buckles. Gold fobs with watches or seals hung from the breeches
pocket. The clothes were made of silk, satin, or velvet and often
in colors such as yellow, orange, scarlet, blue, violet, pink, and
dull slate, and decorated with gold and silver trimmings. A
slender sword was worn on the side. Short wigs, often powdered
with heavily scented white or gray wheat flour, with rolls over
the ears with hair tied at the back, were worn for formal
occasions. Wigs were made of human, horse, goat, or cow hair, or
mohair, worsted, silk, or wire. Sometimes feathers and cork were
also used. The hat was three-cornered, and usually of beaver or
dark felt. There was often a rosette or such to show one's
political opinion. There were new colors and cuts of dress for
every season. By 1750, wearing a sword was just a symbol of
gentility. Gentlemen often had valets to help them dress. Ladies
wore fitted full-length dresses held out by hoops with shoulders
hidden, sometimes with a laced bodice with stays, and lace at the
neck. The waistline fashion fluctuated high and low and in
tightness. The dress could be brocade, satin, velvet, silk, etc.
Some put jewels in their hair and had high elaborate hats with
wide brims tilted forward. Hair was in ringlets at the side or
dressed close to the head with a small top knot covered with a
laced cap. They also wore wigs when dressing up, decorated with
ribbons and artificial flowers. Hooded cloaks were used outdoors
and hoods were used for sun or wind. They carried leather purses
with gloves at elbow length. Both gentlemen and ladies wore
cosmetics and face patches and used tooth powders, breath
sweeteners, lip salves, and choice perfume. Some had false teeth
of bone or ivory wired into place. They both had accessories such
as fans, handkerchiefs, head scratchers, and elaborately designed
snuff-boxes, patch boxes, and perfume containers. Both men and
women sniffed tobacco snuff but only men smoked. They walked with
tall, elegant canes, and women also carried parasols. Hats were
made of wool and hair of beaver, rabbit, or camel. Straw hats were
worn in the summer. There were ready-made clothes and shoes,
especially for children. Night gowns and night caps were worn to
bed. About 1714, umbrellas for rain were introduced. They were
made of waxed silk or taffeta. All but the poorest wore silk and
lace. A prosperous countryman wore riding clothes consisting of
breeches and boots, cut-away coat, and low top hat.

The highest class were the peers and peeresses of the House of
Lords and their spouses and families. They were the nobility and
held the high political offices, the high ranks in the army and
navy, and owned large estates, usually scattered over the country.
Some were lawyers or merchants. There was much intermarriage among
these families. Indeed, many a noble family had salvaged its
fortunes by marriage to a London merchant. The richest people in
London were international merchants. These high class families
lived in mansions with four or five living rooms, two to five acre
gardens, and stables.

The next class were the gentry. Their family heads had land and
were often Justices of the Peace. They were sometimes members of
the House of Commons. The oldest son took over from his father,
while the other had to find a living such as in the church, law,
medicine, or trade. They usually lived in mansions.

The old yeoman class was disappearing due to their selling their
land to larger landowners. Farming on a large scale was more
productive.

The next class were the "middling sort". In this class were
merchants, lawyers, substantial tenant farmers, smaller
freeholders, millers, innkeepers, in town traders, shopkeepers
(who now kept their wares inside and lived on the second floor),
middlemen, clothiers, ironmongers, goldsmiths, grocers, linen
drapers, apothecaries, school masters, clerks and civil servants,
and customs and excise men. The town people lived in town houses
of two stories plus an attic.

The last class were the manual workers. These were wage earners or
independent craftsmen, farriers, rural smiths (who shod horses and
made stair rails, window-bars, torch extinguishers, lamp irons,
bells, bolts, hinges, locks, and fire-grates), sawyers,
carpenters, joiners, wheelwrights, nail makers, brick makers,
plumbers (made lead cisterns, kitchen sinks, rain-water heads,
drain pipes and lead flats for houses and ornaments), thatchers,
spinners (silk, flax, hemp, wool, hair), dyers, wool combers,
weavers, shoemakers, hat makers, belt and buckle makers,
dressmakers, milliners (hats, caps, bonnets, cloaks, hoods,
muffs), feather workers, button makers, lace makers, steel pin
makers, brewers, cutlery makers, soap makers, candle makers (made
from beeswax, fallow, mutton-fat, or beef-drippings), comb makers,
barber/hairdressers (shaved, cut hair, made wigs and braids, and
let blood), curriers, leather workers, carpet weavers, paper
makers, tin-plate makers, printers, enamel workers, braziers and
coppersmiths (made kettles, saucepans, canisters, milk pails,
lanterns, candle boxes, candle sticks, and lamp lighters), basket
makers, jewelers (made rings, perfumes, match boxes, buckles, and
tops of canes), watch and clock makers, type founders, letter
cutters, trunk and chest makers, cabinet makers, saddlers, coach
body builders, coach carriage makers, shipwrights, rope makers,
and sail makers. These workers typically worked in their stone or
brick houses in a rural setting, with gardens, a cow, a horse,
pigs, and poultry around them on 2-6 acres. They now ate wheaten
bread instead of rye bread, much meat and cheese, and drank tea.
These people also worked in the harvesting of grain. Some
consolidation of work was starting. For instance, the weaver, who
had furnished himself with warp and weft, worked it up, and
brought it to market himself was being displaced by weavers who
worked under supervision for one merchant in a town on looms the
merchant had acquired. Many women and children were so employed.
It was not unusual for a man to work 13 hours a day for 6 days a
week. Real wages were higher than at any time since the mid-1400s.
The wage earners were well above the subsistence level as long as
trade was good. Working men could now afford leather shoes and
white bread. But eventually, as the employer came to realize how
dependent the weaver had become on him, wages tended to fall. In
1757 a Gloucester weaver, with his wife to help him, could earn,
when work was good, from 13s. to 18s. a week. A few years later,
he could only earn about 11s. A woman spinner earned 10-15d. a day
in 1764, but 3-5d. in 1780. In the same period, men's wages fell
from 17d. to 10d. a day. Only certain workers, whose special
occupation needed greater skill, e.g. the wool-combers, whose wool
was longer and of better quality than carded wool, and shearers,
were better paid. In 1770, wool combers made 13s. a week; their
wage was about the same all over the country because they traveled
form town to town in search of work and always supported each
other. Also in 1770, Newcastle miners earned 15s. a week,
Sheffield cutlers 13s.6d. a week,  a Rotherham blacksmith 13s. a
week, a furnace keeper at Horsehay about 12s. a week, a
Staffordshire potter from 8-12s., a Witney blanket weaver or a
Wilton carpet weaver 11s. or more a week, a Manchester cotton
weaver from 7-10s. a week, and a Leeds cloth weaver about 8s. In
this class also were ploughmen, cowmen, dairymaids of the bigger
farms. They had cottages of wood, clay, and straw, with clay
floors and low ceilings, and a divided ground floor. A few had
homes built of stone, covered with slate or thatch.

Wages of industry were higher than those of agriculture. In 1770,
a day laborer earned 5-6s. a week in winter and 7-9s. in summer
(without board or lodging). In the short harvest time, he could
earn 12s. a week.

Lastly were the mass of the population of London: hordes of
laborers who depended on casual employment and could be dismissed
at will.

About half the population had no resources but their labor, which
was usually unskilled and lowly paid. In good times they had just
enough to feed themselves.

The gap between rich and poor became greater. Marriage remained a
main way to wealth. Also, one trained in the law could aspire to
have a successful career in high political office, which also
brought wealth. But there was less social mobility than in the
previous century and many landed families were consolidating their
position. They expected their oldest son to take and preserve the
family estate. Industrialists who had made a fortune for example
in steel, cotton, coal mining, porcelain, and merchants who wanted
to turn themselves into landed gentlemen found it very difficult
to buy such estates. Old dissenter families, Quakers in
particular, who were highly esteemed as businessmen, as
industrialists, and as model employers were excluded from the
Anglican landowning society. Rich tradesmen, artists, actors, and
writers found it difficult to buy substantial houses in the small
market towns and countryside because of an entrenched hierarchical
atmosphere there that didn't exist in London. The only gentlemen
who were in household service were librarians, tutors, or
chaplains. They ate with the family and did not consider
themselves servants. Servants were kept more at a distance. By the
1750s the servant class was clearly defined. Their quarters were
moved to the basement of the house and they ate together in the
kitchen. But some householders still had special occasions when
everyone would eat together in the dining room, with the servants
at one end of the table. In 1767 about one tenth of the population
in London had servants. Even bricklayers and milk sellers had a
servant. Most families had just one servant. Most wives employed
some other woman or child to help in washing and scouring or in
the minding of the children.

London had grown beyond the locations of its walls around the
City. London stretched ten miles along the Thames, and was three
miles wide in the center. On the east of the City was the port and
industry. The west side ended at Hyde Park and Regent's Park and
was residential. In 1710 it was still possible to shoot woodcock
in Regent Street. In 1750, Westminster Bridge was opened. In 1760,
the City walls were taken down to ease congestion. The typical
London house, usually brick, was on a rectangular plan and had a
basement to utilize all the space possible. There were pictures on
the walls which were now more covered with damask, brocade, silk,
and wallpaper hung and plain paint than by wood wainscoting. On
the first floor was a front hall or parlor and a back parlor. One
of these parlor rooms was the most important room, where the
family entertained or spent leisure time. In it were sofas,
armchairs, and stools of mahogany or white gilded wood. They were
upholstered with damask or needlework. Imported mahogany was
replacing as a favorite the walnut that was usually used instead
of oak. Much wood was inlaid with a variety of woods. There was
also a carved tripod table, china table, card table, and perhaps
bookcases and/or tea-table. Furniture with original designs made
by the cabinet-maker Chippendale was available. His genius was in
combining various motifs into one harmonious design. Cabinet
makers had to keep abreast of his standards and to imitate them to
conform with their customers' orders. Cabriole legs with claw and
ball feet came into fashion with Queen Anne about 1712. Between
windows were tall mirrors. There were pictures on the walls. From
1760, glass chandeliers hung from the ceiling to reflect
candlelight coming from standing candlesticks or glazed hanging
lanterns with brass frames. The fireplace had an elaborate mantel.
The fire was kept going all day. It was lit by a tender box, which
was unreliable. An iron fire-back was behind the fire. The
firewood was placed on andirons. Fire grates were used from about
1712. At a corner of the building was added a closet. On the
second floor was a dining room, continuation of the closet below,
and a drawing room, dressing room, or bedroom, and perhaps a study
or music room with harpsichord. The dining room had a fireplace,
curtains over the windows looped up at the cornices, one or more
mahogany tables, a set of mahogany chairs with leather or hair-
cloth seats fixed with brass nails (perhaps with some sort of
metal springing), two mahogany sideboards with marble tops,
cupboards or shelves or cabinets with displays of china porcelain,
a wine-cooler, a dumb-waiter, and a folding leather screen. The
china, which was displayed, was mostly imported, but there was
some English china. Later, there was famous Wedgwood stoneware and
pottery with bright, unfading glaze, or with dull black and red
surfaces, biscuit ware of pale green, blue or purple, upon which
white designs stood out like cameos. They came from the pottery
factory at Staffordshire founded by potter Josiah Wedgwood in
1769. There were silver and pewter plates and serving pieces,
silver candlesticks, and silver knives, spoons, and two and three
pronged forks, glass salt-cellars from 1724, and fingerbowls from
which one rinsed one's mouth or cleaned one's fingers after dinner
which were made of glass from about 1760. On the third floor were
bedrooms and a nursery. In the bedrooms, there was a high bed with
curtains, canopies, piles of blankets and pillows, and stairs;
wardrobe; chairs; a wash hand stand; chests of drawers; writing
bureau; dressing table with a couple drawers and a mirror; swing
standing mirror; tin rush candle canister; and night commode.
Children and servants slept on low wooden bedsteads. Walls were
stucco, a form of cement that could be sculpted, or paneled or
hung with silk and printed paper. Servants, such as the page and
footmen, slept in the attic and perhaps in the kitchen or cellar.
There was a wood staircase for the family and a back staircase for
the servants. The floors and staircases were protected with
carpeting. Servants had no right to free time or to holidays. The
kitchen was in the basement or in a covered shed in the back. It
had an open fire and a tin oven. The cold water tap over the stone
sink could supply cold water from a cistern in the basement or
hand-pumped to a roof cistern through wooden pipes at very low
pressure at stated hours for a fee. There was a wash shed in back.
Water pumped from the Thames into underground pipes was thus
distributed to householders three times a week. Some water came
from a well or spring, rain, and street water sellers. Water
carriers were still employed at set fees. Water was kept in lead
cisterns. The wealthy had basement cisterns filled by a commercial
company. The free public conduits of water were out of use by
1750. The front door of the house had two strong bolts on the
inside and a heavy chain. The windows could be shuttered and
barred. There were sash windows with cords and brass pulleys. At
the back of the house was a garden and perhaps a coach house or
stables. The latrine was usually not in the house, but somewhere
in the back garden area. Under it was a brick drain leading to a
public sewer or to a cesspool. Smelly gases arose from it.
Sometimes people gathered such waste up to sell to farmers
returning home in an otherwise empty wagon. In 1760, patented
inside toilets began to be used. A watch-maker named Alexander
Cummings patented in 1775 the water-closet, which had a stink trap
u-bend behind which, after flushing, water resided and prevented
the back-flow of noxious sewer gas. Its pans and overhead cisterns
were made in pottery. They were supported by wood structures.
There were better cements for building. Chinese porcelain,
embroidery, and lacquer-work were popular. Landscaping to
reproduce an idealized country scene replaced formal gardens.
Furniture and landscaped gardens were often done in a Chinese
style. Foreign trees were imported.

Many of the well-to-do now lived in districts without as well as
within the city limits. Many streets east of the City were named
after the governing families whose estates were there. Their
mansions had interior columns, archways, marble halls and
fireplaces, carving, gilding, rich colors, and high ornamented
ceilings. They each had a picture gallery, a library, stables with
coachmen, grooms, and stableboys, and a still-room for concocting
liquors and cordials such as cherry brandy, sloe gin, and
elderberry wine. Medicine and scents were also developed in the
still-room. Washing was in done wash bowls held by wooden stands
wood and in a built-in bathtub. Hot water usually had to carried
up to it, but bathtubs with hot and cold running water were known.
In these mansions, there were many private parties and balls. The
standard for politeness here was high and gentlemen were expected
to keep their tempers. This came about because impoliteness could
easily lead to a quarrel and then a duel. The pistol was replacing
the sword as the weapon of choice for duels. Good manners
developed for all occasions, with much less swearing and less
rudeness. By gentlemen's agreements, men did favors for each other
without a monetary price, but with the expectancy of a favor in
return. The love of one man for another was recognized as the
highest and noblest of human passions. People of high social
standing left their country estates to spend the winter season in
their townhouses in London with its many recreations such as
receptions, routs, levies, masquerades, balls, dinner parties,
clubs, pleasure gardens, theaters, shops, shows, taverns, and
chocolate and coffee houses. Coffee houses provided Turkish
coffee, West Indian sugar and cocoa, Chinese tea, Virginia
tobacco, and newspapers. They were frequented by learned scholars
and wits, dandies, politicians, and professional newsmongers. Men
of fashion often engaged in wagers and gambling at their clubs and
coffee houses. There were wagers on such matters as the longevity
of friends and prominent people, fertility of female friends,
wartime actions, and political matters. Carriage by sedan-chair
was common. Gentlemen often had valets. In 1776, Buckingham House
was bought as a palace for the royal couple.

People from different parts of London differed in ways of
thinking, conversation, customs, manners, and interests. For
instance there were sections where sailors lived, and where
weavers, watchmakers, and cow keepers each lived and worked. There
were many specialized craftsmen who worked with their own tools in
their own shops or houses, for some superior who had contact with
the market and who supervised the final processes of manufacture.
These included the goldsmiths, upholsterers, coach makers,
saddlers, and watchmakers, all of whom had many dependents. The
watchmakers had specialists making wheels, pinions, springs,
hands, dials, chains, keys, caps, and studs in their own houses.
The type of industrial organization most common in London was that
in which work was given out to be done in the homes of the
workers: the putting out system. Some industries, such as
watchmaking, silk weaving, and shoemaking were on both a putting
out system and a system of an apprenticeship to journeymen working
on piece work. Shoes were made to order and ready made. The
customer was measured in a shop, the clicker cut out the upper
leathers, which were given to the closer to be closed, and then to
the maker for the sole and heel to be put on. Another class of
shoemaker worked alone or with an apprentice in a garret, cellar,
or stall, using pieces of leather cut out for him by the currier
or leather cutter. London industries included bread, beer,
spirits, and vinegar; sugar refining; tobacco refining; snuff;
spinning and weaving of woolens and worsteds, silk ribbons, tape,
and cloth; printed calico, linens, clothes, laces, tassels, fancy
embroidery, stays, stocking weaving, hats, shoes, leather goods
(boots, shoes hats, gloves, harnesses, saddles), jewelry, glass,
candles, tapestry, musical instruments, cutlery, furniture, paint,
varnish, tools, paper, printer's ink and glue, printing,
publishing, swords, guns, heavy artillery, ships, sails, rope,
carriages, and precious and base metalwares such as brass and
pewter ware. Surgical instruments made included straight and
curved knives and probes, lancets, scissors, spatulas, trepans
(for cutting bone), and cupping cases. Optical instruments made
included eyeglasses, telescopes, and microscopes. In 1727
eyeglasses were held in place by frames that went over the ears,
which replaced unreliable cords over the ears and leather straps
tied behind one's head. Also made were nautical instruments,
quadrants, sundials, sectors, globes, scales, orrerys [a model
solar system], and air pumps.

In London, the old distinction between craftsmen and laborers was
blurred by the existence of trades which employed workmen under a
skilled foreman instead of journeymen who had served an
apprenticeship. These trades were, on a large scale, new. Among
the most important of these trades were the distillers and brewers
of liquors, the tobacconists and snuff makers, the sugar refiners
and soap boilers, the vinegar makers, and makers of varnish, of
glue, of printers' ink, and of colors. The latest chemical
theories and the chemical explanation of dying brought about the
invention of new colors and new processes in dying cloth. Workers
in these trades were considered as laborers, but their wages were
high and their positions relatively secure. They learned their
jobs by doing them. The older trades of a similar character, such
as tallow melters and chandlers, wax chandlers, fellmongers, and
the tanners, employed journeymen.

There were buildings for boiling and distilling turpentine, for
casting brass or iron, and for making glass for chemical works for
sale.

The skilled artisan who works at home and either makes goods for a
master or sells to the trade verges into the shop keeping class.
On the other hand, the lowest type of shopkeeper, the chandler,
the dealer in old iron, the tripe shop, the milk retailer, the
keeper of a cook shop or a green cellar belong to the class of
unskilled and casual labor. The lowly chimney sweeper, paid 6d. a
day, served an apprenticeship as a boy, and then was his own
master.

The watermen and lightermen, by virtue of their fellowship and
their apprenticeship and often the ownership of a boat, belonged
to the class of skilled laborers. Craftsmen in the building trades
and paviours had their laborers as smiths had their hammermen to
do the heavy work at laborers' pay. The street ragpickers, the
ballad sellers, and the match sellers belonged to the class of
beggars.

Working women in London in 1750 were employed in domestic service:
25%, nursing and midwifery: 12%, cleaning and laundry: 10%,
vitualling: 9%, shopkeeping: 8%, hawking: 6%, and textiles: 5%.
Those employed in domestic service were mostly young women who
later married. Some women were schoolteachers, innkeepers, or
manufacturers, which were middle-class employments. Many women in
the realm engaged in a variety of occupations from fanmaking and
hairdressing to catering, and, as widows, often carried on their
husband's trade, including bookselling, hatmaking, building or
ironmongery.

Although shops still had small frontages of about 15 feet and the
windows had small panes of bottle glass which partly obscured the
view of the goods, there were magnificent shops with large windows
displaying fine goods, bookshops, and print shops with prints of
political satire with caricatures. The shops were generally open
six days a week from 7 am to 8 pm, and over the years later to 10
pm. In 1675 Josiah Wedgwood opened a showroom in London for his
high quality pottery from Staffordshire. Consumption was on a mass
scale, many people buying what they wanted instead of just what
they needed. There were circulating libraries, public concert
halls, and professional boxing matches. At coffee houses,
chocolate houses, and taverns, people played at dice and cards,
gambled, talked politics and read daily newspapers, in which there
was advertising, reports of marriages and deaths, grain prices,
and book reviews. Different professions and classes and groups,
such as the whigs, the tories, classical scholars, scientists,
clergymen, intellectuals, actors, writers, and journeymen of
particular crafts, had their favorite meeting places. Coffee
houses reflected the character of their neighborhoods. They acted
as postal centers, lost property offices, business addresses,
physicians' consulting rooms, lawyers' and merchants' business
transactions, matrimonial agencies, masonic lodges, auction rooms,
and gambling dens. Some retained a supply of prostitutes. Many
taverns had a rentable private room for the better-off to drink
wine, have meals, meet friends, gamble, do business, and hold
meetings of societies and clubs, especially political clubs. From
this beginning sprang private clubs such as the Blue Stocking Club
in 1750 and the Literary Club in 1764; Lloyd's for sale and
insurance of ships in 1771; and the stock exchange in 1773. The
Blue stocking Club was established by women who organized
conversational parties with guests of intellect and wit. There was
opera, playhouses, concerts usually with Georg Handel's oratorios
such as The Messiah or the foreigners Bach and Haydn, tea-gardens,
fire works, balls, masquerades, wax works, beer shops, and bawdy
houses, except on Sunday. There were straight plays, comic operas,
and melodramas. Three-dimensional sets replaced the two-
dimensional backdrop. Plays containing thinly veiled satires on
politicians were becoming popular. Some plays had crude and
licentious material. Theaters still shared a close association
with brothels. Unlicensed theaters were closed down by a statute
of 1737, but most came to acquire patronage to get a license. This
shaped the development of drama in London for a century.

The Beggar's Opera depicting an immoral society unable to master
its bandits was written by John Gay as a powerful attack on a
government which most of London hated. With its many ballads it
became very popular. One such ballad goes:

  "Through all the employments of life
      Each neighbor abuses his brother;
   Whore and Rogue they call Husband and Wife;
      All professions be-rogue one another.
   The Priest calls the Lawyer a cheat,
      The Lawyer be-knaves the Divine;
   And the Statesman, because he's so great,
      Thinks his trade as honest as mine."

Another is:

  "A Fox may steal your hens, sir,
   A Whore your health and pence, sir,
   Your daughter rob your chest, sir,
   Your wife may steal your rest, sir,
      A thief your goods and plate.
   But this is all but picking,
   With rest, pence, chest and chicken,
   It ever was decreed, sir,
   If Lawyer's hand is fee'd, sir,
      He steals your whole estate."

The Thames was crowded with sailing boats and with a line of boats
waiting to unload. Foreign and native ships lined the river banks
in rows. Theft of cargo from docked ships was still a problem and
pirates were still executed at low tide on gallows. Londoners went
to the bridges across the Thames to breathe fresh air. London air
was so smoky and polluted by coal-burning in kitchens and
factories that it gave a cough to newcomers. The river was so
polluted by the sewers by 1760 that all the swans and most of the
fish had disappeared. A Mansion House was built for the Mayor in
1753. The king's zoo had ten lions, one panther, two tigers, and
four leopards. Deer hunting in Hyde Park was now confined to its
northwest corner, which was enclosed for the king, who
occasionally hunted here. Elsewhere in the park were laid out
walks and fountains. Gardens were now natural instead of formal.
The streets were usually crowded with people and traffic. Many
people traveled by sedan chair. On the streets were barrows with
goods such as lace, threads, fruits, and chickens; beggars, ballad
singers, musicians, bands, street dancers, apple women, piemen,
muffin men, fruit sellers, nut sellers, pudding sellers, milk
maids selling milk from buckets, milk sold directly from the cow,
vendors of asses' milk, hawkers, newspaper boys, scavengers with
carts, postal collectors, lamplighters on their ladders, wenches,
chimney sweeps, rat catchers, pick pockets, swaggering bravados,
strolling strumpets, brawling watermen, card sharps, overdressed
beaux, dancing dogs, and acrobatic monkeys. Each trade had it own
call. Billingsgate open-air market was now exclusively for the
sale of fish. Small tradesmen such as dairymen, butchers, bakers,
fishmongers, and chandlers delivered to regular customers food
bought from distributing centers. Workers by necessity lived near
their place of work because there was no cheap transport and
walking through the streets after dark was unpleasant and
dangerous. Hours of work for most craftsmen was from 6 a.m. to 8
p.m., six days a week.

It was common for working class families in London to live in a
single room of their house and rent the rest, furnished, to people
of different degrees of prosperity and even of different social
grades. Servants and apprentices slept in the kitchen, the shop,
or the garret. The very poor, such as casual laborers and street
sellers, silk winders, charwomen, usually lived in damp cellars
subject to floods from excessive rain, or in cold and windy
garrets. Tenancy was usually on a weekly basis because of the
general uncertainty of life and trade. Conditions were so cramped
that cabinet makers made beds which masqueraded in the day time as
tables, bureaus, cupboards, or bookcases. The very poor slept in
common lodging houses, sleeping uncovered on the floor, twenty to
a room. Some poor families slept in small hovels made of mud and
straw with their pigs, domestic fowl, dogs, and even asses and
horses. Homeless children slept on the streets. All classes lived
so much at coffee houses, alehouses or clubs, which they often
used as their addresses, that house room was a secondary
consideration. There was an alehouse on almost every street in
London to provide cheap food and beer, lodging, employment
information, credit, newspapers, tobacco, and meeting places for
tradesmen. Some alehouses were recognized employment agencies for
certain trades, such as the hatters, smiths, carpenters, weavers,
boot and shoe makers, metal workers, bakers, tailors, plumbers,
painter and glaziers, and bookbinders. They were often run by one
of the trade, retired or otherwise. Some alehouses catered to
criminals and prostitutes. For cheap and simple eating there were
chophouses, cookshops, and beef steak houses.

There were about 10,000 English immigrants a year to London in the
1700s. They were mostly young people. London needed many
immigrants because of its high death rate. Over twenty London
people a week died from starvation alone; they were mostly women.
Only about one-fourth of London's population had been born in
London. Especially welcome were sturdy country people for heavy
manual labor, the better educated boys from the north for shops
and offices, and the honest country people, as contrasted with
London's poor, for domestic service. Girls mostly looked for
domestic service, but were sometimes made the mistress of the
house-keeper or steered into prostitution as soon as they entered
the city. Ambitious young men would seek a job as an apprentice,
work hard, flatter his master, and try to marry the master's
daughter. It was easier to find a place to live in London than in
the villages, though there was much overcrowding. Many shopkeepers
and workshop owners in London were involved in leasing, purchases,
and contracts.

Queen Anne was authorized to build about 50 more churches in
London and Westminster and their suburbs, to be paid for by a coal
tax on imports into the port of London. Churches in London were to
be rebuilt with money paid by funeral rates, rates for tolling the
bells, and rates for the use of palls [altar cloths]. Queen Anne
also appropriated all her revenues from the first fruits and
tenths of ecclesiastical benefices, 16,500 pounds, to the clerical
poor in 1704.

There were fewer quarrels among passersby on the London streets;
men were less likely to wear their swords. But there were fist
fights by common men which gathered crowds and occasioned betting.
Most crime was petty theft, but mobs and riots were frequent, as
there were no police. Watchmen and constables were often old and
physically incapacitated. The watchmen were householders taking
their turn. This duty of householders watching the streets had
evolved from the ancient obligation of wards to provide men to
guard the walls at night. But few wanted these jobs by which they
could offend their neighbors. Many citizens paid a rate to be
excused from watch and ward duty. Constables were often tavern
keepers. Many riots were started when penal laws against the
Catholics were repealed. They began with the cries of "no popery",
but came to came to target rich men's houses. Mobs sacked and
pillaged at will, burned houses, and flung open the prisons to
increase their numbers. There were political riots between Tories
and Whigs. Working men still used violence to protect their
livelihoods, such as destroying the lodgings and public houses of
cheap immigrant labor such as the Irish. Another instance was
destroying stocking-knitting frames so not too many apprentices
could be employed contrary to the regulations of the stocking
knitters guild. The use of parish workhouse children also was a
cheap supply of labor which forced down the wages of the stocking
knitters. In 1720 a statute banned wearing of calico after mobs
tore calico garments off women. In 1765, thousands marched on
Parliament and persuaded it to ban foreign silk imports. But when
a mob destroyed engine-looms, the army was used against the
rioters and two of them were hanged. This was the last major mob
action. Around the Tower, there were still demagogues standing on
upturned carts haranguing passing crowds. The Tower area was a
favorite place for demonstrators, and for unemployed and
dissatisfied workmen, particularly coal heavers and underpaid
seamen protesting their low pay and poor living conditions. There
was more crime, especially at night, now with organized bands of
men or gangs of children. Bounty hunters made a lot of money
catching offenders. In 1736, to deter the frequent robberies,
burglaries, and other felonies at night, many glass lamps were set
up in places determined by the mayor. They had to burn from sunset
to sunrise. In 1736, a lighting rate was imposed by the City to
pay for all night lighting all year by hired lamplighters. Anyone
breaking or damaging the lights of London would forfeit 40s. for
the first offense, 50s. for the second offense, and 3 pounds for
the third offense. The aldermen had to contract to pay for
lighting, trimming, snuffing, cleaning, supplying, maintaining,
and repairing them. To pay for this system, citizens paid
according to the amount of rent their holdings were worth. If they
didn't pay, they could not vote.

