FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:[1]Miss Lamond's edition of Walter of Henley did not appear until the greater part of my book was in type. I had studied the work in MS. So also I studied the Cartulary of Battle Abbey in MS. without being aware that it had been edited by Mr. Scargill Bird. Had Mr. Gomme's Village Communities come to my hands at an earlier date I should have made more references to it.[2]English Historical Review, No. 1.[3]In his Considérations sur l'histoire de France.[4]History of Boroughs.[5]Ancient Rights of the Commons of England.[6]Quoted by Palgrave, English Commonwealth, i. 192, from the second edition of 1786. The first appeared in 1784.[7]The first edition of the Commentaries appeared in 1765. I have been using that of 1800.[8]'Es war eine Zeit, in der wir Unerhörtes und Unglaubliches erlebten, eine Zeit, welche die Aufmerksamkeit auf viele vergessene und abgelebte Ordnungen durch deren Zusammensturz hinzog.' Niebuhr in the preface to the first volume of his Roman history, quoted by Wegele, Geschichte der deutschen Historiographie, 998.[9]Enquiry into the Rise and Progress of the Royal Prerogative, 1831.[10]History of the English Commonwealth, 1832; Normandy and England, 1840.[11]I do not give an analysis of Hallam's remarkable chapters on England in his work on the Middle Ages (first edition, 1818), because they are mostly concerned with Constitutional history, and the notes on the classes of Saxon and Anglo-Norman Society are chiefly valuable as discussions of technical points of law. Hallam's general position in historical literature must not be underrated; he is the English representative of the school which had Guizot for its most brilliant exponent on the Continent. In our subject, however, the turning-point in the development of research is marked by Palgrave, and not by Hallam. Heywood (Dissertation on Ranks and Classes of Society, 1818) is sound and useful, but cannot rank among the leaders.[12]Histoire de la conquête de l'Angleterre par les Normands.[13]Histoire du tiers état.[14]Histoire du droit municipal.[15]Prolégomènes au polyptyque de l'abbé Irminon.[16]Histoire des institutions de la France; Recherches sur quelques problèmes d'histoire.[17]Gregor von Tours und seine Zeit.[18]Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte.[19]Geschichte des Beneficialwesens, 1856; Feudalität und Unterthanenverband, 1863.[20]Roth is very strong on this point.[21]Ueber angelsächsische Rechtsverhältnisse, in the Munich Kritische Ueberschau, i. sqq. (1853).[22]K. Maurer is very near Waitz in this respect.[23]See especially his Englische Verfassungsgeschichte.[24]Einleitung in die Geschichte der Hof-, Dorf-, Mark- und Städteverfassung in Deutschland, 1 vol.; Geschichte der Frohnhöfe, 4 vol.; Geschichte der Dorfverfassung, 1 vol.; Geschichte der Markenverfassung, 1 vol.; Geschichte der Städteverfassung, 4 vol.[25]Collected in 2 volumes of Agrarhistorische Untersuchungen.[26]Zur Geschichte der mittelalterlichen Feldgemeinschaft in England, 1869.[27]I do not mention some well-known books treating of medieval husbandry and social history, because I am immediately concerned only with those works which discuss the formation of the medieval system. Thorold Rogers, History of Agriculture and Prices, and Six Centuries of Work and Wages, begins with the close of the thirteenth century, and the passage from medieval organisation to modern times. Ochenkovsky, Die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung Englands am Ende des Mittelalters, and Kovalevsky, England's Social Organisation at the close of the Middle Ages (Russian), start on their inquiry from even a later period.[28]Is it necessary to say that I am speaking of general currents of thought and not of the position of a man at the polling booth? An author may be personally a liberal and still his work may connect itself with a stream of opinion which is not in favour of liberalism. Again, one and the same man may fall in with different movements in different parts of his career. Actual life throws a peculiar light on the past: certain questions are placed prominently in view and certain others are thrown into the shade by it, so that the individual worker has to find his path within relatively narrow limits.[29]The last great German work on our questions, Lamprecht, Deutsches Wirthschaftsleben im Mittelalter, is nearer Maurer than Sternegg.[30]Thorold Rogers, History of Agriculture and Prices, i. 70; Six Centuries of Work and Wages, 44. Cf. Chandler, Five Court Rolls of Great Cressingham in the county of Norfolk, 1885, pp. viii, ix.[31]Stubbs, Seventeen Lectures, 304, 305; Maitland, Introduction to the Note-book of Bracton, 4 sqq.[32]Dial. de Scacc. ii. 10 (Select Charters, p. 222). Cf. i. 10; p. 192.[33]Glanville, v. 5; Bracton, 4, 5; Fleta, i. 2; Britton, ed. Nichols, i. 194.[34]Bracton, 5; Britton, i, 197. Pollock, Land-laws, App. C, is quite right as to the fundamental distinction between status and tenure, but he goes too far, I think, in trying to trace the steps by which names originally applying to different things got confused in the terminology of the Common Law. Annotators sometimes indulged in distinctions which contradict each other and give us no help as to the law. The same Cambridge MS. from which Nichols gives an explanation ofservus,nativus, andvillanus(i. 195) has a different etymology in a marginal note to Bracton. 'Nativus dicitur a nativitate—quasi in servitute natus, villanus dicitur a villa, quasi faciens villanas consuetudines racione tenementi, vel sicut ille qui se recognoscit ad villanum in curia quae recordum habet, servus vero dicitur a servando quasi per captivitatem, per vim et injustam detentionem villanus captus et detentus contra mores et consuetudines juris naturalis' (Cambr. Univers. MSS. Dd. vii. 6. I have the reference from my friend F.W. Maitland).[35]Placita Coram Rege, Easter, 14 Edw. I, m. 9: 'Willelmus Barantyn et Radulfus attachiati fuerunt ad respondendum Agneti de Chalgraue de placito quare in ipsam Agnetem apud Chalgraue insultum fecerunt et ipsam verberaverunt, vulneraverunt et male tractaverunt, et bona et catalla sua in domibus ipsius Agnetis apud Chalgraue scilicet ordeum et avenam, argentum, archas et alia bona ad valenciam quadraginta solidorum ceperunt et asportaverunt; et ipsam Agnetem effugaverunt de uno mesuagio et dimidia virgata terre de quibus fuit in seysina per predictum Willelmum que fuerunt de antiquo dominico per longum tempus; nec permiserunt ipsam Agnetem morari in predicta villa de Chalgraue; et eciam quandam sororem ipsius Agnetis eo quod ipsa soror eam hospitavit per duas noctes de domibus suis eiecit, terra et catalla sua abstulit. Et predicti Willelmus et Radulfus veniunt. Et quo ad insultacionem et verberacionem dicunt quod non sunt inde culpabiles. Et quo ad hoc quod ipsa Agnes dicit quod ipsam eiecerunt de domibus et terris suis, dicunt quod predicta Agnes est natiua ipsius Willelmi et tenuit predicta tenementa in villenagio ad voluntatem ipsius Willelmi propter quod bene licebat eidem Willelmo ipsam de predicto tenemento ammouere.—Juratores dicunt ... quod predicta tenementa sunt villenagium predicti Willelmi de Barentyn et quod predicta Agnes tenuit eadem tenementa ad voluntatem ipsius Willelmi.' Cf. Y.B. 12/13 Edw. III (ed. Pike), p. 233 sqq., 'or vous savez bien qe par ley de terre tout ceo qe le vileyn ad si est a soun seignour;' 229 sqq., 'qar cest sa terre demene, et il les puet ouster a sa volunte demene.'