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The government of the Kingdom of England in the Middle Ages was a monarchy based on the principles of feudalism. The king possessed ultimate executive, legislative, and judicial power. However, some limits to the king's authority had been imposed by the 13th century. Magna Carta established the principle that taxes could not be levied without common consent, and Parliament was able to assert its power over taxation throughout this period.
For information on English government before 1216, see Government in Norman and Angevin England.
Under the Plantagenets, rules of primogeniture were established, and a new reign was considered to have begun on the death of the old king. When Henry III died in 1272, his son Edward I became king even though he was on a crusade at the time and would not be crowned until 1274. [1]
Henry III was crowned twice. The nine-year-old Henry was first given a hasty coronation in 1216 at Gloucester Cathedral by Guala Bicchieri, the papal legate. In a second coronation at Westminster Abbey, the king was crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury as was customary. [2]
Edward II was not crowned until February 1308, seven months after his accession. Edward III was crowned quickly out of necessity due to his accession after the deposition of his father. Edward II was deposed on 20 January 1327 and his son was crowned on 1 February. [1]
At the coronation, the new king swore an oath. The precise wording is unknown before 1308. The king probably swore to uphold the laws of King Edward the Confessor, to work for the peace of the church and the people, and to prevent rapacity and oppression. Both Henry III and Edward I additionally promised to preserve and recover the rights of the Crown. Edward II added the clause promising "to maintain and preserve the laws and rightful customs which the community of your realm shall have chosen". [1]
As a feudal overlord, the king had various rights over tenants-in-chief (or feudal barons) including the rights: [3]
Unlike other lords, kings were anointed and had greater power. The Crown alone: [4] [5]
The king carried with him a special jurisdiction called the verge, which was the 12 mile area around the king's person where local courts did not have authority to hear cases. Only the courts of the royal household had jurisdiction. [6]
The Roman law principle of necessity was also an important component of the Crown's powers. If the king could demonstrate an urgent necessity, his subjects were obliged to assist him. In 1294, Edward I justified his seizure of wool based on the "certain and urgent necessity" that existed. Edward III also requested taxation on the basis of the necessity of defending the realm. [7]
Royal authority was challenged. Henry de Bracton argued that the king was under the law, and if he went beyond the law he should be "bridled" by his earls and barons. [7]
In the 13th century, the distinction between the king and the Crown developed. In the reign of Henry III, there are some indications that the Crown was regarded as distinct from the king in terms of the alienation of royal land. [8] By the reign of Edward III, this distinction was well developed. The Crown Estate belonged to the Crown and should not be alienated by individual kings. [4]
During the reign of Edward II, the earl of Lincoln presented the Declaration of 1308 arguing that homage and allegiance were due more to the Crown than to the person of the king . [9] One of the arguments for deposing Edward II was that he had not defended the rights of the Crown, specifically that he failed to preserve royal lands and had taken evil counsel. [6]
The king's council provided the monarch with expert advice and assistance in governing the kingdom. It was involved in legal, financial, and diplomatic business. It heard important legal cases, and it could reach decisions without reference to the common law. [10] It could draft legislation in the form of administrative orders issued as letters patent or letters close. [11]
Members included the king's ministers and closest advisers, such as judges, the chancellor, and the treasurer. Members took an oath to give the king faithful counsel. The council met in the Star Chamber at Westminster Palace. [10]
In the Middle Ages, there was no clear distinction between the royal court and the royal household. The court might refer to everyone around the king, while the household referred to the specific institution that served the king. [12]
There were around 500 members of the household. The most important department was the wardrobe. It managed the household's finances and oversaw war spending. It was led by the keeper of the wardrobe, who was one of the king's most important ministers. The wardrobe controlled the privy seal, which was used to issue orders to the chancery and exchequer. Under Edward II, this writing office was separated from the wardrobe, and the king began using the secret seal when issuing orders to the keeper of the privy seal. [13]
The military household included bannerets, knights, squires, and sergeants-at-arms. In addition to a military role, they also served as administrators and diplomats. [12]
The main financial department was the exchequer. The exchequer developed under Henry I (r. 1100–1135) and audited the accounts of sheriffs and other royal officials. [14] At the end of the 12th century, it moved from Winchester to a chamber adjacent to Westminster Hall. [15] The lower exchequer received payments and issued receipts in the form of tally sticks. The upper exchequer was a court called the Exchequer of Pleas. [16]
