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18 - Normans in Europe by Arthur Henry Johnson · Normans in Europe

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Speaker 1: Section eighteen of the Normans in Europe by Arthur Henry Johnson.
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Speaker 1: This librovox recording is in the public domain. Read by Pamelinagami,
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Speaker 1: Chapter thirteen William's English Policy ten seventy to ten eighty seven,
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Speaker 1: Part one. There were three classes in the country with
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Speaker 1: whom William had to deal, and these, for convenience sake,
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Speaker 1: we will take an order to understand the policy of
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Speaker 1: the conqueror towards the English, it is necessary to take
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Speaker 1: a retrospect of their constitutional history. Anglo Saxon society by
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Speaker 1: the time the English conquest was completed consisted of four ranks,
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Speaker 1: the earl or noble by birth, the chural or free
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Speaker 1: by birth, the let, and the thrall or slave. Of these,
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Speaker 1: the two former only were considered full free. The let
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Speaker 1: was really an inferior churial, enjoying personal freedom, but holding
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Speaker 1: his land of some lord upon whom he was dependent.
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Speaker 1: The thrall or slave, a small, unimportant class, consisted of
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Speaker 1: those who had lost their liberty for dead or other causes.
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Speaker 1: The two latter classes were probably in the West of England,
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Speaker 1: at least largely recruited from the conquered Celts. The tribes
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Speaker 1: thus constituted were commanded by leaders, who appear under different names.
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Speaker 1: Of these the aldermen was the chief magistrate in times
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Speaker 1: of peace, the heretoga the leader in war. In time,
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Speaker 1: these two offices were combined in one person under the
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Speaker 1: name of Kinning or king. The mark system or custom
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Speaker 1: of holding lands in common had nearly not entirely passed away,
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Speaker 1: and each freeman had a right to a certain portion
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Speaker 1: of land granted out to him after the conquest of
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Speaker 1: the country, and called his elle property. This property, the
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Speaker 1: possession of which was a necessary condition of full tribal membership,
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Speaker 1: he held in full ownership without any rent or service,
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Speaker 1: except those included in the term trinoda nketsitas, the requirements
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Speaker 1: of which were to serve in the national militia, repair
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Speaker 1: roads and bridges, and keep up the defenses of the country.
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Speaker 1: What remained after this allotment was called the folk land,
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Speaker 1: and this could not be granted out to any without
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Speaker 1: the consent of the whole tribe given in its commote
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Speaker 1: or assembly. If so granted, it was term backland or
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Speaker 1: land booked out, and in that case the terms of
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Speaker 1: tenure varied. The people settling down on these terms formed
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Speaker 1: themselves into political, self governing societies. Of these, the unit
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Speaker 1: was the township, a rural division of varying limits surrounded
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Speaker 1: by the ton or quick set hedge. A cluster of
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Speaker 1: townships formed the hundred, and a cluster of hundreds the Shire.
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Speaker 1: Each of these had their separate courts. In the court
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Speaker 1: of the township, all the freemen of the township had
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Speaker 1: a right to sit, and there their elected representative, the
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Speaker 1: town reeve, settled their petty disputes, collected their contributions to
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Speaker 1: the revenue, and summoned the militia when necessary. In the
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Speaker 1: court of the Hundred, the several townships of which the
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Speaker 1: hundred was formed were represented by their parish priest, their reeve,
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Speaker 1: the lords of lands, and four elected men. Its presiding
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Speaker 1: magistrate was the hundred men elected in the hundred court,
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Speaker 1: But the judges were at first the whole body of
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Speaker 1: the suitors, and subsequently a representative body of twelve men
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Speaker 1: capable of declaring the law, who, for convenient sake, were
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Speaker 1: entrusted with the judicial business of the Hundred. Here more
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Speaker 1: important disputes were settled. Theoretically, every suit began here, and
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Speaker 1: an appola to the Shire court the hundred men led
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Speaker 1: the hundred to the militia, and the hundred formed the
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Speaker 1: basis of assessment for taxation. The Shire was probably originally
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Speaker 1: the sub kingdom and the Shire Court the court orgmoat
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Speaker 1: of that sub kingdom, but as the separate kingdoms became united,
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Speaker 1: the Shire became a division of the kingdom, a collection
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Speaker 1: of hundreds, and the Shire Court the highest and most
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Speaker 1: important of the local courts. Its suitors were the same
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Speaker 1: as those of the hundred courts which fell within the shire.
