The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century

by Ian Mortimer

  Justice is a relative concept in all ages. The fourteenth century is no exception.

  MANOR AND BOROUGH COURTS

  The manorial court is not always held in a manor house but often meets out of doors, by a specific tree, if the weather allows. The abbot of St. Albans holds his court “under the ash tree in the middle courtyard of the abbey.” At Moulsham (Essex) the court is held outside the manor house, under the boughs of the Court Oak.13 In bad weather, however, it might be adjourned to a manorial hall or barn.

  The court’s purpose is the safe and efficient running of the manor. Thus you will find all the villeins in attendance (including all the chief tithing-men and all those belonging to their tithings) and a few of the freemen.14 Cases include simple managerial aspects, such as cattle and pigs straying; infringements of the lord’s land and rights, ownership of land; or responsibilities for maintaining paths, lanes, and hedges.

  Any trespasses and nuisances which fall wholly within the bounds of the manor, such as wrongly appropriated cattle, poaching, and blocked streams, are settled here. If a villein has extended his land by turning unused or “waste” ground into farmland (known as “assarting”) he will pay an agreed sum for the right to farm the new land and a rent will be settled. Disturbances of a minor nature concerning the villeins will also be dealt with; these may include fistfights and cases of slander. Heriots are paid (if a tenant has died), and a whole welter of small fines are payable, from women brewing poor ale to the fine of “leyrwite”: a charge for adultery among men and fornication among unmarried women.

  “What?” you ask. “The manorial lord has a right to administer the behavior of his villeins too?” Although these are moral crimes, and thus punishable in the church courts, the fines levied on the villeins by those courts can be considered fines against the lord (as the villein’s property is technically that of his lord). Take the case of John Monk, for example. He is a villein on a manor held by the abbot of Ramsey in the reign of Edward II. John is rather keen on Sarah, the wife of Simon Hewen. In fact, he cannot keep his hands off her. So ardent are they in their lovemaking that John has been fined and admonished several times already by the church courts for adultery. Nevertheless they carry on shamelessly. The abbot’s steward, in despair, eventually commits John to the stocks until he agrees to desist and pays the massive fine of one mark in compensation to the lord.15

  Where a lord of a manor holds his land by a charter which states he has the right of “infangenthef,” the manorial court has another, darker dimension. Infangenthef is the right to hang a thief caught red-handed on the manor. Sometimes it is accompanied by “outfangenthef”: the right to hang the thief even if he or she is apprehended elsewhere.16 In this context, “red-handed” includes being in possession of stolen chattels. Lords of these manors, like lords of hundreds, are supposed to wait until the coroner has arrived before hanging the culprit, but very often they—or, rather, their bailiffs—do not bother. In 1313 a man of Bodmin wakes to find that one of his horses has been stolen in the night. The next morning he sees his horse in Bodmin marketplace, in the possession of a man called Robert. He raises the hue and cry, and both men are arrested and ordered to appear in court. The lord of the manor, the prior of Bodmin, who has the right of infangenthef, orders a court leet (a jurisdictional manorial court) to sit straightaway, and when Robert confesses, he is hanged without more ado. Although the prior should rightly have summoned the coroner, Robert’s fate is sealed by his having the horse in his possession.17 Coroners do not stop men being hanged; they simply make sure the value of any chattels or fines which should go to the king are not appropriated by the lord.

  The right of infangenthef in some manors leads to thresholds for hanging men and women being set locally. The abbot of Crowland will hang you for stealing sixteen eggs, worth about 2d to 3d, whereas other lords will not hang you for far worse crimes.18 In Sowerby Yorkshire, in 1313 there is a man called Roger son of Amabel who twenty years ago burgled a house and stole oatmeal, salt, and loaves. Although he was indicted at the hundred court at the time, and was bailed, he has never actually been acquitted. Moreover, he still has in his possession the chattels of his brother, John, who was hanged eighteen years ago for stealing six sheep and five quarters of oats. These should have been surrendered to the king on John’s execution. Although Roger is thus guilty of two capital offenses—theft and receiving the goods of a criminal—he is not hanged but declared a common thief and fined 2s.19