Bad areas of thieves and prostitutes and the slums east of the
City were gradually being replaced by warehouses and offices. In
1757, London Bridge was widened and the houses were cleared off
it. There were lanes for carriages in the middle and for
pedestrians on each side. Its arches were also widened. Lights
were put on it to be lit all night. And watchmen were put on it
for safety and protection of passengers. (This was paid for by
tolls of 1/2 d. per horse, 1d. per carriage, and 2d.-1s. for
vessels with goods.) About 1762, a body of enterprising citizens
secured private acts of Parliament which allowed them to levy a
house tax in return for providing paving and lighting, which then
greatly improved, as did sanitation. Sidewalks were raised between
the street proper and the buildings, replacing the protective
posts which had lined the roads. Flat stones were put in place of
the pebbles on the roadway. Signs hanging in from of stores, which
had blocked the sunlight, were placed flat in front of the
buildings. This also made the streets more airy. The buildings
were given numbered addresses and street names were placed on
buildings. Loading and unloading could not exceed one hour.
Nuisances like empty carts could be removed. Cranes used in
warehouses had to be stored in unobtrusive places. One who drove
on the foot pavement had to forfeit 10s. for the first offense,
20s. for the second offense, and 40s. for other offenses. Wells
were dug and pumps erected for watering the streets. Pavements
were to be repaired on complaint. Dust boxes and dust holes were
built and had to be used for refuse awaiting pickup by the raker
or forfeit 10s. In 1762, the system of having every man
responsible for cleaning the street in front of his door, which
occasioned piles of rubbish in the central troughs of the streets
waiting for the next rain to be washed away, was abandoned. But
house occupants were required to keep the sidewalk in front of
their house clean or forfeit 2s. If one broke a light, he had to
pay damages if it was accidental, and also 20s. if  willful. There
were special stands for hackney coaches, which were 12d.6d. for a
day of twelve hours. Their regulations were extended to Sundays.
Wards were to chose substantial inhabitants to be collectors for a
year at a time to collect the rates, which were not to exceed
1s.6d. per pound of rents. If one declined to be a collector, he
had to forfeit 50 pounds.

In London, the normal system of building was for builders to buy
up leases, put up a new building, and sell it before the lease
became due. The rules for party walls between buildings were made
more stringent: 2 1/2 bricks thick in cellar, 2 bricks thick to
the garret floor, and 1 1/2 bricks above the roofs or gutters.
They had to be made of brick or stone. In 1772, rain water from
roofs had to be carried to the streets in lead or other pipes that
were affixed against the side of the building. In 1774, iron,
copper, or other pipe or funnel for conveying smoke or steam were
not to be near any inside timber, or in front of most any building
or next to any public street, square, or court.

In the 1720s firefighters had to fill a tank on a wagon by hand
with buckets. On top of the bucket was a hose that could spray
water high. London parishes were authorized to place upon the
water pipes underground stop-blocks of wood with a plug and
firecocks to go into such pipe at various distances so that there
would be no loss in time in digging down to the pipes to get water
to fight fires. Parishes were required to keep at known places,
ladders and a large engine and a hand engine to throw up water to
extinguish fires including one leather hose with socket fitting
the plug or firecock, so that buckets would not be needed. The Sun
Insurance Company was incorporated for fire insurance in 1711.
Insurance offices were authorized to employ watermen with poles,
hooks, and hatchets to be always ready at a call to extinguish
fires.

No more than 12 sacks of meal, 12 quarters of malt, 750 bricks, or
1 chalder of coal per load on wagons or carts with wheels bound
with [narrow] iron tire are allowed within ten miles of London or
Westminster, or forfeit one horse. This is to prevent decay of the
roads.

For every wagon and cart in London, there must be a person on foot
to guide it to prevent the maiming, wounding, and killing of
people, especially the old and children, when drivers ride on
their wagons and carts. Later, it was required that carts must
display the name of the owner and be registered. Still later,
there was a penalty of 10s. for not having a person on foot to
guide any cart. Later still, in 1757, if a new owner of a cart did
not put his name thereon, he had to forfeit 40s., and the cart and
horse could be seized and sold to pay the forfeiture. Persons
willfully obstructing passage on streets with empty carts or
barrels or pipes shall forfeit 5-12s. or do hard labor up to one
month. The justices of London assessed rates and made regulations
for carriage of goods. Certain houses and buildings were bought
and pulled down to widen several streets, lanes, and passages.

In 1774, persons driving cattle in London, whose negligence or
improper treatment of such cattle cause them to do mischief shall
forfeit 5-20s. or else go to a House of Correction for up to one
month or be publicly whipped.

The roads around London were neither very attractive nor very
safe. Along them was land covered with water from drains and
refuse and dung heaps. Hogs were kept in large numbers on the
outskirts and fed on the garbage of the town. Smoking brick kilns
surrounded a great part of London. In the brickyards vagrants
lived and slept, cooking their food at the kilns.

Queen Anne's drinking of tea made it a popular drink, but it was
still expensive. This habit improved health because to make tea,
the water had to be boiled before drunk. Breakfast included tea
and bread and butter, and later toast with melted butter. The rich
also had coffee and chocolate. The morning newspaper was often
read at breakfast. The chief dinner dishes were roast beef, roast
mutton, boiled beef or pork, with puddings and vegetables. Roast
meat was still the basic diet of town and country gentlemen. There
were also fowls, tripes, rabbits, hares, pigeons, and venison.
Many elaborate sauces were made. The national dish was the
pudding, a compound of steak, kidney, larks, and oyster. Drinks
included ginger beer, lemonade, barley water, coffee, chocolate,
tea, and foreign wine. Port from Portugal was introduced about
1703, and rum about 1714. Rum, made from sugar, first became
popular as a medicine, well-whisked with butter. Beer was drunk by
the poorer and middle classes. The poor could afford very little
meat now, unlike 200 years ago. Their standard fare was cheese,
bread, and tea, the latter of which was usually from used tea
leaves bought from rich houses.

Households were smaller; a peer had a household of about 25-50.
The proportion of women grew to one-third to one-half. Dinner
guests sat and were served in order of rank, with gentlemen on one
side of the table and ladies on the other. Later, a fashion came
in to sit alternately by sex. Dinner was in several courses and
lasted a few hours. Toasts might be made. It was bad manners to
put one's elbows on the table, to sniff the food, to eat too
slowly or too quickly, to scratch, spit, or blow one's nose at the
table, or to pick one's teeth with a toothpick before the dishes
were removed. After dinner, the men drank, smoked, and talked at
the table. There was a chamber pot under the sideboard for their
use. Politics was a popular subject. The women talked together in
the drawing room. Later, the men joined the women for tea and
coffee. The evening often finished with card games, reading
newspapers, verse-making, fortune-telling, walks in the garden,
impromptu dancing, perhaps gambling, and supper.

The nobility and gentry became more mobile and now mixed together
at parties. At these afternoon parties, there were a variety of
simultaneous activities, instead of everyone participating in the
same activities together as a group. Guests could choose to engage
in conversation, news, cards, tea-drinking, music, dancing, and
even go into supper at different times. Sometimes a man other than
her husband escorted a lady to a party. Having lovers outside
marriage was socially accepted if discrete.

Single women were discouraged from thinking of their independent
status not as advantageous, but as regrettable. Weddings were
becoming public in church instead of private. Brides wore a white
silk or satin dress with a train. Over one third of brides who
were capable of having children were already pregnant when they
got married. In 1753 a marriage statute required licenses to marry
and the consent of parents or guardians in case of minors, calling
of banns [advance announcement so that anyone could point out why
the marriage should not take place], and need of four weeks
residence in the parish where the license was given by bishop or
other authority, because of the kidnapping of heiresses,
prostitutes trapping unwary youths after getting them drunk, and
priests performing marriages clandestinely and not in church,
which required banns. Two witnesses to the marriage were required
to sign a certificate of marriage, which was then to be registered
in the parish books. Manufactured goods relieved ladies from
baking of bread, brewing, and spinning. So they often visited with
friends, wrote letters, embroidered, and supervised the servants.

Funerals ceremonies started with socializing at the house with
refreshments, then going in a procession to the church for burial,
and finally returning to the house for more socializing.

It was possible for a woman-covert to be seized of land in fee
simple or in tail general or special to her separate use, free
from control or intermeddling of her husband.

Houses were warmed in winter by burning coal. Furniture was still
sparse. Moderate homes had tent-beds in use, with which cloth was
hung on all four sides of the bed from a light iron framework
above the bed. The beds were warmed with a warming pan heated in a
fire before use. There were often bed bugs and fleas. Everyone
wore nightcaps to bed. Pewter tableware was used, but the poor
used tinware instead. Copper, brass, and iron pots and pans were
increasingly common.

Most towns had a regular market once or twice a week. In them,
street cleaning was still a responsibility of individual
householders. Water was still obtained from wells and pumps. There
was no municipal government as such. Public works were done by
special commissions set up for particular purposes, such as
lighting, cleaning and paving the streets, night watchmen, traffic
regulation, removing nuisances, and improving local amenities.
Large towns had hospitals for the poor. In the larger
manufacturing towns, there were literary and philosophical
societies for debates and discussions. These put together
libraries for use of their members. Also in these large towns,
there were booksellers' shops, printing houses, weekly newspapers,
playhouses, concerts, and horseracing courses, the latter of which
was mostly patronized by gentlemen. Some private citizens of
various towns followed the example of London and obtained from
Parliament the right to levy a house rate for paving and lighting.
Physicians and lawyers lived in two-story brick mansions with
attics and sash windows that could be lifted up and down with the
help of a pulley. They had rectangular wood panes each with a
sheet of glass cut from a circle of blown glass. The old blown
glass was not regular, but had a wrinkled appearance. The center
of each pane of glass was thicker with a knot in the middle left
from the blow pipe. In front of the house were railings which
supported two lanterns at the doorway.

Towns tended to be known for certain specialties, such as seaside
holiday resorts, spas like Bath, cathedral towns, fashionable
shopping for gentry, and towns with certain industries like glass
and china manufacture, pin-making, pottery, tanning, manufacture
of linen, silk, cotton, and the knitting trade. Certain towns were
famous for certain varieties of wool cloth. Before 1750, a town
with more than 5,000 inhabitants was considered a large town. Shop
keeping was supplanting fairs and markets. Certain industries were
done on a large scale and required workers to be at the same site,
e.g. brewing and distilling; building ships; printing fustians;
making paper, soap (from animal fat) or candles; coal mining, iron
production, mining and smelting of tin and copper, refining of
salt, and digging of clay. Certain other industries also required
some kind of power or team work for their production, e.g.
refining sugar; finishing cloth; making bricks; glass-making;
manufacture of ropes and sails, and processing of copper and brass
into rods and sheets. Often the manufacturer's house was
surrounded by the many cottages of his workers. There the wife and
children usually were busy carding and spinning. Putting out work
and subcontracting were widespread and created many small-scale
capitalists. Workers' hours were typically 6am to 8pm.

As wood charcoal was becoming expensive, coal was increasingly
used for brewing and for brick, glass, and china manufacturing.
Mines for coal became deeper; flooding of them and of tin and
copper mines became a problem.

Drovers bought cattle in the countryside, drove them to big towns,
and sold them to fattening graziers or fatted them themselves.
Then they were driven into town and sold to the wholesale butcher,
who sold the carcass to the retail butcher, the hides to the
tanner, and the bones to the glue maker. Flocks of geese were also
driven into towns, after their feet were given a protective
covering of tar. There were also middlemen wholesalers for cheese,
butter, cloth, and iron.

There was a rage of distemper among the cattle so serious that the
king was authorized to make regulations for prohibiting the
removal or sale and for the burial of distempered cattle Later,
the king was authorized to prohibit the killing of cow calves. No
one may sell any ox, bull, cow, calf, steer, or heifer until he
has had possession of such for forty days or forfeit ten pounds,
because of distemper. Later, the king was authorized to regulate
the movement of cattle from one place to another.

The main industry of the country was still agriculture. In the
countryside, about half the arable land was under the open field
system, with land cultivated in common. Enclosure of land was
still going on. The enclosures were now done by statutory
commissions to ensure equitable allotments.

Agricultural improvements came first to enclosed land, which
comprised about half of the agricultural land. In the 1733, Jethro
Tull published a book about his 1701 invention of the seed-drill
to first pulverize the soil for cultivation without manure and
then to deposit seed at a uniform depth in regulated quantities
and in rows instead of being thrown haphazardly. Also explained
was the horse-hoe to stir the soil about the roots of the plants
to preserve moisture, promote aeration, admit warmth, and destroy
weeds. There were more horses than oxen in use now in the fields.
The horse-hoe was first used by large independent farmers on
enclosed land. Also invented was a threshing machine with a set of
sticks to replace hand threshing with flails. Under-drainage as
well as irrigation was practiced. Lord Townshend alternated
turnips, grasses, and grain in his fields, and thus provided
winter food for his cattle. The old forms of crop rotation with
fallow periods were often displaced by legume-rotation field-grass
agriculture. Independent farming gave rise to the improvement of
breeds of livestock by selective breeding.

Enclosed land produced 26 bushels of grain compared to 18 bushels
for common field land. It produced 9 pounds of sheep fleece
compared to 3 1/2 pounds for common field land. Overall, soils
were improved by being treated with clay, chalk, or lime.
Artificial pasture was extended and there was increased use of
clover, sainfoin, and rye-grass. Grain productivity was four times
that of 1200. A fatted ox was 800 pounds compared to the former
400 pounds which it weighed from the 1300s to the 1600s. The
fleece of sheep increased fourfold.

By statute of 1756, persons having rights of common in certain
land may, by the major part in number and in value of each's
tenement, enclose such land for planting and growth of timber or
underwood.

Every village had a smith, carpenter, and miller. The larger
villages also had a potter, a turner, a malster, a weaver, a
tanner, and perhaps a mercer or grocer middleman. Wheelwrights
made ploughs, harrows, carts, and wagons. Ploughs had one, two, or
no wheels. Poor farming families took up extra work in the
villages such as making gloves, knitting stockings, or spinning
yarn. Craftsmen still helped farmers at harvest time.

Much of the rural population was now dispersed over the
countryside instead of being concentrated in villages because so
many small holders had sold out due to enclosures of farm land,
especially of common land and waste land. The rural working class
lived in two room cottages, with low ceilings, small windows, and
an earth floor. Patience was required for those willing to wait
for an existing cottage in a village to be vacated. Most laborers
did not marry unless and until they found a cottage. Ancient
custom that a person could build a home for himself on waste land
if he did it in one night was ceasing to be respected. Farmers
usually preferred employing day-laborers than keeping servants.
There were many migrant workers, mainly from Ireland, for the busy
summer haymaking and harvesting.

The children of laborers and of small farmers had little schooling
because they were needed for work. They scared the birds, weeded
the fields, picked the stones, tended the poultry, set beans,
combed the wool, and collected the rushes and dipped them in the
tallow [sheep fat].

Farm people relied on well water or rain water collected in lead
cisterns. A farmhouse fireplace had pots hung from iron rods.
Saucepans sat on iron stands, which were stored above the mantel
when not in use. Spits were rotated by pulleys powered by the
upward current of hot air or by a mechanical device. Bacon was
smoked in the chimney accessible by a staircase or upper floor.

There still existed customary freeholders, who owned their land
subject to certain customary obligations to the lord of a manor.

The people displaced by enclosure became laborers dependent on
wages or paupers. Their discontent was expressed in this poem:

   "They hang the man and flog the woman
    That steals a goose from off the common
    But leave the greater criminal loose
    That steals the common from the goose."

Eventually there was some relief given to the poor workers. By
statute of 1773, wastes, commons, and fields having several owners
with different interests may by three-quarters vote in number and
in value of the occupiers cultivate such for up to six years.
However, cottagers and those with certain sheep walks, or cattle
pasture, may not be excluded from their rights of common. By
statute of 1776, the Elizabethan statute restricting locations
where cottages could be erected and their inhabitants was repealed
because the industrious poor were under great difficulties to
procure habitations.

Land could be rented out at ten times the original value. Land was
typically rented out for 7, 14, or 21 years. Great fortunes were
made by large landowners who built grand country estates. The
manufacturers and merchants made much money, but agriculture was
still the basis of the national wealth. As the population grew,
the number of people in the manufacturing classes was almost that
of the agriculturalists, but they had at least twice the income of
the agriculturalists.

The greatest industry after agriculture was cloth. Most of this
activity took places in the homes, but families could earn more if
each family member was willing to exchange the informality of
domestic work for the long hours and harsh discipline of the
factory or workshop. More wool was made into cloth in the country.
Dyed and finished wool cloth and less raw wool and unfinished
broadcloth, was exported. Bleaching was done by protracted washing
and open-air drying in "bleach fields". There were great advances
in the technology of making cloth.

Thomas Lombe, the son of a weaver, became a mercer and merchant in
London. He went to Italy to discover their secret in manufacturing
silk so inexpensively. He not only found his way in to see their
silk machines, but made some drawings and sent them to England
hidden in pieces of silk. He got a patent in 1718 and he and his
brother set up a mill using water power to twist together the silk
fibers from the cocoons into thread [thrown silk] in 1719. His
factory was five hundred feet long and about five stories high.
One water wheel worked the vast number of parts on the machines.
The machines inside were very tall, cylindrical in shape, and
rotated on vertical axes. Several rows of bobbins, set on the
circumference, received the threads, and by a rapid rotary
movement gave them the necessary twist. At the top the thrown silk
was automatically wound on a winder, all ready to be made into
hanks for sale. The workman's chief task was to reknot the threads
whenever they broke. Each man was in charge of sixty threads.
There were three hundred workmen. Lombe made a fortune of 120,000
pounds and was knighted and made an alderman of London. After his
patent expired in 1732, his mill became the prototype for later
cotton and wool spinning mills in the later 1700s. There were many
woolen manufacture towns. Clothiers might employ up to three
thousand workers. At these, the spinning was done by unskilled
labor, especially women and children in villages and towns.
Weaving, wool combing, and carding were skilled occupations.

In 1733, clockmaker and weaver John Kay invented a flying shuttle
for weaving. It was fitted with small wheels and set in a kind of
wooden groove. On either side there were two wooden hammers hung
on horizontal rods to give the shuttle and to and fro action. The
two hammers were bound together by two strings attached to a
single handle, so that with one hand the shuttle could be driven
either way. With a sharp tap by the weaver, first one and then the
other hammer moved on its rod. It hit the shuttle, which slid
along its groove. At the end of each rod there was a spring to
stop the hammer and replace it in position. It doubled the
weavers' output. Now the broadest cloth could be woven by one man
instead of two. This shuttle was used in a machine for cotton. But
the manufacturers who used the flying shuttle combined together
and refused to pay royalties to Kay, who was ruined by legal
expenses. Now the price of thread rose because of increased demand
for it. The weavers, who had to pay the spinners, then found it
hard to make a living. But the process of spinning was soon to
catch up.

In 1738, John Wyatt, a ship's carpenter who also invented the
harpoon shot from a gun, patented a spinning machine whereby
carded wool or cotton was joined together to make a long and
narrow mass. One end of this mass was drawn in between a pair of
rotating rollers, of which one surface was smooth and the other
rough, indented, or covered with leather, cloth, shagg, hair,
brushes, or points of metal. From here, the mass went between
another set of rollers, which were moving faster than the first
pair. This stretched the mass and drew it into any degree of
fineness of thread by adjusting the speed of the second pair of
rollers. Then the thread went by a flier, which twisted it. After
this the thread was wound off onto spindles or bobbins, whose
rotation was regulated by the faster pair of rollers. Or the mass
could be drawn by rotating spindles directly from one pair of
rollers. This machine was worked by two donkeys and was tended by
ten female workers. Because of bankruptcy in 1742, the invention
was sold to Edward Cave, the editor of "Gentleman's Magazine". He
set up a workshop with five machines, each fitted with fifty
spindles and worked by water wheels. Carding was done by
cylindrical carding machines invented by Lewis Paul.
In 1764, the plant was bought by carpenter and weaver James
Hargreaves. His work with it resulted in his invention of the very
successful spinning jenny, which was patented about 1770. He
conceived the idea by watching a spinning wheel that had been
knocked over lying on its side and still revolving for a few
seconds, while the thread, held between two fingers, seemed to go
on spinning itself. The machine consisted of a rectangular frame
on four legs. At one end was a row of vertical spindles. Across
the frame were two parallel wooden rails, lying close together,
which were mounted on a sort of carriage and slid backwards and
forwards as desired. The cotton, which had been previously carded,
stretched, and twisted passed between the two rails and then was
wound on spindles. With one hand the spinner worked the carriage
backwards and forwards, and with the other he turned the handle
which worked the spindles. In this way, the thread was drawn and
twisted at the same time. No longer did it take ten spinners to
keep one weaver busy. But manufacturers refused to pay him
royalties for his invention. He was offered 3,000 pounds for his
rights in the jenny, but refused it. The courts held that the
model of his jenny had been used in industry before it was
patented and any rights he may have had were declared to have
lapsed. Nevertheless, he made over 4,000 pounds. The spinning
jenny was used in many homes.

Richard Arkwright, came from a poor family and was taught to read
by an uncle. He became a barber and made wigs. Although he was not
a craftsman of any sort, he patented in 1769 a spinning frame
worked by water power and erected the first practical cotton mill
factory. It produced a much stronger thread than could have been
made with a spinning wheel. With capital from two rich hosiers, he
set up a workshop next to a swift and powerful river running down
a narrow gorge. Then he turned his attention to weaving this
thread. In 1773, he set up weaving workshops making pure cotton
calicoes which were as good as Indian calicoes. But there was a
statute of 1721, that no one may wear or use printed, painted,
stained or dyed calicoes e.g. in apparel, bed, chair, cushion,
window curtain, furniture, except those dyed all in blue, or
forfeit 20 pounds by a seller, 5 pounds by a wearer, and 20 pounds
by other users. This prohibition was to provide wool working jobs
to the poor, who had been increasing excessively because of lack
of work. A clarification was made in 1735 that the statute did not
include printed or painted cloth made of an all linen warp (for
strength) and a cotton weft (for fineness) manufactured in Great
Britain because such was a branch of the ancient fustian
manufacture. There was also a statute of 1720, that any one who
willfully and maliciously assaults a person in the public streets
or highways with an intent to tear, spoil, cut, burn, or deface
the garments or clothes of such person and carries this out is
guilty of felony and may be transported for seven years. This was
the way the wool weavers had expressed their opposition to
imported printed cottons and calicoes. The prohibition against the
manufacture and wearing and using of pure cotton fabrics came to
an end in 1774 on arguments of Arkwright made to Parliament that
his pure cottons would bleach, print, wash and wear better than
fustians. This was the first all cotton cloth made in England.

In 1775, Arkwright added machines to do work prefatory to
spinning. Raw cotton was first fed by a sloping hose to a feeder
that was perpetually revolving. From here it went a carding
machine of three rollers of different diameters covered with bent
metal teeth. The first, with teeth bent in the direction of its
revolution, caught up the cotton fibers. The second, revolving in
the same direction but much faster, carded the fibers into the
requisite fineness by contact with the third, whose teeth and
motion were in the opposite direction. Next, a crank and comb
detached the carded cotton so that it came off as a continuous
ribbon. Then the ribbon went into a revolving cone, which twisted
it on itself. Eventually Arkwright became rich from his creation
of the modern factory, which was widely imitated. He established
discipline in his mills and he made his presence felt everywhere
there, watching his men and obtaining from them the steadiest and
most careful work. He provided housing and services to attract
workers.

After cotton, the inventions of the spinning jenny and the water-
powered frame were applied to wool. Silk and cotton manufacture
led the way in using new machinery because they were recently
imported industries so not bound down by tradition and legal
restraint. Yarn production so improved that weavers became very
prosperous. Cards with metal teeth were challenging the use of
wood and horn cards with thistles in carding wool. Merchants who
traveled all over the world and saw new selling opportunities and
therefore kept encouraging the manufacturers to increase their
production and improve their methods. Factory owners united to
present suggestions to Parliament.

Manufacturing broke loose from traditional confines in several
ways. To avoid the monopolistic confines of chartered towns, many
entrepreneurs set up new industries in Birmingham or Manchester,
which grew enormously. Manchester had no municipal corporation and
was still under the jurisdiction of a manor court. It sent no
representative to the House of Commons. All over the country the
Justices of the Peace had largely ceased regulating wages,
especially in the newer industries such as cotton, where
apprenticeship was optional. Apprenticeship lapsed in many
industries, excepting the older crafts. Several legal decisions
had declared seven years practice of a trade as good as an
apprenticeship.

Apprentices still lived in their masters' houses and were still
treated as family members. The regulations of the Cutlers' Company
remained in force as its masters used their great manual skill to
make cutlery in their own homes with the help of their children
and apprentices. Trades in some towns which had guild regulations
that had the force of law hung on to their customs with
difficulty.

Although there were few large factories in the country under
effective management of a capitalist, trade unionism was beginning
as two distinct classes of men were being formed in factories. The
factory owner was so high above his workmen that he found himself
on the same level as other capitalists, the banker, who gave him
credit, and the merchant, who gave him customers. Journeymen in
factories could no longer aspire to become masters of their trade
and no longer socialized with their employers. Hard and fast rules
replaced the freedom of the small workshops. Each worker had his
allotted place and his strictly defined and invariable duty.
Everyone had to work, steadily and without stopping, under the
vigilant eye of a foreman who secured obedience by means of fines,
physical means, or dismissals. Work started, meals were eaten, and
work stopped at fixed hours, signaled by the ringing of a bell.
Factory hours were typically fourteen hours or more. Organized
resistance, as usual, began not with those most ill-treated, but
with those men who had some bargaining power through their skills.

Wool-combers, who worked next to a charcoal stove where they
heated the teeth of the comb, were the most skilled of the cloth
industry were hard to replace. Since they were nomadic, they
quickly organized nation-wide. They agreed that if any employer
hired a comber not in their organization, none of them would work
for him. They also would beat up and destroy the comb-pot of the
outsider. In 1720 and 1749, the Tiverton wool-combers objected to
the import of combed wool from Ireland by burning Irish wool in
clothiers' stores and attacking several houses. They had strike
funds and went on strike in 1749. Their bloody brawls caused the
military to intervene. Then many of them left town in a body,
harming the local industry. The earnings of wool-combers was high,
reaching from 10s. to 12s. a week in 1770, the highest rate of a
weaver.

In 1716, the Colchester weavers accused their employers of taking
on too many apprentices. When the weavers organized and sought to
regulate the weaving trade, a statute was passed in 1725 making
their combinations void. Strike offenses such as house-breaking
and destruction of goods or personal threats had penalties of
transportation for seven years. Still in 1728, the Gloucester
weavers protested against men being employed who had not served
their apprenticeship.

When the journeymen tailors in and around London organized, a
statute made their agreements entering into combinations to
advance their wages to unreasonable prices and to lessen their
usual hours of work illegal and void, because this has encouraged
idleness and increased the number of poor. Tailors' wages are not
to exceed 2s. per day and their hours of work are to be 6 a.m. to 8
p.m. for the next three months, and 1s.8d. per day for the rest of
the year. A master tailor paying more shall forfeit 5 pounds. A
journeyman receiving more shall be sent to the House of Correction
for 2 months. Justices of the Peace may still alter these wages
and hours depending on local scarcity or plenty. Despite this
statute, the journeymen tailors complained to Parliament of their
low wages and lack of work; their masters called them to work only
about half the year. There was much seasonal fluctuation in their
trade as there was in all trades. The slack period for the tailors
was the winter, when the people of fashion retired to their
country estates. After their complaint, their wages then rose from
1s.10d. per day in 1720, to 1s.8d.- 2s. in 1721, to 2s.- 2s.6d. in
1751, to 2s.2d.- 2s.6d. in 1763, to up to 2s.71/2 d. in 1767, and
to 3s. in 1775. Foremen were excluded from wage control. When they
complained of their long hours, which were two hours longer than
the 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. of most handicraft trades, their hours were
reduced in 1767 by one hour to 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. and their pay was
set at 6d. per hour for overtime work at night during periods of
general mourning, e.g. court mourning. Their work hours were
lowered to from 6 a.m to 6 p.m. in 1768.