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Speaker 1: Its officers were the Aldermen, the sheriff Shire reeve, and
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Speaker 1: the bishop of these. The aldermen represented the old sub king, who,
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Speaker 1: as the sub kingdoms were gradually united, became a national officer.
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Speaker 1: He was appointed by the King and utankamote, and had
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Speaker 1: the command of the whole militia of the shire. The Sheriff,
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Speaker 1: in practice, was always nominated by the King and was
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Speaker 1: his judicial and fiscal officer, collecting the royal revenues and
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Speaker 1: presiding in the court. The Bishop, sitting with the other two,
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Speaker 1: decided questions of ecclesiastical law. The judges, as was universally
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Speaker 1: the case in these local courts, were not the officers
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Speaker 1: but all the suitors to the court, that is, all
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Speaker 1: who had a right to sit there here. However, as
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Speaker 1: in the hundred court, the office of judges was subsequently
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Speaker 1: limited to certain representative men, often twelve in number. The
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Speaker 1: ecclesiastical divisions of the country nearly resembled the political. The
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Speaker 1: parish was identical with the township, the bishopric with the shire,
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Speaker 1: and the ecclesiastical and political organization borrowed much from one another.
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Speaker 1: It was in the shire court that all important cases,
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Speaker 1: civil and criminal were decided, and a pola from the
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Speaker 1: inferior courts to this court, while from the Shire court
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Speaker 1: the appeolat to the King and the witangamote. In civil matters,
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Speaker 1: it settled disputes and witnessed the transfers of land. But
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Speaker 1: the most important part of its jurisdiction was the criminal.
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Speaker 1: Let us then suppose the offender caught, and follow him
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Speaker 1: to his trial. His judges observe are the freemen of
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Speaker 1: the district, assembled in their own folkmote, or later the
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Speaker 1: twelve representative men. The aldermen, sheriff and bishop are only
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Speaker 1: officers of the court. They preside over it, and the
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Speaker 1: sheriff seize the law executed. But they do not judge
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Speaker 1: the accused. Here. Then, in the very origin of our history,
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Speaker 1: we have the right of every Englishman to be tried
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Speaker 1: by his peers. Now, the accused might be presented for
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Speaker 1: trial by the judgment of the hundred court. In that case,
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Speaker 1: he was looked upon as one convicted by common opinion,
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Speaker 1: and was judged accordingly. He might indeed appeal to the ordeal,
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Speaker 1: a form of trial in which the accused, appealing to
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Speaker 1: the judgment of God, walked across red hot bars of iron,
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Speaker 1: or was thrown into water. But even here, if he
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Speaker 1: escaped unhurt, he was still considered a bad character, and,
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Speaker 1: though relieved from greater punishment, had to fly the realm.
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Speaker 1: But next he might be accused by a private individual.
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Speaker 1: In that case he was allowed to bring witnesses called compurgators,
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Speaker 1: people who swore to the truth of his oath, and
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Speaker 1: thus attested the respectable character of the accused and purged
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Speaker 1: him from the imputations cast upon him. Now, if the
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Speaker 1: accused could bring enough of these compregators to balance the
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Speaker 1: evidence of the other side, he would be acquitted. And
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Speaker 1: in considering the question, the popular judges estimated the weight
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Speaker 1: of each compregator by his rank. Thus an earl's word
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Speaker 1: would be as valuable as that of six churls, and
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Speaker 1: an alderman's evidence might outweigh that of a whole township.
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Speaker 1: No doubt, this was a rough and ready way of
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Speaker 1: administering justice, and there may have been a temptation to
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Speaker 1: get rid by this means of an unpopular man. But
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Speaker 1: at least the question of guilt or innocence was left
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Speaker 1: to those who were most likely to know the probabilities
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Speaker 1: of the case from a man's antecedents. Finally, if a
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Speaker 1: man could not bring sufficient compregation, he might go to
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Speaker 1: the ordeal, and if he passed that safely, would be
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Speaker 1: considered acquitted by the direct interposition of God. Punishment generally
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Speaker 1: took the form of pecunions, that of death being unknown,
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Speaker 1: except in cases of treason, sacrilege, witchcraft, and theft, where
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Speaker 1: the thief was caught in the act. Injury to life
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Speaker 1: and limb was compounded for by the ver guilt paid
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Speaker 1: to the injured man or to his family in case
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Speaker 1: of death, and the vietgilt or fine to the state.
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Speaker 1: The ver guilt of each man was arranged on a
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Speaker 1: sliding scale according to his rank, That of an earl
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Speaker 1: being greater than that of a churl, and so on.
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Speaker 1: The system of police bore the same local character which
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Speaker 1: we have seen so strongly developed in the Anglo Saxon institutions.