  In London, there is no messing about. The city itself has the rights of infangenthef and outfangenthef, and its mayor has permanent judicial authority, so it has the necessary powers to deal speedily with all wrongdoers. On February 2, 1337, John le Whyte of Cambridge is presented by the sheriffs to the mayor and aldermen. He is accused of breaking into the shop of a mercer at night and stealing gold and silver rings, pearls, linen thread, and bracelets to the value of £5. Found guilty by a jury he is ordered to be hanged immediately at Tyburn. On May 19 this same year, Desiderata de Toryntone is accused of stealing thirty dishes and twenty-four saltcellars of silver, worth £40, from Lady Alice de Lisle, when she was staying at the bishop of Salisbury’s house in Fleet Street. Fourteen of the dishes and twelve of the saltcellars have been found in her keeping. She too is dragged off to be hanged at Tyburn straightaway20 This brutally efficient system of punishment is how the dream of finding wealth in London ends for so many young men and women who have come in from the country. You might think that Gilbert son of Gilbert of Stapleford, Wiltshire, is a lucky boy to have been placed apprentice to a London spicemonger, Geoffrey Adrian, in 1341. His father has taken considerable effort on his son’s behalf and can be sure that the lad is on the path to prosperity. But on June 17 of that year, young Gilbert is found with £40 of his master’s money in his pockets. Poor Gilbert is taken by his outraged master before the mayor and aldermen that same day. He confesses his deed. Within a few hours of his giving in to temptation, he is dead. Despite all his father’s efforts to give him a good start in life, his corpse is twisting on a rope at Tyburn.

  Most chartered towns by 1350 have sets of local bylaws or “ordinances.” These govern the behavior of traders as well as visitors. Every set includes articles concerning the baking of bread and the brewing of ale, the use of weights and measures, and the penalties for shedding blood in a fight. More interesting are the differences between the various regulations. In London, for instance, it is forbidden to play dice while wearing a mask (as a result of a bylaw of 1343). In 1359 the mayor of London forbids begging within the city Able-bodied beggars are to be placed within the stocks on Cornhill for half a day the first time they are caught and a whole day the second time. The third time, they are imprisoned for forty days. The fourth time they are banned from the city forever.

  The sets of ordinances drawn up for the towns in the marcher lordship of Glamorgan around 1330 (based on those for Hereford) include some interesting clauses. Cows may not be milked in the High Street. No one shall play at dice or bowls within the town (penalty 12d). Butchers may not throw the heads and feet of animals into the High Street or any other lane within the town walls. No one shall cast dung or any other filth into the streets or the town ditch, or within forty feet of the town gates, or near any part of the walls. No taverner may open his tavern after ten p.m., or nine p.m. in the case of an alewife. To this last regulation, one is tempted to ask, “Why the difference?” But your curiosity about the various closing times of drinking establishments run by men and women will probably be overcome when reading this ordinance: “If any woman be found guilty by six men of scolding or railing any townsman or his wife, or any of their neighbors, then she is to be brought at the first fault to the cucking stool [a seat with ankle fastenings, pivoted on a pole, like a seesaw] there to sit one hour, at the second fault two hours. And at the third fault to let slip” with the result that the woman is dropped into deep water.21

  Borough Ordinances of Worcester (selection)22

  Article />
  Penalty

  9.

  Bakers should not be fined for any failing in their craft but should be punished according to the Assize of Bread. Also in summer bakers should buy no grain in the market before 11 of the bell, and in winter before 12 of the bell. Nor shall they resell any grain coming at the market. Their bread is to be weighed and tested for quality every Saturday.

  20s

  10.

  Bakers should not receive any grain in their houses on Saturdays (market days) until 11 of the bell

  6s 8d

  11.

  Ale must be sold to the citizens of the borough, and that the price is to be three gallons of small ale for 1d. The two ale tasters are to be citizens and “sad and discreet persons” to see that the ale be good and set.

  6s 8d

  13.

