The history of English law before the time of Edward I

Front matter

to

Cornell University Library KD 532.P771911

The history of English law before the ti

Preface To First Edition

THE present work has filled much of our time and thoughts for some years. We send it forth, however, well knowing that in many parts of our field we have accomplished, at most, a preliminary exploration. Oftentimes our business has been rather to quarry and hew for some builder of the future than to leave a finished building. But we have endeavoured to make sure, so far as our will and power can go, that when his day comes he shall have facts and not fictions to build with. How near we may have come to fulfilling our purpose is not for us to judge. The only merit we claim is that we have given scholars the means of verifying our work throughout.

We are indebted to many learned friends for more or less frequent help, and must specially mention the unfailing care and attention of Mr R. T. Wright, the Secretary of the University Press.

Portions of the book have appeared, in the same words or in substance, in the Contemporary Review, the English Historical Review and the Harvard Law Review, to whose editors and proprietors we offer our acknowledgments and thanks.

F. P.

F. W. M.

Note. It is proper for me to add for myself that, although the book was planned in common and has been revised by both of us, by far the greater share of the execution belongs to Mr Maitland, both as to the actual writing and as to the detailed research which was constantly required.

F. P.

Vll

SKETCH OF EARLY ENGLISH LEGAL HISTORY.

Chapter I

The Dark Age in Legal History, pp. 1 — 24.

The difficulty of beginning, 1. Proposed retrospect, 1. The classical age of .Roman law, 2. The beginnings of ecclesiastical law, 2. Century III. Decline of Roman law, 3. Century IV. Church and State, 3. Century V. The Theodosian Code, 5. Laws of Euric, 5. Century VI. The century of Justinian, 6. The Lex Saliaa, 6. The Lex Ribuaria, and Lex Burgvmdiomm, 7. The Lex Romano, Bwgundionvm,, 7. The Lex Romano, Vuigothorum, 8. The Edict of Theoderic, 9. The Dionysian collection of canons, 9. Justinian's books, 9. Justinian and Italy, 10. Laws of J3thelbert, 11. Centuries VII and VIII. Germanic laws, 12. System of personal laws, 13. The vulgar Roman law, 14. The latent Digest, 15. The capitularies, 16. Growth of canon law, 16. Centuries IX and X. The false Isidore, 17. The forged capitularies, 17. Church and State, 18. The darkest age, 18. Legislation in England, 19. England and the Continent, 20. Century XI. The Pavian law-school, 21. The new birth of Roman law, 22. The recovered Digest, 23. The influence of Bolognese jurisprudence, 24.

viii Contents.

CHAPTER II. Anglo-Saxon Law, pp. 25 — 63

Imperfection of written records of early Germanic law, 25. Anglo- Saxon dooms and custumals, 27. Anglo-Saxon land-books, 28. Survey of Anglo-Saxon institutions, 29. Personal conditions : lordship, 29. The family, 31. Banks : ceorl, eorl, gesfS, 32. Thegn, 33. Other distinctions, 34. Privileges of the clergy, 34. Slavery and slave trade, 35. Manumission, 36. Courts and justice, 37. Procedure, 38. Temporal and spiritual jurisdiction, 40. The king's jurisdiction, 40. The Witan, 41. County and hundred courts, 42. Private jurisdiction, 43. Subject-matter of Anglo-Saxon justice, 43. The king's peace, 44. Feud and atonement, 46. Wer, wite and b6t, 48. Difficulties in compelling submission to the courts, 49. Maintenance of offenders by great men, 50. Why no trial by battle, 50. Treason, 51. Homicide, 52. Personal injuries : misadventure, 53. Archaic responsibility, 55. Theft, 55. Property, 56. Sale and other contracts, 57. Claims for stolen goods: warranty, 58. Land tenure, 60. Book-land, 60. Lsen-land, 61. Folk-land, 61. Transition to feudalism, 62.

CHAPTER III. Norman Law, pp. 64 — 78

Obscurity of early Norman legal history, 64. Norman law was French, 66. Norman law was feudal, 66. Feudalism in Normandy, 67. Dependent land tenure, 69. Seignorial justice, 72. Limits of ducal power, 73. Legal procedure, 74. Criminal law, 74. Ecclesiastical law, 74. The truce of God, 75. Condition of the peasantry, 76. Jurisprudence, 77. Lanfranc of Pavia, 77.