The stocking frame-knitters guild, which had been chartered in
1663, went on strike to protest the use of workhouse children as
an abuse of apprenticeship which lowered their wages. They broke
many of their frames, which belonged to their employers, to limit
their number.

In 1749, combinations to advance wages, decrease hours of work, or
regulate prices were declared void for journeymen dyers,
journeyman hot pressers, all wool workers, brickmakers and
tilemakers, journeymen servants, workmen, laborers, felt and hat
makers, and silk, linen, cotton, iron, leather, and fur workers in
and around London. The penalty was prison or hard labor at a House
of Correction for three months without bail. In 1756, Justices of
the Peace were to determine the rates of wages of wool workers
according to numbers of yards. But this was repealed the next year
to prevent combinations of workers. Wage agreements between
clothiers and weavers were declared binding. Clothiers not paying
wages within two days of delivery of work shall forfeit 40s.

In 1763 the silk weavers in east London drew up a scale of wages,
and upon its being rejected, 2000 of them broke their tools,
destroyed the materials, and left their workshops. A battalion of
guards had to take possession of the area. In 1765, the silk
weavers marched on Westminster to stop the import of French silks.
In 1768, the weavers rebelled against a 4d. per yard reduction in
their wages, filling the streets in riotous crowds and pillaging
houses. After the garrison of the Tower came, the workmen resisted
with cudgels and cutlasses, resulting in deaths and woundings. The
throwsters [those who pulled the silk fibers from the cocoons of
the silk worms and twisted them together to make a thread] and the
handkerchief weavers also became discontent. A battle between
soldiers and silk weavers at their meeting place resulted in
several men on both sides being killed. In 1773, wages and prices
for the work of journeymen silk weavers in and around London are
to be regulated by the Mayor and Justices of the Peace. Foremen
were excluded. No silk weaver may have more than two apprentices
or forfeit 20 pounds. Journeymen weavers entering into
combinations shall forfeit 40s. This statute satisfied the
weavers, but they formed a union to ensure that it was carried
out.

In 1750, 1761, and 1765, there were strikes which stopped the work
of the coal industry and harbor at Newcastle for weeks. In 1763,
the keelmen formed a combination to force their employers to use
the official measure fixed by statute for the measurement of loads
of coals.

The book "Consideration upon the East-India Trade" dating from
1701 advocated free foreign trade. It argued that the import of
goods from India not only benefited the consumer but also the
nation, because it was a waste of labor to use it in producing
goods which could be bought cheap abroad. This labor could be
better put to use in new industries, at easily learned plain work.
Also the low cost of imported goods would motivate the invention
of machines in the nation which would be even more efficient in
manufacturing these goods. But English manufacturers were still
suspicious of free trade.

Making beer and distilling gin from barley were widespread. The
pastimes of gambling and drinking were popular with all classes.
In the trades, this was promoted by the uncertainties of life and
work and a general sense of instability. Many London tradesmen
started their day with a breakfast of beer, bread, and cheese, the
traditional breakfast of countrymen. Gambling and dissipation
reduced some London men with good businesses to destitution, the
work house, or street begging. Drunken gentlemen played pranks
such as imitating a woman in distress or throwing a person in a
horse trough. Some innkeepers had "straw houses" where customers
who were so drunk they were unable to walk home could sleep in
fresh straw. A person could get drunk for a few pence. Gambling
with cards was a popular pastime after dinner. Cricket matches
were played by all classes instead of just by humbler people;
there were county cricket matches. Gentlemen often took their
coachmen with them to public events such as cricket matches.
Tennis was a sport of the wealthy classes. Billiards, chess, and
games with cards or dice were played, especially in alehouses.
There was horse racing on any open ground to which people brought
their horses to race. Jockeys tried to unseat each other. Hunting
of rabbits and then foxes replaced deer hunting. Bird and duck
hunting was usually with flint lock guns instead of hawks, as the
hedges provided cover from hawks. There was fishing with line,
hook, and bait. Watching the hanging of felons, about 35 a year in
London, was popular, as was going to Bedlam to watch for a fee the
insane being flogged. People went to the Tower to try to get a
glance at a famous prisoner looking through a window or taking a
walk along the battlements. Besides the grand pleasure gardens for
gentry, there were lesser pleasure gardens in London for working
families, which offered fresh air, tea, beer, swimming, fishing,
courting, bowling, and cheap entertainment. Running, vaulting, and
leaping were still popular in the countryside. Fairs had
amusements such as fire swallowers, ventriloquists, puppet shows,
acrobats, jugglers, animal performances, pantomimes, boxing,
dwarfs, and albinos, but less trading. In 1769 was the first
circus. Circuses included feats of horsemanship and clowns. There
was also eating and drinking competitions, foot races, football,
archery, some wrestling, and some bowling on greens or alleys. In
winter there was ice skating with blades and sliding. The right of
public access to St. James Park became entrenched by the 1700s.
There was sailing, rowing, swimming, and hopscotch. George III
made sea-bathing popular and it was supposed to be good for one's
health. There was steeple chasing as of 1752. Horse-racing was
given rules. On Sunday, there was no singing, music playing,
dancing, or games, but the Bible was read aloud, prayers were
said, and hymns were sung. Sabbath-breakers were fined by
magistrates. Men often spent Sunday in a tavern.

In general, commodity prices were stable. But when harvests were
poor, such as in 1709 when there was famine, and between 1765 and
1775, bread prices rose. The price of wheat in London, which since
1710 had been between 25s. and 45s., rose to 66s. in 1773. Then
the poor engaged in food riots. These riots were often accompanied
by burning; looting of grain mills, shops, and markets; and mob
violence. The English economy was so dependent on foreign trade,
which had trebled since the 1710s, that the slightest disturbance
in the maritime trade threatened the English with starvation. In
many localities the men in need of parochial relief were sent
around from one farm to another for employment, part of their
wages being paid from the poor rates. The poor often went from
parish to parish seeking poor relief. Settled people tended to
fear wandering people. Parishes sought to keep down their poor
rates by devices such as removing mothers in labor lest the infant
be born in the parish. So a statute was passed that a child born
to a wandering woman may not have the place of birth as his
settlement, but takes the same settlement as his mother. Some
farmers hired laborers for only fifty one weeks and some
apprentices were bound by means other than indenture so that they
could not establish settlement in that parish. Laborers who came
to work in industries were refused settlement and sent back to
their original parishes whenever they seemed likely to become
dependent on the rates. Statutes then provided that a parish must
give settlement to apprentices bound for forty days there, not
only by indenture, but by deed, writings, or contracts not
indented. In 1722, parishes were authorized to purchase houses in
which to lodge or employ the poor and to contract with any person
for the lodging, keeping, maintaining, and employing of the poor.
These persons could take the benefit of the work, labor, and
service of these poor, which would be used for the relief of other
poor. The poor refusing such lodging could not then get relief.
Many of the poor starved to death. The propertied classes turned a
blind eye to the predicament of the poor, opining that they were
idle or could save more and did not need higher earnings.

Charitable organizations gave to the poor and set up all day
Sunday schools to set wayward children on a moral path. The Sunday
schools could accommodate children who worked during the week.
Punishment of children by parents or others could be by whipping
or even sitting in stocks. About half of the people were dependent
on poor relief or charities.

Desertion by a man of his family was a common offense. Parishes
providing upkeep for the family sent men to find the errant
husbands. The parish would ask unmarried mothers who was the
father of their child and then force him to marry her or pay for
the upkeep of the child. He often made a bargain with the parish
to release him of his obligation for a sum of money paid to the
parish. But many young parish children died of neglect, and later,
parishes were required to list children under four to aid in
accounting for them. Divorces were still few and expensive, but
increasing in number; there were more 60 in this period. It was
easier for a man to get a divorce for one act of adultery by his
wife, than for a wife to get one for habitual unfaithfulness.

Vagrants and other offenders could be committed to Houses of
Correction as well as to county gaols, because of the expense of
the latter.

Crime was exacerbated by orgies of liquor drinking by the common
people, especially between 1730 and 1750, the sale of which did
not have to be licensed as did ale. In 1736, it was required that
retailers of brandy, rum, and other distilled spirituous liquors
be licensed and to pay 50 pounds a year for their license, because
excessive use had been detrimental to health, rendering persons
unfit for useful labor and business, debauching their morals, and
inciting them to vices. Only persons keeping public victualling
houses, inns, coffee houses, alehouses or brandy shops who
exercised no other trade were allowed to obtain a license. This
excluded employers who had sold liquors to their journeymen,
workmen, servants, and laborers at exorbitant prices. Street
vendors who sold liquors had to forfeit 10 pounds. A duty of 20s.
per gallon was imposed on the retailers. There were riots in
London against this statute and its new duties. There had been a
tremendous growth in liquor drinking, which did not stop but went
underground after this statute. In 1753, a penalty of 10 pounds or
hard labor for two months was made for selling spirituous liquors
without a license. Also licenses were restricted to people who
were certified by four reputable and substantial householders to
be of good fame and sober life and conversation. Sellers had to
maintain good order in their premises or forfeit 10 pounds. About
1754 only innkeepers, victuallers, and vendors paying rent of at
least 200 shillings could sell gin at retail. The punishment for
the second offense was whipping and imprisonment. That for the
third offense was transportation. About 1754 only innkeepers,
victuallers, and vendors paying rent of at least 200 shillings
could sell gin at retail. The punishment for the second offense
was whipping and imprisonment. That for the third offense was
transportation. In 1751, additional duties were placed on
spiritual liquors to discourage immoderate drinking going on by
people of the meanest and lowest sort to the detriment of the
health and morals of the common people. In 1761, these duties were
again raised. In 1768, officers were authorized to seize all
horses, cattle, and carriages used to transport foreign spirituous
liquors for which duties had been evaded. In 1773, the penalty for
selling without a license was raised to 50 pounds, which could not
be mitigated below 5 pounds. Half the forfeiture was to go to the
suer.

The informer system for enforcing laws had its drawbacks.
Informers were not trained and were sometimes retaliated against
for informing. Sometimes this meant being tortured to death.
Sometimes there were schemes in which a leader of thieves, would
take a profit in the stolen goods by posing as a good citizen who
tracked down and returned them to the owners for a fee. Also he
might inform on his companions to get the reward for informing or
to punish a troublesome one. Sometimes the owner of goods was
involved in a fake robbery. An effort in 1749 to turn the whole
haphazard system of informers, into a specialized organization for
the detection and apprehension of criminals had caused a mob to
form and make threats; Englishmen associated a police force with
French tyranny. Nevertheless, about 1750, Sir John Fielding, a Bow
Street magistrate, and his half-brother picked men to police the
street under the direct control of the Bow Street magistrates.
This first police district made an impact on the increasing
violence of the times. In 1753, a proposal before Parliament to
have a national census was also defeated by public fear of liberty
being curtailed by having to make account of the number and
circumstances of one's family and giving out information that
could be used by enemies both in the realm and abroad.

Though grammar schools were endowed for the education of local
poor boys, they sought fee-paying sons of gentlemen. They now
taught arithmetic as well as reading and writing. Translation and
reading of Latin is still important, e.g. Aesop's Fables, Cicero's
Letters, Caesar's Commentaries, Ovid, Livy, Virgil, Horace, Pliny,
Juvenal, and Plautus. The "Eton Grammar" book replaced the "Royal
Grammar" as the standard for Latin and English grammar. The boys
lived in boarding houses superintended by "dames" or older boys.
There were usually two boys to a bed. There was bullying and
initiation ceremonies such as tossing small boys up from a held
blanket or having younger boys run naked in the snow. There were
occasional rebellions by the boys and fights with the townspeople.
Flogging with a birch or caning with a rod until blood was drawn
from the bare buttocks was the usual punishment. There were some
national boys' boarding schools such as Eton, Winchester, and
Westminster. In these schools, boys could mix with sons of rich
and powerful people, thus establishing important connections for
their adult life. But there was more bulling of small boys by
large boys at these schools and the smaller boys became menial
servants of their seniors. Occasionally there were student riots.
However, most grammar schools were not residential. Because the
grammar schools were limited to boys, many boarding schools for
girls were established. Tradesmen's daughters were often sent to
these to learn to act like ladies. Most upper class girls were
taught, at home or at school, English, writing, arithmetic,
drawing, courtly dancing, needlework, music, and French.
Dissenting academies were established for those who did not pass
the religious tests of the grammar schools. Pencils were now in
use.

Sons of gentlemen usually took "The Grand Tour" of the continent
before going to university. These tours lasted for months or
years, and always included Paris and a protestant French
university. The students went in groups with tutors. The chief
purpose was now cultural, instead of practical. On these tours
there was often misbehavior such as drinking and fighting. In
1720, Travelers Checks were developed for those on the Grand Tour.

The universities began to teach science. The new professorships at
Cambridge University were: chemistry, astronomy, experimental
philosophy, anatomy, botany, geology, geometry, and Arabic. Ideas
in geology challenged the Bible's description of the creation of
the world and there was a controversy over the origin and nature
of fossils. In 1715, a large pointed weapon of black flint was
found in contact with the bones of an elephant in a gravel bed in
London. Oral and written examinations began to replace
disputations. Few professors lectured.

Dissenters were excluded from universities as well as from offices
and grammar schools. Oxford and Cambridge Universities were open
only to members of the Church of England, so other universities
were established for dissenters. They taught geography,
mathematics, science, physics, astronomy, mechanics, hydrostatics,
and anatomy. At Oxford and Cambridge and Harvard Universities,
students in science were relegated to different instructors,
buildings, and degree ceremonies than students in literature, who
often looked down on them as socially and intellectually inferior.

The Inns of Court had ceased to provide residence. The period of
education at law school at the Inns of Court was now reduced in
1760 from seven to five years for ordinary students and to three
years for graduates of Oxford or Cambridge Universities. The
textbooks were: "Doctor and Student" by Christopher Saint-German
(1518) and "Institutes of the Laws of England" by Thomas Wood
(1720). Most landed families tried to ensure that at least one
member of the family in each generation was educated at the Inns
of Court after going to Oxford or Cambridge. In 1739, attorneys
formed a "Society of Gentlemen Practitioners in the Courts of Law
and Equity". In order to earn a living, most attorneys had to
attach themselves to some great patron and serve his interests. So
it was hard for an ordinary person to find an impartial attorney
or to find any attorney willing to contest a powerful family.

The first encyclopedia came into existence in 1728. In 1740 was
the first public circulating library in London. Samuel Johnson put
together the first dictionary in 1755. It standardized spelling
and pronunciation. Then came dictionaries for the arts, sciences,
and commerce. There were histories with political biases such as
the Earl of Clarendon's "History of the Great Rebellion".
Alexander Pope wrote witty satire on human faults of the period
such as "Rape of the Lock". Daniel Defoe wrote "Robinson Crusoe",
"Moll Flanders", and "The Poor Man's Plea" protesting disparity of
judicial treatment of rich and poor, for instance for drunkenness.
Henry Fielding wrote one of the first novels: "Tom Jones". Joseph
Addison wrote essays on social behavior. Jonathan Swift wrote the
satire on the times "Gulliver's Travels". Samuel Richardson wrote
some of the first novels, such as "Clarissa"; he wrote on values
such as religious faith, moral virtue, and family closeness.
Catherine Macaulay started writing her weighty and impressive
"History of England". Many schoolmistresses wrote textbooks on a
variety of subjects. Poet and essayist Hester Chapone wrote
"Letters on the Improvement of the Mind". Elizabeth Carter wrote
poetry and translated Greek works; her work was published in "The
Gentleman's Magazine". Hannah More wrote the play "The Inflexible
Captive". The diaries of Caroline Girle Powys Daniel told of her
extensive travels in the nation, and the various life styles of
polite society she visited. Defoe's newspaper was the first great
political journal. He claimed that the people have a right to
control the proceedings of Parliament. Essayists like Richard
Steele, who introduced the periodical essay in his newspaper, and
Joseph Addison, in his newspaper, wrote in a conversational style
about the social life around them and the thoughts and behavior of
common men and women in a light and good-humored way. They
separated humor from the old-style farce and gave it taste and
gentility. And with this came a moderation, reserve, and urbanity
in matters of religion, politics, and society. Religious issues
even became a matter of indifference. Fairies, witches, astrology,
and alchemy were no longer taken seriously by educated men. Tales
of fairies, witches, ghosts, and miracles were deemed appropriate
for children. Childrens' stories were becoming a distinct literary
form. Nursery rhymes included "Hush-a-bye baby on the tree top"
and the five little piggies. "Mother Goose's Melody" was published
in 1765. There were picture books for children such as Cinderella,
Red Riding Hood, and Sleeping Beauty. Craftsmen made small models
of their wares, such as dolls' china, dolls' furniture, silver,
and flat lead soldiers. Babies had rattles and teething rings.

In 1710 copyrights for books was given for 14 years, renewable for
another 14 years. Alexander Pope's translation of the Iliad and
Odyssey made him financially independent. He collected advance
payments from subscribers who would be listed in the book. A new
book industry emerged in London with booksellers as master
manufacturers who employed writers, authors, copyers, and
subwriters. Booksellers sold books of sermons, histories,
political and literary satires, literary criticism, and
dictionaries. There was a growing popularity of novels. Books were
expensive to buy. Regular magazines on the new and strange were
published. There were three daily, six weekly, and ten thrice
yearly newspapers. Newspapers increased in number from 8 founded
in 1700 to a total of 25 in 1727. By 1753, there were over a
million throughout the country. Workmen usually began their day by
reading a newspaper at a coffee house.

Authors of books which have been registered at the Stationers Hall
shall have the sole liberty of printing and reprinting such book
for 14 years. Others who print or sell or publish such shall
forfeit the books and pay one penny for each sheet found in their
custody, 1/2 to the Queen and 1/2 to the suer. The printer shall
give a copy of each book printed to the Company of Stationers, the
Royal Library, the libraries of the Oxford and Cambridge
universities, and certain other libraries.

In 1775, the two universities in England, the four universities in
Scotland, and the several colleges of Eton, Westminster, and
Winchester were given in perpetuity a copyright in books given or
bequeathed to them.

The British Museum was incorporated to hold the collections of
Robert Cotton of manuscripts, books, records, coins, and medals
and of Hans Sloane, which contained rare books, coins, precious
stones, pictures, plants, and mathematical instruments and had
been left to the public.

Italian opera was introduced in 1706 by Georg Handel on his visit
to England. His music became the standard music of Georgian
England. The Academy of Ancient Music was founded in 1710. It set
the standard of selection and performance. In existence were the
violin (including ones made by Stadivari), viola, cello, double
bass, oboe, trumpet, clarinet, bassoon, trombone, horn, flute,
harp, organ, harpsichord, in which the strings were plucked, and
piano, in which the strings are struck by little hammers.
Orchestras had at least thirty members. Many hymns were written.

Painting by artists developed. Gentlemen had portraits painted of
their horses and dogs as well as of family. Joshua Reynolds
painted the wealth and beauty of England. Painters such as
Gainsborough did landscapes and dramatic history paintings too,
but neither of these sold as well as portraits. Scenery was
painted for the theater. Places of business had signs painted
which portrayed animals. Coaches were painted with mythological
creatures and such. Gentlemen collected antique statuary and
painting, such as by Rembrandt and Rubens. In 1711 an academy of
painting was founded, which included women painters. The first
public exhibition of paintings was in 1760. The Society of Artists
was formed in 1761 and incorporated by royal charter in 1765. This
differentiated them from the Painter-Stainers Company of face
painters, coach painters, and house painters. The Royal Academy of
London was founded in 1768 to merge all private academies and
societies into one official body and to recognize the best
artistic work. Joshua Reynolds was its first president. It was at
first financed by the king. Under George I, sculptors became
distinct from masons. They did monuments and portrait busts of the
royal family, nobles, and great men. From Italian influence,
Palladian architecture came into vogue. It was typified externally
by a panoramic look achieved by horizontal lines, balanced
alternatives of plain wall and openings, and portico with a heavy
pediment like the front of a Roman temple. Stucco was often used
to plaster housefronts, flute columns, and ornament pediments.
Architects took students. Designers of engraved, etched, and
historical prints were given the sole right to print them for 14
years. Copiers had to forfeit 5s. per print.

Foreigners were now interested in learning about English life,
philosophy, and opinion. They learned English to read English
literature such as Shakespeare. No longer were France and Italy
the only centers of culture and influence on other nations. By
1713, England was the leading sea power by far.

The Royal Society was still the principal focus of scientific
activity. Issac Newton was its President for several years and
drew in more foreigners. Its members were mathematicians,
chemists, botanists, physicians, engineers, authors, poets, and
theologians. Papers given there generated much discussion at its
meetings. Newton opined that particles attract each other by some
force in a similar way that large bodies attracted each other.
This force in immediate contact was exceedingly strong, at small
distances performed chemical interactions, and at greater
distances had no effect. Also there were local associations and
societies. There were learned journals such as "Philosophical
Transactions". In 1714, the mercury thermometer was invented by
Gabriel Fahrenheit of Germany; this was more accurate than the
alcohol and water thermometer. The hydrometer, which measures air
humidity, was also invented. These made possible weather
forecasting. In 1718 the French chemist Etienne Geoffroy published
a table of affinities among chemical substances. Carolus Linneaus,
a Swedish naturalist and botanist, established the scientific
method of naming plants and animals by genus and species. When he
showed that there was a sexual system in plants, church
authorities were so shocked that they suppressed this knowledge as
they did other scientific knowledge. In 1727, Rev. Stephen Hales
discovered the ways that water that plants lost by evaporation was
restored by the roots up the stems. He found that gas could be
obtained from plants by dry distillation and invented a way to
collect gases by heating certain substances. He made ventilators
for ships, prisons, and granaries, using the method of injecting
air with bellows. This saved many lives in the prisons.

Hans Sloane, the son of a receiver-general of taxes, who became a
physician, had collected hundreds of species of plants in Jamacia
while physician to its governor. He became physician to George II
and was a benefactor to many hospitals and devised a botanic
garden in London for the Society of Apothecaries.

In 1735, George Hadley, a London lawyer and philosopher,
determined that the cause of the trade winds blowing from the west
direction was the rotation of the earth. Benjamin Franklin in 1743
observed that a particularly violent storm was in Boston a day
after a particularly violent was in Philadelphia, and realized
that they were the same storm, even though the storm's surface
winds were from the northeast. He determined that Atlantic coastal
storms traveled from the southwest to the northeast.

In 1738 Daniel Bernoulli, a Swiss university lecturer in physics,
mechanics, medicine, and anatomy, showed that as the velocity of
horizontal fluid flow increases, its pressure decreases. This
followed from his theorem that the total mechanical energy of a
flowing liquid, comprising the energy associated with fluid
pressure, the gravitational potential energy of elevation, and
kinetic energy of fluid motion remains constant; that is it is
conserved. He demonstrated that the impact of molecules on a
surface would explain pressure, and that assuming the constant
random motion of molecules, pressure and motion will increase with
temperature. He explained the behavior of gases with changing
pressure and temperature. In 1754, Scotsman physician Joseph Black
identified carbon dioxide, the first gas recognized as distinct
from everyday breathing air. He did this by using a balance to
weigh alkalis before and after exposure to heat. They lost weight
by losing carbon dioxide. He then ascertained the effects of
carbon dioxide on animals and its production by respiration,
fermentation, and burning of charcoal. At this time, all flammable
materials were thought to contain "phlogiston", which was given
off as they burned and was associated with the transfer of heat.
Plants were thought to remove phlogiston from the air and
therefore burned when they were dry. In 1774, Joseph Priestly, a
nonconformist minister, schoolmaster, and tutor, discovered oxygen
by heating red oxide of mercury. He got interested in the study of
gases by watching the process of fermentation in a brewery next to
his house. His gas collection techniques enabled him to work with
gases soluble in water. He showed that the processes of
combustion, respiration, and putrefaction caused one-fifth of air
exposed over water to disappear, and that plants restored air
vitiated by these processes. When he isolated oxygen, he noted
that it was better than air in supporting respiration and
combustion produced by heating certain metallic nitrates. The
differences between acids, bases, and salts and their relationship
to one another became understood. There was some theoretical as
well as empirical knowledge about metals, e.g. in boiling points,
intermetallic compounds, and changes in properties.

Static electricity was being discerned. It had been noticed that
shaking a mercury barometer produced a strange glow in its
"vacuum". Experiments showed that a glass rubbed in vacuo would
shine brightly and that an exhausted glass globe rapidly whirled
on a spindle and rubbing against the hand produced a brilliant
glow.  And further, as Newton wrote: "if at the same time a piece
of white paper or white cloth, or the end of ones finger be held
at the distance of about a quarter of an inch or half an inch from
that part of the glass where it is most in motion, the electric
vapor which is excited by the friction of the glass against the
hand, will by dashing against the white paper, cloth, or finger,
be put into such an agitation as to emit light, and make the white
paper, cloth, or finger, appear lucid like a glowworm". In the
study of electricity, conductors and insulators were recognized.
There were demonstrations of electrical phenomenon such as seeing
brandy ignited by a spark shooting from a man's finger and
transferring an electrical impulse among a circle of people by
their holding hands. Electricity was stored in an early type of
capacitor. Benjamin Franklin "caught" lightning with a sharp
pointed wire attached on top of a kite which led down to a key.
When a thunder cloud electrified the kite, a charge could be seen
coming from the key to an approaching finger. This charge was
stored and then reproduced to create the same feeling of
electrical transference among hand-holders as a rubbed glass
globe, thereby illustrating that it was the same phenomenon as
electricity. This countered the theological belief that thunder
and lightning were signs of divine displeasure or the work of the
devil. He invented the lightening rod, which was then used to
protect houses. About ten years later, the first lightening rod on
an English church was erected. Franklin theorized that there were
electric charges everywhere and designated them as positive or
negative. He observed that opposite charges attracted each other,
but that like charges repelled each other. In 1766, Joseph
Priestly did an experiment suggested by Franklin and showed that
electrical force follows the same law as gravitational force; that
is, that the attraction or repulsion between two electrical
charges varies inversely to the square of the distance between
them.

Joseph-Louis LaGrange from France developed differential
equations. Natural history museums were established. A group split
off from the Royal Society to show collections of curiosities.

In 1754, a self-educated mechanic founded the Society for the
Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. It had sections
on agriculture, manufactures, mechanics, chemistry, liberal arts,
and trade and colonies. It sponsored contests at which prizes were
given, such as that in 1761 for the best invention of a machine
that would spin six threads of wool, flax, cotton, or silk at
onetime with only one person attending it.

Machines still mostly relied on human, animal, and water power.

Abraham Darby was a Quaker and millwright who made large cooking
pots of iron, which cost less than bronze. Around 1713, he
experimented with various substances to take the place of wood
charcoal in iron smelting. Coal was a remote possibility. In
forging or working metals coal had more or less the same qualities
as wood charcoal, but this was not the case in smelting ores,
especially iron ore. Coal contained sulphur compounds which caused
the iron ore to deteriorate. So he controlled the burning of coal
to burn out these impurities, which produced coke. His son took
over after his death and improved the methods of coking,
strengthened the bellows, and added ore limestone and other
reagents to the mixture. By 1756, his large blast furnace using
both pit coal and wood charcoal was very productive. He made iron
goods of such quality as those previously imported.

In 1767, Richard Reynolds replaced the wooden rails connecting a
blast furnace to mines with cast iron rails. He had apprenticed as
a grocer and then became a partner in a large ironworks of Darby,
whose daughter he married. After Darby died and before Darby's
sons became of age, Reynolds was in charge of the ironworks. He
cast cylinders of the early steam engines.

In 1749 John Roebuck, a physician and son of a prosperous
manufacturer of Sheffield goods, found a cheaper way to
manufacture sulphuric acid. He did this by using leaden chambers
instead of glass globes to collect the vapor from burning nitre
and sulphur over water. This reduced the cost of sulfuric acid to
one-fourth of its previous cost, so that sulfuric acid came to be
used to bleach linen instead of sour milk. He also made cast iron
into malleable iron by smelting iron using coke from pit-coal
instead of charcoal. But flooding in his mines and further
ventures resulted in his ruin and bankruptcy.