  Strangers may not buy barley, malt, or any other grain in the market until the corn brewers and maltsters of the borough have made their purchases. This is to be done by 11 of the bell in summer and by 12 of the bell in winter.

  6s 8d

  14.

  If any man’s wife becomes indebted, and sells any victuals or goods, she is to answer at court as an independent woman, and any legal action against her is not to name her husband.

  15.

  The beaters are to be ready with their horses and equipment to bring water to every citizen, when called to do so by any man or child when any peril of fire is within the city.

  40d

  19.

  No horses are to be left standing in the marketplace on market days.

  1d

  20.

  Every man is to keep the road in front of his tenement clean.

  40d

  21.

  Bawds, scolds, and chiders, and resetters of servants and children [those who harbor them after they have run away from home] who are found guilty in the borough court are to be punished by the bailiffs at their discretion.

  22.

  Five pageants are to be held yearly by the craft guilds, to do worship to God and to the city.

  40s

  23.

  There should be peace between the citizens and the gentlemen of the shire. No gentleman’s livery is to be given to or received by any citizen.

  24.

  The entrails of butchered beasts and pails of blood are not to be carried away by day but only by night. No pail of blood should be left uncleansed for a day and night, whether in winter or summer.

  12d

  25.

  Five fire hooks [to pull down burning materials] shall be stationed in three parts of the city.

  26.

  No timber chimneys are allowed in the city, nor thatched houses. All timber chimneys are to be rebuilt in stone and all thatched roofs are to be tiled.

  6s 8d for each six months it is not done

  30.

  No man may play tennis or jeu de paume within the guildhall.

  40d

  32.

  Every citizen within the city shall keep a weapon and be ready and willing to support the bailiffs in keeping the king’s peace.

  20s

  33.

  No citizen may give or receive a lord’s livery in the city, nor may he gather in an unlawful assembly, nor may he go armed. Also no citizen shall harbour “pillagers, robbers, despoilers, oppressors of people, manslayers, felons, outlaws, ravishers of women, unlawful hunters of forests, parks and warrens, other miss-doers,” or anyone else accused of such offences yet to be tried.

  40s

  34.

  If a man starts a fight within the city, or draws his sword or dagger, he is to lose the weapon. If he draws blood he is to be fined, and, if he cannot pay, he is to be imprisoned. This does not affect the right of a householder to correct his servant or apprentice within the law.

  6s 8d

  38.

  No citizen shall be put in the common prison but in one of the chambers of the guildhall, unless he be imprisoned for a man’s death or a heinous crime, or a debt exceeding £10.

  40.

  No citizen may rebuke the bailiffs or reprove the aldermen, chamberlain, or recorder.

  20s

  44.

  The election of citizens to represent the city in parliament shall be made openly, by freeholders with per year, in the guildhall, “by the most voice” [note: no secret ballot].

  40s

  45.

  No citizen may sue another citizen of this city in another court outside the city, except over the ownership of land.

  49.

  All those laborers who would be hired within the city should stand daily by Grace Cross on the day of work, in summer at 5 of the bell, and in winter at 6 of the bell.

  51.

  No saddler, butcher, baker, or glover, nor any other person, may cast entrails, “filth of beasts’ dung,” or dust over Severn Bridge. Also no one may shave flesh, skins, or hides but above the bridge, between the watering place at St. Clements Gate and the said Severn Bridge. And they may wash nothing here except beneath the bridge, and on the far side of the Severn, or beneath the Slip.

  6s 8d

  54.

  The quay, slips, and the pavement of the Great Slip shall be overseen and repaired regularly.

  55.

  The bailiffs must attend to the repair of the walls and gates of the city.

  56.

  No man may cast “dung or harlotry” at the Slip, nor upon the quay. And no man may have pigs roaming at large, to the annoyance of his neighbors; he must put them away when warned by a bailiff to do so.

  40d

  57.

  The tilers of the town may not compel strangers who are tilers to serve them. Nor may they have their own parliament. Every tiler must mark his tiles with his own mark.

  68.

  No man may sell ale from his house unless he puts up a sign at his door.

  6s 8d

  69.

  No butcher may work in the city as a cook.

  13s 4d

  73.