[36]Coram Rege, Mich., 3 4 Edw. I, m. 1: 'Ricardus de Assheburnham summonitus fuit ad respondendum Petro de Attebuckhole et Johanni de eadem de placito quare, cum ipsi teneant quasdam terras et tenementa de predicto Ricardo in Hasseburnham ac ipsi parati sunt ad faciendum ei consuetudines et servicia que antecessores sui terras et tenementa illa tenentes facere consueverint, predictus Ricardus diversas commoditates quam ipsi tam in boscis ipsius Ricardi quam in aliis locis habere consueverint eisdem subtrahens ipsos ad intollerabiles servitutes et consuetudines faciendas taliter compellit quod ex sua duricia mendicare coguntur. Et unde queruntur quod, cum teneant tenementa sua per certas consuetudines et certa servicia, et cum percipere consueverunt boscum ad focum et materiam de bosco crescente in propriis terris suis, predictus Ricardus ipsos non permittit aliquid in boscis suis capere et eciam capit aueria sua et non permittit eos terram suam colere.—Ricardus dicit, quod non debet eis ad aliquam accionem respondere nisi questi essent de vita vel membris vel de iniuria facta corpori suo. Dicit eciam quod nativi sui sunt, et quod omnes antecessores sui nativi fuerunt antecessorum suorum et in villenagio suo manentes.'[37]Note-book of Bracton, pl. 1237: 'dominus Rex non vult se de eis intromittere.'[38]It occurs in the oldest extant Plea Roll, 6 Ric. I; Rot. Cur. Regis, ed. Palgrave, p. 84: 'Thomas venit et dicit quod ipsa fuit uxorata cuidam Turkillo, qui habuit duos filios qui clamabant libertatem tenementi sui in curia domini Regis ... et quod ibi dirationavit eos esse villanos suos, et non defendit disseisinam ... Et ipsi Elilda et Ricardus defendunt vilenagium et ponunt se super juratam,' etc.[39]Maitland, Select Pleas of the Crown (Selden Soc. I), pl. 3: 'Quendam nativum suum quem habuit in vinculis eo quod voluit fugere.' Bract. Notebook, pl. 1041: 'Petrus de Herefordia attachiatus fuit ad respondendum R. fil. Th. quare ipse cepit Ricardum et eum imprisonauit et coegit ad redempcionem 1 marce. Et Petrus venit alias et defendit capcionem et imprisonacionem set dicit quod villanus fuit,' etc.It must be noted, however, that in such cases it was difficult to draw the line as to the amount of bodily injury allowed by the law, and therefore the King's courts were much more free to interfere. In the trial quoted on p. 45, note 2, the defendants distinguish carefully between the accusation and the civil suit. They plead 'not guilty' as to the former. And so Bishop Stubbs' conjecture as to the 'rusticus verberatus' in Pipe Roll, 31 Henry I, p. 55 (Constit. Hist. i. 487), seems quite appropriate. The case is a very early one, and may testify to the better condition of the peasantry in the first half of the twelfth century.[40]As to the actual treatment experienced by the peasants at the hands of their feudal masters, see a picturesque case in Maitland's Select Pleas of the Crown (Selden Soc.), 203.[41]Stubbs, Constitutional History, ii. 652, 654; Freeman, Norman Conquest, v. 477; Digby, Introduction to the Law of Real Property, 244.[42]Sir Thomas Smith, The Commonwealth of England, ed. 1609, p. 123, shows that the notion of two classes corresponding to the Romanservusand the Romanadscriptus glebaehad taken root firmly about the middle of the sixteenth century. 'Villeins in gross, as ye would say immediately bond to the person and his heirs.... (The adscripti) were not bond to the person but to the mannor or place, and did follow him who had the mannors, and in our law are called villains regardants (sic), for because they be as members or belonging to the mannor or place. Neither of the one sort nor of the other have we any number in England. And of the first I never knew any in the Realme in my time. Of the second so fewe there bee, that it is not almost worth the speaking, but our law doth acknowledge them in both these sorts.'[43]Section 182 is not quite consistent with such an exposition, but I do not think there can be any doubt as to the general doctrine.[44]I need not say that the work done by Mr. Horwood, and especially by Mr. Pike, for the Rolls' Series quite fulfil the requirements of students. But in comparison with it the old Year Books in Rastall's, and even more so in Maynard's edition, appear only the more wretchedly misprinted.[45]For instance, Liber Assisarum, ann. 44, pl. 4 (f. 283): 'Quil fuit son villein et il seisi de luy come de son villein come regardant a son maneir de B. en la Counte de Dorset.'[46]Y.B. Hil. 5 Edw. II: 'Iohan de Rose port son [ne] vexes vers Labbe de Seint Bennet de Holme, et il counta qil luy travaille, etc., e luy demande.'Migg.: 'defent tort et force, ou et quant il devera et dit qil fuist le vilein Labbe, per qi il ne deveroit estre resceve.'Devom.: 'il covient qe vous disez plus qe vous estes seisi, ut supra,' etc.Migg.: 'il est nostre vileyn, et nous seisi de luy come de nostre vileyn.'Ber.: 'Coment seisi come,' etc.?Migg.: 'de luy et de ces auncestres come de nos vileynes, en fesant de luy nostre provost en prenant de luy rechate de char et de saunk et redemption pur fille et fitz marier de luy et de ces auncestres et a tailler haut et bas a nostre volente, prest,' etc. (Les reports des cases del Roy Edward le II. London, 1678; f. 157.)[47]I do not think it ever came into any one's mind to look at the Plea Rolls in this matter. Even Hargrave, when preparing his famous argument in Somersett's case, carried his search no further than the Year Books then in print. And in consequence he just missed the true solution. He says (Howell's State Trials, xx. 42, 43),'As to the villeins in gross the cases relative to them are very few; and I am inclined to think that there never was any great number of them in England.... However, after a long search, I do find places in the Year Books where the form of alledging villenage in gross is expressed, not in full terms, but in a general way; and in all the cases I have yet seen, the villenage is alledged in the ancestors of the person against whom it was pleaded.' And he quotes 1 Edw. II, 4; 5 Edw. II, 157 (corr. for 15); 7 Edw. II, 242, and 11 Edw. II, 344. But all these cases are of Edward II's time, and instead of being exceptional give the normal form of pleading as it was used up to the second quarter of the fourteenth century. They looked exceptional to Hargrave only because he restricted his search to the later Year Books, and did not take up the Plea Rolls. By admitting the cases quoted to indicate villainage in gross, he in fact admitted that there were only villains in gross before 1350 or thereabouts, or rather that all villains were alike before this time, and no such thing as the difference betweenin grossandregardantexisted. I give inApp. Ithe report of the interesting case quoted from 1 Edw. II.[48]Y.B. 32/33 Edw. I (Horwood), p. 57: 'Quant un home est seisi de son vilein, issi qil est reseant dans son vilenage.' Fitzherbert, Abr. Vill. 3 (39 Edw. III): '... villeins sunt appendant as maners qe sount auncien demesne.' On the other hand, 'regardant' is used quite independently of villainage. Y.B. 12/13 Edw. III (Pike), p. 133: 'come services regardaunts al manoir de H.'[49]Y.B. Hil. 14 Edw. II, f. 417: 'R. est bailli ... del manoir de Clifton ... deins quel manoir cesti J. est villein.'[50]SeeApp. IandII.[51]Y.B. Trin. 9 Edw. II, f. 294: 'Le manoir de H. fuit en ascun temps en la seisine Hubert nostre ael, a quel manoir cest vileyn est regardant.'[52]Y.B. Trin. 29 Edw. III, f. 41. For the report of this case and the corresponding entry in the Common Pleas Roll,see Appendix II.