Chapter IV

England under the Norman Kings, pp. 79 — 110.

Effects of the Norman Conquest, 79. No mere mixture of national laws, 79. History of our legal language, 80. Struggle between Latin, French and English, 82. The place of Latin, 82. Struggle between French and English, 83. Victory of French, 84. French documents, 85. French law-books, 87. Language and law, 87.

Preservation of old English law, 88. The Conqueror's legislation, 88. Character of William's laws, 89. Personal or territorial laws, 90. Maintenance of English land-law, 92. The English in court, 93. Norman ideas and institutions, 93. Legislation : Eufus and Henry L, 94. Stephen, 96. The law-books or Leges, 97. Genuine laws of William I., 97. The Quadripartitus, 98. Leges Henriei, 99. Oonsiliatio Cnuti, 101. Institute/, Cnuti, 101. French Leis of William I., 101. Leges Edwardi Confessoris, 103. Character of the law disclosed by the Leges, 104. Practical problems in the Leges, 105. Practice of the king's court, 107. Royal justice, 108.

Contents. ix

Chapter V

Roman and Canon Law, pp. Ill — 135.

Contact of English with Roman and Canon law, 111. Cosmopolitan claims of Roman law, 112. Growth of Canon law, 112. Gratian, 113. Decretales Gregorii, 113. The Canonical system, 114. Relation of Canon to Roman law, 116. Roman and Canon law in England, 117. Vacarius, 118. English legists and canonists, 120. Scientific work in England, 120. The civilian in England, 122.

Province of ecclesiastical law, 124. Matters of ecclesiastical economy, 125. Church property, 126. Ecclesiastical dues, 127. Matrimonial causes, 127. Testamentary causes, 128. Fidei laesio, 128. Correction of sinners, 129. Jurisdiction over clerks, 130. Miserabiles personae, 131. The sphere of Canon law, 131. Influence of Canon upon English law, 131. English law administered hy ecclesiastics, 133. Nature of canonical influence, 134.

CHAPTER VI. The Age of Glanvill, pp. 136 — 173

The work of Henry II., 136. Constitutions of Clarendon, 137. Assize of Clarendon, 137. Inquest of Sheriffs, 137. Assize of Northampton, 137. Henry's innovations. The jury and the original writ, 138. Essence of the jury, 138. The jury a royal institution, 140. Origin of the jury : The Frankish inquest, 140. The jury in England, 141. The jury and fama publico,, 142. The inquest in the Norman age, 143. Henry's use of the inquest, 144. The assize utrum, 144. The assize of novel disseisin, 145. Import of the novel disseisin, 146. The grand assize, 147. The assize of mort d'ancestor, 147. The assize of darrein presentment, 148. Assize and jury, 149. The' system of original writs, 150. The accusing jury, 151. ,

Structure of the king's courts, 153. The central court, 154. Itinerant justices, 155. Cases in the king's court, 156. Law and letters, 160. Richard Fitz Neal, 161. Dialogue on the Exchequer, 161. Ranulf Glanvill : his life, 162. Tractatus de Legibvs, 163. Roman and Canon law in Glanvill, 165. English and continental law-books, 167.

The limit of legal memory, 168. Reigns of Richard and John, 169. The central court, 169. Itinerant justices, 170. Legislation, 170. The Great Charter, 171. Character of the Charter, 172.

CHAPTER VII. The Age of Bracton, pp. 174 — 225

Law under Henry III., 174. General idea of law, 174. Common law, 176. Statute law. The Charters, 178. Provisions of Merton, Westminster and Marlborough, 179. Ordinance and Statute, 181. The king and the law, 181. Unenacted law and custom, 183. Local customs, 184. Kentish customs, 186. Englishry of English law, 188. Equity, 189.

Contents.

The king's courts, 190. The exchequer, 191. Work of the exchequer, 191. The chancery, 193. The original writs, 195. The chancery not a tribunal, 197. The two benches and the council, 198. Council and parliament, 199. Itinerant justices, 200. Triumph of royal justice, 202. The judges, 203. Clerical justices, 205.

