Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776

Copyright (C) 2004, 2012 by S. A. Reilly




OUR LEGAL HERITAGE

King AEthelbert - King George III, 1776, 600 A.D. - 1776




By

                S. A. Reilly, Attorney
                175 E. Delaware Place
                Chicago, Illinois 60611-7715
                S-Reilly@att.net


                Copyright (C) 2004, 2012




                    Preface

        This book was written for people with an interest in English
legal history who don't know where to start reading, as I didn't. Its
purpose is also to look at history through its laws, which do not lend
themselves to interpretation, and thus points of view, as does
conventional history; one cannot argue with the black letter of the
law. Attorneys will be interested in reading about the historical
context in which the legal doctrines they learned in law school
developed. This book includes the complete law codes of King Alfred and
of King Aethelbert, the law code of King Canute, paraphrased, excerpts
from the law code of Henry I, the entire Magna Carta, and the statutes
of England relevant to English life, but excluding such topics as
Scottish affairs and wars with Ireland. It also includes the inception
of the common law system, which was praised because it made law which
was not handed down by an absolutist king; the origin of the jury
system; the meaning of the Magna Carta provisions in their historical
context; and the emergence of attorneys.
        This book is a primer. One may read it without prior knowledge
of history or law, although it will be more meaningful to attorneys
than to others. It can serve as an introduction on which to base
further reading in English legal history. It defines terms unique to
English legal history. However, the meaning of some terms in King
Aethelbert's code in Chapter 1 are unknown or inexact.
        In the Table of Contents, the title of each chapter denotes an
important legal development in the given time period for that chapter.
Each chapter is divided into three sections: The Times, The Law, and
Judicial Procedure.
        The Times section sets a background and context in which to
better understand the law of that period. The usual subject matter of
history such as battles, wars, royal intrigues, periods of corruption,
and international relations are omitted as not helping to understand
the process of civilization and development of the law. Standard
practices are described, but there are often variations with locality.
Also, change did not come abruptly, but with vacillations, e.g. the
change from pagan to Christian belief and the change to allowance of
loans for interest. The scientific revolution was accepted only slowly.
There were often many attempts made for change before it actually
occurred, e.g. gaining Parliamentary power over the king's privileges,
such as taxation.
        The Law section describes the law governing the behavior and
conduct of the populace. It includes law of that time which is the
same, similar, or a building block to the law of today. In earlier
times this is both statutory law and the common law of the courts. The
Magna Carta, which is quoted in Chapter 7, is the first statute of
England and is listed first in the "Statutes of the Realm" and the
"Statutes at Large". The law sections of Chapters 7 - 18 mainly quote
or paraphrase almost all of these statutes. Excluded are statutes which
do not help us understand the development of our law, such as statutes
governing Wales after its conquest and statutes on succession rights to
the throne.
        The Judicial Procedure section describes the process of
applying the law and trying cases, and jurisdictions. It also contains
some examples of cases.
        Money is expressed in pounds, shillings, pence, scaetts, or
marks, which is a Danish denomination. There are twenty shillings in a
pound. A mark in silver is two-thirds of a pound. Shillings are
abbreviated: "s." The pre-Norman English shilling was divided into 4
pence or pennies. In Henry I's time, the shilling was divided into 5
pence. The Norman shilling was introduced by Henry II and was divided
into 12 pennies. This penny was literally one pennyweight of silver, so
a pound sterling thus weighed 240 pennyweights. Pence are abbreviated
"d.", for the Roman denarius. For example, six shillings and two pence
is denoted 6s.2d. A scaett was a coin of silver and copper of lesser
denomination; there were 20 scaetts to one shilling. There were no
coins of the denomination of shilling during pre-Norman times.


           Dedication and Acknowledgements

        A Vassar College faculty member once dedicated her book to her
students, but for whom it would have been written much earlier. This
book "Our Legal Heritage" is dedicated to the faculty of Vassar
College, without whom it would never have been written. Much
appreciation goes to Professor James Curtin of Loyola Law School for
his review and comments on this book's medieval period: Chapters 4-10,
and especially his comment that "I learned quite a bit about life in
those days from your work."