[53]Cf. Annals of Dunstaple, Ann. Mon. iii. 371: 'Quia astrarius eius fuit,' in the sense of a person living on one's land.[54]Bracton, f. 267, b.[55]Bract. Note-book, pl. 230, 951, 988. Cf. Spelman, Gloss. v. astrarius. Kentish Custumal, Statutes of the Realm, i. 224. Fleta has it once in the sense of the Anglo-Saxon heorð-fæst, i. cap. 47, § 10 (f. 62).[56]Bracton, f. 190.[57]Littleton, sect. 187. Cf. Fortescue, 'De laudibus legum Angliae,' c. 42.[58]Littleton, sect. 188.[59]Bracton, ff. 5, 193, b.[60]I need not say that there were very notable variations in the history of the Roman rule itself (cf. for instance, Puchta, Institutionen, § 211), but these do not concern us, as we are taking the Roman doctrine as broadly as it was taken by medieval lawyers.[61]Mater certa est. Gai. Inst. i. 82.[62]See Fitz. Abr. Villenage, pl. 5 (43 Edw. III): 'Ou il allege bastardise pur ceo qe si son auncestor fuit bastard il ne puit estre villein, sinon par connusance.' There was a special reason for turning the tables in favour of bastardy, which is hinted at in this case. The bastard's parents could not be produced against a bastard. He had no father, and his mother would be no proof against him because she was a woman [Fitz. Abr. Vill. 37 (13 Edw. I), Par ce qe la feme ne puit estre admise pur prove par lour fraylte et ausi cest qi est demaunde est pluiz digne person qe un feme]. It followed strictly that he could be a villain by confession, but not by birth. The fact is a good instance of the insoluble contradictions in which feudal law sometimes involved itself.[63]Bracton, f. 5: 'Servus ratione qui se copulaverit villanae in villenagio constitutae.' Bract. Note-book, 1839: 'Juratores dicunt quod predictus Aluredus habuit duos fratres Hugonem [medium] medio tempore natum et Gilibertum postnatum qui nunc petit, set Hugo cepit quamdam terram in uillenagio et duxit uxorem [uillanam] et in uillenagio illo procreauit quemdam filium qui ad huc superest.... Et bene dicunt quod ... iste Gilibertus propinquior heres eius est, ea racione quod filius Hugonis genitus fuit in uillenagio.'[64]Y.B. 30/31 Edw. I, p. 167 sqq.: 'Usage de Cornwall est cecy qe la ou neyfe deyt estre marier hors de maner ou ele est reseant, qe ele trovera seurte ... de revenir a sonnyov ses chateux apres la mort de son baroun.' Bracton, f. 26, 'Quasi avis in nido.'[65]Bract. Note-book, pl. 702: 'Nota quod libera femina maritata uillano non recuperat partem alicuius hereditatis quamdiu uillanus uixerit.'[66]Bract. Note-book, pl. 1837: 'Nota quod mulier que est libera uel in statu libero saltem ad minus non debet disseisiri quin recuperare possit per assisam quamuis nupta fuerit uillano set hereditatem petere non poterit.' Bract. Note-book, pl. 1010: 'Et uillani mori poterunt per quod predicte sorores petere possint ius suum.' Fitzherb. Villen. 27 (P. 7 Edw. II.): 'Les femmes sont sans recouverievers le seignioruiuant leur barons pur ce que ils sont villens.' Cf. Bracton, f. 202.[67]Another instance of the influence of marriage on the condition of contracting parties is afforded by the enfranchisement of the wife in certain cases. The common law was, however, by no means settled as to this point. Y.B. 30/31 Edw. I, p. 167 sqq.: 'La ou le seygnur espouse sa neyfe, si est enfranchi pur toz jurs; secus est la ou un homme estrange ly espose, qe donk nest ele enfraunchi si non vivant son baroun, et post mortem viri redit ad pristinum statum.' Fitzherb. Vill. 21 (P. 33 Edw. III): 'Si home espouse femme qe est son villein el est franke durant les espousailles. Mes quand son baron est mort el est in statu quo prius, et issint el puis estre villein a son fils demesne.' It is quite likely that gentlemen sometimes got into a state of moral bondage to their own bondwomen, and were even led to marriage in a few instances, but the law had not much to feed upon in this direction, I imagine.[68]Fitzherbert, Vill. 24 (H. 50 Edw. III; P. 40 Edw. III, 17): 'Si home demurt en terre tenue en villenage de temps dount, etc., il sera villen, et est bon prescripcion et encountre tel prescripcion est bon ple a dire qe son pere ou ayle fuit adventiffe,' etc. I supposeaylehere to be a simple error foraylorael, grandfather.[69]Cambridge Univ., Dd. vij. 6, f. 231: 'Nota de tempore quo servus dicere poterit quia fecerit consuetudines villanas racione tenementi non racione persone. Et sciendum, quod quamdiu servus poterit verificare stipitem suam liberam non dicitur nativus, set quam citius dominus dicere poterit villicus noster est ex auo et tritauo, tunc primo desinit gaudere replicacione omnimoda et privilegio libertatis racione stipitis, ut si A. primo ingressus villenagium tenuerit de F. per villana servitia, deinde B. filius A., deinde C. filius B., deinde D. filius C., et sic tenuerint in villenagium de gradu in gradum usque ad quartum gradum de F. et heredibus suis, ille uillanus inuentus in quinto gradu descendente natiuus dicitur.' I am indebted for this passage to the kindness of Prof. Maitland.[70]Britton, i. 196, 206.[71]Hale, Pleas of the Crown (ed. 1736), ii. 298, gives an interesting record from Edward I's reign, which shows that even the general theory was doubtful.[72]Dial. de Scacc. i. 10. p. 193: 'Ea propter pene quicumque sic hodie occisus reperitur, ut murdrum punitur, exceptis his quibus certa sunt ut diximus servilis condicionis indicia.' On the other hand the Dialogus lays stress on the fact, that if a villain's chattels get confiscated they go to the king and not to the lord (ii. 10. p. 222), but this is regarded as a breach of a general principle.[73]Glanville, xiv. 1: 'Per ferrum callidum si fuerit homo liber, per aquam si fuerit rusticus.'[74]Lighter offences committed by the lord could not give rise to prosecution, but thepersona standi in iudiciowas admitted in a general way even in this case. A curious illustration of the different footing of villains in civil and criminal cases is afforded by a trial of Richard I's time. Richard of Waure brings an appeal against his man and reeve, Robert Thistleful, for conspiring with his enemies against his person. He offers to prove it against him, 'ut dominus, vel ut homo maimatus, sicut curia consideraverit.' Reeves were mostly villains, and the duty of serving as a reeve was considered as a characteristic of base condition. The lord probably goes to the King's court because he wants his man subjected to more severe punishment than he could inflict on him by his own power. (Rot. Cur. Regis Ricardi, 60.)[75]The lord had power over their property, but against everybody else they were protected by the criminal law.[76]Sometimes the system is used so as to enforce servitude. See Court Rolls of Ramsey Abbey. Augmentation Court Rolls, Edw. I, Portf. 34, No. 46, m. 1 d. (Aylington): 'Adhuc dicunt quod Johannes filius Ricardi Dunning est tannator et manet apud Heyham, set dat per annum pro recognicione duos capones. Et quia potens est et habet multa bona, preceptum fuit Hugoni Achard et eius decennae ad ultimum visum ad habendum ipsum ad istam curiam, et non habuit. Ideo ipse et decenna sua in misericordia.' (This case is now being printed in Selden Soc. vol. ii. p. 64.)