Bracton, 206. His book, 207. Character of his work : Italian form, 207. English substance, 208. Later law books, 209. Legal literature, 210.

The legal profession, 211. Pleaders, 211. Attorneys, 212. Nonprofessional attorneys, 213. Professional pleaders, 214. Regulation of pleaders and attorneys, 215. Professional opinion, 217. Decline of Romanism, 217. Notaries and conveyancers, 218. Knowledge of the law, 220.

. English law in Wales, 220. English law in Ireland, 221. English and Scottish law, 222. Characteristics of English law, 224.

Chapter I

Arrangement of this book, 229. The medieval scheme of law, 229. The modern scheme, 230. Our own course, 231.

§ 1. Tenwre in General, pp. 232 — 240.

Derivative and dependent tenure, 232. Universality of dependent tenure, 234. Feudal tenure, 234. Analysis of dependent tenure, 236. Obligations of tenant and tenement, 237. Intrinsec and forinsec service, 238. Classification of tenures, 239.

§ 2. Frankalmoin, pp. 240 — 251.

Free alms, 240. Meaning of 'alms,' 241. Spiritual service, 242. Gifts to God and the saints, 243. Free alms and forinsec service, 244. Pure alms, 245. Frankalmoin and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, 246. The assize Utrum, 247. Defeat of ecclesiastical claims, 248. Frankalmoin in cent, xiii., 250.

§ 3. Knight's Service, pp. 252 — 282.

Military tenure, 252. Growth and decay of military tenure 252. Units of military service, 254. The forty days, 254. Knight's fees 256'. Size of knight's fees, 256. Apportionment of service, 257. Apportion-

Contents. xi ment between king and tenant in chief, 258. Honours and baronies, 259. The barony and the knight's fee, 260. Relativity of the knight's fee, 261. Duty of the military tenant in chief, 262. Position of military sub-tenants, 263. Knight's service due to lords who owe none, 264. Scutage, 266. Scutage between king and tenant in chief, 267. Scutage and fines for default of service, 269. Scutage and the military sub-tenants, 271. Tenure by escuage, 272. The lord's right to scutage, 274. Reduction in the number of knight's fees, 275. Meaning of this reduction, 276. Military combined with other services, 277. Castle-guard, 278. Thegnage and drengage, 279. Tenure by barony, 279. The baronage, 280. Escheated honours, 281.

Definition of serjeanty, 282. Serjeanty and service, 283. Types of serjeanty owed by the king's tenants in chief, 283. Serjeanties due to mesne lords, 285. Military serjeanties due to mesne lords, 286. Essence of serjeanty, 287. The Serjeants in the army, 288. Serjeanty in Domesday Book, 288. Serjeanty and other tenures, 290.

Socage, 291. Types of socage, 291. Extension of socage, 293. Fee farm, 293. Meaning of 'socage,' 293. Socage in contrast to military tenure, 294. Socage as the residuary tenure, 294. Burgage, 295. Burgage and borough customs, 295. One man and many tenures, 296.

§ 6. Homage and Fealty, pp. 296 — 307.

Homage and fealty, 296. Legal and extra-legal effects of homage, 297. The ceremony of homage, 297. The oath of fealty, 298. Liegeance, 298. Vassalism in the Norman age, 300. Bracton on homage, 301. Homage and private war, 301. Sanctity of homage, 303. Homage and felony, 303. Feudal felony, 305. Homage, by whom done and received, 306. The lord's obligation, 306.

§ 7. Relief and Primer Seisin, pp. 307 — 318.

The incidents of tenure, 307. Heritable rights in land, 307. Reliefs, 308. Rights of the lord on the tenant's death, 310. Prerogative rights of the king, 311. Earlier history of reliefs, 312. Relief and heriot, 312. Heritability of fees in the Norman age, 314. Mesne lords and heritable fees, 315. History of the heriot, 316. Relief on the lord's death, 317.

§ 8. Wardship and Marriage, pp. 318 — 329.

Bracton's rules, 319. Wardship of female heirs, 320. Priority among lords, 320. What tenures give wardship, 321. Prerogative wardship, 321. The lord's rights vendible, 322. Wardship and the serjeanties, 323. The law in Glanvill, 323. Earlier law, 325. Norman law, 326. The Norman apology, 326. Origin of wardship and marriage, 327.

xii Contents.