In theory, the exchequer controlled government finances. All royal revenue was supposed to be paid to the exchequer, and its officers (the treasurer and exchequer chamberlains) would pay out funds as needed to the royal household. In reality, there were periods, such as in the reign of Edward I, where the wardrobe was outside of the exchequer's control. Household officials often diverted royal revenue before it ever reached the exchequer, and the wardrobe did not always submit its accounts to be audited. [17]
The chancellor oversaw the chancery or government writing office. It was originally part of the royal chapel. The clerks in the chapel served both the king's spiritual and secretarial needs. [18] During Edward I's reign, the chancery clerks started to stay in England rather than accompany the king on foreign military expeditions. By the reign of Edward III, it was permanently based at Westminster. [19]
In 1324, there were about a hundred clerks who produced around 29,000 writs. At the head of the chancery's organization were 12 master clerks who were termed "first form" clerks. Beneath them were 12 second form clerks. Beneath them were the 24 cursitors who wrote the standardized writs. Below these were assistant clerks and servants. [19]
Government administration could be needlessly complicated. In the 14th century, a royal order could be issued originally under the king's secret seal, then sent to the privy seal office which would instruct the chancery to prepare the final writ. "Three documents were used where one would have sufficed. This might lead to long delays." [20]
Parliament evolved out of the magnum concilium and met occasionally when summoned by the king. [21] Parliament differed from the older great council by being "an institution of the community rather than the crown". For the community of the realm, "it acts as representative, approaching the government from without, and 'parleying' with the king and his council". [22]
Before 1258, legislation was not a major part of parliamentary business. [11] It is in the reign of Edward I that Parliament passed the first major statutes. "However, they were not made by the King in Parliament, but simply announced by the king or his ministers in a parliament" [emphasis in original]. [23] The actual work of law-making was done by the king and his council. [24] Completed legislation was then presented to Parliament for ratification. [25]
Parliament successfully asserted for itself the right to consent to taxation, and a pattern developed in which the king would make concessions (such as reaffirming Magna Carta) in return for grants of taxation. [26] This was its main tool in disputes with the king. Nevertheless, this proved ineffective at restraining the king as he was still able to raise lesser amounts of revenue from sources that did not require parliamentary consent: [27] [28]
England was divided into 39 counties, which existed with only minor boundary changes until 1974 when the Local Government Act 1972 went into effect. [29]
The most important county officer was the sheriff. Sheriffs were appointed by the king and served at his pleasure. He presided over the county court, collected taxes, and paid the county farm owed to the king. [30] As the main communication channel between the Crown and the counties, the sheriff was responsible for sharing royal proclamations. He was assisted by an under-sheriff, clerks, bailiffs, and sub-bailiffs. One clerk was responsible for county finances, and another was responsible for recording writs received and actions taken. [31] Henry III preferred to appoint local knights to the office, and this trend continued after his reign. [32]
The king appointed an escheator for counties north of the Trent and another for those counties south of it. These appointed sub-escheators in each county to enforce royal wardship rights and manage lands that escheated to the Crown. [33]
The king was the fount of justice. [35] Initially, important cases were heard coram rege (Latin for "in the presence of the king") with the advice of his curia regis. But the growth of the legal system required specialization, and the judicial functions of the curia regis were delegated to two courts sitting at Westminster Hall. [36]
The Court of Common Pleas split from the Exchequer of Pleas in the 1190s. It had jurisdiction over civil cases (such as debts, property rights, and trespass). It was staffed by a chief justice of the Common Pleas and several other justices of the Common Pleas. [37] [38]
In the 1230s, the earlier coram rege court developed into the Court of King's Bench. [38] It originally traveled with the king but was permanently based at Westminster Hall by the 1300s. Cases came before the King's Bench as appeals from lower courts (including Common Pleas) by writs of error. It had jurisdiction over civil matters involving the king and criminal cases. It was staffed by the chief justice of the King's Bench and several justices of the King's Bench. [37] [39]
The Dictum of Kenilworth, issued on 31 October 1266, was a pronouncement designed to reconcile the rebels of the Second Barons' War with the royal government of England. After the baronial victory at the Battle of Lewes in 1264, Simon de Montfort took control of royal government, but at the Battle of Evesham the next year Montfort was killed, and King Henry III restored to power. A group of rebels held out in the stronghold of Kenilworth Castle, however, and their resistance proved difficult to crush.