[77]Bracton, 124 b: 'Quia omnis homo siue liber siue seruus, aut est aut debet esse in franco plegio aut de alicuius manupastu, nisi sit aliquis itinerans de loco in locum, qui non plus se teneat ad unum quam ad alium, vel quid habeat quod sufficiat pro franco plegio, sicut dignitatem vel ordinem vel liberum tenementum, vel in civitatem rem immobilem.' Nichols, Britton, i. 181, gives a note from Cambr. MS. Dd. vii. 6, to the effect that 'Villeins and naifs ought not to be in tithings, secundum quosdam.' This is certainly a misunderstanding, but it can hardly be accounted for either by the enfranchisement of the peasant or the decay of the frank-pledge. I think the annotator may have seen the passages in Leg. Cnuti or Leg. Henrici I, which speak about free men joining the tithings, or speculated about the meaning of 'plegium liberale.' There could be no thought of excluding the villains in practice during the feudal period. As to the allusion in the Mirror of Justices, I shall refer to it inAppendix III.[78]See below, Essay I. chap. vi.[79]Bract. Note-book, pl. 1256: 'Et Ricardus dicit quod assisa non debet inde fieri quia predictus Iohannes dedit terram illam cuidam uillano ipsius Ricardi, et ipse uillanus reddidit terram illam domino suo sicut emptam catallis domini sui, et quod ita ingressum habuit per uillanum illum in terram illam ponit se super iuratam.' Liber Assisarum, ann. 41. pl. 4. f. 252, shows that the statutede religiosiscould be evaded by the lord entering into his villain's acquest. 'Levesque d'Exester port un Assise de no. diss. vers le tenaunt etPerseypur Leuesque en euidence dit, que un A. que fuit villeine le Evesque come de droit de sa Eglise purchase les tenements a luy et ses heyres et morust seisie, apres que mort entra B. come fitz et heire, sur que possession pur cause de villeinage entra Leuesque.—Wich.Home de religion ne puit pas recoverer per assise terre si title de droit ne soit troue en luy, et ou le title que est trouue en Leuesque est pur cause de la purchace de son villein, en quel cas Leuesque ne fuit compellable de entre sil nust vola mes puit auer eu ses seruices, et le statute voit Quod terrae et tenementa ad manum mortuam nullo modo deueniant, per que il semble que nous ne possomus pas doner iudgement pur Leuesque en ceo cas.Sanke: de son villein ne puit il pas leuer ses seruices, ne accepter lesse par sa maine, car a ceo que ieo entend par acceptacion de homage ou de fealty per sa maine il serra enfraunchi, per quey necessite luy arcte dentre, et le statut nestoit pas fait mes de restreindre purchaus a faire de nouel, et non pas a defaire ceo qe fuit launcien droit dez eglises. Et sur ceo fuerent aiournes en common bank, et illonque le judgement done pur Leuesque sans difficultie,' etc. (See also the report of the same case in Y.B. Mich. 41 Edw. III, pl. 8. f. 21.)[80]Bracton, f. 25: 'Si ... stipulatus sit servus sibi ipsi, et non domino, id non statim acquiritur domino, quamuis illud (corr. ille) sit sub voluntate et potestate sua, antequam dominus apprehensus fuerit possessionem. Quod quidem impune facere poterit, si voluerit, propter exceptionem,' etc. Fitz. Abr. Vill. pl. 22 (Pasch. 35 Edw. III): 'Si le villen le roy purchase biens ou chatteux le properte de eux est en le roy sauns seisier. Mes auter est de auter home, etc. Mes sil purchas terre le roy doit seisier, etc. carThorp.dit que terre demurt terre tout temps, mes biens come boefs ou vache puit estre mange.'[81]Bracton, f. 25 b: 'Sic constat, quod qui sub potestate alterius fuerit, dare poterit. Sed qualiter hoc cum ipse, qui ab aliis possidetur, nihil possidere possit? Ergo videtur quod nihil dare possit, quia non potest quis dare quod non habet, et nisi fuerit in possessione rei dandae. Respondeo, dare potest qui seisinam habet qualemcunque, et servus dare potest,' etc. In case of an execution for debt due to the king the goods of the villain were to be taken only when the lord's goods were exhausted. Dialog. de Scacc. ii. 14. p. 229.[82]Bracton, f. 190: 'Et non competit alicui hujusmodi exceptio de villenagio, praeterquam vero domino, nisi utrumque probet, scilicet quod villanus sit et teneat in villenagio, cum per hoc sequatur, quod ad ipsum non pertineat querela sive assisa, sed ad verum dominum, et ideo cadit assisa quantum ad personam suam et non quantum ad personam domini.' Cf. Britton, i. 325.[83]Britton, i. 199; Littleton, 189; Bract. Note-book, pl. 1025: 'Assisa venit recognitura utrum una uirgata terre cum pertinenciis in R. sit libera elemosina pertinens ad ecclesiam Magistri Iohannis de R. de R. an laicum feodum Gaufridi Beieudehe. Qui venit et dicit quod non debet inde assisa fieri quia antecessores suifeoffati fuerunt a conquestu Anglieita quod tenerent de ecclesia illa et redderent ei per annum x. solidos.... Iuratores dicunt quod terra illa est feodum eiusdem ecclesie ita quod idem G. et antecessores sui semper tenuerunt de ecclesia.... Et dicunt quod idem Gaufridus est natiuus Comitis Warenne et de eo tenet in uilenagio aliud tenementum. Postea uenit Gaufridus et cognouit quod est uillanus Comitis Warenne. Postea concordati sunt,' etc.[84]Example, Fitz. Abr. Villen. 16. The proper reply to such a plea is shown by Bract. Note-book, pl. 1833: 'Et Iohannes dicit quod hoc ei nocere non debet, quia quicquid idem dicat de uillenagio, ipsemet ut liber homo sine contradiccione domini sui terram illam dedit Iohanni del Frid patri istius Iohannis pro homagio et seruicio suo ... Consideratum est quod predictus Iohannes recuperauit seisinam suam, et Richerus in misericordia.' Liber Assis. ann. 43. pl. 1. f. 265 gives the contrary decision: 'Lassise agarde et prise, per quel il fuit troue quil [le defendant] fuit villein al Counte.... mes troue fuit ouster que le Counte ne fut unques seisie de la terre, ne onques claima riens en la terre, et troue fuit que le plaintif fuit seisie et disseisie. Et sur ceo, le quel le plaintif recouerer, ou que le brief abateroit sont ajornes deuant eux mesmes a Westminster. A que jour per opinion de la Court le briefe abatu, per que le plaintif fuit non sue,' etc.[85]A different view is taken by Stubbs, i. 484.[86]Digby, Real Property, 3rd ed. p. 128. I may say at once that I fail to see any connexion between copyhold tenure and any express agreements between lord and villain.[87]Bracton, 192 b: 'Si autem dominus ita dederit sine manumissione, servo et heredibus suis tenendum libere, presumi poterit de hoc quod servum voluit esse liberum, cum aliter servus heredes habere non possit nisi cum libertate et ita contra dominum excipientem de villenagio competit ei replicatio.' Cf. 23 b and Britton, i. 247; Fleta, 238; Littleton, secs. 205, 207.[88]Bracton, 24 b: 'Si autem in charta hoc tantum contineatur, habendum et tenendum tali (cum sit servus) per liberum servitium huiusmodi verba non faciunt servum liberum nec dant ei liberum tenementum ... Quia tenementum nichil confert nec detrahit personae, nisi praecedat, ut dictum est, homagium vel manumissio, vel quod tantundem valet de concessione domini, scilicet quod villanus libere teneat et quiete et per liberum servitium,sibi et haeredibus suis. Si autem hoc solum dicatur, quod teneat per liberum servitium [sibi et heredibus suis], si ejectus fuerit a quocunque non recuperet per assisam noue disseisine, ut liberum tenementum, quia domino competit assisa et non villano. Si tamen dominus ipsum ejecerit, quaeritur, an contra dominum agere possit de conventione, cum prima facie non habet personam standi in judicio ad hoc, quod dominus teneat ei conventionem, videtur quod sic, propter factum domini sui, ut si agat de conventione, et dominus excipiat de servitute, replicare poterit de facto domini sui, sicut supra dicitur de feoffamento. Nec debent jura juvare dominum contra voluntatem suam, quia semel voluit conventionem, et quamvis damnum sentiat, non tamen fit ei injuria et ex quo prudenter et scienter contraxit cum servo suo, tacite renunciavit exceptionem villenagii.'

