Laws that were gradually developed as a consequence of customs and traditions frequently govern nations. Early 1100s and 1200s rules were composed of oral traditions that are no longer widely accepted. The guidelines were designed to impart understandable and attainable knowledge about coding. Fines for errors and injuries were also included in the statutes, though they came with less information about how the precise amount of the fine was determined. There were different kinds of laws by the year 1200, namely common laws and Roman laws. The common rules were categorized by customs and principles which are believed to have originated from England and came to exist in the USA. The common law consisted of the rules and acts which applied to the property, government, and security of individuals, which their authority rest on the expression and declaration made by the legislature. Common laws applied to civil cases while the Roman acts were laws that were practiced in Rome. Therefore, this paper seeks to discuss on the transformation of courts, juries, and writsconcerningWilliam’s, Edward’s,and Alfred's contribution.
Discussion
According to Marsden (48), William made significant contributions towards the change of courts, juries, and writs. Through William’s travels, he interacted with different people whom he drew some lessonsfrom. For instance, when William sent a group of soldiers to sail to England and land in Hastings, the soldiers marched to London with the Anglo-Saxon army and their leader. It was as a result of their interaction that William was able to acknowledge and understand some aspects of King Harold’s empire. After the death of the king, there was some ceremony to install a new monarch by taking of oaths; this allowed the people to keep some of their customs. Therefore, it was clear that oaths and traditions only worked to particular set of individuals in a given geographical region. Through the king’s way of ruling, one can understand the importance of law and order since each division had its court, sire reeve, and royalclass 2(Marsden 48).
Conversely, with the ordeals, one’s history was reviewed about making present verdicts. For instance, past offenses that were godly related had ‘gods territory.’ If any person lied about a crime he or she was to undergo two ordeals either trial of cold water or hot iron and hot water ehich lasted until the early 19th century. Normans brought the trial of battle-fight to existence, but it was rarely used. Some of the ordeals were paid with cash if the person who committed acrime has no money one had to use their tithing ("Contents" 10).
After the downfall of England, William the Conqueror established several sets of dooms, which faded through the 12th century. As a result, the new systems were incorporated leading to the rise of the royal courts and kingship (“Laws of King William 35”). William brought in feudalism, which meant that king had criminal jurisdiction. He wished that one God could be revered for the rest of his life, one faith to be kept in Christ so that security and peace to prevail amongst the Norman and English. He also declaredthat free persons should abide by the oath and loyalty to him. According to William, for a man to be freed, there were some considerations that were to be reviewed. Therefore, one was required to take a pledge for justice William commanded that all people should hold and have the king Edward law to show respect to their possession and land. William brought changes in landownership, which led to no more total land ownership; nobody owned the land or possessed it without collecting taxes along with other duties as adefense.William made changes such as dooms survey by sending commissioners to every county to do a study what people were going through, in this manner, people thought that doomsday could affect everyone even the monks. William wanted to know how much wealth was out for taxation and was concerned about AngloSaxon land stealing and violence between Anglo-Saxons andNormans(Marsden 54).
One of the biggest duties given to land owners included holding court while the land holders were the judges. The different kinds of tenure were Sargent and pant sargenty but the majority were held by the military tenure ("Notes" 38). When William needed an army, he called on those with military tenure which was considered as the feudal levy. Land was subdivide depending on one influence; that is, the number of people he was able to recruit into the military. The military could only show up whenever they were called upon by the king. Almost everyone was both avassel and a lord; the lord owes to his vassel protection in case one gets kicked from his land and stand up with him in court if anything happens. Peasants were not free, they had to work on the kings land, and were not given money but strips of land that they could manage and had courts("Notes" 38).
Towards the end of 12thcentury, agricultural was practiced by the peasants who for commercial and domestic use while copper, silver and gold was used for the trading. If a peasant could flee to a different town without being discovered for a year he was automatically free. However, the only way one could undermine the king is to run a scam or get married without the lords permission of which many peasants did escape("Notes" 47)..
