Englishry or, in Old French, Englescherie, is a legal name given, in medieval England, for the status of a person as an Englishman (i.e., as a commoner of native Anglo-Saxon stock rather than a member of the Anglo-Norman elite).
Specifically, presentment of Englishry refers to the establishment that a person slain was an Englishman rather than a Norman. If an unknown man was found slain, he was presumed to be a Norman, and the administrative district known as the hundred was fined accordingly, unless it could be proved that he was English. Englishry, if established, excused the hundred. [1] [2]
It is thought that Danish invaders first introduced the practice in England and that the Norman conquerors preserved and revived it. [3] W. Stubbs (Constitutional History, I p. 196) suggests such measures may have been taken by King Canute. [1] It is not, however, mentioned in Glanvill's treatise, which is the earliest known treatise of medieval English law. [4] There is no direct evidence of an earlier date than Bracton's 13th century legal treatise De Legibus. [5] Attempts to prove that a murdered Norman was English were understandably frequent. [6]
Act of Parliament | |
Long title | Presentment of Engleschrie shall be clearly extirpate. |
---|---|
Citation | 14 Edw. 3 Stat. 1. c. 4 |
Dates | |
Commencement | 21 February 1340 |
Other legislation | |
Repealed by | |
Text of statute as originally enacted |
The practice was abolished with the Engleschrie Act 1340 (14 Edw. 3 Stat. 1. c. 4), passed by the Parliament of England (itself repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 1863 and the Statute Law (Ireland) Revision Act 1872).
Though for some 200 years prior to abolition, it had no longer been possible reliably to distinguish Normans from Englishmen, [7] the practice had continued because it was so profitable to the Crown, as only a small amount of the fine was allotted to the relatives of the murdered man. [8]
Hubert Walter was an influential royal adviser in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries in the positions of Chief Justiciar of England, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Lord Chancellor. As chancellor, Walter began the keeping of the Charter Roll, a record of all charters issued by the chancery. Walter was not noted for his holiness in life or learning, but historians have judged him one of the most outstanding government ministers in English history.
Ranulf de Glanvill was Chief Justiciar of England during the reign of King Henry II (1154–89) and was the probable author of Tractatus de legibus et consuetudinibus regni Anglie, the earliest treatise on the laws of England.
William of Poitiers was a Frankish priest of Norman origin and chaplain of Duke William of Normandy, for whom he chronicled the Norman Conquest of England in his Gesta Willelmi ducis Normannorum et regis Anglorum or Gesta Guillelmi II ducis Normannorum. He had trained as a soldier before taking holy orders.
The Statutes of Mortmain were two enactments, in 1279 and 1290, passed in the reign of Edward I of England, aimed at preserving the kingdom's revenues by preventing land from passing into the possession of the Church. Possession of property by a corporation, such as the Church, was known as mortmain, which literally meant "dead hand". In medieval England, feudal estates generated taxes for the King, principally on the grant or inheritance of the estate. If an estate became owned by a religious corporation which could never die, could never attain majority, and could never be attainted for treason, these taxes never became payable. It was akin to the estates being owned by the dead, hence the term.
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The legal term peace, sometimes king's peace or queen's peace, is the common-law concept of the maintenance of public order.
Anglo-Saxon law is a body of written rules and customs that were in place during the Anglo-Saxon period in England, before the Norman conquest. This body of law, along with early Medieval Scandinavian law and Germanic law, descended from a family of ancient Germanic custom and legal thought. However, Anglo-Saxon law codes are distinct from other early Germanic legal statements—known as the leges barbarorum, in part because they were written in Old English instead of in Latin. The laws of the Anglo-Saxons were the second in medieval Western Europe after those of the Irish to be expressed in a language other than Latin.
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The Leges Henrici Primi or Laws of Henry I is a legal treatise, written in about 1115, that records the legal customs of medieval England in the reign of King Henry I of England. Although it is not an official document, it was written by someone apparently associated with the royal administration. It lists and explains the laws, and includes explanations of how to conduct legal proceedings. Although its title implies that these laws were issued by King Henry, it lists laws issued by earlier monarchs that were still in force in Henry's reign; the only law of Henry that is included is the coronation charter he issued at the start of his reign. It covers a diverse range of subjects, including ecclesiastical cases, treason, murder, theft, feuds, assessment of danegeld, and the amounts of judicial fines.
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The Tractatus de legibus et consuetudinibus regni Angliae, often called Glanvill treatise, is the earliest treatise on English law. Attributed to Ranulf de Glanvill and dated 1187–1189, it was revolutionary in its systematic codification that defined legal process and introduced writs, innovations that have survived to the present day. It is considered a book of authority in English common law.
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