Medieval Law and Order

Hierarchy of Anglo-Saxon Society

First, it's important to understand how Anglo-Saxon society worked. Power was based on land ownership and the basic premise was that if you owned the land, you owned the people on it and essentially sub-leased land to them. This was called the feudal system.

• The feudal system of land ownership was used in Britain for centuries

• This survived in very limited form in Scotland until 2004!

• The Lord owned his estate and the people on it.
• The people in the layer beneath the Lord were his vassals, and the Lord was their superior.
• The people in the layer underneath the vassals were the Lord's sub-vassals, and the Lord was their over-superior.
• The Lord held judicial power of dispute resolution amongst his vassals and sub-vassals, who were not free but subservient to the Lord. Their land ownership was dependent on the Lord, and they had to pay him in money, crop shares or another form of payment.
• Those who did not fall under this system were freemen and did not depend on a Lord.

Amongst freemen, the feudal relationship was technically voluntary. However, without a Lord, they couldn't access justice if they were involved in a dispute. It was therefore almost universal for all freemen to have a Lord, as otherwise, they had no protection from the law until the development of a wider court system.

When this development occurred, freemen and those of higher rank were able to take advantage of it, but those entirely dependent on a Lord usually remained as such.

Fig. 1 Tapestry of an homage - where a vassal pledged to submit to the feudal Lord and in return recieved his protection

Law and Order in Medieval Times: Development

During the Anglo-Saxon period, there was hardly any written-down law. Most law was customary, meaning that there were practices and customs that were just generally followed, as they were the accepted way of doing things.

Of the written laws, there was not really anything to do with civil law; most of it was to do with criminal law.

As civil disputes were generally settled by the relevant Lord, there was little need for civil law to be written down. Anything that was written had a special status by virtue of being deemed important enough to require writing. These laws were fairly limited, however, and mainly related to murder, theft (particularly of livestock or crops), abduction and maltreatment of women.

Written laws were made by the King with the help of his advisors and were generally codification of a well-established custom, giving it this special status.

Later, we'll come to how criminal law developed, but first, we'll look at how the courts developed, and a system of civil dispute resolution emerged.

Development of the Courts

The development of the courts led to precedents being set, impacting the future of the law. This is still how much law gets made today.

Courts Under the Anglo-Saxons

By the end of the tenth century, England had been divided into ten shires (regions).

• Each shire was split into hundreds.
• Each hundred was supposedly the amount of land needed to sustain one hundred families.
• Each shire had a sheriff, called a shire reeve, who presided over law and order.
• Each shire reeve worked together with an Earl, who was the largest landholder in the shire.
• Each hundred was, in turn, presided over by a bailiff.

So, how were disputes settled in this system?

Fig. 2 Map of English Counties

Courts Under the Normans

The Normans established church courts, which heard cases on "moral" issues, such as family disputes, adultery, the birth of children out of wedlock, and others. They also became the only courts in which clergy (ordained church leaders) could be tried. The structure of other courts for civil disputes remained largely the same.

Later on, under Henry I (reign 1100-1135), the Exchequer became the principal court for high-level disputes, replacing the King's court. This court met twice a year, and cases were heard by Barons of the Exchequer. They began to set precedents which were followed in later cases and became "judge-made law". This form of law remains extremely important in the UK's legal system today.

Criminal Law and Order in Medieval Times

While the way in which private disputes were resolved had a big structural change throughout medieval times, criminal law has almost always used trials in a court. The way these trials were held, however, did develop throughout the Middle Ages, as did the methods of keeping law and order.

Keeping Law and Order in Medieval England

During Anglo-Saxon times, each hundred was divided into tithes, groups of ten men who were responsible for keeping law and order amongst themselves. If one member of a tithe did something illegal, it was up to the rest of the tithe to apprehend them and bring them to court. If they didn't, they were all fined.

If someone witnessed a crime, they were under a duty to raise the hue and cry, and upon hearing it, all able-bodied men were required to assist in catching the suspect.

There were several developments in law enforcement in the Later Middle Ages:

• King Richard I introduced coroners to investigate violent and unexplained deaths.
• In 1250, Henry III appointed constables as volunteers who took turns being responsible for leading the hue and cry in their village.
• Richard I was also responsible for appointing keepers of the peace in 1195 - this role was not formalised until the 1361 Justice of the Peace Act. Justices of the Peace were meant to supervise the keeping of the King's Peace throughout the country, and they had the power to arrest suspected criminals.

Criminal Trials in Medieval Times

Under the Anglo-Saxons, almost all crimes were tried in the local Manorial Court. These were held multiple times a year, and all local people had to attend or face a fine. The residents chose juries of twelve for each defendant, and they had to decide upon their guilt or innocence.

The most serious crimes were dealt with in the King's Court, where trials were by ordeal, such as burning, water or morsel. These involved the accused doing a task, supervised by a priest, and guilt or innocence was determined by God.

The Normans introduced trial by combat, where the accused and their accuser would face each other in battle, often to the death. The loser was wrong, and if they weren't already dead, they were hanged after the battle.

Trial by ordeal ended in 1215 when the Pope declared that churches should no longer practise it. After that, all trials became jury trials.

Medieval Law and Order Summary

During the medieval period, the English legal system developed from vigilante justice into something more recognisable as the system we have today. The Anglo-Saxon Kings came into power, ended blood feuds, and introduced wergild. By the end of the period, the criminal justice system had developed into a tiered system of courts for different levels of crimes. However, the civil justice system remained dependent on Lords adjudicating disputes between the tenants on their land.

Trial by ordeal was the most common method of trial for the most serious offences but was abolished in 1215. Thereafter, a trial by jury was used for all offences. As the population grew and methods of detection improved, more officials were appointed to supervise different types of crime, such as bailiffs and shire reeves.

Under the Normans, Church Courts were established to try "moral crimes", such as adultery, and to try members of the clergy who were suspected of crimes. They were sympathetic to clergymen and didn't impose the death penalty.

Trial by Water