SAXON AND MEDIEVAL ANTECEDENTS OF THE ENGLISH COMMON LAW
Kurt von S. Kynell
Studies in British History Volume 59
The Edwin Mellen Press Lewiston»Queenston*Lampeter CONTENTS
Introduction 1
Chapter I.
Anglo-Saxon Legal Precedents: The Problems of Language and Custom from King Alfred's Time 11
Saxon and Danish languages 13 Aethelbehrt and Augustine - Old English 14 Danish Laws and customs - the Danelaw 16
Chapter II.
The Norman Conquest and Saxon Law: Abrupt Change or Assimilation? 19
The relationships - Edward the Confessor 19 The ships - logistics and transport 21 Hastings - King Harold Godwin 24 The end of Saxon Common Law 26 The Witanagemot - form and function 26 Domesday and demolition 28
Chapter III.
Clerical v. Secular Law and the Problems of Jurisdiction: Knights and Priests from William Rufus to Stephen 35
The castles 36 William Rufus 36 Knights, Priests, and the Crusades 37 Anglo-Saxon Chronicles 38 The Crusades 38 Henry I 40 King Stephen 41
VI Chapter IV.
Jurisprudential Watershed: The Reign of Henry II and the Revolution in Writs 45
The Hegelian principle 45 Henry II and "justices in eyre" 46 Saxon writs and customs 47 Justiciars • 48 The melding of languages 49 The revolution in writs 52 Writ of Novel Disseisin 54 Writ returns 56 Criminous clerics and Thomas a Becket 56 Ranulphus de Glanville 59
Chapter V.
Richard, John, Crusaders, and Irish Law: Fait Accompli Legatus 67
The Third Crusade and massive ransom 67 Couer de Lion and the eyeres 69 King John 70 Vassalage and excommunication 71 Irish Brehon law and disseisin 72 St. Patrick and the Senchus Mor 14 Magna Carta and the barons 76
Chapter VI.
Judicial Craftsmanship from Glanville to Bracton: Sheriffs, Judges, and Lawyers 83
Bracton's treatise and the Irish Charter 83 Common Law codification - Anglo-Saxon laws 83 Brehon Codes and lex talionis 85 Sheriffs and the Common Law 86 King Canute, frankpledge, and hustings 87 Judges and the entry of commoners 88 Irish judicial procedures 89 " Lawyers and miles literatus ' 90 Serjeants-at-law, lawyers, pleaders 91
vn Novae Narrationes, lawyers, and Brehons 92
Chapter VII.
Henry III, the Writ of Trespass, and the Impact of the Templars 99
The rise of universities and scientific investigation 100 Acquinas, Grossteste, and Bracton 100 Barons, Court of Common Pleas, and the monumental Writ of Trespass 101 Trespass de Bonis Asportatis 103 Trespass per Quare Servitium Amisit 103 Trespass Quare Clausum Fregit 104 Trespass Vi et Armis 104 The rebellion of Simon de Montfort 105 King Henry and the Templars 106
Chapter VIII.
Cathedrals and Construction: Obligate Quasi exContractu 113
Religious bedrock, law, and the church 114 Cathedrals, the "medieval miracle" 114 Architects, master masons, implied contracts . 116 The enigma of freemasonry, dejure and de facto 118 Engineers and Villard de Honnecourt 120 Euclid, Vitruvius, and contract law 120 The Regius poem and assumpsit 122
Chapter IX.
Edward I and Quo Warranto: English and French Law 129
Quo warranto writs and feudal overlays 129 Statutes of Mortmain and Quia Emptores 131 French law and social conditions 132 Corruption and tallage 133 Scotland, Wales, and the Templars 134 Philip fV, Clement V, and the great conspiracy 135 " Legal problems over the Templars and the legal significance of "dying declarations" 138
Vlll Chapter X.
Nullus Justitio Omnibus: The Dreadful Century 147
Bannockburn, regicide, and simony 147 Avignon, Black Plague, rapacity 148 Emerging mercantilism and banking 149 The metaphor of Common Law 151 Wat Tyler's rebellion, Statute of Laborers, poll taxes and anarchy 153 Middle English and the Common Law 155 Justices-of-the-Peace and Latin, French, and English in the courts 156 Chaucer and the rise of Middle-English 156 The rise of the English Parliament 159 Lords Appellant, Gaunt, and Bolingbroke 160
Chapter XI.
Medievalism to Modern State: Ad Vitam Aut Culpam 169
Wars of the Roses and the decline of legalism 169 Bosworth field and misuse of the Common Law 173 Henry VII and the return to law and stability 174 Henry VIII and royal absolutism 175 Statutes of Praemunire and Provisors 175 Wolsey, Cromwell, and More 176 Habeas corpus and its antecedents 177 Cromwell and church property confiscation 178 Frankalmoign and Henry's enrichment 179 Sir Thomas More's legacies 180
Chapter XII.
Tudors to Stuarts: Lord Coke and the Law 187
The resurrection of the Common Law 187 Queen Mary and lukewarm Catholicism 187 Queen Elizabeth and the Golden Age 188 Resurgence of the House of Commons 188 Mercantilism and exploration - 189 Cabot and Drake 189
IX Hugo Grotius and International law 190 Edward Coke and Francis Bacon 192 The Trial of Robert Devereaux, Earl of Essex 192 Legal geniuses, different approaches 194 Coke's attacks in the Guy Fawkes case 194 The "knight errant" of English law 195 Institutes, rights of the English people Exegesis of Magna Carta 196 Libertarian legalism and natural law 197 Lex Regia v. Case of Proclamations 197 Coke's thesis of Common Law antiquity and the rule of law 198 Shakespeare as transitional figure 199 Contributions to Modern English 199 Human psychology and the law 200 Philological analyses 200 Depth of Shakespeare's legal knowledge 201 Butterfield, Whig history, and the Common Law 203
Conclusion: Common Law Legacies: Blackstone and Holmes 211
Two inheritors of the ancient jurisprudence and their common ground 211 The Commentaries and the basis of English law 212 Modem British jurisprudence: leges folia memoria et usu retinabant 212 Alfred's Liber Judicialis and Saxon Common Law 212 Alfred as legum Anglicarum conditor and Edward the Confessor as restitutor 213 Blackstone following Coke in immemorial usage 214 Holmes following Blackstone - deodand theory 214 deodands and damages and a millenium of Common Law 215 Magna Carta, John Locke, and the American Constitution 215 Inter vivos, bailment, and liability 216 Adverse possession, trespass, assumpsit 217 Holmes summation of English Common Law 217 Shawv. Director of Public Prosecutions 218 King's Bench and the custos morum 218 Residual power of the Common Law 219 TheHouseof Lords and the Common Law 219 * U.S. Commonwealth v. Mochan and the Common Law * 219 Aethelbehrt, Augustine, Alfred, and Bede 220 Glanville, Bracton.Coke, Blackstone and Holmes 220
Holmes' tracing U.S. Common Law from England 220
Bibliography 227
Index 241
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