§ 9. Restraints on Alienation, pp. 329 — 349.

Historical theories, 329. Modes of alienation, 330. Preliminary distinctions, 331. Glanvill, 332. The Great Charter, 332. Bracton, 332. Legislation as to mortmain, 333. Alienation of serjeanties, 334. Special law for the king's tenants in chief, 335. Growth of the prerogative right, 336. Quia erwptores, 337. Disputed origin of the prerogative right, 338. Summary of law after the Charter, 339. Older law, 340. Anglo-Norman charters, 340. Discussion of the charters, 341. Conclusions as to law of the Norman age, 343. Usual form of alienation, 345. General summary, 345. Gifts by the lord with his court's consent, 346. Alienation of seignories, 346. Law of attornment, 347. Practice of alienating seignories, 348.

Duty of aiding the lord, 349.

§ 11. Escheat and Forfeiture, pp. 351—356.

Escheat, 351. The lord's remedies against a defaulting tenant, 352. Action in the king's court, 352. Distress, 353. Proceedings in the lord's court, 354. Survey of the various free tenures, 355.

§ 12. Unfree Tenure, pp. 356 — 383.

Freehold tenure, 356. Technical meaning of 'freehold,' 357. Villeinage as tenure and as status, 358. Villein tenure : unprotected by the king's court, 359. Want of right and want of remedy, 360. Protection by manorial courts, 361. Evidence of the 'extents,' 362. Attempt to define villein tenure, 362. The manorial arrangement, 362. The field system, 364. The virgates, 364. Villein services, 365. A typical case of villein services, 366. Week work and boon days, 367. Merchet and tallage, 368. Essence of villein tenure, 368. The will of the lord 370. Villeinage and labour, 370. Uncertainty of villein services, 372. Tests of villeinage, 372. Binding force of manorial custom, 376. Treatment of villein tenure in practice, 377. Heritable rights in villein tenements, 379. Unity of the tenement, 381. Alienation of villein tenements, 382. Villein tenure and villein status, 382.

§ 13. The Ancient Demesne, pp. 383 — 406.

The ancient demesne and other royal estates, 383. Immunities of the ancient demesne, 384. Once ancient demesne, always ancient demesne, 385. Peculiar tenures on the ancient demesne, 385. The little writ of right, 385. The Momtravermit, 388. The classes of tenants, 389. Bracton's theory, 389. Theory and practice, 391. Difficulties of classification, 393. Sokemanry and socage, 394. Later theory and practice, 396. Why is a special treatment of the ancient demesne necessary 1 397! The king and the conquest settlement, 398. Boyal protection of royal tenants, 400. Customary freehold, 401. No place for a tenure between freehold and villeinage, 404. The conventioners, 405. Conclusion, 406

Contents. xiii

Chapter II

The Sorts and Conditions of Men, pp. 407 — 511.

Law of personal condition, 407. Status and estate, 408.

§ 1. The Earls and Barons, pp. 408 — 411.

The baronage, 408. Privileges of the barons, 409.

Knighthood, 412.

\The unfree, 412. General idea of serfage, 413. Relativity of serfage, 415. The serf in relation to his lord, 415. Rightlessness of the serf, 416. Serfdom de iwre and serfdom de facto, 417. Covenant between lord and serf, 418. The serf in relation to third persons, 419. The serf's property, 419. Difficulties of relative serfdom, 420. The serf in relation to the state, 421. How men become serfs, 422. Servile birth, 422. Mixed marriages, 423. Influence of the place of birth, 424. Villeins by confession, 424. Serfdom by prescription, 425. How serfdom ceases, 427. Manumission, 427. The freedman, 428. Modes of enfranchisement, 429. Summary, 429. Retrospect. Fusion of villeins and serfs, 430. The level-' ling process, 431. The number of serfs, 431. Rise of villeins, 432.

§ 4. The Religious, pp. 433—438.

Civil death, 433. Growth of the idea of civil death, 433. Difficulties arising from civil death, 435. The monk as agent, 436. The abbatial monarchy, 437. Return to civil life, 437. Civil death as a development of the abbot's mwnd, 438.

