he procured the concurrence of the nobles; nor had he reason to apprehend that any order of the state could resist his and their united authority. The military sub-vassals could entertain no idea of opposing both their prince and their superiors: the burgesses and tradesmen could much less aspire to such a thought: and thus, even if history were silent on the head, we have reason to conclude, from the known situation of society during those ages, that the commons were never admitted as members of the legislative body. The Executive power of the Anglo-Norman government was lodged in the king. Besides the stated meetings of the national council at the three great festivals of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntiae, ne was accustomed, on any sudden exigence, to summon them together. He could at his pleasure command the attendance of his barons and their vassals, in which consisted the military force of the kingdom; and could employ them, during orty days, either in resisting a foreign enemy, or reducing his rebellious subjects. And what was of great importance, the whole judicial power was ultimately in his hands, and was exercised by officers and ministers of his appointment. The general plan of the Anglo-Norman government was, that the court of barony was appointed to decide such controversies as arose between the several vassals or subjects of the same barony: the hundred court and county court, which were still continued as during the Saxon times,† to judge between the subjects of different baronies; and the curia *Dugd. Orig. Jurid. p. 15. Spel. Gloss. in verbo Parliamentum. Ang. Sacra, vol. i. p. 334, etc. Dugd. Orig. Jurid. p. 27, 29. Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p. 75, 76. Spel. Gloss. in verbo Hundred. None of the feudal governments in Europe had such institutions as the county courts, which the great authority of the Conqueror still retained from the Saxon customs. All the freeholders of the county, even the greatest barons, were obliged to attend the sheriffs in these courts, and to assist them in the administration of justice. By this means they received frequent and sensible admonitions of their dependence on the king or supreme magistrate: they formed a kind of community with their fellow-barons and freeholders; they vere often drawn from their individual and independent state, pecuhar to the feudal system, and were made members of a political body: and perhaps this institution of county courts in England has had greater effects on the government than has yet been distinctly pointed out by historians, or traced by antiquaries. The barons were never able to free themselves from this attendance on the sheriffs and itinerant justices till the reign of Henry III. VOL. I. 39 regis, or king's court, to give sentence among the baro s themselves.* But this plan, though simple, was attend d with some circumstances which, being derived from a ve.y extensive authority assumed by the conqueror, contributed to increase the royal prerogative; and, as long as the state was not disturbed by arms, reduced every order of the community to some degree of dependence and subordination. The king himself often sat in his court, which always attend ed his person: he there heard causes and pronounced judgment; and though he was assisted by the advice of the other members, it is not to be imagined that a decision could easily be obtained, contrary to his inclination or opinion. In his absence the chief justiciary presided, who was the first magistrate in the state, and a kind of viceroy, on whom depended all the civil affairs of the kingdom. The other chief officers of the crown, the constable, mareschal, seneschal chamberlain, treasurer, and chancellor, were members, togeth er with such feudal barons as thought proper to attend, and the barons of the exchequer, who at first were also feudal barons appointed by the king. This court, which was sometimes called the king's court, sometimes the court of exchequer, judged in all causes, civil and criminal, and comprehended the whole business which is now shared out among four courts the chancery, the king's bench, the common pleas, and the exchequer.** Such an accumulation of powers was itself a great source of authority, and rendered the jurisdiction of the court formidable to all the subjects; but the turn which judicial trials took soon after the conquest, served still more to increase its authority, and to augment the royal prerogatives. William, among the other violent changes which he attempted and effected, had introduced the Norman law into England,†† had ordered all the pleadings to be in that tongue, and had interwoven with the English jurisprudence all the maxims and principles which the Normans, more advanced in cultivation, * Brady, Pref. p. 143. † Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p. 103. Bracton, lib. iii. cap. 9, sect. 1; eap. 10, sect. 1. § Spel. Gloss. in verbo Justiciarii. Madox, Hist. Exch. p. 27, 29, 33, 38, 41, 54. The Normans introduced the practice of sealing charters; and the chancellor's office was to keep the great seal. Ingulph. Dugd. p. 33, 34. ¶ Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p. 134, 135. Gerv. Dorob. p. 1387, ** Madox. Hist. of the Exch. p. 56, 70. ++ Dial. de Scac. p. 30, apud Madox, Hist. of the Exch. and naturally litigious, were accustomed to observe in the distribution of justice. Law now became a science, which at first fell entirely into the hands of the Normans; and which, even after it was communicated to the English, required so much study and application, that the laity in those ignorant ages were incapable of attaining it, and it was a mystery almost solely confined to the clergy, and chiefly to the monks.