Thomas Newcomen, a Baptist ironmonger, blacksmith, and locksmith,
supplied iron tools to mine workers. He was aware of the problem
of flooding of mines and the awkward system of pumps which were
used one above the other and were powered by teams of horses. He
made a very valuable contribution to power generation by inventing
the atmospheric pressure steam engine around 1712. He did this by
connecting theory with experiment, through the use of scientific
knowledge, especially the Royal Society's investigation into
atmospheric pressure. First cold water was poured on a cylinder in
which a piston could move up and down. This caused steam inside
the cylinder to cool and condense into water. The vacuum created
inside the cylinder under the piston caused atmospheric pressure
on top of the piston to push the piston down. The piston was
attached by a rod to the end of a beam which end then swung down
from a point on a vertical stand to which it was attached. When
the beam swung, its other end, which was attached to a rod
connected to a pump, rose, thus working the pump. Then steam from
water heated in a boiler under and communicating with the cylinder
was allowed into the cylinder under the piston. This decreased the
atmospheric pressure on the piston from above and allowed the
piston to rise by a counterweight on the rod over and connecting
to the pump. Boys opened and closed the steam valve, which let
steam into the cylinder from below, and the water valve, which let
cold water pour on the cylinder from above. Then the boys were
replaced by the valves being connected to the oscillating beam
which caused them to open and close at perfectly regular
intervals. A story gives the credit for this improvement to an
inventive valve boy who wanted to play with his friends. In 1712,
the mining industry used this steam engine to pump water out of
mine-shafts which had flooded. These engines were also used to
supply water to reservoirs locks at canals, and drinking water
facilities in towns. One such engine developed power equivalent to
fifty horses working at one sixth the cost. It was the first
automatic machine since the clock.

Then James Watt invented the steam engine which used steam as a
force acting on the piston. Watt made his living making scientific
instruments for Glasgow University. Around 1764, he was fixing one
of Newcomen's engines belonging to the university, when he saw its
inefficiencies, such as the loss of heat when the cylinder was
cooled. He saved this heat energy by having the steam condensed in
another vessel distinct but connected to the cylinder. This
condenser was kept constantly cool by cold water. So the condensed
steam was pumped back into the boiler and it circulated
continuously, thus obviating the need for constant resupply of
water. In order to avoid the necessity of using water to keep the
piston air-tight, and also to prevent the air from cooling the
cylinder during the descent of the piston, he used the expansion
of the steam to push the piston instead of atmospheric pressure.
Then, in order to expand the use of the steam engine beyond that
of a pump, he converted the oscillating motion of the beam into
rotary motion. He formed a partnership with John Roebuck, who had
a two-thirds interest. But when Roebuck needed money, he sold his
interest to Matthew Boulton. Boulton wanted better power that that
of his watermill for his workshops that made metal buttons, watch
chains, shoebuckles of engraved steel, ornamental bronzes, vases,
chandeliers, tripods, silver and plated wares, and imitation gold
and tortoiseshell work. In dry weather, about eight horses were
needed to aid in driving the machinery. A steam pump could pump
water from the bottom of the watermill to the top to be used
again. He had built up this factory of five buildings and six
hundred workers, with 9,000 pounds derived from his marriage to an
heiress. By 1774, the partnership had built a model steam engine
with rotary power whose design could be sold. The price of the
engine was set as the amount of money saved on fuel costs in the
first three years of its operation. This machine was a relatively
economical user of energy, capable of performing almost any kind
of work.

About 1750, John Wilkinson, the son of a farmer who also oversaw
an iron furnace, substituted mineral coal for wood charcoal in the
smelting and puddling of iron ore. In 1766 he made it possible to
transport coal out of mines on rail wagons drawn by horses. As
father of the iron industry, he made iron chairs, vats for
breweries and distilleries, and iron pipes of all sizes. He
provided Watt with metal cylinders of perfectly accurate shape,
which were necessary for the smooth working of Watt's steam
engine. In 1775 he bought a pumping steam engine from Boulton and
Watt's company for his ironworks. It pumped three times as fast as
Newcomen's engine.

Watt's steam engine came to be used for power-loom weaving and
then for all sorts of manufactures. It would put England ahead of
every manufacturing country in the world. Millwrights built,
installed, and later designed not only steam engines but the
machinery that they drove. These men were essential in setting up
the first factories. They were the most imaginative and
resourceful craftsmen. They knew how to use a turner's, a
carpenter's and a blacksmith's tools and had supervised or done
smith work, brick-laying or stone-mason's work in erecting and
maintaining windmills with their many gears and bearings. There
was a good deal of variety in mills, as well as in the structure
and workmanship of them, some being worked by horses, some by
wind, and others by water. They had some knowledge of arithmetic
and practical mechanics. They could draw out a plan and calculate
the speed and power of a wheel. Although technically in a branch
of carpentry, the millwrights learned to work with metal as well.
Metal was superior to wood not only because of its strength but
because wood parts were irregular in motion and wore out rapidly.
So iron and brass parts came to replace wood and leather parts.

In 1728, J. Paine got a patent for rolling iron instead of
hammering it. The iron bars, being heated in a long hot arch or
cavern passed between two large metal rollers, which had certain
notches or furrows on their surfaces.

Around 1740, clockmaker and Quaker Benjamin Huntsman was struck
with the difficulty of finding finely tempered steel for the
springs of his watches and pendulums of his clocks. He
experimented for years to find a homogeneous and flawless metal,
and finally invented cast steel, which was much harder than
ordinary steel. He did this by remelting refined high quality
wrought iron bars at very high temperatures in sealed fireclay
crucibles, together with small quantities of charcoal and ground
glass as reagents. This distributed the carbon evenly in the
metal, which hammering could not do. He approached the Sheffield
cutlers, who finally agreed to try his cast steel for fear of
losing their business to some other manufacturers who were
approaching Huntsman. Since Huntsman had no patent, he worked at
night and employed only men who would keep his secret. His steel
was made at night. His factory became prosperous about 1770 and
the excellence of his steel manufacture was never equalled. Steel
and wrought iron was scarce and expensive.

Around 1748, iron founder Samuel Walker, discovered Huntsman's
secret by appearing at Huntsman's factory disguised as a shivering
tramp who asked to warm himself by the furnace fire. He feigned
sleep while watching the whole process. When he began to make cast
steel, his annual output grew from 900 pounds in 1747 to 11,000
pounds in 1760 and he made a fortune.

Silver was plated over copper from 1751. White metal from tin and
antimony was used from about 1770.

The brass industry was beginning to produce brass from copper and
zinc that was as good as foreign brass. The secret of plate-glass
manufacture came to England in the 1770s.

In 1773, a corporation was set up for the manufacture of plate
glass. It could raise joint-stock because of the great risk and
large expense of the undertaking.

In 1775, chemist William Cookworthy was given a fourteen year
patent for the discovery of certain clay and stone in England from
which he made England's first true porcelain, i.e. that which
could sustain the most extreme degree of fire without melting, and
also had grain as smooth and lustrous, and the transparency and
beauty of color, equal in degree to the best Chinese or Dresden
porcelain.

The import duties on diamonds, pearls, rubies, emeralds and other
precious stones and jewels was dropped to increase the business of
cutting and polishing them.

The world's first chocolate factory was set up in England in 1728.

The Fanmakers were incorporated in 1709.

A linen company to sell cambricks [a fine white linen] and lawns
[a thin and fine linen] was incorporated in 1763.

A free market for fish was established in Westminster to
supplement the free fish market in London to prevent forestalling
and monopolizing of the fish industry and to increase the number
of fishermen. Duties for its maintenance were paid by the
fishermen. Certain men were given the right to incorporate
fisheries of white herring for twenty one years to improve the
fisheries and give employment to the poor. They were authorized to
sell subscriptions and to build ships provided the fishery employ
100,000 in such fishery. There were restrictions on taking fish
from rivers during their breeding season. Herring fishermen were
allowed to land and dry their nets and erect tents and pickle,
cure, and reload fish on uncultivated land up to 100 yards beyond
the high water mark all any shore, forelands, harbors, and ports,
without paying the landholder. Later, a bounty of 30s. per ton was
authorized to be given for vessels that were fitted out and used
for white herring fishery.

Anyone wishing to be admitted to the Levant (Turkey) trading
company was to be made free of such on paying 20 pounds, so that
this trade may be increased.

In the 1760s the first cooking school was established by Mrs.
Elizabeth Raffald, a servant.

As for health, there were many occupational hazards. These
included paralysis by mercury of refiners of silver and gold,
paralysis by mercurial fumes of molten lead by plumbers, palsy of
glaziers working with melted lead and of watch gilders, lead
poisoning of painters, blinding by sawdust of sawyers, and the
affects of fumes on pewterers and letter founders.  Particles of
copper were breathed in by copper workers, whose hair and beards
then turned green. Braziers became deaf. Hairdressers, bakers,
masons, bricklayers' laborers, coal heavers, chimney sweeps, flax
and feather dressers, and workers in leather warehouses suffered
pulmonary diseases. Chimney sweeps also had warty skin cancer from
their bodies being habitually covered with soot and the lethal
cancer of the scrotum. Working with charcoal fires affected
confectioners, chocolate makers, and sail-cloth makers. Tanners,
catgut makers, and tallow-candle makers became nauseous. Heavy
work weakened many bodies and caused hernias. Bending over work
for long hours caused stooped posture and hump backs.

The association between dirt and disease was just beginning to be
made. The principles of infection and hygiene were not well
understood. Bathing every couple of months was not unusual. There
was some theological feeling that cleanliness betokened pride and
filthiness humility. Most houses had a bathtub that could be
placed beside the fire in a bedroom. About 80% of the population
had been getting smallpox, which blinded, maimed or disfigured
many. Deaths from smallpox were only occasional in the country,
but constant in London, where about 13% of every generation died
from it. Making death commonplace, especially in the winter months
when thick, dirty clothes were worn day and night, were typhus,
which was carried by lice; typhoid, which was spread by flies from
horse dung; tuberculosis; and influenza. Dysentery and diarrhea
made death commonplace especially in the summer when flies
transmitted bacteria from filth to food and the water was its most
foul. There was great meaning in the prayer "Now I lay me down to
sleep; I pray the Lord my soul to keep; if I should die before I
wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take." Thyphus spread easily in
hospitals and gaols where vermin could live in the beds made of
wood. Colds and toothache were also common. Venereal disease was
not uncommon among the well-to-do in London. Condoms were used to
deter disease, but were still crude, coarse, uncomfortable, and
unreliable. London had almost double the mortality rate of the
nation. The number of baptisms in London were about 80% of its
burials. About 40% of the deaths in London were among children
under two, due to infantile diseases fostered by malnutrition,
maternal ignorance such as giving babies adult food, ill-health,
bad water, dirty food, poor hygiene, and overcrowding. Many
children died from diptheria, measles, scarlet fever, and
smallpox. Ten or twelve children with three or four surviving was
a common family pattern. Many well-to-do in London kept their
children in the country for their better health. No matter what
the ailment, physicians regularly bled patients and often gave
them enemas with wooden funnels. Sometimes a blister or irritant
was applied to the skin to draw out the evil humors. Cupping was
used to provide suction to remove pressure from various parts of
the body. Also used were poultices, ointments, and herbal
treatments, notably quinine. Opium was given to deaden pain. There
were about 70 drugs in use. Charms, spells, astrology, and folk
remedies still played a major role in medicine. A physician
attended surgeries to give advice. Physicians could visit
apothecary shops once a year and throw away any drugs falling
below an arbitrary standard of excellence. In 1703 the House of
Lords decided a jurisdictional contest between the College of
Physicians and the Society of Apothecaries. It permitted the
apothecaries to direct the remedies as well as to prepare them,
although they could only charge for the drugs they provided. The
poor sought advice from apothecaries.

There was progress in health. Scurvy virtually disappeared as a
cause of death due to the eating of more vegetables. And people
were cleaner when wearing cotton, which had to be washed. In 1721,
free inoculations for smallpox began in England, pioneered by Lady
Mary Wortley Montague, also a poet and letter writer. She led the
way by having herself and her son inoculated. Theologicians
denounced this practice as a diabolical interference with disease
sent by Providence for the punishment of sin. In 1727 surgeon
William Cheselden, whose master was specially licensed to perform
the operation of removing stones in the hospital, reduced the
death rate for removing stones due to hemorrhage, shock, and
infection down to 17% by his invention of a lateral operation. He
also published an anatomy book and treated certain kinds of
blindness by forming an opening in the eye to serve as an
artificial pupil. Sarah Wallen Mapp was a famous bone-setter.
Nutritional deficiency diseases were beginning to be understood.
In 1753, James Lind, a surgeon in the navy who noted that more men
died of scurvy than in battle, published his work on his
controlled experiment on seamen showing that oranges, lemons,
limes, green food, and onions cured scurvy. He published his
methods of prevention and cure of malarial fevers and his method
of disinfecting ships with the smoke of wood and gunpowder. In
1761, he discovered that steam from salt water was fresh, and
proposed a method of distillation to supply ships with fresh
water. In 1761 Giovanni Morgagni from Italy opined that disease
resulted from a breakdown of organs and tissues that was viewable
on autopsy. He wrote an extensive book showing the anatomy of
diseases, e.g. affections of pericardium and aorta, (e.g.
aneurysm), valve diseases, ulceration, rupture, dilation, and
hypertrophy. He associated clinical observation with anatomy of
disease, e.g. attacks on upper part of chest on left side and
difficulty breathing and numbness of left arm all ceasing with
exertion with dilation of aorta and hardening of arteries, causing
delay of blood in the aorta, in the heart, and in the lung
vessels. Bernoulli showed that the living human body constantly
changes so that all its particles are renewed in a certain number
of years. Frenchman Dr. Pierre Fauchard, the father of dentistry,
recommended rubbing one's teeth and gums with a piece of sponge.
His book of 1728 described methods and instruments.

Since three out of four babies died shortly after birth, beds in
hospitals for pregnant women were established starting in 1739.
The next year physicians began to replace midwives. A hospital was
established for abandoned foundling children in 1739 so they
wouldn't die, as they usually did, in the care of parishes or
workhouses or be exposed in the streets or left on door steps of
the wealthy. It was besieged by women with babies in their arms.
In 1762 a statute made the principles of the foundling hospital
obligatory for all London parish children under six; they were to
be sent to nurses outside London who were to be paid at least 2s.
a week by the parish. In 1766, this was extended to all parishes,
and nurses who cared for a child well for a year was given a
reward of at least 10s. Also, parish children were not allowed to
be apprenticed for more than seven years or until age 21 and an
apprentice fee of at least 4 pounds, 2s. was to be paid to the
master or mistress by the parish.

After 1740, there was a steady growth of population due to
improved midwifery. William Smellie taught scientific midwifery in
London from 1741 and wrote a "Treatise on Midwifery" in 1752,
which had a clear explanation of the mechanism of labor. At this
time there were several maternity hospitals. Forceps existed for
difficult deliveries. In 1750, Dr. Cadogan wrote his book: "An
Essay on the Nursing and Management of Children, which made a
great improvement in the care of young children. For instance, it
recommended loose clothing, no tight swaddling clothes, and a
simple diet. Swaddling clothes were used to retain a baby's
evacuations but produced discomfort and serious skin conditions. A
hospital was founded for venereal diseases in 1746, another as an
asylum for the penitent and orphaned girls who might otherwise be
inclined to prostitution, and yet another for prostitutes in 1758.
Coitus interruptus was widely used for birth control. There were
also clandestine abortions and intentional neglect of newborns.

Melancholy was widespread. Suicides were frequent and drugs were
sold for this purpose. In 1725, the mentally ill were classified
as curable or incurable. There were many private lunatic asylums.
A lunatic who was furiously mad and dangerous was required to be
safely locked up or chained in his place of settlement. There were
frequent and dangerous abuses in madhouses, so in 1774, no one may
keep or confine more than one lunatic without a license granted by
the Royal College of Physicians or forfeit 500 pounds. A Justice
of the Peace and a physician inspected all madhouses to observe
conditions and care of patients there. If refused admittance, the
license was forfeited.

In 1712 was the last time a monarch touched a person to cure him
of a malady such as scrofula.

In 1743 surgery students began to dissect corpses with their own
hands to better learn anatomy. In 1744 the Company of Surgeons was
separated out of the Company of Barber-Surgeons. The barbers were
proscribed from performing surgery and had to have a separate
corporation from the surgeons because of the ignorance and
unskillfulness of barbers healing wounds, blows, and hurts e.g. by
blood letting and drawing of teeth. There was a Surgeon's Hall,
officers chosen by the surgeons, and bylaws. The surgeons were
required to examine candidates for the position of surgeon in the
king's army and navy. They were exempted from parish, ward, and
leet offices, and juries. In 1752, a statute provided that the
corpses of murderers were to be sent to the Surgeon's Hall to be
anatomized, for the purpose of deterring murders. The penalty for
rescuing the corpse of a murderer was to suffer death.

The first dispensary for the poor was established in 1769 to give
free medicine and treatment to the infant poor, and then to the
infants of the industrious poor.

The progress of science was seen to threaten the authority of the
church. There was a general belief in God, but not much attention
to Jesus. Feared to come were free thought, rationalism, and
atheism. There was still a big gap between local parsons and
bishops, who were educated, well-off, and related to the
aristocracy. On the whole, preachers talked about morality and
Christian belief. They stressed good works and benevolence. But
many Protestant clergy were more concerned with their own livings
than with their parishioners. They were indolent and did not set a
good example of moral living.

From 1715, Freemasonry spread and swiftly provided a spiritual
haven for those who believed in God and desired ritual and
mysticism.

About 1744, John Wesley became the leader of the Methodist
religious movement for the mining and industrial laborers. He lead
an aesthetic life, eating bread and sleeping on boards. The
movement was called Methodist because of its methodical regularity
of living. It was characterized by an evangelical revival and a
promise of individual salvation. The person to be saved from the
horrors of eternal damnation in hell was to discipline himself to
regular prayer, self-criticism, and hard work and to forsake
worldly pleasures such as drinking, overeating, and even frivolous
talk. Wesley believed in witchcraft and in magic. He opined that
bodily diseases and insanity could be caused by devils and some
dreams are caused by occult powers of evil. With the Methodist
movement, there was a concomitant growth of philanthropic
activities by the Methodists. They gave to the poor, and visited
the sick and the imprisoned. Wesley preached in the open air where
all who wanted to attend could and also could wear whatever
clothes they had. Though large crowds of poor people were feared
because of their mob potential, their meetings were stormed as has
been Quaker meetings, with the shouts of "the church in danger".
The Methodists' homes were invaded and their belongings destroyed
or taken or their persons beaten with tacit permission of
authorities. Some Justices of the Peace drafted preachers into the
army or navy as vagabonds. Eventually, however, the Methodist
revival imbued energy and piety into the lethargic clergy of the
established church. A new moral enthusiasm and philanthropic
energy grabbed the nation. Prisons were reformed, penal laws made
more wise, slave trade abolished, and popular education given
momentum. In the established church, charity gained precedence
over theology and comfort over self-examination and guilt.
Evangelist George Whitfield preached Calvinism and it split off
from Methodism. Calvinism went into full decline. Presbyterianism
collapsed into unitarianism and there was a general tendency
towards deism.

Church sanctuary was abolished for those accused of civil
offenses.

There was much travel by scheduled coaches, which usually carried
several passengers and were drawn by four horses. Regular service
of public vehicles to and from London went four miles an hour; it
took two days to go from London to Oxford. It was not unusual for
a coach to bog down or overturn. Sometimes it had to detour around
an impassable stretch of road or borrow a couple of oxen from a
nearby farm to get out of a quagmire. Men and horses drowned in
some of the potholes. Robbery was endemic and some of the roads
were so unsafe from highwaymen that bands of armed horsemen were
hired to accompany the coaches. It was not unusual to come across
gibbets for hanging at crossroads. At coach headquarters in inns
in London, there were casual workers who associated with gangs of
thieves specialized in passengers' goods. Traveling merchants
preferred packhorses to carts because they could cross overland or
through watercourses more easily. These pack horses traveled in
regular caravans in single file. The leader had a bell around his
neck to warn, from a distance, riders or carts coming in the
opposite direction. Carts traveled about two miles an hour. In
1711 the trustee system superseded administration by the Justices
of the Peace of the turnpike system, including tolls and toll
booths. The toll booths were frequently attacked by riotous mobs.
So anyone pulling down or destroying turnpike gates at which tolls
are to be paid shall go to prison or put to hard labor in a House
of Correction for three months without bail. He shall also be
whipped in the market place between 11:00 and 2:00. If he offends
a second time, he shall be transported for seven years. Later the
penalty of prison up to three years was added as an alternative.
The hundred was to pay the damages up to 20 pounds. The penalty
for threatening the toll collector or forcibly passing through was
5 pounds for the first offense, and 10 pounds for the second
offense with imprisonment for one year for those who couldn't pay.

By 1750, about 60 miles could be made in a day. The turnpike
trusts took over most of London's major highways during the 1700s.
There was no travel on Sundays until 1750.

In 1745, shocked by the difficulty caused by bad roads in
concentrating the royal army to stop the Scottish invasion, the
king began systematically to improve all the roads. There was much
road and highway widening and repair, and also river bank and pier
repair, going on all over the country. Marsh lands were drained.
Harbors were deepened. There were numerous statutes trying to
adjust the needs of travel with the condition of the roads. For
instance, there must be a pole between the wheel horses or double
shafts. Carriages, wagons, or carts drawn by more horses, oxen, or
animals or with wheels bound iron tires, or with very heavy loads
were observed to cause more damage, so they were restricted or had
to pay higher tolls. Then broad and smooth iron tires were
observed to not cause the amount of damage as did narrow or
irregular iron tires and their use was encouraged. From 1741,
weighing machines were kept at toll gates. By 1766, turnpike roads
had to be at least 30 feet wide; hedges and fences thereon had to
be taken down by their owners. Cartways to markets had to be at
least 20 feet wide, and horseways 3 (later 8) feet wide. There
were ditches, drains, and gutters to carry off water. Names and
abodes of owners were to be put on carriages, wagons, and carts or
forfeit 2-5 pounds, except for carriages or coaches of a nobleman
or gentleman for his private use or those drawn by only one horse
or two oxen, or those with wide wheels and a light load. There
were town name signs, direction posts, and milestones. In 1773,
the Surveyors and the Commissioners of Turnpikes were given
authority to requisition local men, carts and draught animals for
compulsory labor, or money instead, in maintaining the roads and
making new ditches and drains. They could take any local sand,
gravel, chalk, or stone from waste or common land or, if not
needed by and satisfaction is made to the owner, from enclosed
land. The surveyor was to be chosen locally for a year and could
be given an allowance. New roads required the consent of the
landowners and a negotiated price.

A driver of a carriage, wagon, or cart on the public highway who
by negligence or misbehavior causes any hurt or damage to a person
or any other carriage or hinders free passage of any other
carriage shall forfeit up to 20s. Anyone leaving an empty cart or
other obstruction on a public highway shall forfeit up to 20s. Any
cart, wagon, or carriage driven without a person on foot or on
horseback leading it shall forfeit up to 20s. Any driver of an
empty cart, wagon, or carriage who refuses or neglects to make way
for any coach or loaded cart, wagon, or carriage shall forfeit up
to 20. Any offender may be apprehended by anyone seeing his
offense without warrant, who shall then deliver him to a constable
or other peace officer.

By 1719, the mail service was well-regulated. Letter rates within
80 miles of London were 3d. per piece of paper, then 12d. per
ounce. Within 60 miles of New York City in America there were 4d.
per piece of paper, then 1s.4d. per ounce. Letters were still
carried by post horses. From London to New York, they were 1s. per
piece of paper for the first three pieces, then 4s. per ounce. In
1765, this rate was extended to all colonial ports.

In 1754, canals began to be constructed linking the main rivers.
Horses or men hauled the barges from the land. Now goods of many
inland towns cheapened and reached a national instead of just a
local market. In 1761 an almost illiterate man called James
Brindley cut the first real canal at Worsley for the Duke of
Bridgewater, who owned the coal deposits there. He kept the line
of the canal at one level to avoid having to make locks. It
crossed one river as a forty foot high aqueduct. He refused to use
the beds of small rivers, whose sluggish flow gave no adequate
security against silting. Coal at the destination point of
Manchester fell to half its former price. After Wedgwood headed a
campaign to persuade Parliament to construct a certain canal, he
bought adjacent land on which he built a great factory.

In 1713, the maximum interest rate that could be charged was
reduced to 5% for the advancement of trade and improvement of
lands because that rate was the norm in foreign lands. Thus the
maximum interest rate fell from 10 to 8 to 6 and then to 5%. When
Issac Newton was Master of the Mint, he noted that too restricted
a currency caused a high interest rate to prevail, which was bad
for commerce and the plans to set the poor to work, but that too
large a quantity of money in circulation caused interest rates to
fall, which encouraged luxury imports and the export of bullion.

The Bank of England provided a safer deposit and lower interest
than goldsmiths or scriveners. It also issued notes for 10 and 15
(since 1759), and 20 pounds. Outside retail trade and wages
payments, business was conducted on a credit basis with a paper
promise to pay at some future date. Check use was still formal and
rare. Tradesmen typically authorized their apprentices to "write
off or draw" from their accounts, bringing their bank books.
Depositors authorized other people such as certain servants,
relatives, cashiers, or company secretaries to make use of their
accounts. After 1721, the Bank dividend was about 6% a year.

Promissory notes are assignable and endorsable and the holder may
recover against the signer or any endorser as is the case with
bills of exchange. In 1775, no more promissory or other notes,
bills of exchange, draughts, or undertakings in writing and being
negotiable or transferable may be made for under 20s., because it
was hard for the poorer sort of manufacturer, artificer, laborer
and others to comply with them otherwise than by being subject to
great extortion and abuse. (Cash was to be used instead.)

By 1711, government finances had become so chaotic that the
Chancellor of the Exchequer sought to re-establish public credit
by means of a chartered commercial company, the shares of which
were offered in substitution for government stock. This South Sea
Company was established in 1711 with a monopoly to trade in South
America. The prospects of hugh profits sent the share prices
soaring. There was also an increase in the money supply. These
factors led to a speculation bubble in 1720 in this stock. Also,
many stock-jobbers promoted companies of every description, such
as one to extract gold from sea-water. There was an insurance boom
with about seventy insurance companies in existence, many
virtually gambling in life contingencies. There was speculation in
insurance for all types of occurrences, such as house-breaking,
highway robbery, death by gin-drinking, and horses becoming
disabled. The total capital invested in all these enterprises rose
to over five times the cash resources of all Europe. When the
bubble burst, 100 pound South Sea stock had gone up to 1050 pounds
and back down again to 120. Since the government had in effect
bought this stock at a low price and paid off its debt with this
stock at a high price, this bubble relieved the government of much
of its massive debt. It also redistributed wealth. After the
bubble burst, investors took refuge in investing in 3-4%
government fixed-interest securities. A result of this bubble
burst was the chartering of two corporations for marine insurance
and prohibition of such by any partnership or firm. Private
persons could continue to write policies, and they chose Lloyd's
Coffeehouse as their headquarters; it came to dominate the world
of marine insurance after the two chartered companies came to
concentrate on fire and life insurance. Lloyd's list became the
foundation for a new newspaper. There were speciality boxes at
Lloyd's such as on America or the Baltic. Many ships were reported
captured by enemies or pirates, but underwriting insurance was a
lucrative business for many.

In 1717 the gold guinea was assigned a value of 21s. In 1774, the
gold standard was introduced. In 1774, clipped and deficient gold
coin was called in to be exchanged for new coin.

Local taxes were collected for the church, the poor, county courts
of justice, borough administration, and highways. National taxes
included the income, customs, and excise taxes. When the
government tried to levy excise taxes on wine, tobacco, and then
on cider, there was a public protest with mobs demonstrating
against the power given to excise inspectors to search in people's
homes. These excise taxes were no longer levied.

Duties were placed on items for encouraging industries within the
country and to pay the expenses of government. There were more and
higher duties to pay for war. At various times there were duties
on hides, skins, seal skins, gilt and silver wire, malt, mum
(strong beer made from malted wheat), cider, perry, spices,
coffee, tea, cocoa nuts, chocolate, cocoa paste, snuff, chinaware,
drugs, calicoes, herrings, apples, oysters, raw Italian and
Chinese silk, gum arabic, gum senega, tallow, hogs-lard, grease,
beaver skins and wool, imported brandy, raisins, coals and coal
dust, coaches for one's own use or for hire (except licensed
hackney coaches); silver plate owned by persons, corporations, and
bodies politic; leases, bonds, and other deeds; licenses for
retailing wine, beer, and ale; 5% of salaries, fees, and
perquisites from office and employments including royal pensions
and gratuities over 100 pounds. When the price of wheat was high,
as in 1765, when it was 6s. per bushel, wheat products could not
be exported. (At other times, they could not be imported.) Duties
on imported wheat, barley, rye, oats, beans, rice, Indian corn
were also dropped. The prohibition of importing salted beef, pork,
bacon, and butter was dropped. In 1770, no live cattle, pigs,
mutton, pork, beef, either fresh or salted could be exported or
forfeit 50 pounds for every such animal or 5s. per pound of such
meat. In 1773, peas, beans, bacon, hams, and cheese could be
imported duty free, and in 1775 Labrador codfish. In 1775, raw
goat skins could be imported duty-free to improve the domestic
manufacture of red, green, and blue leather.