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Speaker 1: It was based upon the idea of mutual responsibility. For
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Speaker 1: this purpose, the hundreds were divided into tithings, and by
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Speaker 1: a law of Canuts, everyone was bound to belong to
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Speaker 1: a tithing, while by the laws of Edgar, every landless
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Speaker 1: man was forced to have a lord to answer for
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Speaker 1: him in the court, and every man as surety to
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Speaker 1: answer for him if he were absent when required. Such
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Speaker 1: was the local and judicial organization of the Anglo Saxon
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Speaker 1: institutions in their earliest form. But before the Norman conquest
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Speaker 1: several modifications had occurred. These will best be summed up
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Speaker 1: under the heads one growth of feignship, two rise of
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Speaker 1: territorial jurisdiction. Three growth of towns or burghs, one growth
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Speaker 1: of theeinnship. Side by side with the democratic constitution of
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Speaker 1: all German tribes, there had existed a peculiar institution known
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Speaker 1: as the kamitatus. Each alderman or king was allowed to
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Speaker 1: collect around him a body of personal followers called his
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Speaker 1: gesiths or his thanes, representing a condition of things not
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Speaker 1: unlike that described in the Homeric poems, where each chief
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Speaker 1: has a following of personal attendants called his et tyroy
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Speaker 1: or companions. These warriors were bound to their lord by
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Speaker 1: the closest ties of personal dependants, and after the conquest
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Speaker 1: received grants either from the undivided folk land, which remained
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Speaker 1: over after the freemen had received their share, or on
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Speaker 1: the domains of the aldermen or king. These thanes might
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Speaker 1: be churls or earls themselves holding lands of their own,
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Speaker 1: or might have no freehold of their own. In either case,
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Speaker 1: they were at first looked upon as an inferior class
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Speaker 1: by the independent earls and churls, but in time, as
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Speaker 1: the power of the king increased, they began to borrow
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Speaker 1: dignity from his advance. In times of war, such nobles
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Speaker 1: by service, forming chiefly a military class, became the natural leaders.
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Speaker 1: Their privileges, too, were increased by the royal grants from them.
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Speaker 1: The king chose his officers, his aldermen, sheriffs, and even bishops,
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Speaker 1: and thus a class of nobility by service arose, which
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Speaker 1: in the end superseded entirely the nobility by birth. The
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Speaker 1: custom once began earls and churls pressed into the service
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Speaker 1: of the king. The aldermen, now falling back into a
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Speaker 1: national officer, surrounded himself with thanes, and the bishops and
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Speaker 1: kings feians followed suit. Then the earls and churls, abandoning
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Speaker 1: their independence, which day by day became more precarious, made
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Speaker 1: haste to commend themselves to some lord, and in return
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Speaker 1: for the commendation received the benefit of security. Meanwhile, a
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Speaker 1: property qualification became an essential requirement for the position of
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Speaker 1: a thane, who thus assumed a territorial rather than a
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Speaker 1: personal character. Finally, under Athelstan, the principle of lordship became compulsory.
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Speaker 1: Every one was bound to attach himself to some lord,
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Speaker 1: and the lordless man was looked upon as an outlaw.
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Speaker 1: Under these influences, the classes of earl and churl entirely
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Speaker 1: passed away. The class of earls merged with that of thane,
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Speaker 1: a term which now became equivalent to noble or gentle,
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Speaker 1: while the churls either became thanes or were degraded into
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Speaker 1: a semi servile class. Thus thaneship. At the time of
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Speaker 1: the Norman conquest had become the central institution of the state,
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Speaker 1: and the twofold rank of earl and churl was lost
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Speaker 1: in that of Thane. Two rise of territorial jurisdiction. At
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Speaker 1: the first settlement of the English, the greater lords had
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Speaker 1: enjoyed in some cases independent jurisdiction, that is to say,
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Speaker 1: where a township lay on their property. Although the constitution
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Speaker 1: was the same as in the free township, the reeve
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Speaker 1: was appointed by them, and they enjoyed the privileges and
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Speaker 1: undertook the duties which elsewhere belonged to the freeholders. Such
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Speaker 1: townships virtually formed manners, though the name itself is of
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Speaker 1: Norman origin, and as the principle of theeaneeship grew, these
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Speaker 1: jurisdictions increased partly by royal grants, partly by commendation of
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Speaker 1: whole townships to a neighboring thane, gradually by the grant
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Speaker 1: of sac jurisdiction in matters of dispute, and soak the
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Speaker 1: right of holding courts for their personal and territorial dependence.