[1]Miss Lamond's edition of Walter of Henley did not appear until the greater part of my book was in type. I had studied the work in MS. So also I studied the Cartulary of Battle Abbey in MS. without being aware that it had been edited by Mr. Scargill Bird. Had Mr. Gomme's Village Communities come to my hands at an earlier date I should have made more references to it.

[2]English Historical Review, No. 1.

[3]In his Considérations sur l'histoire de France.

[4]History of Boroughs.

[5]Ancient Rights of the Commons of England.

[6]Quoted by Palgrave, English Commonwealth, i. 192, from the second edition of 1786. The first appeared in 1784.

[7]The first edition of the Commentaries appeared in 1765. I have been using that of 1800.

[8]'Es war eine Zeit, in der wir Unerhörtes und Unglaubliches erlebten, eine Zeit, welche die Aufmerksamkeit auf viele vergessene und abgelebte Ordnungen durch deren Zusammensturz hinzog.' Niebuhr in the preface to the first volume of his Roman history, quoted by Wegele, Geschichte der deutschen Historiographie, 998.

[9]Enquiry into the Rise and Progress of the Royal Prerogative, 1831.

[10]History of the English Commonwealth, 1832; Normandy and England, 1840.

[11]I do not give an analysis of Hallam's remarkable chapters on England in his work on the Middle Ages (first edition, 1818), because they are mostly concerned with Constitutional history, and the notes on the classes of Saxon and Anglo-Norman Society are chiefly valuable as discussions of technical points of law. Hallam's general position in historical literature must not be underrated; he is the English representative of the school which had Guizot for its most brilliant exponent on the Continent. In our subject, however, the turning-point in the development of research is marked by Palgrave, and not by Hallam. Heywood (Dissertation on Ranks and Classes of Society, 1818) is sound and useful, but cannot rank among the leaders.

[12]Histoire de la conquête de l'Angleterre par les Normands.

[13]Histoire du tiers état.

[14]Histoire du droit municipal.

[15]Prolégomènes au polyptyque de l'abbé Irminon.

[16]Histoire des institutions de la France; Recherches sur quelques problèmes d'histoire.

[17]Gregor von Tours und seine Zeit.

[18]Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte.

[19]Geschichte des Beneficialwesens, 1856; Feudalität und Unterthanenverband, 1863.

[20]Roth is very strong on this point.

[21]Ueber angelsächsische Rechtsverhältnisse, in the Munich Kritische Ueberschau, i. sqq. (1853).

[22]K. Maurer is very near Waitz in this respect.

[23]See especially his Englische Verfassungsgeschichte.

[24]Einleitung in die Geschichte der Hof-, Dorf-, Mark- und Städteverfassung in Deutschland, 1 vol.; Geschichte der Frohnhöfe, 4 vol.; Geschichte der Dorfverfassung, 1 vol.; Geschichte der Markenverfassung, 1 vol.; Geschichte der Städteverfassung, 4 vol.

[25]Collected in 2 volumes of Agrarhistorische Untersuchungen.

[26]Zur Geschichte der mittelalterlichen Feldgemeinschaft in England, 1869.

[27]I do not mention some well-known books treating of medieval husbandry and social history, because I am immediately concerned only with those works which discuss the formation of the medieval system. Thorold Rogers, History of Agriculture and Prices, and Six Centuries of Work and Wages, begins with the close of the thirteenth century, and the passage from medieval organisation to modern times. Ochenkovsky, Die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung Englands am Ende des Mittelalters, and Kovalevsky, England's Social Organisation at the close of the Middle Ages (Russian), start on their inquiry from even a later period.

[28]Is it necessary to say that I am speaking of general currents of thought and not of the position of a man at the polling booth? An author may be personally a liberal and still his work may connect itself with a stream of opinion which is not in favour of liberalism. Again, one and the same man may fall in with different movements in different parts of his career. Actual life throws a peculiar light on the past: certain questions are placed prominently in view and certain others are thrown into the shade by it, so that the individual worker has to find his path within relatively narrow limits.

[29]The last great German work on our questions, Lamprecht, Deutsches Wirthschaftsleben im Mittelalter, is nearer Maurer than Sternegg.

[30]Thorold Rogers, History of Agriculture and Prices, i. 70; Six Centuries of Work and Wages, 44. Cf. Chandler, Five Court Rolls of Great Cressingham in the county of Norfolk, 1885, pp. viii, ix.

[31]Stubbs, Seventeen Lectures, 304, 305; Maitland, Introduction to the Note-book of Bracton, 4 sqq.

[32]Dial. de Scacc. ii. 10 (Select Charters, p. 222). Cf. i. 10; p. 192.

[33]Glanville, v. 5; Bracton, 4, 5; Fleta, i. 2; Britton, ed. Nichols, i. 194.

[34]Bracton, 5; Britton, i, 197. Pollock, Land-laws, App. C, is quite right as to the fundamental distinction between status and tenure, but he goes too far, I think, in trying to trace the steps by which names originally applying to different things got confused in the terminology of the Common Law. Annotators sometimes indulged in distinctions which contradict each other and give us no help as to the law. The same Cambridge MS. from which Nichols gives an explanation ofservus,nativus, andvillanus(i. 195) has a different etymology in a marginal note to Bracton. 'Nativus dicitur a nativitate—quasi in servitute natus, villanus dicitur a villa, quasi faciens villanas consuetudines racione tenementi, vel sicut ille qui se recognoscit ad villanum in curia quae recordum habet, servus vero dicitur a servando quasi per captivitatem, per vim et injustam detentionem villanus captus et detentus contra mores et consuetudines juris naturalis' (Cambr. Univers. MSS. Dd. vii. 6. I have the reference from my friend F.W. Maitland).

[35]Placita Coram Rege, Easter, 14 Edw. I, m. 9: 'Willelmus Barantyn et Radulfus attachiati fuerunt ad respondendum Agneti de Chalgraue de placito quare in ipsam Agnetem apud Chalgraue insultum fecerunt et ipsam verberaverunt, vulneraverunt et male tractaverunt, et bona et catalla sua in domibus ipsius Agnetis apud Chalgraue scilicet ordeum et avenam, argentum, archas et alia bona ad valenciam quadraginta solidorum ceperunt et asportaverunt; et ipsam Agnetem effugaverunt de uno mesuagio et dimidia virgata terre de quibus fuit in seysina per predictum Willelmum que fuerunt de antiquo dominico per longum tempus; nec permiserunt ipsam Agnetem morari in predicta villa de Chalgraue; et eciam quandam sororem ipsius Agnetis eo quod ipsa soror eam hospitavit per duas noctes de domibus suis eiecit, terra et catalla sua abstulit. Et predicti Willelmus et Radulfus veniunt. Et quo ad insultacionem et verberacionem dicunt quod non sunt inde culpabiles. Et quo ad hoc quod ipsa Agnes dicit quod ipsam eiecerunt de domibus et terris suis, dicunt quod predicta Agnes est natiua ipsius Willelmi et tenuit predicta tenementa in villenagio ad voluntatem ipsius Willelmi propter quod bene licebat eidem Willelmo ipsam de predicto tenemento ammouere.—Juratores dicunt ... quod predicta tenementa sunt villenagium predicti Willelmi de Barentyn et quod predicta Agnes tenuit eadem tenementa ad voluntatem ipsius Willelmi.' Cf. Y.B. 12/13 Edw. III (ed. Pike), p. 233 sqq., 'or vous savez bien qe par ley de terre tout ceo qe le vileyn ad si est a soun seignour;' 229 sqq., 'qar cest sa terre demene, et il les puet ouster a sa volunte demene.'

[36]Coram Rege, Mich., 3 4 Edw. I, m. 1: 'Ricardus de Assheburnham summonitus fuit ad respondendum Petro de Attebuckhole et Johanni de eadem de placito quare, cum ipsi teneant quasdam terras et tenementa de predicto Ricardo in Hasseburnham ac ipsi parati sunt ad faciendum ei consuetudines et servicia que antecessores sui terras et tenementa illa tenentes facere consueverint, predictus Ricardus diversas commoditates quam ipsi tam in boscis ipsius Ricardi quam in aliis locis habere consueverint eisdem subtrahens ipsos ad intollerabiles servitutes et consuetudines faciendas taliter compellit quod ex sua duricia mendicare coguntur. Et unde queruntur quod, cum teneant tenementa sua per certas consuetudines et certa servicia, et cum percipere consueverunt boscum ad focum et materiam de bosco crescente in propriis terris suis, predictus Ricardus ipsos non permittit aliquid in boscis suis capere et eciam capit aueria sua et non permittit eos terram suam colere.—Ricardus dicit, quod non debet eis ad aliquam accionem respondere nisi questi essent de vita vel membris vel de iniuria facta corpori suo. Dicit eciam quod nativi sui sunt, et quod omnes antecessores sui nativi fuerunt antecessorum suorum et in villenagio suo manentes.'