In 1773, there were given costs above which various commodities
could not be exported: wheat at 44s. per quarter, rye, peas, or
beans at 28s., barley and beer at 22s., oats at 14s. or forfeit
the goods, 20s. per bushel and the ship or boat in which laden.
(There are 8 bushes in a quarter.)

A window tax replaced the hearth tax. These duties were 2s. on
dwelling houses, increased by 6d. per window for houses with 10-14
windows, and increased by 9d. per window for houses with 15-19
windows, and increased by 1s. per window for houses with 20 or
more windows, per year to be paid by the occupant. These were
increased three more times, until the dwelling house duty was 3s.
and the duty for 25 or more windows was 2s. Another duty for war
was that on imported starch, certain imported clothes, cards,
dice, soap, vellum, parchment, and paper made in the realm (4d. -
1s.6d. per ream depending on quality) or imported (1s. - 16s. per
ream). For pamphlets and newspapers made in the realm there was a
duty of 2d. per sheet and 12d. for every advertisement. When the
duty was paid, the paper was stamped. The penalty for nonpayment
was 10 pounds for sellers and 5 pounds for those writing or
printing on the paper. Later, there was a penalty for sellers or
hawkers of pamphlets or newspapers of imprisonment in a House of
Correction up to three months, and the apprehender got a reward of
20s. A parson marrying a couple without publishing banns or
license could forfeit 100 pounds.

Not paying duties was punishable by various forfeitures of money.
Officers for duties could search warehouses on suspicion of
concealment of coffee, tea, chocolate, or cocoa nuts with an
intent to avoid duties upon oath before a duty commissioner or
Justice of the Peace setting forth the grounds of such suspicion.
A special warrant could be issued authorizing the officer to seize
such goods.

Wars were funded not only by some duties, but by lotteries and
short-term funding purchased at 5% yearly interest from the Bank
of England and by long-term funding by the sale of annuities.

County militias could be raised and called out to march together
in order to be better prepared to suppress insurrections or
invasions. Their horsemen were to be provided with broad sword, a
case of pistols with 12 inch barrels, a carabine with belt and
bucket, a saddle, and a bit and bridle. The foot soldiers were to
be provided with a bayonet, a cartouch-box, and a sword. In the
militia act of 1757, there were quotas for each parish, to be
chosen by lot from lists of men 18-50 years old. After militia
service for three years, one could not be called again until by
rotation, and, if married, was allowed to practice any trade in
which he was able in any town or place. While he was in the
militia, his parish had to pay an allowance to his family, if
distressed, the usual price of an agricultural laborer, according
to the number and ages of the children. Quakers could provide a
substitute or pay money to defray expenses of a substitute for
three years. Exempt were peers, commissioned officers in royal
army or royal castle, other military personnel, members of either
university, clergymen, teachers of any separate congregation,
constables and peace officers, and watermen of the Thames River.

This militia act was due to an invasion scare in 1756 because
Great Britain then had no allies on the continent. The old
strategy of maintaining a small army of 17,000 men and relying on
volunteers had really depended on England's allies to tie down
France's land forces. The militia act of 1757 was designed to
reassure squires they would not be used as adjuncts to the army.
Only those with much property would be officers. Enlistees could
still carry on their trades and jobs. Costs were to be from
general taxation rather than by locality. But it was almost
impossible to get officers and there were many riots when parish
authorities tried to draw up lists of those liable to serve. In
1759 the navy prevented French invasion.

Able-bodied men without a calling, employment, or visible means of
maintenance or livelihood may be searched for and conscripted into
the army. Volunteers who enlist shall be paid 40s. and may not be
taken out of her majesty's service by any process other than for
some criminal matter. King George II was the last king to lead his
troops into battle. Later, parishes were given 20s. for every
soldier they summoned. Also, persons who had a vote for member of
Parliament were exempted.

Whipping was the usual punishment for offenses. A soldier who
deserted or joined in any mutiny or sedition in the royal army
within the realm was to suffer death or any other punishment
determined by court martial. In 1760, a soldier (later, or a
marine) who slept at his post, left his post before being
relieved, communicated with any rebel or enemy, struck or
disobeyed any superior officer could suffer death, including those
soldiers in America.

During war, chief officers of towns quartered and billeted royal
army officers and soldiers in inns, livery stables, alehouses, and
victualling houses for 4d. a day, but not in any private house
without consent of the owner. From 1714 to 1739, the army
regiments were split up and scattered among the ale-houses of
small towns for maintenance; this was to disperse the army and
also to keep a check on its numbers, which might be
surreptitiously increased if they were in barracks. The towns
protested and town magistrates imposed severe penalties for small
offenses by soldiers. Their drunkenness and violence were not
tolerated as it was for ordinary people. Their officers not being
with them, the soldiers retaliated with troublesomeness. As of
1763 English troops could be quartered in unoccupied houses or
barns and supplied with necessities such as bedding, firewood,
candles, vinegar, salt, cooking utensils, and beer or cider. The
Royal Hospital gave pensions to maimed and worn out soldiers
treated there.

Sailors had more status than soldiers because they had regular
work as seamen in times of peace and they did not remind the
people of the idea of a standing army, which they had hated
especially since Cromwell.

Justices of the Peace, mayors, and other officers could bind boys
as apprentices to sea service if they were at least ten and their
parents were chargeable to the parish or begged for alms. This
indenture to the masters or owners of ships lasted until the boy
reached 21. The parish paid 50s. for clothing and bedding for such
sea service. No such apprentice could be impressed into royal sea
service until 18 years of age. Master and owners of ships that
carry 30 - 50 tuns had to take one such apprentice and one more
boy for the next 50 tuns, and one more boy for every 100 tuns over
100 tuns, or forfeit 10 pounds to the parish. Boys voluntarily
binding themselves to such sea service were exempt from impress
for the next three years. This was to increase the number of able
and experience mariners and seamen for the royal navy and for the
trade and commerce of the nation.

No masters or commanders of merchant ships may proceed on a voyage
beyond the seas without first agreeing in writing on wages with
the seamen, except for apprentices. Such agreement must be signed
by the seamen. Offenders must forfeit 5 pounds per seaman, which
will go the use of Greenwich Hospital. Any seaman leaving the ship
before being discharged in writing will forfeit one month's pay
because too many have left the ship before it was unladen.

There were some ships of 2000 tons. The steering wheel had been
introduced because a sudden heavy sea could wrest a tiller from
the hands of the helmsman. Triangular head-sails with jib boom and
stay-sails on stays between masts were in use so that ships could
sail closer into the wind. The length of ships was still
determined by the same length of trees that could be grown.
Sailing ships were still vulnerable to a lee shore. Latitude was
easy to determine using an octant and later a sextant with mirrors
and a small telescope to measure the angle between a celestial
body such as the sun or north star and the horizon. But longitude
could not be determined with any degree of accuracy. One method
relied on accurate predictions of the future position of the moon
as observed from a fixed reference point, such as Greenwich. By
precisely observing the local time of the moon's occultation of a
known star at a particular place, and looking up in a table the
predicted time of the event at Greenwich, one could approximate
the time difference of the place from Greenwich. There were so
many shipwrecks on this account that the government offered a
reward to anyone who found a way to measure longitude accurately.
In 1763 carpenter and clockmaker John Harrison made the
chronometer to do this with an accuracy of 21/2 seconds per month,
and received 5,000 pounds. He was promised 10,000 pounds to
explain the principle of his timekeeper and build three more. The
chronometer kept time with extreme accuracy and was mounted to
remove the effect of the ship's motion. To find a ship's position,
a navigator noted the time and measured the positions of certain
stars. He compared these positions with tables that showed the
stars' positions at Greenwich mean time, and then calculated the
ship's position. There was a toll on ships entering the port of
London to pay for repairs to its walls.

Officer positions were no longer bought, but were subject to
examination for a minimum of knowledge, especially in navigation.
In 1729 the Naval Academy was established. Boys entered at age 13
to 16 and spent two or three years there.

Only about 15% of the crew of navy ships were volunteers. Many
were gaolbirds, having chosen the Navy over more gaol time for
debt. Press gangs seized men in the port towns and from ships
coming into harbor. From 10% to 20% of the crew were foreigners,
many of these pressed men. About 1756, the Marine Society was
founded for training and placing poor boys in work in naval and
merchant ships. This not only supplied men and boys for the Navy,
but saved boys from a life of vagrancy and crime. These boys
usually became reliable and obedient sailors.

The life of a sailor was a hard one, requiring much strength.
Sailors did not know how to swim, so falling overboard usually
meant death. Flogging was the usual punishment in the Navy, even
for small offenses. The amount of flogging due for each offense
rose over time. If flogging were fatal, there would be an inquiry
and occasionally punishment. A sailor's meals were usually hard
bread invested with weevils and maggots, dried or salted meat or
fish, and small quantities of oatmeal, butter, and cheese. Many
sailors had scurvy or other deficiency diseases. Experiments with
lime and lemon juice as remedies for scurvy were made around 1764,
but were not used in the Navy until about 1800. Many more sailors
died from these diseases than from battle. Rum and water was a
daily ration introduced in 1745. The ordinary sailor was paid
about one pound a month, a rate established in 1650s and now out
of date. This was not in cash, but in a ticket which entitled him
to payment in full if he presented it at the pay office in London,
but was subject to swinging deductions if he tried to cash it in
another port.

Prize money from conquered ships was substantial. To encourage
seamen to enter the navy, Parliament provided that it be divided
among flag officers, commanders, other officers, seamen, marines,
and soldiers on board every ship of war, including private ships
commissioned by the Admiral, as directed by the king, or as agreed
with the owner of a private ship. It included an enemy's ships,
and goods and arms on the ships or in fortresses on the land.
There was also bounty money for enemy ships taken or destroyed.
For retaking or salvaging English goods taken by the enemy, 1/8th
their value was to be paid. Privateers taking merchant ships by
collusion were to forfeit their ships, with 1/3rd going to the
person who makes the discovery and prosecutes.

Later, any able seaman volunteering for the navy is to receive 5
pounds bounty. Any seaman volunteering for the navy shall receive
a bounty of 3 pounds. If a navy seaman is killed or drowned, his
widow is to receive a year's pay as bounty. No seaman in a
merchant ship is to receive more than 35s. per month because of
the present war.

Still later, anyone who has run goods or avoided customs was
indemnified if he enlisted in the navy as a common sailor for
three years.

Those under 18 or over 55 were made exempt from impressment into
the king's service. The time of service was limited to five years
if the serviceman so demanded. Worn out and decrepit seamen no
longer being treated at the Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich
are to receive a pension as determined by the hospital.

In war, the Navy used blockading tactics and attack by fireships
grew obsolete. In peace, when not used in convoys to remote lands,
many ships of war were used as cruisers to guard the coast and
trade and to accompany merchant ships going out and returning
home. About 1755, marine forces of the navy were raised and
quartered on shore.

No war ship may carry goods except gold, silver, and jewels and
except the goods of a ship in danger of shipwreck or already
shipwrecked.

The king was authorized to prohibit the export of gunpowder,
saltpeter, ammunition, and arms.

When a ship had been forced on shore or stranded on the coast, it
had been the practice for people to plunder it and to demand high
payment for salvaging its goods. So a statute required that
salvage only be done by sheriff, mayors, and other officials. A
person who defacing the marks on goods or hindering the saving of
the ship had to pay double satisfaction to the person aggrieved
and spend 12 months at hard labor in a House of Correction. If a
person unduly carried off goods, he forfeited treble damages. If
he made a hole in the ship or stole the pump from the ship, he was
guilty of felony without benefit of clergy.

The owner of the island of Skerries was allowed to erect a
lighthouse and charge passing ships other than Navy ships 1d. per
tun.

Only pilots examined and admitted into the society of pilots and,
if no such pilot is readily available, a ship's own owner, master,
or mate may pilot ships up the Thames River, or forfeit 10 pounds
for the first offense, 20 pounds for the second, and 40 pounds
thereafter. Any pilot losing a ship may no longer be a pilot.
There must be at least 120 qualified pilots. The prices of
piloting are 3 pounds 10s. for ships drawing 7 feet of water, and
10s. more for each additional foot drawn up to 8 pounds 10s. for
ships drawing 17 feet of water.

To preserve navigation, ships may not throw any ballast, rubbish,
gravel, earth, stone, or filth into rivers or ports where the tide
or water flows or runs or forfeit 50s.- 5 pounds. Ships on the
Thames River may take as ballast to stabilize a ship without
cargo: dung, compost, earth, or soil from laystalls in London.

Many persons insuring ships for large premiums became bankrupt,
thus ruining or impoverishing many merchants and traders. So the
king was authorized to grant charters to two distinct corporations
for the insurance of ships, goods, and merchandise or going to sea
or for lending money upon bottomry (money to be repaid upon return
of ship). Each corporation had to pay 300,000 pounds to the
Exchequer and to have sufficient ready money to pay for losses
insured by them. They were to raise capital stock and could make
calls of money from their members in proportion to their stocks
for any further money required.

Any owner, master, or mariner who casts away, burns, or otherwise
destroys to the prejudice of underwriters of policies of insurance
or of any merchants whose goods have been loaded on the ship shall
suffer death.

The owners of ships are not liable for losses by reason of theft
without their knowledge by the master or mariners of goods beyond
the value of the ship. This is to prevent the discouragement of
owning ships.

The insurance of merchant ships must give salvage rights to the
insurer. A lender on bottomry shall have benefit of salvage. No
insurance may be for a greater amount than the value of one's
interest in the ship or in the goods on board.

No waterman carrying passengers or goods for hire e.g. by
wherryboat, tiltboat, or rowbarge, on the Thames River may take an
apprentice unless he is a housekeeper or has some known place of
abode where he may keep such apprentice or forfeit ten pounds, and
if he can't pay, do hard labor at the House of Correction for 14-
30 days. Also he may not keep the apprentice bound to him. No
apprentice may be entrusted with a vessel until he is 16 if a
waterman's son and 17 if is he the son of a landman, and he has
had at least two years' experience. None but freemen (i.e. one
having served an apprenticeship of seven years) may row or work
any vessel for hire or be subject to the same punishment. This is
to avoid the mischiefs which happen by entrusting apprentices too
weak, unable, and unskillful in the work, with the care of goods
and lives of passengers. Later amendment required that apprentices
be age 14 to 20 and that there be no more than 40 passengers, with
the penalty of transportation if there were over 40 and one
drowned.

No boat on the Thames River may be used for selling liquors,
tobacco, fruit, or gingerbread to seamen and laborers because such
has led to theft of ropes, cables, goods, and stores from the
ships. Excepted are boats registered at the guilds of Trinity and
of St. Clement, but they must show their owner's name and can only
operate in daylight hours. The penalty is forfeiture of the boat.

All ships coming from places infected with the plague shall be
quarantined and any person leaving a quarantined ship shall return
and later forfeit 20 pounds, of which 1/3 may go to the informer,
the rest to the poor. This was later raised to 200 pounds and six
months in prison, and if the person escaped, he was to suffer
death. Also later, a master of a ship coming from infected places
or having infected people on board was guilty of felony and to
forfeit 200 pounds. If he did not take his vessel to the
quarantine area on notice, he was to forfeit a further 200 pounds
(later 500 pounds) and the ship, which could then be burned. The
king was authorized to prohibit commerce for one year with any
country infected by the plague and to forbid any persons of the
realm from going to an infected place.

By 1714, there was a clear distinction between a king's private
income and the Crown's public revenue. From 1714, the king's
Treasurer as a matter of routine submitted annual budgets to
Parliament. He was usually also the leader of the House of Commons
and the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Proclamations by the Crown were more restricted to colonial and
foreign affairs, to executive orders, and to instructions to
officials. The high offices included the Chancellor, Keeper,
President of the Council, Privy Seal, Treasurer, and two
Secretaries of State, who were in charge of all foreign and
domestic matters other than taxation, one for the north and one
for the south. (Wolsey had been  the last chancellor to rule
England; thereafter the Chancellor had become more of a judge and
less of a statesman.) Other offices were: Paymaster General,
Secretary of War, and Treasurer of the Navy. Starting with the
monarch, government positions were given by patronage to friends
and relatives, or if none, to the highest bidder. These offices
were usually milked for fees and employed deputies, clerks, and
scribes who worked for long hours at very modest wages. Most
people believed that the offices of power and influence in the
realm belonged to the nobility and gentry as indubitably as the
throne belonged to the king. Assaulting, wounding, striking, or
trying to kill a member of the Privy Council engaged in his duties
was punishable by death without benefit of clergy. Civil and
military commissions, patents, grants of any office or employment,
including Justice of Assize, Justice of the Peace, court writs,
court proceedings continued in force for six months after a king's
death, unless superceded in the meantime.

The king's ministers were those members of his Privy Council who
carried out the work of government. By distributing patronage, the
ministers acquired the influence to become leading members of the
House of Commons or the House of Lords. They made policy, secured
the king's consent, and then put through the necessary
legislation. The king was to act only through his ministers and
all public business was to be formally done in Privy Council with
all its decisions signed by its members. The king gradually lost
power. The last royal veto of a Parliamentary bill was in 1708. By
1714, the Privy Council ceased making decisions of policy. Instead
a cabinet not identified with any particular party was chosen by
the Queen, who presided over their meetings, which were held every
Sunday. It dealt with Parliament. In 1720, the number of peers in
the House of Lords was fixed, so that the Crown could create no
more. About 1720, Robert Walpole, son of a country squire, who
came to be first minister of the Crown and the leader of the
Whigs, organized the cabinet so that it was of one view. He led it
for twenty years and thus became the first prime minister. He was
brilliant at finance and lessened taxation. He restored trust in
the government after the South Sea bubble scandal. He was
successful in preserving the peace with other nations and
providing stability in England that led to prosperity. The Whigs
opposed a standing army and over-reaching influence of the Crown.
They espoused the liberty of individual subjects. Their slogan was
"liberty and property". They generally favored foreign wars.

Members of the Parliament felt responsible for the good of the
whole country instead of accounting to their electors, but self-
interest also played a part. Leading commercial magnates of the
realm sought to be members of Parliament or governors of the Bank
of England to be able to take up government loans at advantageous
rates, snap up contracts to supply government departments at
exorbitant prices, and play an important part in deciding what
duties should be charged on what goods. About 5% of the population
could vote. Voting was open, rather than by secret ballot. Seats
in Parliament could normally be bought either by coming to an
arrangement with some landowner who had the right to nominate to a
closed seat or by buying enough votes in constituencies where the
electorate was larger and the contest more open. Factory owners
and leading landowners sat together on committees drawing up plans
for public works such as canal building, obtained the necessary
permits from public authorities and organized the whole
enterprise. In 1714, Parliament was allowed to last for seven
years unless sooner dissolved by the king because of the expense
and tumult of elections, which frequently occasioned riots, and
sometimes battles in which men were killed and prisoners taken on
both sides. Politics had become a career. Members of Parliament
could not be arrested while Parliament was in session.

As of 1710, electees to the Commons had to have 600 pounds annual
income for knights or 300 pounds annually for burgesses. This did
not include the eldest son or heir apparent of any peer or lord of
Parliament or any person with the above qualifications. The
universities were exempted.

As of 1729, persons electing a member of the Commons must swear or
affirm that he has not received any money, office, employment, or
reward or promise of such for his vote. If he swears falsely, it
is perjury and he must forfeit 500 pounds and may never vote
again. Later, voters for member of Parliament had to have
residence for a year. Still later, voters were required to have
been freemen of the city or town for one year or forfeit 100
pounds, except if entitled to freedom by birth, marriage, or
servitude according to the custom of such city or town. Voters
still were required to have a freehold of land of 40s. a year
income, but holders of estates by copy of court roll were
specifically precluded or forfeit 50 pounds.

In 1724, since unauthorized persons have intruded into assemblies
of citizens of London and presumed to vote therein, the presiding
officer shall appoint clerks to take the poll and oath required
for elections for Parliament, mayor, sheriffs, chamberlains,
bridgemasters, and auditors of chamberlains. The oath is that one
is a freeman of London, a liveryman of a certain named company,
has been so for 12 months, and names his place of abode. The oath
for alderman or common council elections is that the voter is a
freeman of London and a householder in a named ward paying scot of
at least a total of 30s. and bearing lot. A list of the voters and
of persons disallowed is to be given to candidates by the
presiding officer.

Soldiers may not be quartered within 20 miles of a place of
election so that the election is kept free.

Voters in public corporations must have held their stock for six
months before voting them to discourage splitting stock and making
temporary conveyances thereof to give certain people more of a
vote, e.g. in declaring dividends and choosing directors.

Ambassadors were made immune from arrest, prosecution and
imprisonment to preserve their rights and privileges and
protection by the Queen and the law of nations.

The Supporters of the Bill of Rights Society was founded and paid
agents to give speeches throughout the country and used the press
for its goals.

James Burgh demanded universal suffrage in his 1773 book:
"Political Disquisitions".

In 1707 there was union with Scotland, in which their Parliaments
were combined into one. The country was known as Great Britain.
The last Scottish rebellion resulted in attainder of its leaders
for levying war against the king. In 1746, they were given the
chance to surrender by a certain date, and receive a pardon on
condition of transportation. In 1747, anyone impeached by the
Commons of high treason whereby there may be corruption of the
blood or for misprison of such treason may make his defense by up
to two counsel learned in the law, who shall be assigned for that
purpose on the application of the person impeached. In 1748,
counsel may interrogate witnesses in such cases where testimony of
witnesses are not reduced to writing.

There was a steady flow of emigrants to the American colonies,
including transported convicts and indentured servants. Delaware
became a colony in 1703. In 1729, the king bought Carolina from
its seven proprietors for 2,500 pounds apiece. Person having
estates, rights, titles, or interest there, except officers, were
allowed by Parliament to sue the king with the court establishing
the value to be paid, but no more than at a rate of 2,500 pounds
per 1/8 of property. Georgia was chartered in 1733 on request of
James Oglethorpe, who became its first governor, as a refuge for
debtors and the poor and needy. It established the Episcopal
Church by law. In 1730 Carolina and 1735 Georgia were allowed to
sell rice directly to certain lands instead of to England only.
Later, sugar was allowed to be carried directly from America to
European ports in English ships without first touching some
English port. Foreigners who had lived in the American colonies
for seven years, and later foreigners who served two years in the
royal army in America as a soldier or as an engineer, were allowed
to become citizens of Great Britain on taking oaths of loyalty and
Protestantism. This included Quakers and Jews. The Jews could omit
the phrase "upon the true faith of a Christian."

In 1756, indentured servants in America were allowed to volunteer
as soldiers in the British army serving in America. If his
proprietor objected, the servant was to be restored to him or
reasonable compensation given in proportion to the original
purchase price of his service and the time of his service
remaining.

There was much competition among countries for colonies. Quebec
and then Montreal in 1760 in Canada were captured from the French.
About 1768 James Cook discovered New Zealand and Australia; his
maps greatly helped future voyages.  The English East India
Company took over India as its Mogul Empire broke up.

Manufacturing in the American colonies that would compete with
British industry was suppressed by Great Britain. There were
increasing duties on goods imported into the colonies and
restrictions on exports. In 1763, Parliament imposed duties on
foreign imports going to America via Britain: to wit, sugar,
indigo, coffee, certain wines, wrought silks, calicoes, and
cambrick linen. Foreign vessels at anchor or hovering on colonial
coasts and not departing within 48 hours were made liable to be
forfeited with their goods. Uncustomed goods into or prohibited
goods into or out of the colonies seized by customs officials on
the ship or on land and any boats and cattle used to transport
them occasioned a forfeiture of treble value, of which 1/3 went to
the king, 1/3 went to the colonial governor, and 1/3 went to the
suer. Any officer making a collusive seizure or other fraud was to
forfeit 500 pounds and his office. In 1765, there was imposed a
duty on papers in the colonies to defray expenses of their
defense. It was thought to be a fair tax because it fell on
colonies in proportion to their wealth. The items taxed were to
carry a stamp showing that the duty on them had been paid. The
duty on every skin, piece of vellum or parchment, and sheet of
paper used in any law court was 3d.- 2 pounds. There were also
duties on counselor or solicitor appointments of 10 pounds per
sheet. Duties extended to licenses for retailing spirituous
liquors and wines, bonds for payment of money, warrants for
surveying or setting out of any lands, grants and deeds of land,
appointments to certain civil public offices, indentures, leases,
conveyances, bills of sale, grants and certificates under public
seal, insurance policies, mortgages, passports, pamphlets,
newspapers (about 1s. per sheet), advertisements in papers (2s.
each), cards, and dice.  The colonists saw this as a departure
from past duties because it was an "internal tax". All of the
original thirteen American colonies had adopted Magna Carta
principles directly or indirectly into their law. The stamp duties
seemed to the colonists to violate these principles of liberty.
Patrick Henry asserted that only Virginia could impose taxes in
Virginia. Schoolmaster and lawyer John Adams in Massachusetts
asserted that no freeman should be subject to any tax to which he
had not assented. In theory, colonists had the same rights as
Englishmen per their charters, but in fact, they were not
represented in Parliament and Englishmen in Parliament made the
laws which affected the colonists. They could not be members of
the House of Lords because they did not have property in England.
There were demonstrations and intimidation of stamp agents by the
Sons of Liberty. Merchants agreed to buy no more goods from
England. The stamp duty was repealed the same year it had been
enacted because it had been "attended with many inconveniences and
may be productive of consequences greatly detrimental to the
commercial interests of these kingdoms".

To counter the wide-scale running of goods to avoid the customs
tax, the customs office was reorganized in 1766 to have
commissions resident in the colonies and courts of admiralty
established there to expedite cases of smuggling. This angered the
colonists, especially Boston. Boston smuggling had become a common
and respectable business. It was the port of entry for molasses
from the West Indies from which New England rum was made and
exported. The entire molasses trade that was essential to the New
England economy had been built upon massive customs evasions;
royal customs officials had participated in this by taking token
customs for the sake of appearance on London and thereby had
become rich.

In 1766 Parliament imposed a duty of 3d. per pound weight on tea
and duties on reams of paper, glass, and lead into the colonies.
These import duties were presented as external rather than
internal taxes to counter the rationale the colonies gave against
the stamp tax. But these items were of common use and their duties
raised the cost of living. The king's customs officials were
authorized to enter any house, warehouse, shop, or cellar to
search for and seize prohibited or uncustomed goods by a general
writ of assistance.

These writs of assistance had been authorized before and had
angered Bostonians because they had been issued without probable
cause. In Paxton's case of 1761, the Massachusetts Superior Court
had declared legal the issuance of general writs of assistance to
customs officers to search any house for specific goods for which
customs had not been paid. The authority for this was based on the
Parliamentary statutes of 1660 and 1662 authorizing warrants to be
given to any person to enter, with the assistance of a public
official any house where contraband goods were suspected to be
concealed, to search for and seize those goods, using force if
necessary. They were called "writs of assistance" because the
bearer could command the assistance of a local public official in
making entry and seizure. A "general" writ of assistance differed
from a "special" writ of assistance in that the latter was issued
on a one-time basis. The general writ of assistance in Boston was
good for six months after the death of the issuing sovereign.
Authority relied on for such writs was a 1696 statute giving
customs officers in the colonies the same powers as those in
England, a 1699 act by the Massachusetts Provincial Legislature
giving the Superior Court of Massachusetts the same such power as
that of the Exchequer, and the Massachusetts' Governor's direction
about 1757 to the Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature to
perform the function of issuing such warrants. The Massachusetts
court issued them in the nature of the writs of assistance issued
from the Exchequer court in England, but had issued them routinely
instead of requiring the showing of probable cause based on sworn
information that the Exchequer court required. Few judges in the
other American colonies granted the writ.

Seditious libel trials in England and the colonies were followed
closely and their defendants broadly supported. John Wilkes, a
member of the House of Commons,  published a criticism of a new
minister in 1763. He called King George's speech on a treaty "the
most abandoned instance of ministerial effrontery ever attempted
to  be imposed on mankind". After being found guilty of seditious
libel, he again ran for the House of Commons, and was repeatedly
elected and expelled. He was subsequently elected alderman,
sheriff, and mayor of London. In 1770, Alexander MacDougall was
voted guilty of seditious libel by the New York Colonial Assembly
for authoring a handbill which denounced a collusive agreement by
which the assembly voted to furnish supplies for the British
troops in New York in exchange for the royal governor's signature
to a paper-money bill. When he was arrested, the Sons of Liberty
rallied to his support, demanding freedom of the press. Benjamin
Franklin's brother had been imprisoned for a month by the
Massachusetts assembly for printing in his newspaper criticisms of
the assembly. He was forbidden to print the paper. Benjamin
supported him by publishing extracts from other papers, such as
"Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom;
and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech

Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by
subduing the freeness of speech; a thing terrible to public
traitors."

By statute of 1766, the New York house of representatives was
prohibited from meeting or voting until they provisioned the
King's troops as required by law.