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Speaker 1: The Thens gained exemption from the jurisdiction of the hundred court,
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Speaker 1: though still subject to that of the shire, and the
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Speaker 1: payments formerly due to the Hundred Court, were now made
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Speaker 1: to the Thane. Thus their territorial jurisdiction rapidly increased, and
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Speaker 1: the idea of possession of land and jurisdic went hand
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Speaker 1: in hand, these private jurisdictions encroaching largely upon the popular courts. Meanwhile,
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Speaker 1: the jurisdiction of the king increased. From being merely the
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Speaker 1: hearer of appeals in the Weetangamoat, he began to be
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Speaker 1: looked upon as the origin of all justice. The number
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Speaker 1: of pleas reserved to the crown crown pleas increased, and
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Speaker 1: these were judged by the royal officers in the local courts. Lastly,
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Speaker 1: about the time of Canute, the king in some cases
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Speaker 1: delegated his powers to some great landowner, who thus became
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Speaker 1: the superior judicial official in his district, superintended the popular
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Speaker 1: courts and usurped their rights. From all these causes, the
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Speaker 1: lower popular courts of township and hundred decreased in influence,
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Speaker 1: while the manorial courts became more and more important and
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Speaker 1: threatened at the time of the Norman conquest, soon to
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Speaker 1: supersede them entirely. Section three. Growth of burrs. The growth
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Speaker 1: of burs tended to the same end. Originally, the Anglo
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Speaker 1: Saxons were not fond of municipal life and neglected any
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Speaker 1: remains of Roman organization which may have survived among the
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Speaker 1: British after the Roman occupation. The township, it must be remembered,
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Speaker 1: being in no sense a town, as we should call it,
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Speaker 1: but a rural subdivision of the free community. But in
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Speaker 1: time the villages grew, The smaller burhs became a kind
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Speaker 1: of civic township, with their boroughmote corresponding to the rural
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Speaker 1: township court. The larger, comprising a collection of townships, each
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Speaker 1: with their separate boroughmote, gained an organization similar to that
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Speaker 1: of the hundred, with their wardmote or civic hundred court.
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Speaker 1: These larger towns, standing apart from the neighboring hundred, would
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Speaker 1: enjoy certain rights of jurisdiction independent of the hundred, but
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Speaker 1: subject to the shire court, and in some cases paid
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Speaker 1: a composition by which they gained immunity from arbitrary exactions.
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Speaker 1: By the time of the conquest, therefore there existed the
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Speaker 1: court of the township, manorial courts, and the borough courts.
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Speaker 1: Above these the hundred Court, from the jurisdiction of which
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Speaker 1: the two latter had perhaps to some extent emancipated themselves,
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Speaker 1: and above all the Shire Court, to which they all
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Speaker 1: were subject, and to which the appeal lay. The local
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Speaker 1: government stopped at the shire Court. The central was entrusted
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Speaker 1: to the Witangamote. The institution of this assembly is probably
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Speaker 1: due to a somewhat later date, after the kingdom had
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Speaker 1: been consolidated and the power of the king established. It
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Speaker 1: was therefore the creation of royalty and not a representative assembly.
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Speaker 1: On great occasions, indeed, the Weetangamote was attended by a
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Speaker 1: concourse of people, to whom its decision was announced, and who,
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Speaker 1: by their applause, were supposed to give the national assent.
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Speaker 1: But none had any right to sit or enjoyed any
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Speaker 1: deliberative vote, except the councilors of the King, the bishops,
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Speaker 1: the aldermen, and some of the greater or king stains.