[37]Note-book of Bracton, pl. 1237: 'dominus Rex non vult se de eis intromittere.'

[38]It occurs in the oldest extant Plea Roll, 6 Ric. I; Rot. Cur. Regis, ed. Palgrave, p. 84: 'Thomas venit et dicit quod ipsa fuit uxorata cuidam Turkillo, qui habuit duos filios qui clamabant libertatem tenementi sui in curia domini Regis ... et quod ibi dirationavit eos esse villanos suos, et non defendit disseisinam ... Et ipsi Elilda et Ricardus defendunt vilenagium et ponunt se super juratam,' etc.

[39]Maitland, Select Pleas of the Crown (Selden Soc. I), pl. 3: 'Quendam nativum suum quem habuit in vinculis eo quod voluit fugere.' Bract. Notebook, pl. 1041: 'Petrus de Herefordia attachiatus fuit ad respondendum R. fil. Th. quare ipse cepit Ricardum et eum imprisonauit et coegit ad redempcionem 1 marce. Et Petrus venit alias et defendit capcionem et imprisonacionem set dicit quod villanus fuit,' etc.It must be noted, however, that in such cases it was difficult to draw the line as to the amount of bodily injury allowed by the law, and therefore the King's courts were much more free to interfere. In the trial quoted on p. 45, note 2, the defendants distinguish carefully between the accusation and the civil suit. They plead 'not guilty' as to the former. And so Bishop Stubbs' conjecture as to the 'rusticus verberatus' in Pipe Roll, 31 Henry I, p. 55 (Constit. Hist. i. 487), seems quite appropriate. The case is a very early one, and may testify to the better condition of the peasantry in the first half of the twelfth century.

It must be noted, however, that in such cases it was difficult to draw the line as to the amount of bodily injury allowed by the law, and therefore the King's courts were much more free to interfere. In the trial quoted on p. 45, note 2, the defendants distinguish carefully between the accusation and the civil suit. They plead 'not guilty' as to the former. And so Bishop Stubbs' conjecture as to the 'rusticus verberatus' in Pipe Roll, 31 Henry I, p. 55 (Constit. Hist. i. 487), seems quite appropriate. The case is a very early one, and may testify to the better condition of the peasantry in the first half of the twelfth century.

[40]As to the actual treatment experienced by the peasants at the hands of their feudal masters, see a picturesque case in Maitland's Select Pleas of the Crown (Selden Soc.), 203.

[41]Stubbs, Constitutional History, ii. 652, 654; Freeman, Norman Conquest, v. 477; Digby, Introduction to the Law of Real Property, 244.

[42]Sir Thomas Smith, The Commonwealth of England, ed. 1609, p. 123, shows that the notion of two classes corresponding to the Romanservusand the Romanadscriptus glebaehad taken root firmly about the middle of the sixteenth century. 'Villeins in gross, as ye would say immediately bond to the person and his heirs.... (The adscripti) were not bond to the person but to the mannor or place, and did follow him who had the mannors, and in our law are called villains regardants (sic), for because they be as members or belonging to the mannor or place. Neither of the one sort nor of the other have we any number in England. And of the first I never knew any in the Realme in my time. Of the second so fewe there bee, that it is not almost worth the speaking, but our law doth acknowledge them in both these sorts.'

[43]Section 182 is not quite consistent with such an exposition, but I do not think there can be any doubt as to the general doctrine.

[44]I need not say that the work done by Mr. Horwood, and especially by Mr. Pike, for the Rolls' Series quite fulfil the requirements of students. But in comparison with it the old Year Books in Rastall's, and even more so in Maynard's edition, appear only the more wretchedly misprinted.

[45]For instance, Liber Assisarum, ann. 44, pl. 4 (f. 283): 'Quil fuit son villein et il seisi de luy come de son villein come regardant a son maneir de B. en la Counte de Dorset.'

[46]Y.B. Hil. 5 Edw. II: 'Iohan de Rose port son [ne] vexes vers Labbe de Seint Bennet de Holme, et il counta qil luy travaille, etc., e luy demande.'Migg.: 'defent tort et force, ou et quant il devera et dit qil fuist le vilein Labbe, per qi il ne deveroit estre resceve.'Devom.: 'il covient qe vous disez plus qe vous estes seisi, ut supra,' etc.Migg.: 'il est nostre vileyn, et nous seisi de luy come de nostre vileyn.'Ber.: 'Coment seisi come,' etc.?Migg.: 'de luy et de ces auncestres come de nos vileynes, en fesant de luy nostre provost en prenant de luy rechate de char et de saunk et redemption pur fille et fitz marier de luy et de ces auncestres et a tailler haut et bas a nostre volente, prest,' etc. (Les reports des cases del Roy Edward le II. London, 1678; f. 157.)

[47]I do not think it ever came into any one's mind to look at the Plea Rolls in this matter. Even Hargrave, when preparing his famous argument in Somersett's case, carried his search no further than the Year Books then in print. And in consequence he just missed the true solution. He says (Howell's State Trials, xx. 42, 43),'As to the villeins in gross the cases relative to them are very few; and I am inclined to think that there never was any great number of them in England.... However, after a long search, I do find places in the Year Books where the form of alledging villenage in gross is expressed, not in full terms, but in a general way; and in all the cases I have yet seen, the villenage is alledged in the ancestors of the person against whom it was pleaded.' And he quotes 1 Edw. II, 4; 5 Edw. II, 157 (corr. for 15); 7 Edw. II, 242, and 11 Edw. II, 344. But all these cases are of Edward II's time, and instead of being exceptional give the normal form of pleading as it was used up to the second quarter of the fourteenth century. They looked exceptional to Hargrave only because he restricted his search to the later Year Books, and did not take up the Plea Rolls. By admitting the cases quoted to indicate villainage in gross, he in fact admitted that there were only villains in gross before 1350 or thereabouts, or rather that all villains were alike before this time, and no such thing as the difference betweenin grossandregardantexisted. I give inApp. Ithe report of the interesting case quoted from 1 Edw. II.

[48]Y.B. 32/33 Edw. I (Horwood), p. 57: 'Quant un home est seisi de son vilein, issi qil est reseant dans son vilenage.' Fitzherbert, Abr. Vill. 3 (39 Edw. III): '... villeins sunt appendant as maners qe sount auncien demesne.' On the other hand, 'regardant' is used quite independently of villainage. Y.B. 12/13 Edw. III (Pike), p. 133: 'come services regardaunts al manoir de H.'

[49]Y.B. Hil. 14 Edw. II, f. 417: 'R. est bailli ... del manoir de Clifton ... deins quel manoir cesti J. est villein.'

[50]SeeApp. IandII.

[51]Y.B. Trin. 9 Edw. II, f. 294: 'Le manoir de H. fuit en ascun temps en la seisine Hubert nostre ael, a quel manoir cest vileyn est regardant.'

[52]Y.B. Trin. 29 Edw. III, f. 41. For the report of this case and the corresponding entry in the Common Pleas Roll,see Appendix II.

[53]Cf. Annals of Dunstaple, Ann. Mon. iii. 371: 'Quia astrarius eius fuit,' in the sense of a person living on one's land.

[54]Bracton, f. 267, b.