Legal position of the ordained clerk, 439. The clerk under temporal law, 439. Exceptional rules applied to the clerk, 440. Benefit of clergy, 441. Trial in the courts of the church, 443. Punishment of felonious clerks, 444. What persons entitled to the privilege, 445. What offences within the privilege, 446. The Constitutions of Clarendon, 447. Henry II.'s scheme, 448. Henry's scheme and past history, 449. Henry's allegations, 449. Earlier law : the Conqueror's ordinance, 449. The Leges Henrici, 450. Precedents for the trial of clerks, 450. Summary, 452. Henry's scheme and the Canon law, 454. The murderers of clerks, 456.

xiv Contents.

The classical common law, 458. Who are aliens? 458. Disabilities of the alien, 459. Naturalization, 460. Law of earlier times, 460. Growth of the law disabling aliens, 461. The king and the alien, 462. The kinds of aliens, 464. The alien merchants, 464. The alien and the common law, 465. Has the merchant a peculiar status? 466. The law merchant, 467.

General idea of the Jew's position, 468. The Exchequer of the Jews, 469. Relation of the Jew to the king, 471. Relation of the Jew to the world at large, 473. Law between Jew and Jew, 474. Influence of the Jew upon English law, 475.

§ 8. Outlaws and Convicted Felons, pp. 476 — 478. Outlawry, 476. Condition of the outlaw, 477.

§ 9. Excommunicates, pp. 478 — 480.

Excommunication, 478. Spiritual leprosy, 478. Excommunication and civil rights, 480.

§ 10. Lepers, Lunatics and Idiots, pp. 480 — 481. The leper, 480. The idiot, 481. The lunatic, 481.

Legal position of women, 482. Women in private law, 482. Women in public law, 483. Married women, 485.

§ 12. Corporations and Churches, pp. 486 — 511.

The corporation, 486. Beginnings of corporateness, 487. Personality of the corporation, 488. The anthropomorphic picture of a corporation, 489. Is the personality fictitious? 489. The corporation at the end of the middle ages, 489. The corporation and its head, 491. The corporation in earlier times, 492. Gradual appearance of the group-person, 493. The law of Bracton's time, 494. The universitas and the communitas, 494. Bracton and the unicersitas, 495. No law as to corporations in general, 497.

Church lands, 497. The owned church, 497. The saints as persons, 499. The saint's administrators, 500. Saints and churches in Domesday Book, 500. The church as person, 501. The church as wmversitas and persona fieta, 502. The temporal courts and the churches, 503. The parish church, 503. The abbatial church, 504. The episcopal church, 505. Disintegration of the ecclesiastical groups, 506. Communal groups of secular clerks, 507. Internal afl'airs of clerical groups, 508. The power of majorities, 509. The ecclesiastical and the temporal communities, 509. The boroughs and other land communities, 510.

Contents. xv

§ 13. The King and the Crown, pp. 511 — 526.

Is there a crown? 511. Theories as to the king's two bodies, 511. Personification of the kingship not necessary, 512. The king's rights as intensified private rights, 512. The king and other lords, 513. The kingship as property, 513. The king's rights can be exercised by him, 514. The king can do wrong but no action lies against him, 515. King's land and crown land, 518. Slow growth of a law of 'capacities,' 518. No lay corporations sole, 520. Is the kingdom alienable? 521. The king can die, 521. The king can be under age, 522. Germs of a doctrine of 'capacities,' 523. Personification of the crown, 524. Retrospect, 526.

Chapter III

Jurisdiction and the Communities of the Land, pp. 527 — 532.

Place of the law of jurisdiction in the medieval scheme, 527. All temporal jurisdiction proceeds from the king, 528. The scheme of courts, 529. Division of the land, 529. The county court, 529. The hundred court, 530. The sheriff's turn, 530. Seignorial courts, 530. Feudal courts, 531. Franchise courts, 531. Leets, 532. Borough courts, 532. The king's courts, 532.

The county, 532. The county officers, 533. The county community, 534. The county court, 535. Identity of county and county court, 536. Constitution of the county court, 537. Suit of court no right, but a burden, 537. Suit of court is laborious, 538. Sessions of the court, 538. Full courts and intermediate courts, 539. The suitors, 540. Suit is a 'real' burden, 541. ' Reality' of suit, 542. The vill as a suit-owing unit, 542. Inconsistent theories of suit, 543. The court in its fullest form, 544. The communal courts in earlier times, 545. Struggle between various principles, 546. Suit by attorney, 547. Representative character of the county court, 547. The suitors as doomsmen, 548. A session of the county court, 549. The suitors and the dooms, 550. Powers of a majority, 552. The buzones, 553. Business of the court, 553. Outlawry in the county court, 554. Governmental functions, 554. Place of session, 555.