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Speaker 1: The powers assumed by this body were, in theory at
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Speaker 1: least very extensive. It was the supreme legislative and deliberative
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Speaker 1: assembly of the kingdom and the court of final appeal
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Speaker 1: in judicial matters. With the King. It could do anything,
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Speaker 1: and without it nothing of importance could be done. The
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Speaker 1: King with its counsel and consent, passed laws ecclesiastical as
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Speaker 1: well as civil, levied taxes, made grants out of the
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Speaker 1: full land, deliberated on peace or war, elected bishops and aldermen,
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Speaker 1: and carried on the whole machinery of government. It even
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Speaker 1: claimed and exercised the right of electing and deposing the king,
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Speaker 1: though the election was by custom confined to the royal family,
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Speaker 1: with the presumption in favor of the representative of the
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Speaker 1: eldest branch, if of fit age and character to govern,
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Speaker 1: and in later times at least the nomination of the
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Speaker 1: dying king was held to have considerable weight. Still in
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Speaker 1: the exceptional cases of Canute and his sons Harold Harefoot
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Speaker 1: and Hartha Canut, and of Harold the Weetan even departed
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Speaker 1: from the royal line. The constitutional fabric was crowned by
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Speaker 1: the king himself. From the position of mere leader of
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Speaker 1: his tribe in peace and war, the representative of his people,
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Speaker 1: he had, by the gradual consolidation of the kingdoms into one,
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Speaker 1: gained a constitutional and territorial position. He was no longer
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Speaker 1: King of the West Saxons, but King of England. He
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Speaker 1: enjoyed considerable revenues and had a large private domain, which,
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Speaker 1: in those days when the expenses of government were small,
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Speaker 1: owing to the development of local organization, made him almost
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Speaker 1: entirely independent of the Witan for money. He was the
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Speaker 1: supreme executive officer of the realm, and all paid him
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Speaker 1: personal allegiance, while in his circuits he superseded by his
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Speaker 1: presence the powers of all the local courts. Moreover, as
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Speaker 1: we draw near the Norman conquest, we find his powers
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Speaker 1: steadily increasing. The Weetan daily became a narrower body, more
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Speaker 1: and more the mere officers of royalty before which their
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Speaker 1: powers faded. The folkland was now considered as the king's
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Speaker 1: royal domain, and practically he disposed of it as he would.
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Speaker 1: The growth of feign ship added to his personal influence.
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Speaker 1: His jurisdiction grew by the multiplication of pleas of the
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Speaker 1: crown and by the extension of the idea that all
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Speaker 1: offenses were violations of his the King's peace. And with
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Speaker 1: the development of the territorial idea, he gradually became the
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Speaker 1: lord of his people and their land. The question now
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Speaker 1: arises did feudalism exist in England before the Norman conquest.
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Speaker 1: From this sketch, it will be seen that many of
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Speaker 1: its germs at least were there. The personal tie was
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Speaker 1: to be found in the relation of lord to thane,
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Speaker 1: and the thane paid service to his lord, especially his
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Speaker 1: heriot or gift of the best horse or suit of
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Speaker 1: armor on his death. Even land was sometimes held on
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Speaker 1: the terms of military terry's service. The possession of land
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Speaker 1: had become a necessary qualification for nobility and freedom. Territorial
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Speaker 1: jurisdiction had in many cases arisen, and the manorial courts
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Speaker 1: were very similar to those of the feudal system. While
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Speaker 1: the king had become the lord of the land of
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Speaker 1: the nation, but continental feudalism had not as yet arisen.
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Speaker 1: Continental feudalism has been defined as a complete organization of
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Speaker 1: society through the medium of land tenure, in which from
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Speaker 1: the king to the landowner all are bound together by
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Speaker 1: obligation of service and defense. Government and jurisdiction were based
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Speaker 1: upon this system, and whilst the lord exercised jurisdiction over
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Speaker 1: his tenants, he was considered the lord of the land
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Speaker 1: which they held of him. Hence, the main distinction between
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Speaker 1: that system and the Anglo Saxon lay in these points.
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Speaker 1: One although when Canute divided England into four great earldoms.
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Speaker 1: He introduced a system very similar to feudal government. Feudal
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Speaker 1: government proper never existed. The official magistrates had not become
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Speaker 1: entirely hereditary. The aldermen did not enjoy fiscal, legislative and
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Speaker 1: judicial independence as the feudal nobles did abroad. The local
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Speaker 1: courts of the shire, hundred and township still existed, and
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Speaker 1: the former were supreme even over manorial courts within the shire.
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Speaker 1: Nor was the central government organized on feudal principles, nor
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Speaker 1: the witten Coammote in any sense a feudal court. Two.
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Speaker 1: Although the personal tie was there, the real one was not.
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Speaker 1: That is, the land had not become the tie or
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Speaker 1: bond between the king and his people, or between lord
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Speaker 1: and thane. Though all were obliged to have some lord,
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Speaker 1: they choose their lord, and if they held lands of him,
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Speaker 1: this did not form the tie between them, but the
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Speaker 1: personal commendation, and many held no land of their lord,
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Speaker 1: but possessed lands of their own. Lastly, many landowners enjoyed
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Speaker 1: territorial jurisdiction, but it extended over men whose lands were
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Speaker 1: in no sense held of them. But if feudalism did
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Speaker 1: not exist, it was on the point of a rising,
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Speaker 1: and but for the Norman conquest, would probably have been
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Speaker 1: developed as it was abroad. End of Section eighteen