In 1769, Harvard College seated its students in class in
alphabetical order instead of by social rank according to birth.

By 1769, the colonies' boycott of British goods in protest of the
new duties cause these imports to decline so much that British
merchants protested. So the duties were dropped, except for that
on tea, which was retained as a matter of principle to assert the
power of the crown to tax the colonies. Then in 1773 the East
India Company was allowed to sell tea directly to the colonies to
help it avoid bankruptcy. The effect of this was to lower the cost
of tea in the colonies because the English middleman, and the
American middleman, but also to give the East India Company a
monopoly. The colonies felt threatened by this power of Britain to
give monopolies to traders. When the tea ships arrived in Boston
in late 1773, Bostonians held a town meeting and decided not to
let the tea be landed. They threw this cargo of tea, worth about
18,000 pounds, overboard. This Boston Tea Party was a direct
challenge to British authority. In response, Parliament closed the
port of Boston until compensation was made to the East India
Company. By statute of 1774, no one may enter or exit the port of
Boston or forfeit goods, arms, stores, and boats carrying goods to
ships. Every involved wharf keeper shall forfeit treble the value
of the goods and any boats, horses, cattle, or carriages used.
Ships hovering nearby must depart within six hours of an order by
a navy ship or customs officer or be forfeited with all goods
aboard, except for ships carrying fuel or victuals brought
coastwise for necessary use and sustenance of inhabitants after
search by customs officers, and with a customs official and armed
men for his defense on board. This statute is passed because of
dangerous commotions and insurrections in Boston to the subversion
of the king's government and destruction of the public peace in
which valuable cargoes of tea were destroyed. Later, the Governor
was given the right to send colonists or magistrates charged with
murder or other capital offenses, such as might be alleged to
occur in the suppression of riots or enforcement of the revenue
laws, to England or another colony for trial when he opined that
an indifferent trial could not be had in Massachusetts Bay. A
later statute that year altered the charter of Massachusetts Bay
province so that the choice of its council was transferred from
the people to the Crown to serve at his pleasure, and the
appointment and removal of judges and appointment of sheriffs was
transferred to the Governor to be made without the consent of the
council. This was due to the open resistance to the execution of
the laws in Boston. Further, no meeting of freeholders or
inhabitants of townships may be held without consent of the
Governor after expressing the special business of such meeting
because there had been too many meetings passing dangerous and
unwarranted resolutions. Also, jurors were to be selected by
sheriffs rather than elected by freeholders and inhabitants.

The commander of the British troops in North America was made
Governor. King George thought that the colonists must be reduced
to absolute obedience, even if ruthless force was necessary. The
people of Massachusetts were incensed. They were all familiar with
the rights of Magna Carta since mandatory education taught them
all to read and write. (Every township of fifty households had to
appoint one to teach all children to read and write. Every one
hundred families had to set up a grammar school.) The example in
Massachusetts showed other colonies what England was prepared to
do to them. Also disliked was the policy of restricting settlement
west of the Allegheny mountains; the take over of Indian affairs
by royal appointees; the maintenance of a standing army of about
6,000 men which was to be quartered, supplied, and transported by
the colonists; and expanded restrictions on colonial paper
currencies.

The Virginia House of Burgesses set aside the effective date of
the port bill as a day of prayer and fasting, and for this was
dissolved by its governor. Whereupon its members called a
convention of delegates from the colonies to consider the "united
interests of America". This congress met and decided to actively
resist British policy. As opposition to British rule spread in the
colonies, a statute was passed that because of the combinations
and disorders in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut,
and Rhode Island to the destruction of commerce and violation of
laws, these inhabitants should not enjoy the same privileges and
benefits of trade as obedient subjects and therefore no goods or
wares may be brought from there to any other colony, and exports
to and imports from Great Britain were restricted, on pain of
forfeiting the goods and the ship on which they were laden. There
was also restriction of their vessels fishing off Newfoundland.
These conditions were to be in force until the Governors were
convinced that peace and obedience to laws was restored. Later in
1775, these trade restrictions were extended to New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. In 1776,
because all the thirteen colonies had assembled an armed force and
attacked British forces, these trade restrictions were extended to
Delaware, New York, Georgia, and North Carolina and expanded to
prohibit all trade during the present rebellion to prevent
assistance to them. War had started; the new rifle was used
instead of the musket.

By statute of 1775, anyone harboring of army or marine deserters
in the colonies must forfeit 5 pounds, and persuading a soldier or
marine to desert drew a forfeiture of 40 pounds or else up to six
months in prison without bail and one hour in the pillory on
market day.

Bounties were made available to vessels from and fitted out in
Great Britain for Newfoundland fishing.

Any shipmaster carrying as passengers any fisherman, sailor, or
artificer to America shall forfeit 200 pounds because such men
have been seduced from British fishing vessels in Newfoundland, to
the detriment of the fishing industry.

The many years of significant achievements of the colonists, such
as taming the wilderness and building cities, had given them
confidence in their ability to govern themselves. The average
colonial family had a better standard of living than the average
family in England. Many of its top citizenry had reached their
positions by hard work applied to opportunities for upward
mobility. With the confidence of success, the American colonies in
1776 declared their independence from Britain, relying on the
principles stated by John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau that man
was naturally free and all men equal, and that society was only
created with their consent. Issac's Newtons's unified laws of the
universe had contributed to this idea of a natural law of rights
of men. Thomas Jefferson wrote a Declaration of Independence which
listed the colonies' grievances against the Crown which reiterated
many of the provisions of the Petition of Right and Bill of
Rights, specifically dispensing with and suspending laws,
maintaining a standing army and quartering troops without
legislative consent, imposing arbitrary taxation, encouraging
illegal prosecutions in strange courts, and corrupting the jury
process. It was adopted on July 4, 1776.



                              - The Law -

Trade and the economy boomed in time of war, buttressed by the
increased production in the coal, iron, steel, shipbuilding, and
cloth industries. But peace brought depression and much misery,
including the imprisonment of many debtors. When many were
imprisoned, statutes allowed release on certain conditions. After
assets were paid to creditors in proportion to the amounts owed to
them, debtors may be discharged from prison if they owe no party
more than 100 pounds (later no restriction and still later, 50
pounds, and even later, 500 pounds, and in 1772, 1000 pounds, and
in 1774, 2000 pounds) and take an oath that they have less than 10
(20 in 1772) pounds worth of property (including 40s. in money in
1774), because there are so many debtors in prison who were
impoverished by war losses and other misfortunes in trades and
professions and are totally disabled from paying their creditors
and they and their families either starve or are a burden to their
parishes and become an occasion of pestilence and other contagious
diseases. Excepted are those objected to by a creditor who pays
for the maintenance of the debtor in prison. Prisoners discharged
are also discharged from chamber rent and gaolers' fees, but not
from their debts to creditors. Except that no male prisoner may be
discharged during war unless he enlists in the royal army or navy
until the end of the war. In 1774, the discoverer of any asset not
listed by a debtor was to receive 20 pounds per hundred, and
anyone concealing an asset of a debtor was to forfeit 100 pounds
and double the value of the asset.

A person declared bankrupt shall subsequently be examined from
time to time as to their goods, money, or other effects or estate
to prevent the frauds frequently committed by bankrupts. A default
or willful omission shall be deemed felony without benefit of
clergy.

A bankrupt or other person concealing goods to the value of at
least 20 pounds or his books with intent to defraud is a felony
without benefit of clergy.

A debtor refusing to come to court for examination or hiding
assets of more than 20 pounds is guilty of felony and his goods
and estate shall be divided among his creditors.

Later, a bankrupt coming to an examination was allowed to keep 5
(or 7 1/2 or 10) pounds per 100, up to a maximum of 200 (or 250 or
300, respectively) pounds if he paid his creditors 10s. (or
12s.6d. or 15s. respectively) per pound. His future estate was
still liable to creditors (excepting tools of trade, necessary
household goods, bedding, furniture, and wearing apparel of the
family up to 10 pounds) if it could pay every creditor 15s. per
pound. If he didn't pay this, he could be imprisoned. Bankrupts
excepted from the benefits of this act are those who lost 5 pounds
in any one day or 100 pounds in the preceding year from gambling
or wagers.

No goods or chattels on lands or tenements which are leased for
life or lives or term of years or at will or otherwise "shall be
liable to be taken by virtue of any Execution on any pretence
whatsoever unless the party at whose suit the said Execution is
sued out shall before the removal of such goods from off the said
premises by virtue of such Execution or Extent pay to the
landlord" all money due as rent. If the lessee fraudulently or
clandestinely conveys or carries off his goods or chattels with
intent to deprive the landlord or lessor from distraining the same
for arrears of such rent, the lessor or landlord may, within five
days, seize such goods and chattels as a distress for the arrears
of rent and may sell them as if actually distrained on the
premises.

Every person under 21 and every woman-covert who is entitled by
descent or will to be admitted tenants of any copyhold lands or
hereditaments may be ordered to appear by a guardian or attorney
to be compelled to be so admitted and to pay such fines as are
owing by the lands. If one is so admitted, but does not pay, the
lord may enter the lands and receive its rents (but not sell
timber) until the fine and costs are satisfied, after which the
land is to be given back and may not be forfeited to the lord.

Tenants holding over any lands after their term expired and after
demand for possession was made shall pay double the yearly value
of such to the landlord. The landlord may reenter and eject a
tenant if rent is in arrears for 1/2 year.

Landlords may distrain within 30 days and sell goods and chattels
fraudulently or clandestinely carried off the premises by renters
in arrears of rent. This applies to goods sold to others privy to
the fraud. They may use force if necessary to break open houses
upon giving a Justice of the Peace reasonable grounds to suspect
and to break open other buildings in the presence of a constable.
The renter is to forfeit double the value of such. The landlord
may distrain the renter's cattle on any common or any growing
grain, roots, or fruit. Attornments of renters made to strangers
who claim title and turn the landlord out of possession are void.

Chief leases may be renewed without surrendering all the under
leases. This is to prevent subtenants from delaying the renewal of
the principal lease by refusing to surrender their leases,
notwithstanding that they have covenanted to do so. But the rents
and duties of the new subleases may not exceed those of their
former leases.

Any person claiming a remainder, reversion, or expectancy in any
estate after the death of any person who has cause to believe that
that person is dead and the death is being concealed by the
person's guardian, trustee, husband, or other person may yearly
request an order in chancery for the production of such tenant for
life. Upon refusal, the tenant for life shall be deemed dead.

As of 1752, all devices, legacies, and bequests made by will in
Great Britain or the colonies is void if not in writing and
witnessed by three witnesses. No witness may receive under the
will.

An accessory before or after the fact of felony may be prosecuted
and tried not only if the principal accused felon has been
convicted, but even if he stood mute or peremptorily challenged
over 20 persons to serve on the jury. The accessories shall be
punished the same as if the principal had been attainted. Buyers
and receivers of stolen goods may be prosecuted and punished if
they knew the goods to be stolen, even if the principal felon has
not been convicted. The punishment will be as for misdemeanor by
fine and imprisonment. This is to deter the counselors and
contrivers of theft and other felonies and the receivers of stolen
goods from taking advantage of the former rule that an accessory
could not be convicted or punished unless the principal had first
been attainted. And if any captain or mariner or other officer
belonging to any ship willfully casts away, burns, or otherwise
destroys that ship to the prejudice of its owners or merchants
loading goods onto the ship, he shall suffer death as a felon.

Journeymen shoemakers or employees of such who sell or pawn boots,
shoes, slippers, cut leather or other materials for making such
goods which are not his proper goods, or exchange for worse good
leather which has been entrusted to them, shall for the first
offense, recompense the injured person, or if his goods are
insufficient for distress, may be whipped. For the second offense,
he shall be sent to hard labor in a House of Correction for 14-30
days. A person who buys or receives or takes in pawn such goods
shall suffer the same penalties. Justices of the Peace may issue
warrants to search houses and buildings in the daytime if there is
"just cause to suspect" such goods therein based upon information
given to him under oath.

Anyone employed in the working up of woolen, linen, fustian,
cotton, or iron manufacture who embezzles or purloins any
materials for their work shall forfeit double the value of the
damages done and anyone convicted thereof may be put into the
House of Correction until he pays, or if he can't pay, to be
publicly whipped and kept at hard labor for no more than 14 days.
Persons convicted of buying or receiving such materials shall
suffer like penalties and forfeitures as one convicted of
embezzling or purloining such materials. Laborers employed in such
manufacture must be paid in coin and not in cloth, victuals, or
commodities in lieu thereof. Leatherworkers were added with a
penalty of up to double the value. Later this statute was amended
to include a penalty for the second offense of forfeiture of four
times the value, or else hard labor at a House of Correction for
1-3 months and whipping once or more in the market town. Like
penalties were given for buyers of such material knowing it to be
false. One who neglected finishing and delivering such goods
because he was leaving this employment were to be sent to the
House of Correction for up to one month.

The penalty for possessing or offering to sell any hare, pheasant,
partridge, moor or heath game or grouse by any carrier, innkeeper,
victualler, or alehouse keeper is 5 pounds, 1/2 to the informer,
and 1/2 to the poor of the parish. If unable to pay, the offender
shall be placed in the House of Correction for three months
without bail. Unauthorized persons keeping or using greyhounds,
setting dogs, or any engine to kill game shall suffer the same
penalties. In 1770, anyone killing hare at night or using any gun,
dog, or other engine to take or kill or destroy any hare,
pleasant, partridge, moor game, heath game, or grouse in the night
shall go to gaol or the House of Correction for 3-6 months without
bail and whipped for the first offense and for 6-12 months without
bail and whipped for any further offense. If such occurs on a
Sunday, the offender must forfeit 20-30 pounds or go to gaol for
3-6 months. In 1773, no one may kill or take or possess any heath
fowl or any grouse except at a limited period during the year.

Each manor may have only one gamekeeper allowed to kill game such
as hare, pheasant, partridge and only for his household's use.
This gamekeeper must be either qualified by law or a servant of
the land's lord. Other persons possessing game or keeping a
greyhound or setting dogs or guns or other devices to kill game
must forfeit them and five pounds.

Anyone killing or attempting to kill by shooting any house dove or
pigeon shall forfeit 20s. or do hard labor for one to three
months. Excepted are owners of dove cotes or pigeon houses erected
for the preservation and breeding of such.

A gamekeeper or other officer of a forest or park who kills a deer
without consent of the owner must forfeit 50 pounds per deer, to
be taken by distress if necessary, and if he can't pay, he is to
be imprisoned for three years without bail and set in the pillory
for two hours on some market day. A later penalty was
transportation for seven years. Anyone pulling down walls of any
forest or park where deer are kept without the consent of the
owner must forfeit 30 pounds and if he can't pay, he is to be
imprisoned for one year without bail and spend one hour in the
pillory on market day. Later, the killing of deer in open fields
or forests was given the same penalties instead of only the
monetary penalty prescribed by former law (former chapter). The
penalty for a second offense was given as transportation for seven
years. Anyone beating or wounding a gamekeeper with an intent to
kill any deer in an open or closed place was to be transported for
seven years.

Anyone who apprehends and prosecutes a person guilty of burglary
or felonious breaking and entering any house in the day time shall
be rewarded 40 pounds in addition to being discharged from parish
and ward offices.

Anyone who feloniously steals or aids in the stealing of goods,
wares, or merchandise over 5s. from a shop, warehouse, coach
house, or stable (by night or by day, whether the owner is present
or not, whether there is a break in or not) may not have benefit
of clergy.

Anyone stealing goods of 40s. worth from a ship on any river or in
any port or creek or from any wharf may not have benefit of
clergy.

Anyone receiving or buying goods they know to be stolen or who
harbors or conceals any burglars, felons, or thieves knowing them
to be such shall be taken as accessory to the felony and shall
suffer death as punishment if the principal felon is convicted.

A person taking money or reward for helping any other person to
stolen goods or chattels is guilty of felony unless he brings the
thief to trial.

As of 1717, any person convicted of grand or petit larceny or any
felonious stealing or taking of money, goods, or chattels, either
from the person or from the house of any person who is entitled to
benefit of clergy and who is liable only to whipping or burning in
the hand may instead be transported to the American colonies to
the use of any person who will pay for his transportation for
seven years. Any person convicted of an offense punishable by
death and without benefit of clergy and buyers and receivers of
stolen goods may be given mercy by the king on condition of
transportation to any part of America to the use of any person who
will pay for his transportation, for fourteen years or other term
agreed upon. Returning before the expiration of the term is
punishable by death.

Anyone assaulting another with an offensive weapon with a design
to rob may be transported for seven years.

Any person armed with swords, fire-arms, or other offensive
weapons and having their faces blackened or otherwise being
disguised, who appears in any forest, park, or grounds enclosed by
a wall or fence wherein deer are kept (including the king's deer)
or in any warren or place where hares or conies are kept or in any
high road, open heath, common, or down, or who unlawfully hunts,
wounds, kills, or steals any deer or steals any hare or rabbit or
steals any fish out of any river or pond or who unlawfully and
maliciously breaks down the head or mound of any fish pone,
causing the loss of fish, or who unlawfully and maliciously kills,
maims, or wounds any cattle, or who cuts down any trees planted in
any avenue or growing in any garden or orchard for ornament,
shelter, or profit, or who sets fire to any house, barn or out
house [outer building], hovel, or stack of grain, straw, hay or
wood, or who willfully  and maliciously shoots any person in any
dwelling house or other place, or who sends any letter with no
signature or a fictitious signature, demanding money, venison, or
other valuable thing, or who forcibly rescues any person lawfully
in custody for any of these offenses, or who procures others by
gift or promise of money or other reward to join with him in any
such unlawful act is guilty of felony and shall suffer death
without benefit of clergy. Persons abetting them are also guilty
of felony and shall suffer death without benefit of clergy.
Attainder shall not work corruption of the blood, loss of dower,
or forfeiture of lands, goods, or chattel. The persons sustaining
damages can recover 200 pounds or less from the hundred, with
inhabitants paying proportionately, unless one of the offenders is
convicted within six months. If other hundreds have not diligently
followed the hue and cry, they shall pay half such damages. In
1735, it was required that there be notice to the constable or
other officer or tythingman and public notice in the London
Gazette describing the robbery, offenders, and goods taken before
the hundred had to pay damages. Also, it did not have to pay
damages if one offender was apprehended with 40 days of
publication in the London Gazette, but did have to pay the
apprehender 10 pounds. In 1754 was also included letters
threatening killing people or burning houses, barns or stacks of
grain, hay, or straw, without any demand. Also, persons who
rescued such offenders from gaol were given the same penalty.

Later, persons obtaining money or goods by false pretenses with an
intent to defraud or cheat or sending a letter without a true
signature threatening to accuse any person of a crime with an
intent to extort money or goods, are punishable by fine and
prison, pillory, or whipping or transportation for seven years.

Later, no person may recover more than 200 pounds after a hue and
cry unless there are at least two witnesses to the robbery.

No one may advertise a reward for return of things stolen or lost
with no questions asked, because this has resulted in thefts and
robberies.

Justices of the Peace may authorize constables and other peace
officers to enter any house to search for stolen venison. Any
person apprehending an offender or causing such to be convicted
who is killed or wounded so as to lose an eye or the use of a limb
shall receive 50 pounds. Any person buying suspect venison or skin
of deer shall produce the seller or be punished the same as a deer
killer: 30 pounds or, if he couldn't pay, one year in prison
without bail and one hour in the pillory on market day. An
offender who discloses his accomplices and their occupations and
places of abode and discovers where they may be found and they are
subsequently convicted, shall be pardoned.

Anyone stealing sheep or cattle or parts thereof is a felon and
shall suffer death without benefit of clergy.

Persons who steal or aid in stealing any lead, iron bar, iron
gate, palisadoe, or iron rail fixed to any house or its outhouses,
garden, orchard, or courtyard is guilty of felony and may be
transported for seven years. In 1756 also included was copper,
brass, bell-metal, and solder; buyers and receivers; and mills,
warehouses, workshops, wharves, ships, barges, and other vessels.
Search warrants were authorized in case of suspicion. Officers and
solicited buyers and receivers were required to take persons who
at night were reasonably suspected of having or carrying such
items, to an accounting before a Justice of the Peace. Also a
notice was put in the newspaper for any owners to claim such. If
the person did not give a satisfactory account of the items, he
was guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by forfeiture of 2 pounds
or prison up to one month for the first offense, 4 pounds or
prison for two months for the second offense, and 6 pounds or
prison for any subsequent offense (without bail). An officer or
solicited buyer or receiver who did not take a suspect to a
Justice of the Peace was punishable by the same penalties except
the amounts of forfeiture were 1 pound, 2 pounds, and 4 pounds
respectively. A felon who brought two buyers or receivers to
justice was to be pardoned.

A description of any goods and the appearance of a rogue or
vagabond or idle and disorderly person shall be advertised in a
public paper for identification by the owner as stolen.

Pawning goods without consent of the owner is punishable by
forfeiture of 20s. or hard labor for fourteen days with whipping
there.

Maliciously destroying river banks resulting in lands being
overflowed or damaged is a felony for which one shall suffer death
without benefit of clergy. Later, transportation for seven years
was made an alternative.

All persons pretending to be patent gatherers or collectors for
prison gaols or hospitals and all fencers, bearwards, common
players of interludes, minstrels, jugglers, and pretended gypsies,
and those dressing like Egyptians or pretending to have skill in
physiognomy, palm-reading, or like crafty science, or pretending
to tell fortunes, and beggars, and all persons able in body who
run away and leave their wives or children to the parish shall be
deemed rogues and vagabonds. Apprehenders of such persons bringing
them before a Justice of the Peace may be rewarded 2s. Any
constable not apprehending such shall forfeit 10s. Persons
wandering outside the place determined by a Justice of the Peace
to be his settlement may be whipped on the back until it is bloody
or sent to hard labor at a House of Correction. If he was
dangerous and incorrigible, for instance as indicated by swearing
falsely before a Justice of the Peace, he could suffer both
punishments with the whipping being on three market days. If he
escaped from the House of Correction, it was felony. If he has
been absent for more than two years, he could be put out as an
apprentice for seven years in the realm, in the colonies, or in a
British factory beyond the seas. Included later were performers
for gain from outside their parish of any play, tragedy, comedy,
opera, farce or other entertainment of the stage, including
performances in public places where wine, ale, beer, or other
liquors are sold, or forfeit 50 pounds. Excluded were performances
authorized by the king in Westminster.

Unlicensed places of entertainment are deemed disorderly (like
bawdy houses and gaming houses) because they increase idleness,
which produces mischief and inconvenience. Persons therein may be
seized by a constable. Persons keeping such a place shall forfeit
100 pounds. No licensed place of entertainment may be opened until
5:00 p.m.

Later there was an award of 5s. for apprehending a person leaving
his wife and children to the parish, living idly, refusing to work
at going rates, or going from door or placing themselves in the
streets to beg. This includes begging by persons who pretend to be
soldiers, mariners, seafaring men, or harvest workers. These
rogues and vagabonds shall be sent to hard labor at a House of
Correction for up to one month. The real soldiers, mariners,
seafaring men, and harvest workers shall carry official documents
indicating their route and limiting the time of such passage.

Persons pretending to be lame who beg are to be removed. If he
comes back to beg, his back may be whipped until bloody. If a
constable neglects this duty, he shall forfeit 10s.

Masters of ships bringing in vagabonds or beggars from Ireland or
the colonies shall forfeit five pounds for each one. This money
shall be used for reconveying such people back at a price
determined by a Justice of the Peace. A master of a ship refusing
to take such a person shall forfeit five pounds. These vagabonds
and beggars may be whipped.

Anyone who profanely curses or swears shall suffer the following
penalties: day laborer, common soldier, common sailor, common
seaman - 1s., anyone else below the degree of gentleman - 2s.,
gentlemen and above - 5s., and for the second offense, a double
fine, for further offense, a treble fine. If a person can't pay,
he shall be put to hard labor at a House of Correction for ten
days, or if a common soldier, common sailor, or common seaman, he
shall be set in the stocks for 1-2 hours. This is to prevent the
provocation of divine vengeance.

Anyone setting up or maintaining lotteries or deceitful games must
forfeit 200 pounds, or go to prison up to 6 months. Any one who
plays at such, such as by drawing lots or using cards or dice,
must forfeit 50 pounds. Sales of lottery items, such as houses,
lands, plate, jewels, or ships, are void and these items will be
forfeited to any person who sues. Such have caused many families
to become impoverished, especially through their children or
through the servants of gentlemen, traders, and merchants.
Backgammon games are exempt. Later, People who lost up to ten
pounds in deceitful gaming were allowed to sue to recover this
money from the winners. Also, anyone winning or losing ten pounds
at one time or twenty pounds within 24 hours shall be fined five
times the value of such. Offenders discovering others, who are
convicted, are indemnified from all penalties and shall be
admitted to give evidence.

No one may run more than one horse, mare, or gelding in a horse
race. No prize may be under 50 pounds value. This is because a
great number of horse races for small prizes have contributed to
idleness, to the impoverishment of the meaner sort of people, and
has prejudiced the breed of strong and useful horses.

Wagers and agreements in the nature of puts and refusals relating
to prices of stocks or securities are void. Those making or
executing such agreements must forfeit 500 pounds. Those selling
stock which one does not possess must forfeit 500 pounds. Brokers
negotiating such agreements must forfeit 100 pounds.

Only a person with an interest in the life or death of another may
have insurance on this other, to prevent the mischievous kind of
gaming that has been introduced.

The punishment for forgery or counterfeiting or assisting in such
or claiming a counterfeit item is good while knowing that it is
not, with an intent to defraud is death without benefit of clergy.
The punishment for perjury or subordination of perjury is hard
labor in the House of correction for up to seven years or
transportation for up to seven years. The punishment for altering
numbers on bills of exchange or other payment papers is death.

It is high treason to counterfeit the coinage. A person who
tenders coin, knowing it to be false, shall spend six months in
prison and acquire sureties for good behavior for the next six
months. If he offends again, he shall spend two years in prison
and acquire sureties for good behavior for the next two years. The
third offense is felony without benefit of clergy.

In 1773, makers, aiders, or possessors of any frame, mould, or
instrument for forging paper notes of the Bank of England and
putting this identification thereon is felony for which one shall
suffer death without benefit of clergy. Anyone who forges
promissory notes, bills of exchange, or inland bills of the Bank
of England by engraving or etching on metal or wood "Bank of
England" or "Bank Post Bill" shall go to gaol for up to six
months.

Anyone selling gold or silver ware, vessel, plate or other item
large enough to be marked which has not been marked by its maker
shall forfeit 10 pounds or be kept at hard labor up to six months.
Anyone counterfeiting such mark shall forfeit 100 pounds. Later,
vendors of these items were required to be licensed and the
penalty for counterfeiting was raised to felony for which one
shall suffer death without benefit of clergy. Later still,
transportation for fourteen years was allowed as an alternative.
If an item was not all silver, e.g. had metal underneath, 100
pounds was to be forfeited.

In 1769, receivers of stolen jewels and gold and silver plate and
watches knowing them to be stolen, in cases of burglary and
highway robbery, may be transported for 14 years.

Apples and pears may not be sold by any measure other than a
standard water measure, or forfeit 10s., one-half to the informer,
and one-half to the poor, except for measures sealed by the
Company of Fruiterers. This is to decrease the suits between
buyers and sellers.

There shall be enough silver and gold on silver and gold plated
silk thread and wire so that it does not crumble off, thereby
wasting the bullion of the nation. This is also to encourage its
export by making it competitive in trade with such foreign
articles, which may not be imported.

Malt to be sold or exported must not be fraudulently mixed with
unmalted grain to lower duties payable or forfeit 5s.

Any one who adulterates coffee with water, grease, butter, and
such shall forfeit 20 pounds, 1/2 to the king, and 1/2 to the
suer.

Walnut tree leaves, hop leaves, sycamore leaves and such may not
be made to imitate tobacco leaves for sale or forfeit 5s. per
pound.

Persons near London may not make unsound, hollow, or improperly
heated bricks.

Makers of narrow woolen cloths must weave or set in the head of
every piece his initials or forfeit one pound. This is to prevent
frauds and abuses, particularly in stretching and straining the
cloth. The fulling mill owner must append his seal of lead with
his name and with his measurements. The searcher to be appointed
must measure such cloths when wet for conformity to standard
measurements and append his seal with his measurements. He may
also inspect any places he chooses.

In 1774, wool making employees not returning all working tools and
implements and wool and all materials with which entrusted back to
their employer or who fraudulently steams, damps, or waters such
wool or who takes off any mark on any piece of cloth shall go to
the House of Correction for one month. If he absconds with or
sells such or anyone fraudulently buys or receives such from him,
a search warrant may be issued to seize any other such tools or
material. If found, the person may be brought to account before a
Justice of the Peace, and if the account is not satisfactory, he
shall forfeit such. A search warrant may also be issued for houses
on "just cause to suspect" by oath of a credible witness. For a
second offense, the penalty is up to three months in a House of
Correction. For a third offense, the penalty is up to six months
in a House of Correction and public whipping.