[55]Bract. Note-book, pl. 230, 951, 988. Cf. Spelman, Gloss. v. astrarius. Kentish Custumal, Statutes of the Realm, i. 224. Fleta has it once in the sense of the Anglo-Saxon heorð-fæst, i. cap. 47, § 10 (f. 62).

[56]Bracton, f. 190.

[57]Littleton, sect. 187. Cf. Fortescue, 'De laudibus legum Angliae,' c. 42.

[58]Littleton, sect. 188.

[59]Bracton, ff. 5, 193, b.

[60]I need not say that there were very notable variations in the history of the Roman rule itself (cf. for instance, Puchta, Institutionen, § 211), but these do not concern us, as we are taking the Roman doctrine as broadly as it was taken by medieval lawyers.

[61]Mater certa est. Gai. Inst. i. 82.

[62]See Fitz. Abr. Villenage, pl. 5 (43 Edw. III): 'Ou il allege bastardise pur ceo qe si son auncestor fuit bastard il ne puit estre villein, sinon par connusance.' There was a special reason for turning the tables in favour of bastardy, which is hinted at in this case. The bastard's parents could not be produced against a bastard. He had no father, and his mother would be no proof against him because she was a woman [Fitz. Abr. Vill. 37 (13 Edw. I), Par ce qe la feme ne puit estre admise pur prove par lour fraylte et ausi cest qi est demaunde est pluiz digne person qe un feme]. It followed strictly that he could be a villain by confession, but not by birth. The fact is a good instance of the insoluble contradictions in which feudal law sometimes involved itself.

[63]Bracton, f. 5: 'Servus ratione qui se copulaverit villanae in villenagio constitutae.' Bract. Note-book, 1839: 'Juratores dicunt quod predictus Aluredus habuit duos fratres Hugonem [medium] medio tempore natum et Gilibertum postnatum qui nunc petit, set Hugo cepit quamdam terram in uillenagio et duxit uxorem [uillanam] et in uillenagio illo procreauit quemdam filium qui ad huc superest.... Et bene dicunt quod ... iste Gilibertus propinquior heres eius est, ea racione quod filius Hugonis genitus fuit in uillenagio.'

[64]Y.B. 30/31 Edw. I, p. 167 sqq.: 'Usage de Cornwall est cecy qe la ou neyfe deyt estre marier hors de maner ou ele est reseant, qe ele trovera seurte ... de revenir a sonnyov ses chateux apres la mort de son baroun.' Bracton, f. 26, 'Quasi avis in nido.'

[65]Bract. Note-book, pl. 702: 'Nota quod libera femina maritata uillano non recuperat partem alicuius hereditatis quamdiu uillanus uixerit.'

[66]Bract. Note-book, pl. 1837: 'Nota quod mulier que est libera uel in statu libero saltem ad minus non debet disseisiri quin recuperare possit per assisam quamuis nupta fuerit uillano set hereditatem petere non poterit.' Bract. Note-book, pl. 1010: 'Et uillani mori poterunt per quod predicte sorores petere possint ius suum.' Fitzherb. Villen. 27 (P. 7 Edw. II.): 'Les femmes sont sans recouverievers le seignioruiuant leur barons pur ce que ils sont villens.' Cf. Bracton, f. 202.

[67]Another instance of the influence of marriage on the condition of contracting parties is afforded by the enfranchisement of the wife in certain cases. The common law was, however, by no means settled as to this point. Y.B. 30/31 Edw. I, p. 167 sqq.: 'La ou le seygnur espouse sa neyfe, si est enfranchi pur toz jurs; secus est la ou un homme estrange ly espose, qe donk nest ele enfraunchi si non vivant son baroun, et post mortem viri redit ad pristinum statum.' Fitzherb. Vill. 21 (P. 33 Edw. III): 'Si home espouse femme qe est son villein el est franke durant les espousailles. Mes quand son baron est mort el est in statu quo prius, et issint el puis estre villein a son fils demesne.' It is quite likely that gentlemen sometimes got into a state of moral bondage to their own bondwomen, and were even led to marriage in a few instances, but the law had not much to feed upon in this direction, I imagine.

[68]Fitzherbert, Vill. 24 (H. 50 Edw. III; P. 40 Edw. III, 17): 'Si home demurt en terre tenue en villenage de temps dount, etc., il sera villen, et est bon prescripcion et encountre tel prescripcion est bon ple a dire qe son pere ou ayle fuit adventiffe,' etc. I supposeaylehere to be a simple error foraylorael, grandfather.

[69]Cambridge Univ., Dd. vij. 6, f. 231: 'Nota de tempore quo servus dicere poterit quia fecerit consuetudines villanas racione tenementi non racione persone. Et sciendum, quod quamdiu servus poterit verificare stipitem suam liberam non dicitur nativus, set quam citius dominus dicere poterit villicus noster est ex auo et tritauo, tunc primo desinit gaudere replicacione omnimoda et privilegio libertatis racione stipitis, ut si A. primo ingressus villenagium tenuerit de F. per villana servitia, deinde B. filius A., deinde C. filius B., deinde D. filius C., et sic tenuerint in villenagium de gradu in gradum usque ad quartum gradum de F. et heredibus suis, ille uillanus inuentus in quinto gradu descendente natiuus dicitur.' I am indebted for this passage to the kindness of Prof. Maitland.

[70]Britton, i. 196, 206.

[71]Hale, Pleas of the Crown (ed. 1736), ii. 298, gives an interesting record from Edward I's reign, which shows that even the general theory was doubtful.

[72]Dial. de Scacc. i. 10. p. 193: 'Ea propter pene quicumque sic hodie occisus reperitur, ut murdrum punitur, exceptis his quibus certa sunt ut diximus servilis condicionis indicia.' On the other hand the Dialogus lays stress on the fact, that if a villain's chattels get confiscated they go to the king and not to the lord (ii. 10. p. 222), but this is regarded as a breach of a general principle.

[73]Glanville, xiv. 1: 'Per ferrum callidum si fuerit homo liber, per aquam si fuerit rusticus.'

[74]Lighter offences committed by the lord could not give rise to prosecution, but thepersona standi in iudiciowas admitted in a general way even in this case. A curious illustration of the different footing of villains in civil and criminal cases is afforded by a trial of Richard I's time. Richard of Waure brings an appeal against his man and reeve, Robert Thistleful, for conspiring with his enemies against his person. He offers to prove it against him, 'ut dominus, vel ut homo maimatus, sicut curia consideraverit.' Reeves were mostly villains, and the duty of serving as a reeve was considered as a characteristic of base condition. The lord probably goes to the King's court because he wants his man subjected to more severe punishment than he could inflict on him by his own power. (Rot. Cur. Regis Ricardi, 60.)

[75]The lord had power over their property, but against everybody else they were protected by the criminal law.

[76]Sometimes the system is used so as to enforce servitude. See Court Rolls of Ramsey Abbey. Augmentation Court Rolls, Edw. I, Portf. 34, No. 46, m. 1 d. (Aylington): 'Adhuc dicunt quod Johannes filius Ricardi Dunning est tannator et manet apud Heyham, set dat per annum pro recognicione duos capones. Et quia potens est et habet multa bona, preceptum fuit Hugoni Achard et eius decennae ad ultimum visum ad habendum ipsum ad istam curiam, et non habuit. Ideo ipse et decenna sua in misericordia.' (This case is now being printed in Selden Soc. vol. ii. p. 64.)

[77]Bracton, 124 b: 'Quia omnis homo siue liber siue seruus, aut est aut debet esse in franco plegio aut de alicuius manupastu, nisi sit aliquis itinerans de loco in locum, qui non plus se teneat ad unum quam ad alium, vel quid habeat quod sufficiat pro franco plegio, sicut dignitatem vel ordinem vel liberum tenementum, vel in civitatem rem immobilem.' Nichols, Britton, i. 181, gives a note from Cambr. MS. Dd. vii. 6, to the effect that 'Villeins and naifs ought not to be in tithings, secundum quosdam.' This is certainly a misunderstanding, but it can hardly be accounted for either by the enfranchisement of the peasant or the decay of the frank-pledge. I think the annotator may have seen the passages in Leg. Cnuti or Leg. Henrici I, which speak about free men joining the tithings, or speculated about the meaning of 'plegium liberale.' There could be no thought of excluding the villains in practice during the feudal period. As to the allusion in the Mirror of Justices, I shall refer to it inAppendix III.