When Henry II came to the throne in 1154, he did not have enough resources to restore law and order; therefore, he waited until 1166 when he held a meeting with Claredon. He took many steps to stop land grabbing, which was rampant and made steps of creating writs to ensure peace prevails (Smyth 46). If violence was used, it did not matter who was right or wrong since the courtcould settle such issues when one of the parties could lose the case if one had the lesser right to the land. Surety prevented people from claiming their land using the law. Any person with a fee had a heritable right to land by 1300 and by this era, there were more than 1000 writs (Smyth 79). Writ system was used until 1832 which was feudalism where land was used instead of money. People offered their lands in the church as offering. This initiative hindered trade and was later prohibited due to the reason why people could not write wills in the middle ages.
However, in 1166, Clarendon made enormous contribution towards justice. Before a person was sentenced to any fine, one had to prove that the person committed a crime. He was then required to be judged by the clerk, where all evil deeds were to be mentioned. Henry II also established new official documents for those who have never been fined for crimes (Smyth 97). Through this means, he brought justice to his own hands where felonies were presented in royal courts but not the writs. Ten years later assize of Northampton bought the idea that judges are ordered to travel throughout England and examine people in every county. If one was not harmed, he could go before the grand jury for an appeal of any felony given that there were complains on wrong doing. Such iniciatives were brought about by Normans, which made things had win a case but only helped widows and parents who had lost their children ("Notes" 47).
Itinerant justice was also sent out once in a year to enforce ‘kings peace'in criminal prosecution. At the suit of the crown victims, one was not compensated since they had ‘the king in their side. 'The differences that existed between assize of Clarendon and assize of Northampton were that grand jury was formed during the assize of Clarendon while itinerant justices were trained during the assize of Northampton (Smyth 76). Feudal lords were losing jurisdiction, which led to the beginning of the first secular state in Europe where church was the first state because almost all institutions are run by the cathedral.
The laws governing land stated that holding a territory was like having a political power whereby the land owner had jurisdiction over the area. One could hold a court with his vessels and hearing cases about his vessels. Whenever the land holder died, the eldest son would inherit property (Smyth 126). If there was no son, then the daughter could inherit the land. However, if there were multiple daughters, the land was subdivided amongst the daughters equally. Land holders could sell all or part of their property or give it away as a gift. If the new land owner died, the original owner took back the land, and if the original owner was dead, the estate went back to their heirs (Smyth 76)
Edward, the confessor, brought changes in the statute of law in England that included a right of a father to give the bride a piece of land after marriage. It was the right of the husbands to control land. If the husbands were not trustworthy, the land was left for the community or grandsons or granddaughters. (Smyth 98). One had had to keep the family name because that was where the property originated from. If the area was held altogether by the king, one could be worried since conditional fee gave the father control over the property (Smyth 120).
Conclusion
In summary, there has been signficant improvement in the transformation of courts, juries, and writs as a result of William, Edward, and Alfred's contribution. Since the early 11th centuary, there have been revolutions from intellectual history traces on how laws were made and practiced. These changes have progressively developed over time that nowadays, some are being practiced in United States as acommon law. It is important to mention that some of the laws were inspired by changes in societal codes, which helped in attainment justice to all people. The existence of courts, writs, and juries promote economic completion by helping in the fair distribution of resources amongst people, and protection to the weak in societies.
Works Cited
"Contents." Francois Hotman: A Revolutionary's Ordeal (n.d.): n. pag. Print.
"The Laws of King William the Conqueror." Ancient Laws and Institutes of England(n.d.): 465-496. Print.
Marsden, R. "Laws of the Anglo-Saxon Kings." The Cambridge Old English Reader (n.d.): 45-60. Web..
"Notes." Frederic William Maitland (n.d.): n. pag. Print.
Smyth, Alfred P. "King Alfre’s Witan: Kingmakers and Wise Men in the Council of a King." King Alfred the Great (1995): 421-452. Print.