Bakers must mark their bread with W for white, WH for wheaten, and
H for household or forfeit 20s. to the informer. In 1758, a new
assize of bread set prices for rye, barley, oats, and beans by the
bushel. The prices for the three qualities of wheat, for wheaten
(prized and unprized), and for household grain by the bushel were
to be determined from within a statutory range by the local Mayor
or Justice of the Peace. Mayors and Justices of the Peace were to
determine a fair profit for their local bakers for all the types
of bread. A miller, mealman, or baker adulterating bread was to
forfeit 40s. 10 pounds, part of which money could be used in
publishing his name, abode, and offense in the local newspaper.
Later, there was a forfeiture of 1-5s. for every ounce
underweight. Household bread was to be 1/4 cheaper than wheaten or
forfeit 10-40s. Bread inferior to wheaten was not to be sold at a
price higher than household or forfeit up to 20s. If the
forfeiture was not paid, it could be levied by distress, or
otherwise the offender was to spend one month in gaol or a House
of Correction.

Straw to be sold in London must be sound, firmly bound in a truss,
and of a given weight or forfeit it and 20s. if no truss, and 1s.
if in truss but underweight or of mixed quality. Handlers must
keep registers of sellers, buyers, weights, dates of sale, and
prices or forfeit 10-20s.

Frame-work knitted pieces and stockings shall be marked with the
correct number of threads by the master, frame-work knitter, or
master hosier, or forfeit the goods and 5 pounds. If a journeyman
apprentice, or servant employ does not mark correctly, he shall
forfeit the goods and 5s.-40s. Sellers of such shall forfeit the
goods and 5 pounds per piece.

At every fishing season, the quantity of salt, foreign or
domestic, used by a proprietor for curing fish for export shall be
accounted and sworn to so that it can be compared with the
quantity of fish exported by the proprietor to ensure that the
salt duties are fully paid, or forfeit 40 pounds. If such salt is
sold for other uses than curing fish, the proprietor is to forfeit
20s. per bushel sold and the users thereof, to forfeit 20s. per
bushel bought, delivered, or used. If one can't pay, he is to be
whipped and put to hard labor in a House of Correction for up to
three months.

Agreements between coal owners, lightermen, fitters, master or
owners of ships, hindering the free sale, loading, and unloading,
navigating, or disposing of coals are illegal, null, and void.
This is engrossing and has caused the price of coals to go up.

No coal trader or dealer may use his own lighters, barges, or
other vessels to carry coals on the Thames River to and from any
ship and to and from any wharf, dock, or creek because this has
impaired the business of the watermen and wherrymen, whose vessels
must now be registered and display such mark on their hulls. No
lightermen nor buyers of coals may act as agent for any master or
owner of a ship importing coals into London or forfeit 200 pounds,
because this combination has caused the price of coal to go up.
Selling one sort of coal for another is punishable by forfeiture
of 500 pounds. Only standard size coal sacks may be used for
selling coal and they must be sealed and stamped by an official at
the Guildhouse before sale. The mayor and aldermen of London may
set the price of coals coming into this port. In other areas,
Justices of the Peace set the prices of coals which allowed "a
competent profit". If a merchant refused to sell at that price,
the Justice of the Peace could authorize seizure and sale by
officers.

Later, coal measurers must give the coal cart driver a ticket with
the name of the sellers and consumers, the quantity and quality of
the coal, its price, the date of sale, and the name of the cart
driver or forfeit 5 pounds. The cart driver must give this ticket
to the consumer or forfeit 5 pounds. If coal is carried by cart
without a ticket, the seller forfeits 50 pounds and the driver 5
pounds.

Anyone who willfully and maliciously set on fire any mine or pit
of coal is guilty of felony and shall suffer death without benefit
of clergy. Anyone who willfully and maliciously floods a coal
work, mine pit or who makes underground cavities or passages with
intent to destroy or damage such, or obstructs any sough or sewer
made for draining such, which has been held in common for 50
years, shall forfeit treble damages. This is to deter these
offenses, which have been done to enhance the price of coals and
gain a monopoly thereof.

If twelve or more people who riotously and tumultuously assemble
and disturb the peace, do not disburse within an hour of an order
to disburse by a justice or sheriff or mayor, they shall be deemed
felons without benefit of clergy. Any people pulling down or
destroying a church, dwelling house, barn, stable, or other out
house; any mill; any engine used for draining water from any coal,
lead, tin, or copper mines, or for drawing coals from mines; or
bridge, wagon, or fences used in such industry will be deemed
felons without benefit of clergy and may be transported for seven
years. The cost of repair is to be borne by the hundred or town.

Owners of timber trees, fruit trees, and others used for shelter,
ornament, or profit which are cut down or otherwise destroyed
shall be made good by his parish or town, as are hedges and dikes
overthrown by persons in the night. In 1765, anyone cutting down
or destroying any oak or other timber trees at night shall forfeit
up to 20 pounds for the first offense, up to 30 pounds for the
second offense, and shall be transported to the colonies for seven
years for any further offense. Anyone digging up or destroying or
carrying away any root, shrub, or plant worth up to 5s. in a
garden, nursery, or other enclosed ground at night shall forfeit
up to 2 pounds for the first offense, up to 5 pounds for the
second offense, and shall be transported to the colonies for seven
years for any further offense. Anyone not paying was to be gaoled.
Aiders and buyers who knew the item was stolen incurred the same
penalties. Later, many other types of trees, such as beach, ash,
elm, cedar, and walnut were included as timber trees, and hollies,
thorns, and quicksets included as plants.

The previous statute that substituted burning in the cheek for
burning in the hand is repealed because this not only did not
deter offenders, but on the contrary, made them unfit for honest
livelihoods and therefore more desperate. Those convicted of theft
or larceny shall be burnt in the hand and may be kept at hard
labor in a House of Correction for 2-24 months, without bail.

Persons using violence to hinder the purchase or transportation of
grain, e.g. by beating or wounding a buyer; beating or wounding
the driver or horse of a cart loaded with wheat, flour, meal,
malt, or other grain, or cutting the harness of or driving away
the horse, or cutting or carrying away the sacks of grain is to be
put in the common gaol or House of Correction with hard labor for
1-3 months, and whipped in the market place between 11:00 and
2:00. The penalty for a second offense or for destroying a
storehouse or granary where grain is kept to be exported or for
taking or spoiling such grain, or for throwing such off a ship or
vessel is transportation for seven years. The hundreds concerned
are to pay damages up to a total of 100 pounds, but only if notice
is given to the constable within two days and there is an oath and
examination before a Justice of the Peace within ten days of the
owner or his servants. If any offender is convicted within a year,
the hundreds are released.

Anyone who steals at night any cloth or wool or woolen goods set
out to dry on  racks shall forfeit treble damages, or if he can't
pay, be sent to prison for three months without bail. For the
second offense, he shall forfeit treble damages and be sent to
prison for six months without bail. For the third offense, he
shall be transported for seven years. Upon complaint, a Justice of
the Peace may authorize a constable or other peace officer to
enter and search houses, outhouses, yards, and gardens of a person
suspected by the owner. This person shall account to the Justice
of the Peace and may bring a witness to his purchase of the items.
If the account is unsatisfactory, he shall be penalized.

Anyone taking linens, fustians, or cottons set out for whitening,
bleaching, or printing up to the value of 10s. in lands, grounds,
or buildings may be transported for seven years. Later, this
penalty was increased to death without benefit of clergy or
transportation for fourteen years.

Anyone stealing or maliciously pulling up or destroying any
turnips on a person's land must pay damages or go to gaol for up
to one month. He may be whipped. The penalty for a second offense
is three months in a House of Correction. This statute of 1750
was, in 1773, extended to include potatoes, cabbages, parsnips,
peas, and carrots. A penalty up to 10s. was added. Evidence of the
owner was to be taken.

In 1769, anyone who steals a dog or receives such knowing it to be
stolen shall forfeit 20-30 pounds for the first offense, and 30-50
pounds for the second offense or go to gaol or the House of
Correction for 12-18 months and be publicly whipped there. Search
warrants may be issued to search for stolen dogs or their skins.
One-half of the forfeiture will go to the informer.

Persons pretending witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment, or
conjuration; or telling fortunes; or pretending by occult
knowledge to discover the location of stolen goods may be
imprisoned for one year without bail and put in the pillory in the
market place once in every quarter of such year.

Anyone stealing goods off shipwrecks, or putting out a false light
to bring a ship to danger, or beating or wounding with an intent
to kill or otherwise obstructing a person escaping from the ship
to save his life shall suffer death without benefit of clergy.
Except that good of small value taken without violence shall be
punished as petit larceny. The houses of suspect people may be
searched by warrant. If there are goods found or if people are
found offering goods to sell, they may be ordered by a justice to
give an account of these goods. If the account is not
satisfactory, the punishment is forfeiture of treble their value
or six months in prison. A reasonable reward may be given to the
discoverer. Anyone assaulting a magistrate or officer involved in
salvage work shall be transported for seven years.

Officers of the revenue who collude with importers to return to
them goods which have been seized for nonpayment of duties shall
forfeit 500 pounds and lose office, unless he discloses his
accomplices within two months. The importer shall forfeit treble
the value of such goods.

Armed person to the number of three assembled to assist in illegal
exporting or running, landing, or carrying away prohibited or
uncustomed goods and any person apprehended by any revenue
officer, and anyone with his face blackened or masked who
obstructs, assaults, opposes, or resists any revenue officer
seizing such goods, or who shoots at or maims or wounds any
revenue officer attempting to go on any ship shall suffer death as
felons without benefit of clergy or serve as a commons sailor in
the navy for at least one year. Harborers of such offenders will
be transported for seven years. The hundreds shall pay 100 pounds
for each revenue officer killed, and up to 40 pounds for each one
beaten, wounded, or maimed, and damages up to 200 pounds for
goods, unless an offender is caught and convicted in six months.
There is a reward of 500 pounds to an apprehender, and 50 pounds
for an attempt to apprehend in which one loses a limb or eye or is
maimed or wounded, and 100 pounds to his family if he is killed.
An offender who brings two of his accomplices to justice will be
acquitted and rewarded 50 pounds for each such accomplice. Later,
an incentive was given to customs officers to have a portion of
the proceeds of the sale of such goods seized by them, such as 2/3
for wrought silks and calicoes, and 1/3 for tea, coffee, foreign
brandy, and rum. Still later, any person could seize wrought silk,
including ribbons, laces, and girdles containing it, from the
importer or retailer, and the importer was to forfeit 100 pounds,
and any import assistants 50 pounds, and retailers or concealers
50 pounds, with one half going to the suer. Also, the goods were
to be publicly burnt. Still later, the penalty was increased to
forfeiture of 200 pounds for all offenders, but not including
wearers, and the goods were to be publicly sold for export rather
than burnt. Then the import of silk stockings, silk mitts, and
silk gloves was prohibited for the support of the English silk
industry. Retailers, sellers, and concealers of such were to
forfeit the goods and 200 pounds. Search warrants could be issued.
In 1765, importers, sellers, and manufacturing users of most
foreign wrought silks or velvets were to forfeit the goods and 100
pounds. The goods were sold for export with the proceeds going 1/2
to the king, and 1/2 to the seizing officer. The wearer was not
liable. The burden of proof of the place of manufacture was on the
person prosecuted rather than on the prosecutor. Persons breaking
into houses or shops to destroy any wool or silk being made or
tools or racks used shall suffer death as felons, to prevent
combinations of workmen. In 1768, bounties were made available to
American exporters of raw silk to Great Britain, whose climate was
not conducive to the growing of mulberry trees on which silk worms
feed. In 1774, cotton printed, stained, or dyed that has been
manufactured in Great Britain may be worn and used, but must have
a mark woven in the warp that it was manufactured in Great
Britain. Persons importing other such cloth shall forfeit it and
ten pounds per piece. Persons selling such with a counterfeit
stamp with an intent to defraud shall suffer death without benefit
of clergy. The protective measures for English silk manufacture
did not work well.

Any ship not more than 50 tons hovering on the coast with
customable or prohibited goods may be boarded by a customs
officer, who may demand bond for treble the value of the goods.

In 1724, persons contracting with artificers and manufacturers of
wool, iron, steel, brass, and other metals, clock-makers, watch-
makers to go to a foreign country and there receive greater wages
and advantages shall forfeit 100 pounds and spend 3 months in
prison for the first offense, and shall forfeit a sum determined
by the court and spend 12 months in prison for the second offense.
An artificer or manufacturer not returning after warning is given
by the ambassador is to forfeit hereditaments, goods, and lands
and to be deemed an alien. Later, in 1750, cotton and silk were
included and the penalty was increased to 500 pounds and 12 months
in gaol for the first offense, and 1000 pounds and 2 years in
prison for the second offense. Also, anyone exporting tools of
wool or silk manufacture was to forfeit the tools and 200 pounds.
This statute was strictly enforced. In 1774, tools of cotton and
linen manufacture were included.

In 1772, all statutes against engrossing, forestalling, and
regrating were repealed because they had prevented free trade and
tended to increase prices, e.g. of grain, meal, flour, cattle, and
other victuals.

Anyone assisting a felon (except for petty larceny) to try to
escape from gaol, is guilty of felony and shall be transported for
seven years. Anyone assisting a person who owes or is to pay 100
pounds to try to escape from gaol is guilty of a misdemeanor. In
1772, prison keepers were indemnified from creditors for any
escapes of debtors due to conspiracy and break out with weapons
and firearms rather than negligence, as had been occurring.

Any pirate, accessory to piracy, commander or master or other
person of any ship or vessel who trades with a pirate or furnishes
him with ammunition or provisions of fits out a ship to trade with
pirates shall suffer death and loss of lands, goods, and chattels.
Seamen maimed in fighting pirates may be admitted into Greenwich
Hospital. (This hospital received support from duties paid by
vessels of the realm and of the colonies.) Masters or seamen not
fighting shall forfeit their wages and spend 6 months in prison if
the ship is taken. Masters shall not advance to any seamen above
half his wages since deserting is the chief occasion of their
turning into pirates.

In London penalties for crimes against property rose so that by
1740, a child could be hanged for stealing a handkerchief worth
1s. from a person's body.

No more than 600 pounds of gunpowder may be kept in any building
in London or Westminster or suburbs thereof. Later, no more than
200 pounds of gunpowder were allowed to be kept therein for more
than 24 hours. Buildings may be searched on "reasonable cause"
shown to a Justice of the Peace. Later, no more than 400 pounds of
gunpowder could be kept for more than 24 hours near any town, or
more than 300 pounds for more than 24 hours in any place. Then no
gunpowder could be conveyed by land over 25 barrels or by water
over 200 barrels.

It was customary for officers to take the oaths of allegiance and
supremacy to any new monarch. When George I became king in 1714,
all civil and military officers, clergy, schoolmasters, and
lawyers, solicitors, clerks, etc. living within 30 miles of London
had to take an oath of allegiance and a new oath that the person
was not Papist and agreed that no foreigners had jurisdiction in
the realm, such as to excommunicate someone and thus declaring he
could be legitimately killed. Soon after, it was required that
Papists had to register their names and real estates.
Commissioners were appointed to make inquiries. If a person did
not take the oaths or did not register, he was to forfeit 2/3 of
his land to the king and 1/3 to a Protestant who sued for such.
This was in order to deter future rebellions against the king and
efforts to destroy the Protestant religion.

Papists enlisting in the army are liable to corporal punishment,
but not death, as determined by a court martial.

Any mayor, bailiff, or other magistrate who is present at any
meeting for public worship other than the Church of England will
lose office and is barred from any public office or employment.

As late as 1722, there was a Papist conspiracy to take the Tower
of London and the King, and make a Catholic king. This resulted in
the imprisonment of the conspirators and a new statute: Persons
not taking the oath of allegiance and above oath that they were
not Papist shall register their lands and yearly rents and pay
double the land tax and 100,000 pounds. After payment, they are
discharged from forfeiting 2/3 of their lands' rents for one year.

Jews may not refuse suitable maintenance to their children who are
Christian to pressure them to convert back to Judaism.

In 1712 was the last execution for witchcraft. By statute of 1736,
witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment, and conjuration were abolished
as crimes.

Black slaves were common for a time in London. This was a result
of the voluminous triangle trade of manufactured goods from
England, slaves from West Africa, and sugar and tobacco from the
West Indies. Slavery was largely abolished by judicial decision of
Chief Justice Mansfield in 1772.

If a sheriff does not answer for money collected for the
Exchequer, he shall forfeit treble damages to the aggrieved
person, double the sum missing to the aggrieved person, 100 pounds
to the king, and 100 pounds to the party who sues. If a sheriff
take a fee for levying or collecting money due to the king (except
4d. for an acquittance) or take a sum for not levying money due,
he is guilty of extortion, injustice, and oppression and shall
forfeit treble damages and costs to the aggrieved person, and
double the sum extorted to the aggrieved person. A sheriff may not
levy more than 12d. for every 20s. of yearly income of any manor
for up to 100 pounds of income, and 6d. for value over 100 pounds.

No one may cut pine trees that are fit for masts of ship in New
England without license by the Queen or forfeit 100 pounds. Later,
pine trees on private property were excluded.

Citizens of Great Britain may sue colonial debtors by oath before
British magistrates and a debtor's colonial lands and houses and
negroes may be used to satisfy his debts.

Anyone pretending to act under a charter and taking subscriptions
in Great Britain or the colonies must forfeit treble damages.

No hats, including beaver hats, may be exported from any colony
even to another colony because this has hurt British hat
manufacture. The penalty is 500 pounds. No one in the colonies
except present hatmakers who are householders and journeymen may
make hats unless they serve a seven year apprenticeship. No
hatmaker in the colonies may have more than two apprentices at
once.

Whaling ships near Greenland were prohibited from returning until
their hulls were full. Vessels built or fitted out in America may
engage in whaling.

Pig iron from the colonies may be imported free, but there may be
no mill for slitting or rolling iron and no plateing-forge or
other engine to work with a tilt hammer and no furnace for making
steel erected or used in the colonies or forfeit 200 pounds.

No paper bills of credit may be used in New England because such
have depreciated.

William Blackstone lectured on law at Oxford University in 1753.
As a result, the first professorship of English law was
established. His lectures were published in 1769 as the
"Commentaries on the Laws of England". They greatly influenced the
American colonists and were the basis of legal education in
England and America for years. They were comprehensive and covered
real property, crime and punishment, court procedure, contract,
corporations, and commercial law. He wrote "The Great Charter and
Charter of the Forest" in 1759.



                         - Judicial Procedure -

For actions under 10 pounds in a superior court and actions under
40s. in an inferior court, the offender shall be served with
process to appear in court rather than being arrested. For money
at issue, an affidavit shall be taken. No more money may be taken
for bail than the amount at controversy. This is to prevent
frivolous and vexatious arrests. Perjurers, forgers, those
involved in barratry or suborning perjury, and pretenders
practicing as attorneys or solicitors in the courts of law or
equity shall be transported for seven years to the American
colonies. Unqualified people acting as attorneys or solicitors in
the county court shall forfeit 20 pounds.

No one may practice as an attorney in the courts of King's Bench,
Common Pleas, or Exchequer until he has been examined by a judge
of such court on his fitness and qualifications and has taken the
oath to honestly demean himself and practice according to his best
knowledge and ability. The same applies to a solicitor in the
equity courts. This shall not exclude persons who have been bound
to an attorney or solicitor for four years. Attorneys and
solicitors, with consent of an attorney of another court, may
participate in proceedings of such other court. No attorney may
have more than two clerks bound to him at one time. Attorneys may
be admitted as solicitors and vice-versa.

There were twelve common law justices of the Court of the King's
Bench, Court of Common Pleas, and Court of the Exchequer. The
Chief Justices of all of these courts were paid partly from fees
paid to the court. The other Justices of these courts were paid
completely by salary, which in 1759 was well over 500 pounds per
year. These justices were to continue in office even after a king
died and could be removed only for good cause upon the address of
both houses of Parliament. The officers of these courts were
attorneys. There was one justice at Doctors' Commons. The two
chancery justices (since Edward I) were the Lord Chancellor and
the Master of the Rolls. The salary of the eleven masters of the
court of chancery in 1765 was 400 pounds per year. The officers of
this court were solicitors.

Appeals from the Exchequer could be made to a court of the King's
Bench and Common Pleas combined. Appeals from Common Pleas could
be made to the King's Bench. Decisions of the King's Bench and
other common law courts could be appealed to Parliament.

The common law courts rode circuit twice a year in five circuits
and once a year in the north circuit. So an accused person could
spend up to a year in gaol waiting for trial. Few prisoners were
granted bail. In each common law court, the law justices in banc
would hear demurrers [contentions that the other party was wrong
in the law]. No one with an interest in a suit, including the
plaintiff and the defendant, could give evidence. There was no
power to amend pleadings, so misspelling of the defendant's name,
for instance, could result in dismissal of the suit. In 1730, the
pleadings and indictments ceased to be in Latin. Compurgation
still existed for debt and detinue.

Writs of error at variance from the original record or otherwise
defective may be amended to correct the defect by the court where
such writ is returnable. No judgment is to be reversed for any
defect in any bill or writ, excepting an appeal of felony or
murder, or misdemeanor. This is to prevent delays of justice.
Justices of the Peace may correct defects of form on appeals to
them.

Plaintiffs neglecting to go to trial after an issue has been
joined may be nonsuited.

The qualification for jury service is having land with an income
over rents of at least 20 pounds, with leases for 500 years or
more, or 99 years, or any term determinable on one or more lives.
Being a freeholder is not necessary. In London, the qualification
is being a householder and having lands to the value of 100
pounds. No sheriff may excuse a qualified person from jury service
for money or other reward. Selection of jurors for each case is to
be done by some indifferent person pulling their names from a box.
Later, persons refusing jury service could be fined.

Poor persons may be paid up to 6d. to give evidence against
felons.

Pirates may not be tried again for the same crime or for a certain
crime and high treason. When the marine force was raised, the
marines were also given protection from double jeopardy.

In Chancery, a plaintiff filed a complaint and interrogatories
prepared by counsel. Only in Chancery could there be discovery.
The interrogatories were addressed by court officials to witnesses
without the presence of the parties or their lawyers. Officials
wrote down the answers in their own terms. So there was no cross-
examination possible. Most decrees took many years to be made.

The ordinary administrative court of first instance is that of one
or two Justices of the Peace who issue orders in matters of public
safety, public order, public morals, health, the poor, highways,
water, fields, forests, fisheries, trade, building, fire, begging,
and vagrancy. He examined suspicious persons and issued warrants
for the removal of persons likely to become a public charge. The
Justice of the Peace also regulates wages, servants, apprentices,
and day laborers. In his judicial capacity, he tried all crimes
and felonies except treason, though in practice death penalty
cases were transferred to the assize justices. The Justices of the
Peace of a hundred hold special sessions such as for appointment
of parochial officers, highway disputes, and the grant of wine,
beer, and spirit licenses. The appointment of overseers of the
poor, authorization of parish rates, and reading of the Riot Act
to mobs to disperse them, required more than one of the Justices
of the Peace of the hundred to participate. All the Justices of
the Peace of the county met four times a year at Quarter Sessions
to hear appeals from penal sentences, to determine the county rate
of tax, to appoint treasurers of the county and governors of the
county prison and house of correction, to issue regulations on
prices of provisions and on wages, to settle fees of the county
officials, to grant licenses for powder-mills and other
industries, to hear nuisance complaints such as those against
parishes for failing to keep their roads in repair, to make
regulations for the holding of markets, to hear complaints
concerning local government, and to register dissenting chapels.
In more and more matters specified by statute, the Quarter
Sessions heard appeals from the orders of the individual Justices
of the Peace instead of common law courts hearing them by writ of
certiorari. The writ of certiorari allows administrative decisions
to be reviewed by the common law courts for compliance with law,
competency of the court, and interpretation of the administrative
law. The writ of habeas corpus appealed administrative decisions
to imprison not only after arrest for criminal proceedings, but
any coercive measure for enforcing an administrative order. The
writ of mandamus was available for enforcing the injunctions of
administrative law against towns, corporations, and all other
authorities and private persons, where the ordinary punishments
were insufficient. Justices of the Peace in rural areas were
squires and in towns aldermen.

In 1747, Justices of the Peace were authorized to decide issues
between masters and mistresses and their employees who were hired
for at least one year. If a servant misbehaved, they could
authorize reduction of wage, discharge, and hard labor at a house
of Correction up to one month. If a servant was not paid, he could
authorize payment of wages up to 10 pounds for an agricultural
servant, and up to 5 pounds for an artificer, handicraftsman,
miner, collier, keelman, pitman, glassman, potter, or ordinary
laborer. Later, tinners and miners were added to the last
category. In 1758, employees of less than a year were included.

In 1775, Justices of the Peace were authorized to administer any
oath for the purpose of levying penalties.

To be a Justice of the Peace, one must have income of 100 pounds a
year from a freehold, copyhold, or customary estate that is for
life or for a term of at least 21 years, or be entitled to a
reversion of lands leased for 1 or 2 or 3 lives, or for any term
of years determinable on the death of 1 or 2 or 3 lives. Excepted
were peers, justices, and heads of colleges or vice chancellors at
the universities. The Justices of the Peace were selected by the
superintending Sheriffs and Lords Lieutenant, the latter of whom
were usually peer with a ministers' office or a high court
official. No attorney or solicitor or proctor could be a Justice
of the Peace unless the locality had Justices of the Peace by
charter.

A request for Certiorari for removal of convictions, judgments,
orders made by Justices of the Peace must be made within six
months and after notice to the Justice of the Peace who may argue
cause against granting certiorari.

In the common law courts, trespass in ejectment served the
purposes of most of the actions involving land. Assumpsit covered
the whole province of debt, and much more. Trover more than
covered the old province of detinue. Trespass still served for all
cases in which the defendant had been guilty of directly applying
force to the plaintiff's body, goods or chattels. Trespass on the
case covered miscellaneous torts. Replevin was still used.
Covenant remained in use for the enforcement of promises under
seal. Account gradually came under the equity jurisdiction of
Chancery. Common law writs of dower are largely superseded by the
relief given to the doweress in the courts of equity, where new
and valuable rights were given to her and to her personal
representatives against the heir and his representatives. The
actions of indebitatus assumpsit is being extended to actions upon
quasi-contract, in which the element of contract is not required
e.g. quantum meruit, where a contract is implied from the facts of
the case.

Mercantile law was developed by the common law courts, especially
the King's Bench.

The king was to appoint the marshal of the King's Bench. The
marshal was to select his inferior officers to hold office as long
as they "behave themselves well within". These offices had been
sold by James I to a certain person, his heirs, and assigns. The
marshal was to keep the prison of this court in good repair from
his fees and profits of office.

The office of sheriff was now an accessory department of the
common law courts for summons, executions, summoning the jury, and
carrying out the sentence of the law.

Summons for excise offenses may be left at a person's abode,
workhouse, or shop as well as on his person.

The coroner's office now investigated unusual deaths with a jury
from the neighborhood elected by county freeholders.

The last beheading was of a Scottish lord in 1747; he had been
involved in an attempt to restore the Stuarts to the throne. So
many people came that some overcrowded bleachers fell down and
crushed about 20 spectators. Henceforth, every sentence of death
was by hanging, even for peers.

In 1772, the process of pressing a man to death, if he refused to
plead to an indictment was abolished. In 1772, persons accused or
indicted, in Great Britain or America, of felony or piracy who
stand mute shall be convicted of such charge. Property of a felon
was still forfeited to the crown.

From 1749 on were established special procedures for speedy
decisions in local courts in some areas for debts or damages under
40s. and imprisonment for such was limited for up to three months.
Otherwise, sentences were longer, and debts grew during the time
in prison. When prisons were overcrowded, Parliament let the
inmates out if they gave up their possessions. They could go to
Georgia.

In 1763, the homes of John Wilkes and others were searched for a
seditious and treasonous published paper and all related papers
because they had been rumored to have some relationship to the
conception, writing, publication, or distribution of the paper.
Wilkes had such papers and was convicted of libel. He countersued
for damages due to criminal trespass. The court held that general
search warrants were subversive of the liberty of the subject of
the search in violation of the British Constitution, declared the
statute void, and found for Wilkes. The Court of Common Pleas
agreed on appeal and put the burden of proof on the persons
searching to justify the search warrant. His decision gave support
to William Pitt's assertion that "every man's home is his castle".