* The great officers of the crown, and the feudal barons, who were military men, found themselves unfit to penetrate into those obscurities; and though they were entitled to a seat in the supreme judicature, the business of the court was wholly managed by the chief justiciary and the law barons, who were men appointed by the king, and entirely at his disposal.t This natural course of things was forwarded by the multiplicity of business which flowed into that court, and which daily augmented by the appeals from all the subordinate judicatures of the kingdom. In the Saxon times, no appeal was received in the king's court, except upon the denial or delay of justice by the inferior courts; and the same practice was still observed in most of the feudal kingdoms of Europe. But the great power of the Conqueror established at first in England an authority which the monarchs in France were not able to attain till the reign of St. Lewis, who lived near two centuries after he empowered his court to receive appeals both from the courts of barony and the county courts, and by that means brought the administration of justice ultimately into the hands of the sovereign.‡ And, lest the expense or trouble of a journey to court should discourage suitors, and make them acquiesce in the decision of the inferior judicatures, itinerant judges were afterwards established, who made their circuits throughout the kingdom, and tried all causes that were brought before them.§ Dugd. Orig. Jurid. p. 25. Coke's Comment. on the Statute of Mulbridge, cap. 20. § Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p. 83, 84, 100. Gerv. Dorob. p. 1410 What made the Anglo-Norman barons more readily submit to appeals from their court to the king's court of exchequer, was their being accustomed to like appeals in Normandy to the ducal court of exchequer. See Gilbert's History of the Exchequer, p. 1, 2; though the author thinks it doubtful whether the Norman court was not rather copied from English, (p. 6.) By this expedient the courts of barony were kept in awe : and if they still preserved some influence, it was only from the apprehensions which the vassals might entertain of disobliging their superior, by appealing from his jurisdiction. But the county courts were much discredited; and as the freeholders were found ignorant of the intricate principles and forms of the new law, the lawyers gradually brought all business before the king's judges, and abandoned the ancient simple and popular judicature. After this manner the formalities of justice, which, though they appear tedious and cumbersome, are found requisite to the support of liberty in all monarchical governments, proved at first, by a combination of causes, very advantageous to royal authority in England. The power of the Norman kings was also much supported by a great revenue; and by a revenue that was fixed, perpetual, and independent of the subject. The people, without betaking themselves to arms, had no check upon the king, and no regular security for the due administration of justice. In those days of violence, many instances of oppression passed unheeded; and soon after were openly pleaded as precedents, which it was unlawful to dispute or control. Princes and ministers were too ignorant to be themselves sensible of the advantages attending an equitable administration; and there was no established council or assembly which could protect the people, and, by withdrawing supplies, regularly and peaceably admonish the king of his duty, and insure the execution of the laws. The first branch of the king's stated revenue was the royal demesnes, or crown lands, which were very extensive, and comprehended, beside a great number of manors, most of the chief cities of the kingdom. It was established by law, that the king could alienate no part of his demesne, and that he himself, or his successor, could at any time resume such donations:* but this law was never regularly observed; which happily rendered, in time, the crown somewhat more dependent. The rent of the crown-lands, considered merely as so much riches, was a source of power: the influence of the king over his tenants and the inhabitants of his towns increased this power: but the other numerous branches of his revenue, besides supplying his treasury, gave, by their very * Fleta, lib. i. cap. 8, sect. 17; lib. iii. cap. 6, sect. 3. Bracton, lib. ñ. cap. 5. nature, a great latitude to arbitrary authority, and were a supFort of the prerogative; as will appear from an enumeration of them. The king was never content with the stated rents, but levied ncavy talliages at pleasure on the inhabitants both of town and country who lived within his demesne. All bargains of sale, in order to prevent theft, being prohibited, except in boroughs and public markets,* he pretended to exact tolls on all goods which were there sold.t He seized two hogsheads, one before and one behind the mast, from every vessel that imported wine. All goods paid to his customs a proportional part of their value: passage over bridges and on rivers was loaded with tolls at pleasure: and though the boroughs by degrees bought the liberty of farming these impositions, yet the revenue profited by these bargains, new sums were often exacted for the renewal and confirmation of their charters,|| and the people were thus held in perpetual dependence. Such was the situation of the inhabitants within the royal demesnes. But the possessors of land, or the military tenants, though they were better protected, both by law and by the great privilege of carrying arms, were, from the nature of their tenures, much exposed to the inroads of power, and possessed not what we should esteem in our age a very durable security. The Conqueror ordained that the barons should be obliged to pay nothing beyond their stated services, except a reasonable aid to ransom his person if he were taken in war, to make his eldest son a knight, and to marry his eldest daughter. What should on these occasions be deemed a reasonable aid, was not determined; and the demands of the crown were so far discretionary. The The king could require in war the personal attendance of his vassals, that is, of almost all the landed proprietors; and if they declined the service, they were obliged to pay him a composition in money, which was cailed a scutage. sum was, during some reigns, precarious and uncertain; it was sometimes levied without allowing the vassal the liberty of personal service; ** and it was a usual artifice of the king's * LL. Will. i. cap. 61. ‡ Madox, p. 529. This author says a fifteenth. to reconcile this account to other authorities. § Madox, p. 529. Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p. 275, 276, 277, etc. ¶ LL. Will. Conq. sect. 55. + Madox, p. 530. But it is not easy ** Gervase de Tilbury, p. 25. |