[78]See below, Essay I. chap. vi.

[79]Bract. Note-book, pl. 1256: 'Et Ricardus dicit quod assisa non debet inde fieri quia predictus Iohannes dedit terram illam cuidam uillano ipsius Ricardi, et ipse uillanus reddidit terram illam domino suo sicut emptam catallis domini sui, et quod ita ingressum habuit per uillanum illum in terram illam ponit se super iuratam.' Liber Assisarum, ann. 41. pl. 4. f. 252, shows that the statutede religiosiscould be evaded by the lord entering into his villain's acquest. 'Levesque d'Exester port un Assise de no. diss. vers le tenaunt etPerseypur Leuesque en euidence dit, que un A. que fuit villeine le Evesque come de droit de sa Eglise purchase les tenements a luy et ses heyres et morust seisie, apres que mort entra B. come fitz et heire, sur que possession pur cause de villeinage entra Leuesque.—Wich.Home de religion ne puit pas recoverer per assise terre si title de droit ne soit troue en luy, et ou le title que est trouue en Leuesque est pur cause de la purchace de son villein, en quel cas Leuesque ne fuit compellable de entre sil nust vola mes puit auer eu ses seruices, et le statute voit Quod terrae et tenementa ad manum mortuam nullo modo deueniant, per que il semble que nous ne possomus pas doner iudgement pur Leuesque en ceo cas.Sanke: de son villein ne puit il pas leuer ses seruices, ne accepter lesse par sa maine, car a ceo que ieo entend par acceptacion de homage ou de fealty per sa maine il serra enfraunchi, per quey necessite luy arcte dentre, et le statut nestoit pas fait mes de restreindre purchaus a faire de nouel, et non pas a defaire ceo qe fuit launcien droit dez eglises. Et sur ceo fuerent aiournes en common bank, et illonque le judgement done pur Leuesque sans difficultie,' etc. (See also the report of the same case in Y.B. Mich. 41 Edw. III, pl. 8. f. 21.)

[80]Bracton, f. 25: 'Si ... stipulatus sit servus sibi ipsi, et non domino, id non statim acquiritur domino, quamuis illud (corr. ille) sit sub voluntate et potestate sua, antequam dominus apprehensus fuerit possessionem. Quod quidem impune facere poterit, si voluerit, propter exceptionem,' etc. Fitz. Abr. Vill. pl. 22 (Pasch. 35 Edw. III): 'Si le villen le roy purchase biens ou chatteux le properte de eux est en le roy sauns seisier. Mes auter est de auter home, etc. Mes sil purchas terre le roy doit seisier, etc. carThorp.dit que terre demurt terre tout temps, mes biens come boefs ou vache puit estre mange.'

[81]Bracton, f. 25 b: 'Sic constat, quod qui sub potestate alterius fuerit, dare poterit. Sed qualiter hoc cum ipse, qui ab aliis possidetur, nihil possidere possit? Ergo videtur quod nihil dare possit, quia non potest quis dare quod non habet, et nisi fuerit in possessione rei dandae. Respondeo, dare potest qui seisinam habet qualemcunque, et servus dare potest,' etc. In case of an execution for debt due to the king the goods of the villain were to be taken only when the lord's goods were exhausted. Dialog. de Scacc. ii. 14. p. 229.

[82]Bracton, f. 190: 'Et non competit alicui hujusmodi exceptio de villenagio, praeterquam vero domino, nisi utrumque probet, scilicet quod villanus sit et teneat in villenagio, cum per hoc sequatur, quod ad ipsum non pertineat querela sive assisa, sed ad verum dominum, et ideo cadit assisa quantum ad personam suam et non quantum ad personam domini.' Cf. Britton, i. 325.

[83]Britton, i. 199; Littleton, 189; Bract. Note-book, pl. 1025: 'Assisa venit recognitura utrum una uirgata terre cum pertinenciis in R. sit libera elemosina pertinens ad ecclesiam Magistri Iohannis de R. de R. an laicum feodum Gaufridi Beieudehe. Qui venit et dicit quod non debet inde assisa fieri quia antecessores suifeoffati fuerunt a conquestu Anglieita quod tenerent de ecclesia illa et redderent ei per annum x. solidos.... Iuratores dicunt quod terra illa est feodum eiusdem ecclesie ita quod idem G. et antecessores sui semper tenuerunt de ecclesia.... Et dicunt quod idem Gaufridus est natiuus Comitis Warenne et de eo tenet in uilenagio aliud tenementum. Postea uenit Gaufridus et cognouit quod est uillanus Comitis Warenne. Postea concordati sunt,' etc.

[84]Example, Fitz. Abr. Villen. 16. The proper reply to such a plea is shown by Bract. Note-book, pl. 1833: 'Et Iohannes dicit quod hoc ei nocere non debet, quia quicquid idem dicat de uillenagio, ipsemet ut liber homo sine contradiccione domini sui terram illam dedit Iohanni del Frid patri istius Iohannis pro homagio et seruicio suo ... Consideratum est quod predictus Iohannes recuperauit seisinam suam, et Richerus in misericordia.' Liber Assis. ann. 43. pl. 1. f. 265 gives the contrary decision: 'Lassise agarde et prise, per quel il fuit troue quil [le defendant] fuit villein al Counte.... mes troue fuit ouster que le Counte ne fut unques seisie de la terre, ne onques claima riens en la terre, et troue fuit que le plaintif fuit seisie et disseisie. Et sur ceo, le quel le plaintif recouerer, ou que le brief abateroit sont ajornes deuant eux mesmes a Westminster. A que jour per opinion de la Court le briefe abatu, per que le plaintif fuit non sue,' etc.

[85]A different view is taken by Stubbs, i. 484.

[86]Digby, Real Property, 3rd ed. p. 128. I may say at once that I fail to see any connexion between copyhold tenure and any express agreements between lord and villain.

[87]Bracton, 192 b: 'Si autem dominus ita dederit sine manumissione, servo et heredibus suis tenendum libere, presumi poterit de hoc quod servum voluit esse liberum, cum aliter servus heredes habere non possit nisi cum libertate et ita contra dominum excipientem de villenagio competit ei replicatio.' Cf. 23 b and Britton, i. 247; Fleta, 238; Littleton, secs. 205, 207.

[88]Bracton, 24 b: 'Si autem in charta hoc tantum contineatur, habendum et tenendum tali (cum sit servus) per liberum servitium huiusmodi verba non faciunt servum liberum nec dant ei liberum tenementum ... Quia tenementum nichil confert nec detrahit personae, nisi praecedat, ut dictum est, homagium vel manumissio, vel quod tantundem valet de concessione domini, scilicet quod villanus libere teneat et quiete et per liberum servitium,sibi et haeredibus suis. Si autem hoc solum dicatur, quod teneat per liberum servitium [sibi et heredibus suis], si ejectus fuerit a quocunque non recuperet per assisam noue disseisine, ut liberum tenementum, quia domino competit assisa et non villano. Si tamen dominus ipsum ejecerit, quaeritur, an contra dominum agere possit de conventione, cum prima facie non habet personam standi in judicio ad hoc, quod dominus teneat ei conventionem, videtur quod sic, propter factum domini sui, ut si agat de conventione, et dominus excipiat de servitute, replicare poterit de facto domini sui, sicut supra dicitur de feoffamento. Nec debent jura juvare dominum contra voluntatem suam, quia semel voluit conventionem, et quamvis damnum sentiat, non tamen fit ei injuria et ex quo prudenter et scienter contraxit cum servo suo, tacite renunciavit exceptionem villenagii.'

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