There were felons' prisons and debtors' prisons. Sometimes they
were one and the same. There was much fighting among inmates. The
inmates slept on hay if lucky. There were no washing facilities
and little light. Counties or friends paid for their bread. They
were also sold beer, which made them drunk and riotous. The sale
of beer was a recognized and legitimate source of profit to the
keeper. This was remedied by statute of 1760 that no sheriff or
other officer may take an arrested person to a tavern or other
public house or charge him for any wine, beer, ale, victuals,
tobacco or other liquor without his consent and shall allow
prisoners to be brought beer, ale, victuals, bedding, and linen as
the prisoner sees fit. Sheriffs often kept people imprisoned
unless and until they paid all their fees due to the sheriff. In
1772 was founded the Society for the Discharge and Relief of
Persons Imprisoned for Small Debts for those inmates unfortunate
instead of fraudulent or extravagant. Legacies were often made to
debtors. There was much Gaol Distemper fever with fatal
consequences. When John Howard, a grocer who had inherited wealth,
but poor health, became a sheriff, he visited many gaols. When he
saw the squalid conditions there, he advocated hygenic practices.
In 1774, Justices of the Peace were authorized to order walls and
ceilings of gaols to be scraped and washed, ventilators for
supplies of fresh air, a separate room for the sick prisoners,
commodious bathing tubs, provision of clothes for prisoners,
keeping of prisoners not below the ground, and apothecaries at a
stated salary to attend and to report the state of health of
prisoners.

In 1773, clergymen were employed in gaols to alleviate the
distress of prisoners and to contribute to morality and religion.
Also, no longer may any fees be taken by gaol keepers or sheriffs
because persons not indicted or found not guilty have been kept in
prison pending payment of such fees. Instead, the counties shall
pay to gaol keepers up to 13s.4d. per prisoner so discharged.

There was much Gaol Distemper fever with fatal consequences, so in
1774, Justices of the Peace were authorized to order walls and
ceilings of gaols to be scraped and washed, ventilators for
supplies of fresh air, a separate room for the sick prisoners,
commodious bathing tubs, provision of clothes for prisoners,
keeping of prisoners not below the ground, and apothecaries at a
stated salary to attend and to report the state of health of
prisoners.

Colonials acts which infringed upon the English common or
statutory law, or were against the interests of other American
colonies were submitted to the Privy Council, which allowed or
disallowed them. Appeals from the colonial courts came to the
Privy Council.

Judges in the colonies were appointed by royal governors and paid
by colonial legislatures. They served at the pleasure of the king.
Colonial courts included superior courts of judicature, courts of
assize, general gaol delivery, general sessions of the peace,
inferior court of common pleas, and commissions of Oyer and
Terminer. There were also Justices of the Peace, marshals,
provosts, and attorney generals. There were few cases of vagrancy,
theft, or homicide. This may have been because the people were few
and dependent on each other, and economic opportunities were
great.

In 1735 John Peter Zenger, printer of the New York Weekly Journal,
was tried for seditious libel for its criticisms and satire of the
New York governor, who exceeded his powers, such as by demanding
that bills from the assembly be presented to him before the
council, and by arbitrarily displacing judges. Seditious libel was
defined as "false, scandalous, and seditious" writings.
Traditionally, this word "false" could mean "disloyal". The
prosecution argued that truth of such criticism was an aggravation
of the crime because it was more provoking of sedition, as found
by Star Chamber cases. The defense argued for a right publically
to remonstrate abuses of power by public officials to guard
against violence and destruction of liberties by men in authority.
The American jurors, who were supposed to be familiar with the
facts pertinent to the case, knew the truth of the paper's
criticisms. They agreed with the defense that the word "false" in
the definition: "false, scandalous, and seditious" writings, to
mean "untrue" instead of "disloyal". So truth became a defense to
seditious libel. Pamphletts describing the Zenger trial and
acquittal were published and republished in London and the
colonies.

Benefit of clergy was available in the American colonies to all
who could read and write. It could be used in trials for
manslaughter.





                    - - - Chapter 19: Epilogue - - -

In the time period after 1776, there developed the fuel-saving
kitchen range with closed-in-fire between oven and hot-water tank,
hot and cold running water, the use of flushing toilets, Edmund
Cartwright's power weaving machine, Samuel Crompton's mule for
spinning many threads by waterpower in 1779, James Watt's steam
engine with steam pushing the piston both ways as well as rotary
motion and used in many kinds of factories instead of water power,
Henry Bessimer's inexpensive low carbon steel in 1856, iron and
steel bridges and ships, drilling and use of oil and natural gas
as fuel, Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" opining that competition
of the market could distribute resources best, Thomas Paine's
"Rights of Man", free trade, democracy, popular elections, secret
ballots, universal suffrage, civil service without patronage, Mary
Wollstonecraft's "Vindication of the Rights of Women", university
education for women (University of London), policemen (in London
in 1829), clipper ships (the final development of sailing before
steam), percussion caps on guns, Periodic Chart of chemical
elements, college degrees in biology, chemistry, and physics,
geology, Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism, Albert Einstein's
theory of relativity, quantum theory, laws of thermodynamics that
the energy of the universe is a constant amount but entropy always
increases, computers, decoding of the DNA sequence, Charles
Darwin's evolution, Joseph Lister's disinfectant in 1867, Edward
Jenner's smallpox vaccine, Louis Pasteur's germ theory of disease,
anesthetics, aspirin, insulin, penicillin, antibiotics, surgery to
replace body parts, tampon, contraceptive pill, discovery of
planet Uranus by observation and thence of Neptune and Pluto by
calculation from discrepancies in Uranus' orbit, Hubble space
telescope, Big Bang Theory, buses (horse-drawn from 1829 with 18
passengers), subways, trains (1804), public railway (1825, goods
drawn by engine and passengers by horse), steam ships, steel
ships, aircraft carriers, submarines, tanks, friction matches,
chewing gum, pajamas, gas street lamps, traffic lights and signs,
ambulances, concrete and asphalt highways, census in 1801,
children's playgrounds, knee length dresses, chemical artificial
fertilizers, substitution of steel for iron, trade unions, digital
watches, wrist watches, compact disks, intelligence tests,
personality tests, wool-combing machine, statistical analysis,
Bell curves, standard deviations, United Nations, carpet sweeper,
vacuum cleaner, central heating, apartment high rises, business
skyscrapers, electricity, electric lights, sewing machines, water
closets in richer houses (after 1778), cholera epidemics, sewers
for waste disposal, industrial revolution factories, labor
strikes, cars, tractors, Charles Dickens, ice boxes and
refrigerators, telephones, central heating with radiators, hot
water heaters by gas, gas ovens, humidifiers, canned food, four-
pronged forks, suits of matching jackets and trousers, zippers,
velcro, wall-to-wall carpeting, popular elections, airplanes,
photography, record players, frozen food; cast iron kitchen range
for cooking, baking, and boiling; radio, television, plastics,
submarines, economics, multinational corporations, weather
forecasting, braille, airplanes, space ship to moon, factory
assembly lines, washing machines, dishwashers, sewing machine,
microwave ovens, copier machines, DNA evidence, nuclear bomb and
nuclear energy, guided missiles, quartz watches, bicycles,
artificial insemination and invitro fertilization, investment
advice, retirement planning, amusement parks, catalogue buying,
labor contracts, childrens' summer camps, teenage culture,
synthetic materials, typewriters, cardboard boxes, marketing
studies, factory assembly line, gene-mapping, animal cloning,
internet, hiking and camping trips, world travel vacations,
telegraph, word processing, gas, oil, research, credit cards,
dental floss, camcorders, mass production, nursing homes, cameras,
copy machines, wheelchairs, hospital operations, artificial limbs,
organ transplants, pharmacies, public circulating libraries,
children's playgrounds, cosmetic surgery, physical exercising
equipment, vitamin pills, sports clubs, condominiums, molecules,
chromosomes, observatories, radar, sonar, nutrition, supermarkets,
disability insurance, liability insurance, chemical fertilizers,
DDT, record players, video tape recorders, retirement homes,
movies;, planned obsolescence, box-spring mattresses, brain scans,
x-rays, organized professional sports, dry cleaners, foreign
embassies, psychiatry, veterinarians, drug abuse, wage
garnishment, tractors, lawnmowers, breeding zoos, world wars,
nuclear deterrence, fingerprinting, forensic evidence, toxic
waste, acid rain, elevators, picture windows, sewing machines,
automation, cybernetics, pizza delivery, health insurance, Walt
Disney, satellite transmission, radiocarbon dating, ice cream, air
conditioning, ball point pens, school blackboards, bullets in
1890s, electronic mail, first law of thermodynamics: the
conservation of energy, the second law of thermodynamics:
potential energy turns into high-temperature thermal energy and
finally into low-temperature thermal energy, but these processes
are not reversible. The science of philology, on the meaning and
history of words began the concept of a natural development of
languages which conflicted with the theological view that God had
created all the different languages when he punished man for
trying to build an edifice to heaven by destroying the Tower of
Babel and dispersing the people into all parts of the world with
different languages derived from the original: Hebrew, so that
they could not communicate with each other. The science of geology
developed the concept of tremendous changes in the earth's surface
which altered horizontal layers of deposits, in which there were
fossils, which challenged the biblical notion of a world and all
its animals created in a week. In 1784, Lord Henry Cavendish
proved that the sole result of mixing hydrogen with oxygen was
water, thus disproving the theory of the four elements of air,
earth, fire, and water. In the United States, there was no king, a
separation of the executive, the legislative, and the judicial; a
separation of church and state, and no aristocratic titles.

In this time period the development of law includes abandonment of
common law crimes such as seditious libel in the United States,
negligence and duty of due care in the United States replacing the
English strict liability for torts, substitution of the caveat
emptor doctrine for the English sound price doctrine in contract
law in the United States, truth as a defense to charge of libel in
the United States, repeal in England of seven year requirement for
apprentices in 1814, married women's property acts beginning 1839:
(1. right to sue and be sued, 2. right to her own earnings, 3.
right to own real and personal property, 4. right to make
contracts 5. right to stay in family homestead with children,
right to custody of children if husband abandons her), divorce in
England by courts in 1857, in United States extension of grounds
for divorce beyond adultery, bigamy, and desertion to cruel
treatment, habitual drunkenness, and conviction of a felony and
finally no-fault divorce, decline of father's paramount claim to
the custody of his minor children in the absence of a strong
showing of misconduct or unfitness, tender years doctrine (in
England in 1839 mother to have custody of child under seven and to
have access over seven) and then best interests of child doctrine
in custody disputes, legal obligation for parents to support their
minor children, adoption about the 1850s; in England allowance of
women attorneys in 1922, women to vote in 1928, adultery by a
husband to be adjudged as culpable as adultery by a wife in 1923,
the rights of a mother over her child to be equal to those of a
father in 1924, and the rights of a woman to property to be the
same as those of a man in 1926; child labor laws, full religious
freedom with admission of nonconformists to the two universities
in England in 1871, probable cause instead of suspicion for search
and seizure, mandamus, rule against perpetuities, mandatory
secondary education, kidnapping, false impersonation, liens,
obscenity, estoppel for detrimental reliance on a promise, unjust
enrichment, pensions, trademarks and unfair competition,
antitrust, privacy, freedom of thought, freedom of speech, freedom
of the press, bankruptcy, civil rights, union organizing laws,
laws on discrimination due to race, sex, ethnic or national
origin, disability, age, and sexual preference; sexual harassment
and stalking laws, product liability, international law,
environmental laws protecting air and water quality, workers
compensation, unemployment compensation, controlled substances,
intellectual property law; and contingency fees only in the United
States,

In England, there was an end of trial by combat in 1819, of
compurgation in 1833, and of benefit of clergy. In 1820, there
were 160 offences in England with the death penalty, including
stealing from a dwelling house to the value of 40s., stealing from
a shop to a value of 5s., and stealing anything privily from the
person. The penalty for treason was still drawing and quartering.
It was a privilege of the peerage to be immune from any punishment
upon a first conviction of felony. As of 1823, church courts could
no longer decide cases of perjury; as of 1855, no cases of
defamation, but only church matters. Hearsay rules and exceptions
were developed in the 1800s. In 1816, jurors were to have no
knowledge except the evidence accepted at court. In 1837, counsel
for a person indicted for high treason could examine and cross-
examine witnesses. In 1839, a defendant could see the written
record of evidence against him. In 1898, the accused was allowed
to give evidence. Pleaders do not have to specify the form of
action relied on, but rather give facts which give rise to a cause
of action.

Judicial procedure includes grand juries, which hear evidence,
court transcript by court stenographers, discovery, depositions,
and presumption of innocence (after Salem witch trials in the
United States). The United States changed judicial procedure in
several respects: parties were allowed to testify, writ pleading
was abandoned, and prisons were used for reforming prisoners.
Debtors prisons were abolished. Also, the law was seen not as
divinely inspired eternal law to be found by judges, but law made
by man to suit the times. State judges served for life during good
behavior; they could be removed by the procedure of impeachment.
In some states, judges were elected. There were privileges on
testimony such as attorney-client, priest-confessor, and husband-
wife.





              - - - Appendix: Sovereigns of England - - -

Accession    - Name -

 871   Alfred the Great
 899   Edward the Elder              son of Alfred
 924   AEthelstan                    son of Edward the Elder
 939   Edmund                        son of Edward the Elder
 946   Eadred                        son of Edward the Elder
 955   Eadwig                        son of Edmund
 959   Edgar                         son of Edmund
 975   Edward the Martyr             son of Edgar
 978   AEthelred the Unready         son of Edgar
1016   Edmund Ironside               son of AEthelred the Unready
1016   Canute
1035   Harold I Harefoot             son of Canute
1040   Hardicanute                   son of Canute
1042   Edward the Confessor          son of Aethelred the Unready
1066   Harold II
1066   William I, the Conquerer
1087   William II                    son of William I
1100   Henry I (and Matilda)         son of  William I
1135   Stephen
1154   Henry II (and Eleanor)        grandson of Henry I
1189   Richard I, the Lion-Hearted   son of Henry II
1199   John                          son of Henry II
1216   Henry III                     son of John
1272   Edward I (and Eleanor)        son of Henry III
1307   Edward II                     son of Edward I
1327   Edward III                    son of Edward II
1377   Richard II                    grandson of Edward III
1399   Henry IV
1413   Henry V                       son of Henry IV
1422   Henry VI                      son of Henry V
1461   Edward IV
1483   Edward V                      son of Edward IV
1483   Richard III
1485   Henry VII (and Elizabeth)
1509   Henry VIII                    son of Henry VII
1547   Edward VI                     son of Henry VIII
1553   Mary                          daughter of Henry VIII
1558   Elizabeth I                   daughter of Henry VIII
1603   James I
1625   Charles I                     son of James I
1649   Oliver Cromwell
1660   Charles II                    son of Charles I
1685   James II                      son of Charles I
1689   William and Mary
1694   William III
1702   Anne                          granddaughter of James II
1714   George I
1727   George II                     son of George I
1760   George III                    son of George II





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156. The Horizon Book of the Elizabethan World, Ed. Richard
        Ketchum, 1967
157. Tower of London, Christopher Hibbert, 1971
158. Tudor Royal Proclamations, Ed. P.L. Hughes & J.F. Larkin,
        1964
159. Selected Historical essays of F.W.Maitland, Ed. Helen Cam,
        1957
160. Lloyd's of London, Raymond Flower & Michael Jones, 1974
161. Weather, Philip Thompson etc., 1965
162. Constitutional History of England, William Stubbs, 1891
163. Hillforts of England and Wales, James Dyer, 1981
164. The Last Two Million Years, Reader's Digest Association, 1973
165. London: The Civic Spirit, Robert Goldston, 1969
166. Domestic Life in England, Norah Lofts, 1976
167. Descartes, Tom Sorell, 1987
168. Life in the English Country House, Mark Girouard, 1978
169. Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things, Charles Panati,
        1987
170. God's Peace and King's Peace: The Laws of Edward the
        Confessor, Bruce O'Brien, 1999
171. The Bill of Rights, Irving Brant, 1965
172. Issac Newton, Adventurer in Thought; A. Rupert Hall, 1992
173. The Life of Issac Newton, Richard S. Westfall,  1993
174. A History of the Circle, Ernest Zebrowski, 1999
175. Pelican History of England:
        1. Roman Britain, I.A. Richmond, 1955
        2. The Beginnings of English Society, Dorothy Whitelock, 1952
        3. English Society in the Early Middle Ages, Doris Stenton, 1951
        4. England in the Late Middle Ages, A.R. Myers, 1952
        5. Tudor England, S.T. Bindoff, 1950
        6. England in the Seventeenth Century, Maurice Ashley, 1952

THE END


INDEX

abbey; abbot, abbess; abduction; accessory; account; administrator; admiralty;
adultery; adverse possession; adulterated; advowson; AEthelbert; AEthelred;
affidavit; agreement; agriculture; Augustine. St.; aids; alderman; ale;
alehouses; Alfred; alienate; aliens; allegiance; alms; amerce; America;
Anabaptist; ancient; Anglo-Saxons; Anglo-Saxon Chronicles; annulment;
apothecaries; apparel laws; appeal; appellate; apprentices; appurtance;
archbishop; architect; Aristotle; Arkwright, Richard; arraign; arson; Arthur;
Articles of Religion; artificer; artisan; assault; assay; assign; assize;
assizes; assumpsit; astrology; at pleasure; atheism; attainder; attaint;
attorneys; babies; bachelor; Bachelor of Arts; back-berend; Bacon, Francis;
Bacon, Roger; bacteriology; bail; bailiff; baker; ballads; Bank of England;
bankruptcy; Baptist; bar; barber; barber-surgeon; bargain and sale; barons;
baron court; barristers; bastard; bath; battery; beadle; beating; Becket; beer;
beggar; benefit of clergy; benevolence; Beowulf; bequeath, bequest; Bible;
bigamy; bill; bill of attainder; bill of exchange; Bill of Rights; billet;
Birmingham; bishops; Black Death; Blackstone, William; blinding; blodwite;
blood-letting; Book of Common Prayer; bordars; borough; Boston; bot; Boyle,
Robert; Bracton, Henry de; brass; brawling; breach; breach of the peace; bread;
Brewster; bribery; brick; bridge; Bristol; brokers; Bullock, case of; burgess;
burglary; burh; burial; burning; butcher; butler; Calais; Calvin; Cambridge
University; canals; cannon; capitalism; carbon dioxide; carpenter; carriages;
carucage; carver; castle; castle-guard; cathedral; Catholics; cattle; cavaliers;
Cecil, William; censorship; ceorl; certiorari; challenge; champerty; chancellor;
chancery; Chancery Court; charter; chattel; Chaucer, Geoffrey; chemistry;
chevage; Chief Justice; Chief Justiciars; child; child abuse; children;
childwyte; Christian; chivalry; Christmas; church; Church of England; church
sanctuary; Cicero; circuit; citizen; city; civil; civil courts; civil war;
claim; clans; class; clergy; clerics; cloth-maker; coaches; coal; coffee houses;
coin; Coke, Edward; College of Physicians and Surgeons; colonies; commission;
common land; common law; Commons, House of; Commonwealth; compurgation;
compurgator; confession; Congregationalists; Conqueror; consideration;
constable; constitution; contract; conventile; conveyance; conviction; cooper;
Copernicus; copper; copyhold; copyrights; cordwainer; Coronation Charter;
coroner; corporation; corruption of the blood; council; counterfeit; county;
county courts; courtesy; Court of Common Pleas; Court of High Commission; Court
of King's Bench; courtesy; court martial; covenant; coverture; Coventry; craft;
craft guild; Cranmer, Thomas; creditor; crime; criminal; Cromwell, Oliver;
Cromwell, Thomas; crown; cupbearer; curfew; currier; custody; customary tenant;
customs; damages; danegeld; Danes; darrein presentment; daughter; death; death
penalty; debt, debtors; deceased; decree; deed; deer; defamation; defendant;
demesne; denizen; deodand; descendant; Descartes, Renee; desertion; detinue;
devise; dispensary; disseisin; dissenter; distraint; distress; divorce;
doctorate; dog; Doomsday Book; doublet; dower; dowery; Drake, Francis; drover;
drunkenness; duel; during good behavior; duties; dwelling; dyers; earl; East
India Company; Easter; ecclesiastic; Edith; education; Eleanor, wife of Edward
I; Eleanor, wife of Henry II; election; electricity; Elizabeth, wife of Henry
VII; embroiderer; enclosure; English; engrose; Episcopal Church; equity; equity
court; Erasmus; escape from gaol; escheat, escheator; escuage; esquire;
established church; estate; estate administration; estate tail; Exchequer;
excommunication; excise tax; executor; export; extent; eyre; factory; fair;
father; fealty; fee; fee simple; fee tail; felony; feme covert; feme sole;
feoff; feudal; feudal tenures; fihtwite; fine; fire; fire-fighters; fishermen,
fishmonger; flint; flogging; flying shuttle; folkmoot; food riots; footmen;
forced loans; forced marriage; forestall; Forest Charter; forestall; forests;
forfeit; forgery; forms of action; fornication; fortifications; foster-lean;
France; frank-almoin; Franklin, Benjamin; frankpledge; fraternity; fraud;
freedom of speech; freehold, freeholder; freeman; freemason; freewoman; friar;
frith guild; fuller; fustian; fyrd; fyrdwite; gage; Galilei, Galileo; gambling;
games; gaols; Gaol Distemper; Gawaine; gentleman; gentry; geology; Georgia;
German, Christopher St., gift; Gilbert, William; guildhall; guilds; gin;
Glanvill; glass; Glorious Revolution; gloves; God; godfather; gold; Goldsmiths;
Good Parliament; goods; government; grain; grammar schools; grand assize; grand
jury; Grand Tour; grants; grave; gravitation; Greek; Gresham, Thomas;
grithbrice; guardian, guardianship; Guenevere; hair; hall; Halley, Edmond;
hamsocne; hand-habbende; harboring; Harrington, James; Harvard College; health;
heir; heresy; heriot; hidage; hide; High Commission Court; Hilda; hillforts;
Hobbes, Thomas; holidays, holydays; homage; homicide; Hooke, Robert; horse;
horse racing; hospitals; house-breaking; house-holder; House of Commons; House
of Lords; houses; houses of correction; hue and cry; humanism, humors; hundred
rolls; Huygens, Christian; hundred; hundred courts; hunt; husband; hustings
court; hut; illegitimacy; illness; illuminators; impeach; import; imprisonment;
incest; income tax; Independents; indenture; indictment; industry; infangthef;
inflation; inheritance; innkeeper; Inns of Court; inoculation; inquest;
insurance; interest; interrogatory; intestate; iron; itinerant; jail; Jesus;
Jews; Joan of Arc; joint tenants; joint-stock companies; jointure; Jones,
Indigo; journeyman; judge; jurisdiction; jurors; jury; justice; justices in
eyre; justices of assize; Justices of the Peace; justiciar; Kent county; Keplar,
Johannes; kill; kin, kindred; king; King Alfred the Great; King Charles I; King
Charles II; King Edward I; King Edward the Confessor; King George III; King
Henry I; King Henry II; King Henry VII; King Henry VIII; King James I; King
James II; King John; King Richard the Lion-Hearted; King William and Mary; King
William I, The Conqueror; king's peace; knight; knight's fee; knights' guild;
knitting; laborer; ladies; land; landlord; land-owner; larceny; lastage; Latin;
law merchant; lawsuit; lawyer; Laxton; lay; leap year; lease; leather; leet
court; legacy; legislation; legitimacy; Leicester; letters; libel; Liberi
Quadripartitus; library; license; life; life-estate; lighthouse; limb; linen;
Lion of Justice; literacy; literature; Littleton, Thomas; livery; Lloyds; Locke,
John; London; Long Parliament; longitude; lord; Lords, House of; loriner;
lottery; loyalty; machine; magistrates; Magna Carta; magnate; maiden; mail;
majic; malicious prosecution; maintenance; Manchester; manor; manor courts;
manufacturing; manumission; Marco Polo; market; marriage; marriage agreement;
marriage portion; marshall; marquise; Massachusetts; Master of Arts; masters;
Matilda; Mayflower; mayor; Maypole; mead; measures; meat; medicine; melee;
member; merchandise; merchant; merchant adventurers; merchant guilds; merchet;
Merciless Parliament; mercy; Merton; mesne; Methodists; microscope; Middlesex;
midwives; military service; militia; miller; minister; minor; minstrels;
miskenning; moat; Model Parliament; monarchy; monasteries; money; moneyer;
monks; monopoly; moot; More, Thomas; morgen-gift; morning gift; mort d'ancestor;
mortgage; mortmain; mother; murder; mutilation; Napier, John; navy; Newcastle-
on-Tyne; New England; New Model Army; newspapers; Newton, Issac; New World;
nobility; noblemen, nobles; nonconformists; Normans; novel disseisin; nuisance;
nun; Oakham, William; oaths; offender; oil; one hundred year war; open field
system; ordeal; ordinance; orphans; outlaw; Oxford University; oxygen; papists;
parent; parishes; Parliament; Parliament of Saints; partition; party; Pascal,
Blaise; passport; patents; pauper; pawn; Peasant's Revolt; peers; peine forte et
dure; penalty; penitentiary; Penn, William; Pennsylvania; penny; per stirpes;
perjury; personal injury; personal property; petit serjeanty; petition; Petition
of Right; physicians; Piers Plowman; pigherds; pilgrim; pillory; pipe rolls;
piracy; pirate; plague; plaintiff; Plato; plays; pleading; pleas; police;
pontage; poor; pope; popery; population; port; portreeve; portsoken ward; posse;
possess; postal system; post mortem; pottery; praecipe in capite; pressing;
Presbyterians; prescription; presentment; priest; printing; prison; Privy
Council; privy seal; probable cause; probate; proclamation; promise under seal;
promissory note; property; prosecutor; prostitutes; protectorate; Protestants;
Puritans; purveyance; putting out system; Quakers; quaranteen, quarter sessions;
queen; Queen Elizabeth I; Queen Mary; Queen's Bench; quo warranto; rack; Ralegh,
Walter; rape; Ray, John; real action; recognition; reeve; reformation; regrate;
release; relief; religion; remainder; renaissance; rent; replevin; residence;
Restoration; reversion; revolt; reward; rights; riot; riot act; roads; robbery;
Robin Hood; Roman law; Root and Branch Petition; roundheads; royal court; Royal
Navy; Royal Society; royalists; Rump Parliament; Russia; sacrament; sacrifice;
sailor; sake and soke; sale; salt; saltworks; sanctuary; Sandwich; Saxon;
scaetts; scavage; scholar; school; science; scolds; scot; scrofula; scutage;
seal; seamen; searchers; search warrant; sedition, seditious; seisin; self-
defense; self-help; Separatists; serf; serjeanty; servant; service; servitude;
settlement; sewer; Shakespeare, William; shaving; sheep; Shelley's case;
sheriff; sheriff's turn; shillings; ships; shipwreck; shire; shire courts;
shire-gemot; shoemaker; Short Parliament; shrine; sickness; silver; Slade's
case; slander; slave; slingshot; smallpox; smith; Smithfield; socage; sokemen;
soldiers; solicitor; son; Spanish Armada; speedy pursuit; spinning; spinning
jenny; spinning wheel; spinsters; spouse; St. Augustine; St. Germain; St.
Lazarus; St. Paul's Church; statute of laborers; squire; staple; Star Chamber
Court; strangers; steam; steel; stengesdint; steward; stock-and-land lease;
stocking-frame knitters; stocks; stolen goods; stone; Stonehenge; straw;
streets; subtenants; successor; sue; suit; summary; summon; Sunday; Supporters
of the Bill of Rights Society; surety; surgery; surname; swearing; swords; tale;
tallage; tanner; tavern; tax; tea; team; Ten Commandments; tenancies; tenancy,
tenant; tenants in common; tenement; tenure; term; testament; Thames, River;
theft; thegn; Theodore; theology; theow; thermometer; Thirty Years' War; tile;
tiler; tin; title; tolls; tories; tort; torture; tournament; Tower Hill; Tower
of London; town; town-reeve; trades, tradesmen; transportation; treason, high
and petit; treasure trove; treasury; trespass; trespass on the case; trial by
combat (battle); trover; turnpike; twelve; tyne; umbrella, Unitarians;
university; usury; use-trust; vagrants, vagrancy; vassal; verderer; verdict;
vessels; vikings; vill; villages; villeinage; villeins; vintner; Virginia; wall;
Wallis, John; War of the Roses; ward, wardship; wardmoot; wardrobe; warrantor,
warranty; waste; water; watermen; watermill; waterwheel; Watt, James; wealthy;
weapon; weaving, weavers; webs; wed; wedding; weights; weir; well; wer, wergeld;
Wesley, John; Westminster; whigs; whipping; White Tower; Whitsuntide; widows;
wife; wife-beating; wills; Winchester; wind mills; window tax; wine; witch;
witchcraft; wite; witen; witenagemot; witnesses; wives; Wolsey, Thomas; Wyclif,
John; woman-covert; women; wool; wounding; writs; writs of assistance; writs of
error; Year Books; yeomanry, yeomen










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