The hundred as a district, 556. The hundred court, 557. Hundreds in the king's hands, 557. Hundreds in private hands, 558. Duties of the hundred, 558. The sheriff's turn, 559.

§ 3. The Vill and the Township, pp. 560—567.

England mapped out into vills, 560. Vill and parish, 560. Discrete vills 561. Hamlets, 562. Vill and village, 562. Vill and township, 563.' Ancient duties of the township, 564. Statutory duties, 565.

xvi Contents.

Contribution of township to general fines, 566. Exactions from townships, 566. Miscellaneous offences of the township, 566. Organization of the township, 567.

Frankpledge, 568. The system in cent, xiii., 568. Township and tithing, 568. The view of frankpledge, 570. Attendance at the view, 570. Constitution of tithings, 571.

§ 5. Seignorial Jurisdiction, pp. 571 — 594.

Regalities and feudal rights, 571. Acquisition of regalities, 572. Theories of royal lawyers, 573. Various kinds of franchises, 574. Fiscal immunities, 574. Immunities from personal service, 574. Immunities from forest law, 575. ' Fiscal powers, 575. Jurisdictional powers, 576. Contrast between powers and immunities, 577. Sake, soke, toll and team, 578. Sake and soke in cent, xiii., 579. View of frankpledge, 580. The leet, 580. The vill and the view, 581. The assize of bread and beer, 581. High justice, 582. High franchises claimed by prescription, 584. The properly feudal jurisdiction, 584. The feudal court is usually a manorial court, 585. Jurisdiction of the feudal court, 586. Civil litigation : personal actions, 587. Actions for freehold land, 587. Actions for villein land, 588. Litigation between lord and man, 588. Presentments, 589. Governmental powers and by-laws, 590. Appellate jurisdiction, 590. Constitution of the feudal court, 592. The president, 592. The suitors, 592.. /

The manor, 594. 'Manor' not a technical term, 595. Indefmiteness of the term, 596. A typical manor, 596. The manor house 597. Occupation of the manor house, 598. Demesne land, 599. The freehold tenants, 600. The tenants in villeinage, 601. The manorial court, 602. Size of the manor, 603. Administrative unity of the manor 604. Summary, 604.

§ 7. The Manor and the Township, pp. 605 — 634.

Coincidence of manor and vill, 605. Coincidence assumed as normal, 606. Coincidence not always found, 607. Non-manorial vills, 608! Manors and sub-manors, 609. The affairs of the non-manorial vill, 61o! Permanent apportionment of the township's duties, 610. Allotment of financial burdens, 611. The church rate, 612. Apportionment of taxes on movables, 615. Actions against the hundred, 616. Economic affairs of the non-manorial vill, 617. Intercommoning vills, 618 Eeturn to the manorial vill, 620. Eights of common, 620. Eights of common and communal rights, 620. The freeholder's right of common, 621. The freeholder and the community, 622. Freedom of the freeholder, 623 Oommunalism among villeins, 624. The villein community, 624. Communalism and collective liability, 627. The community as farmer, 628. Absence of communal rights, 629. Communal rights disappear upon

Contents. xvii examination, 629. Co-ownership and corporate property, 630. The township rarely has rights, 632. The township in litigation, 632. Transition to the boroughs, 633.

Cities and boroughs, 634. The vill and the borough, 634. The borough and its community, 635. Sketch of early history, 636. Borough and shire, 636. The borough as vill, 637. The borough's heterogeneity, 637. The borough and the king, 638. The borough and the gilds, 639. Transition to cent, xiii., 639.