  All the crafts within the city which have pageants—for the worship of God and the profit of the city—and all the crafts that contribute to these, and to the lighting of torches and tapers used by the said crafts, shall continue to enjoy their customs as before. All master craftsmen and journeymen coming to the city must also join one of these crafts after being resident in the city for a fortnight. Every craft holding a pageant shall provide a lamp every year, to be borne before the bailiffs of the city on the vigil of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, at the common watch of the city; and the wardens of the said craft and all their members shall wait upon the bailiffs at this time, dressed in their finest clothes.

  40s

  75.

  No baker shall bake horsebread or keep a hostelry.

  6s 8d

  76.

  No person may keep a hostelry unless he has a sign above his door.

  6s 8d

  Royal Justice

  What is the law of the land? Where does it come from? How does anyone know what the letter of the law is? After all, there are relatively few law books to be found, especially outside London, and those there are tend to be old and out of date. While obviously it is a crime for anyone to injure another person physically without reason, or to damage or remove his property, how far can one go in defending oneself? The case of John de Burgh illustrates the problems. John is a five-year-old London boy. One Monday evening in April 1324 he is playing in the house of Richard and Emma de Latthere, his parents’ neighbors. He takes a fancy to a ball of wool belonging to Emma and hides it under his cap. Emma discovers what he has done and chastises him with her right hand on the left side of his face. Such chastisement is perfectly in order, especially in her own home; Emma has done nothing wrong. However, the blow causes some other, unseen damage—probably a hemorrhage in the brain—and the lad dies the next day23 Should Emma face charges? Terrified that she will be accused of murder, she flees, thus compounding her guilt and, by implicat
ion, her reputation for involvement in the “crime.” Does she deserve to be hanged, though, when chastisement of this nature is positively encouraged by society, to teach children a sense of right and wrong?

  The law of England is basically a compendium of the old laws of the Saxons which have been repeatedly revised and rewritten by the royal judges (or justices) since the Conquest. These same royal judges go out to the county towns and hold trials in those places. It is thus called “the common law” because it is commonly applied to everyone in the kingdom and takes precedence over local customary laws and ordinances. This shows why it is important for local officials to wait for an experienced royal judge to arrive to try their prisoners. Where sheriffs take the law into their own hands, they run the risk of committing a crime themselves.

  The common law can only remain relevant if it is adapted to suit changing circumstances. Increasingly it falls to Parliament to initiate changes in outdated laws and introduce new ones. A Member of Parliament who wants the law changed in some way—be he a nobleman, a prelate, one of the seventy-four representatives of the shires, or a representative of a borough (normally there are about 165 to 185 of these)—must present a petition to the king in Parliament. Some of these petitions will be dismissed by the lords and prelates appointed to consider them, but some form the basis of new legislation.

  Many of our most basic laws are written over the course of the fourteenth century. Many are clarifications by Parliament of old customs, such as benefit of clergy, and sanctuary. Some Acts of Parliament, it has to be said, are completely ignored by the people: the repeated attempts to establish a single, universal system of weights and measures is a good example. But a few Acts are of vital importance. For example, there are officially two races—the English and the Normans—until this law of “Englishry” is repealed in 1340. The Act of 1362 which enables people to plead in court in English is a similar milestone in the history of the nation. Some important Acts are still in force in the modern world. The main clauses of the Treason Act of 1351, by which Edward III establishes exactly what constitutes “high treason,” are still on the statute books. One can say the same for Acts forbidding men to come to Parliament armed, and the Act of 1383 forbidding maintenance (where lords protect their criminal retainers). Also still in force in the modern world are an Act of 1331 making it illegal to arrest someone contrary to the terms of the Magna Carta, and an Act of 1381 making it treasonable to begin a riot (passed in the wake of the Peasants’ Revolt). Interestingly, an Act of 1354 is also still in force, making it illegal for a man to be deprived of his lands or property, or executed, without first having had the chance to answer the accusations against him in court. Sadly, recourse to this particular law is normally made posthumously, when an heir is trying to clear his executed father’s name and reclaim his inheritance.