The tenth chapter of Ian Mortimer’s book, The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England, is entitled: The Law. Mortimer describes the development of the law in medieval England, a process in which the law was quite different from law in the 21st century though some of its problems are still with us today. The effects of fourteenth century law were displayed for everyone in public gallows from which multiple human bodies were hanging. Also, severed heads were often displayed above city gates while small towns and boroughs had stocks in which minor criminals could be displayed. The picture to the left displays an English friend of mine in the stocks. Alwan, Lady Apollonia’s forester in my stories, was saved by my heroine from abuse while confined to the stocks and taken under Apollonia’s wing in Effigy of the Cloven Hoof. He became part of her affinity as her forester in that story and re-appears elsewhere in the series including my forthcoming novel, Usurper’s Curse. The things described above were merely some of the outward signs of the law in medieval times.
The police are the most prominent presentation of the law in our society, but they are an invention of the 18th century. In earlier centuries, there were officials at various levels of society with responsibilities for enforcing the law and carrying out justice. This blog post will deal with royal justice and with the law at various levels: the county, the sub-county or hundred, the manor or borough, and the tithing or local neighbourhood.
If we start at the top, the law of the land in England goes back to the laws of the Saxons. These laws were revised over the centuries by royal judges and eventually by the Parliament, which was becoming a significant legislature by the 14th century. Important revisions of parliamentary rule in that century are still on the books including the innovation of 1362 that cases could be argued in English.
There were three royal courts in medieval England: the Court of the Exchequer, which heard cases that involved financial arrangements with the crown; the Court of the King’s Bench which heard criminal cases as well as appeals from lower courts; and the Court of Common Pleas which also heard appeals, but its main assignment was to hear personal cases such as lawsuits over debt, theft, fraud, unlawful distrains, and similar offenses. Distrain was a seizure of property to obtain rent or other money owed. The Courts of the King’s Bench and of Common Pleas traveled to each county twice a year. A third of those who were tried in these courts were found guilty and usually executed while the other two-thirds were found innocent and set free.
The sheriff carried out the king’s writs and orders at the county level. He was also responsible for gathering troops to fight for the king as well as feeding those troops. The county gaol was his responsibility. The county gaol of Gloucestershire, housed in Gloucester Castle, plays a role in my third novel, Memento Mori. In each county, there was a court which the sheriff was expected to convene every four weeks. Sheriffs play a role in several of my books. In Memento Mori, set in 1392, it is the daughter of the Sheriff of Gloucestershire who is one of the villains and who receives protection from her father. Usurper’s Curse, my forthcoming book, set in 1406-1407, has Lady Apollonia’s brother, Ferdinand, the Earl of Marshfield as the Sheriff of Gloucestershire, and he plays a major role in that story. Apollonia’s son Hugh is the Sheriff of Worcestershire in King Richard’s Sword, set in 1399-1400.
Counties were subdivided into units called hundreds. Large counties had many hundreds, such as Devon with 35 of them. Small counties had much fewer, such as Huntingdonshire with only four. Each hundred had a bailiff who answered to the sheriff of his county. The hundred court met every three weeks and considered cases of minor infractions that could not be heard by lower courts because these cases crossed lower land boundaries or because they involved freemen who were not subject to the frankpledge of the tithings described below. The hundred court considered cases of minor infractions that were punishable only by fines. There was a special hundred’s court called the sheriff’s tourn. It visited each hundred twice a year, usually around Easter and Michaelmas in the spring and autumn. The purpose of the tourn was to take into custody those who had received indictments involving felonies and cases that needed to be referred to the royal courts. Such people were taken to the county gaol and sometimes had to wait long periods for their cases to be resolved, even in cases where the final verdict was innocent.
A surprisingly large number of indicted men choose to accuse others of crimes in a process called “approving”. Although this did not lead to leniency for the indicted person, it did allow that person to get even with others whether the accusations of others were justified or not. Approving could be one of several kinds of miscarriages of justice that were common in medieval England. Also, corruption and bribery of sheriffs were far too common. Torture was illegal but still used, women prisoners were often abused, and the whole system was biased against strangers. Medieval residents of town and villages often used the word “foreigner” to describe any stranger. Finally, indicted persons could request resolving their cases by combat in which they or their representatives fought opponents or their representatives. In the worst case, an indicted man who was actually guilty of murder might have won the combat by killing an opponent and thus won his innocence by committing two murders.
Towns or boroughs and cities often were allowed to make ordinances. For example, Worcester had an ordinance that required every citizen to keep a weapon and to support the bailiffs in keeping the King’s peace. Courts were run at this level of government by mayors or bailiffs. Walter Payston, a friend of Lady Apollonia’s third husband, Robert Windemere, is a bailiff of Gloucester who plays a role in the story in Memento Mori.
Courts were also administered by lords of manors. These lords could include clergy such as abbots who often served as lords of manors. Manorial courts were usually held outdoors, when weather permitted, to consider matters of interest within the bounds of the manor such as issues of land boundaries or responsibilities for maintaining paths, lands, and hedges. In the extreme case of catching a thief red-handed, these courts had the right to hang the accused. A steward was employed to serve the lord in management of his estates and the running of manorial court.
The most local level of justice was at the level of a tithing, made up of as few as ten neighbors. Every male villein or feudal tenant between the ages of ten and 60 swore allegiance, by a frankpledge, to his tithing that he would uphold the law. The law was administered by a chief tithing-man, also called a capital pledge.
There were keepers of the peace who were empowered to arrest people at the beginning of the 14th century. In 1316 in Kent, this was extended to the authority to judge cases to help reduce the backlog of cases in gaol awaiting trial. This was the beginning of appointing justices of the peace.
Organized crime thrived in medieval England. Gangs were often family affairs, and noble families were not exempt. A gang led by a noble Devon family plays a significant role in Plague of a Green Man, my second novel. In Memento Mori, it is the daughter of the Sheriff of Gloucestershire who leads an important gang in that story.
Ecclesiastical courts tried matters of moral behavior and were the law courts for clergymen. Being “a member of the clergy” was a phrase so general that anyone who could recite scripture passages qualified as a clergyman, eligible to be tried by canon law. Benefit of clergy was highly desirable, especially in capital cases because there was no death penalty in the church courts. I have used this in my forthcoming novel, Usurper’s Curse, when a murderer recites scripture, in order to claim benefit of clergy.
Sanctuary was a last resort for medieval criminals facing punishment. Such persons could claim sanctuary if they were able to get to a church before being arrested. Once at the altar of the church, the sanctuary they claimed could last up to 40 days. It was confirmed by the criminal confessing his guilt to a witness in the church. The church was required to feed the criminal who could go outside solely for relieving himself of body wastes. By the end of the 40 days, the criminal would be escorted to a ship for deportation. I used this legal possibility in Plague of a Green Man when two criminals claimed sanctuary in Exeter Cathedral.
The law in medieval England was quite different than it is today, but some of its problems still plague us such as long waits for trial and the wealthy frequently being able to do better by the law than the poor.
Tags: Chaucer's England, historical fiction, medieval mysteries