Inferior limit of burgality, 640. Representation in parliament, 641. The typical boroughs and their franchises, 642. Jurisdictional privileges, 643. Civil jurisdiction, 644. Criminal jurisdiction, 644. Return of writs, 644. Privileged tenure, 645. Mesne tenure in the boroughs, 645. Seignorial rights in the boroughs, 646. Customary private law, 647. Emancipation of serfs, 648. Freedom from toll, 649. The firma bwgi, 650. What was farmed, 650. The farm of the vill and the soil of the vill, 652. Lands of the borough, 652. "Waste land, 653. The borough's revenue, 655. Chattels of the borough, 656. Elective officers, 656. Borough courts and councils, 657. By-laws and self-government, 660. Limits to legislative powers, 661. Enforcement of by-laws, 661. Rates and taxes, 662. The borough's income, 663. Tolls, 664. The gild merchant, 664. The formation of a gild, 664. The gild and the government of the borough, 665. Objects" of the gild, 666. The gild and the burgesses, 667. The gild courts, 667. The borough as a franchise holder, 668.

Corporate character of the borough community, 669. Corporateness not bestowed by the king, 669. Gild-like structure of the community, 670. Admission of burgesses, 671. The title to burgherhood, 671. The " subject ' in the borough charters, 672. Discussion of the charters, 673. Charters for the borough, the county and the whole land, 674. Charters and laws, 674. The burgesses as co-proprietors, 676. The community as bearer of rights, 676. Inheritance, succession and organization, 677. Criminal liability of the borough, 678. Civil liability, 679. The communities in litigation, 680. Debts owed to the community, 682. The common seal, 683. The borough's property, 685. The borough's property in its tolls, 685. The ideal will of the borough, 686. The borough corporation, 686. The communities and the nation, 687.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.

A.-S. — Anglo-Saxon.

Co. =Coke.

Co. Lit. = Coke upon Littleton.

D. B. = Domesday Book.

E. H. R. = English Historical Review.

Fitz. Abr. = Fitzherbert's Abridgement.

Fitz. Nat. Brev. = Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium. Harv. L. R. = Harvard Law Review.

Lit. = Littleton's Tenures.

L. Q. R. =Law Quarterly Review.

Mon. Germ. =Monumenta Germaniae.

P. C. = Pleas of the Crown.

P. Q. W. =Placita de Quo Warranto.

Reg. Brev. = Registrant Brevium.

Rep. = Coke's Reports.

Rot. Cart. = Charter Rolls.

Rot. CI. = Close Rolls.

Rot. Pari. = Parliament Rolls.

Rot. Pat. = Patent Rolls.

Sec. Inst. = Coke's Second Institute.

X. =Decretales Gregorii IX

Y. B. =Year Book.

1 The second edition of Schroder's D. R. G. is referred to.

XIX

LIST OF TEXTS USED1

[R=Bolls Series. Bee. Com. =Becord Commission. Seld. = Selden Society. Camd. = Camden Society. Surt.=Surtees Society.]

Die Gesetze der Angelsaohsen, ed. F. Liebermann, in progress. Collections

Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, ed. Reinhold Sohmid, 2nd ed., Leipzig, 1858. ]aws and Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, 8vo. ed. (Rec. Com.). documents.

Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents, ed. Haddan and Stubbs, vol. iii.

Oxford, 1871.

Quadripartitus, ed. F. Liebermann, Halle, 1892. Consiliatio Cnuti, ed. F. Liebermann, Halle, 1893. Leges Edwardi Confessoris, ed. F. Liebermann, Halle, 1894. Instituta Cnuti, ed. F. Liebermann, Transactions of Royal Hist. Soo.

N. S. vol. vii. p. 77.

Codex Diplomaticus Mvi Saxonici, ed. J. M. Kemble (Eng. Hist. Soc). Diplomatarium Anglicum M\i Saxonici, ed. B. Thorpe, London, 1865. Cartularium Saxonicum, ed. W. de G. Birch, 1885 ff.

Placita Anglo-Normannica, ed. M. M. Bigelow, London, 1879.

Select Charters, ed. W. Stubbs, Oxford,. 1881.

Chartes des Liberies Anglaiees, ed. Ch. Beraont, Paris, 1892.

Statutes of the Realm, vol. i. (Rec. Com.), 1800.

Rolls of the King's Court, Ric. I. (Pipe Roll Soc). Judicial

Rotuli Curiae Regis temp. Ric. I. et Joh., ed. Palgrave (Rec. Com.). Records.

