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 coconspirators, 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:
- Lords - gold cloth, gold corses, sable fur, purple silk
- Knights - velvet, branched satin, ermine fur
- 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.
- 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
- Men with possessions of the yearly value of 40s. excluding the above three classes - fustian, bustian, scarlet cloth in grain
- 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.
- Yeomen - cloth up to the value of 2s., hose up to the value of 14s., a girdle with silver, kerchief up to 12d.
- 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 reenter, 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:
- The spouse of a deceased person takes all personal and real chattels of the deceased.
- 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.
- A child born before espousals is a bastard and may not inherit, even if his father is the husband.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- A lease for a term of years is a real chattel rather than a free tenement, and may pass without livery of seisin.
- He who has possession of land, though it is by disseisin, has right against all men but against him who has right.
- If a tenant is past due his rent, the lord may distrain his beasts which are on the land.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- A man declared outlaw forfeits his profits from land and his goods to the King.
- 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.
- An accessory shall not be put to answer before the principal.
- If a man commands another to commit a trespass, and he does it, the one who made the command is a trespasser.
- 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.
- 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.
- If two titles are concurrent together, the oldest title shall be preferred.
- 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.
- If the demandant or plaintiff, hanging his writ (writ pending in court), will enter into the thing demanded, his writ shall abate.
- 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.
- 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 issue a 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 subpoena 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 a deed 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 nonresident 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 easy 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, cloth workers, 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".
In 1502, German Peter Henlein invented the pocket watch and the mainspring inside it.
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.