Placitorum Abbreviatio (Rec. Com.).

Select Pleas of the Crown, 1200-1225 (Seld.).

Select Civil Pleas, 1200-1203 (Seld.). ' Pleas of the Crown for the County of Gloucester, 1221, ed. Maitland,

London, 1884.

Bracton's Note Book, ed. Maitland, Cambridge, 1887. Three Assize Rolls for the County of Northumberland (Surt.). Placita de Quo Warranto (Rec. Com.).

Somersetshire Assize Rolls (Somers. Record Soc).

1 For texts relating to Normandy see below, vol. i. pp. 64-5 ; and for texts relating to the English boroughs, see below, vol. i. pp. 642-3.

xx List of Texts.

Select Oases from Coroners' Rolls (Seld.).

Eotuli Parliamentorum, vol. i. (official edition). Memoranda de Parliamento, 1305 (R).

Select Pleas in Manorial Courts (Seld.).

The Court Baron (Seld.).

Durham Halmote Rolls (Surt.).

The Leet Jurisdiction in Norwich (Seld.)

Misoel- Domesday Book (official edition).

laneous

Records.

Pipe Roll of 31 Henry I. (Rec. Com.).

Pipe Rolls of Henry II. (Pipe Roll Soc).

Red Book of the Exchequer (R).

Liber Niger Scaccarii, ed. Hearne, Oxford, 1728.

Rotuli Literarum Clausarum, 1204-1227 (Rec. Com.).

Rotuli Literarum Patentium, 1201-1216 (Rec. Com.).

Rotuli Chartarum, 1199-1216 (Rec. Com.).

Rotuli de Oblatis et Finibus, temp. Joh. (Rec. Com.).

Excerpta e Rotulis Finium, 1216-1272 (Rec. Com.).

Fines, sive Pedes Finium, 1195-1215, ed. Hunter (Rec. Com.).

Feet of Fines, 1182-1196 (Pipe Roll Soc).

Rotuli Hundredorum, Hen. III. et Edw. I. (Rec. Com.).

Parliamentary Writs (Rec. Com.).

Testa de Neville (Rec. Com.).

Documents illustrative of English History, ed. Cole (Rec. Com.).

Calendarium Genealogicum (Rec. Com.).

Foedera, Conventiones etc., ed. 1816 (Rec. Com.).

Prynne, Records, i.e. An exact Chronological Vindication... of the King's Supreme Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, etc., London, 1655.

Munimenta Gildhallae (R), containing Liber Albus and Liber Custumarum.

Law- * Bracton, Tractatus de Legibus, ed. 1569. books- Bracton and Azo (Seld.).

Britton, ed. F. M. Nichols, Oxford, 1865.

V Fleta, seu Commentarius Iuris Anglicani, ed. 1685. Glanvill, Tractatus de Legibus, ed. 1604.

Hengham, Surnmae, printed at the end of Selden's ed. of Fortescue, De

Laudibus.

The Mirror of Justices (Seld.).

Law Year Books of 20-1, 21-2, 30-1, 32-3, 33-5 Edward I. (R) reports. v '

Chronicles, Abbatum. Gesta Abbatum Monasterii S. Albani (R). Annals etc. Abingdon, Chronicon Monasterii de (R).

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (R).

Annales Monastici (R).

List of Texts. xxi

Antiquis Legibus, Liber de (Oamd.).

Becket. Materials for the Life of Thomas Becket (R).

Benedictus Abbas. See Gesta Henrici.

Brakelonda, Chronica Jocelini de (Camd.).

Burton, Annales de, in Annales Monastici, vol. i. (R).

Cambrensis. See Giraldus.

Canterbury. See Gervase.

Coggeshall, Radulphi de, Chronicon Anglicanum (B).

Cotton, Bartholomaei de, Historia Anglioana (B).

Diceto, Badulfi de, Opera Historica (B).

Dunstaplia, Annales Prioratus de, in Annales Monastici, vol. iii. (R).

Durham, Symeon of, The Historical Works of (B).

Eadmeri, Historia Novorum (B).

Edward I. and Edward II., Chronicles of (B).

Eveshamensis, Chronicon Abbatiae (B).

Flores Historiarum (B).

Franciscana, Monumenta (B).

Gervase of Canterbury, Works of (B).