Edward I, also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he was Lord of Ireland, and from 1254 to 1306 ruled Gascony as Duke of Aquitaine in his capacity as a vassal of the French king. Before his accession to the throne, he was commonly referred to as the Lord Edward. The eldest son of Henry III, Edward was involved from an early age in the political intrigues of his father's reign. In 1259, he briefly sided with a baronial reform movement, supporting the Provisions of Oxford. After reconciling with his father, he remained loyal throughout the subsequent armed conflict, known as the Second Barons' War. After the Battle of Lewes, Edward was held hostage by the rebellious barons, but escaped after a few months and defeated the baronial leader Simon de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham in 1265. Within two years, the rebellion was extinguished and, with England pacified, Edward left to join the Ninth Crusade to the Holy Land in 1270. He was on his way home in 1272 when he was informed of his father's death. Making a slow return, he reached England in 1274 and was crowned at Westminster Abbey.
Robert Burnell was an English bishop who served as Lord Chancellor of England from 1274 to 1292. A native of Shropshire, he served as a minor royal official before entering into the service of Prince Edward, the future King Edward I of England. When Edward went on the Eighth Crusade in 1270, Burnell stayed in England to secure the prince's interests. He served as regent after the death of King Henry III of England while Edward was still on crusade. He was twice elected Archbishop of Canterbury, but his personal life—which included a long-term mistress who was rumoured to have borne him four sons—prevented his confirmation by the papacy. In 1275 Burnell was elected Bishop of Bath and Wells, after Edward had appointed him Lord Chancellor in 1274.
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the great council of bishops and peers that advised the English monarch. Great councils were first called Parliaments during the reign of Henry III. By this time, the king required Parliament's consent to levy taxation.
In the Kingdom of England, the Magnum Concilium was an assembly historically convened at certain times of the year when the English nobles and church leaders outside the Curia regis were summoned to discuss the affairs of the country with the king. In the 13th century, the Great Council was superseded by the Parliament of England, which had developed out of the Council. The Great Council was last summoned by Charles I in 1640.
The Exchequer of Pleas, or Court of Exchequer, was a court that dealt with matters of equity, a set of legal principles based on natural law and common law in England and Wales. Originally part of the curia regis, or King's Council, the Exchequer of Pleas split from the curia in the 1190s to sit as an independent central court. The Court of Chancery's reputation for tardiness and expense resulted in much of its business transferring to the Exchequer. The Exchequer and Chancery, with similar jurisdictions, drew closer together over the years until an argument was made during the 19th century that having two seemingly identical courts was unnecessary. As a result, the Exchequer lost its equity jurisdiction. With the Judicature Acts, the Exchequer was formally dissolved as a judicial body by an Order in Council on 16 December 1880.
The Provisions of Oxford were constitutional reforms to the government of late medieval England adopted during the Oxford Parliament of 1258 to resolve a dispute between Henry III of England and his barons. The reforms were designed to ensure the king adhered to the rule of law and governed according to the advice of his barons. A council of fifteen barons was chosen to advise and control the king and supervise his ministers. Parliament was to meet regularly three times a year.
Ralph Neville was a medieval clergyman and politician who served as Bishop of Chichester and Lord Chancellor of England. Neville first appears in the historical record in 1207 in the service of King John, and remained in royal service throughout the rest of his life. By 1213 Neville had custody of the Great Seal of England, although he was not named chancellor, the office responsible for the seal, until 1226. He was rewarded with the bishopric of Chichester in 1222. Although he was also briefly Archbishop-elect of Canterbury and Bishop-elect of Winchester, both elections were set aside, or quashed, and he held neither office.
The Pipe rolls, sometimes called the Great rolls or the Great Rolls of the Pipe, are a collection of financial records maintained by the English Exchequer, or Treasury, and its successors, as well as the Exchequer of Ireland. The earliest date from the 12th century, and the series extends, mostly complete, from then until 1833. They form the oldest continuous series of records concerning English governance kept by the English, British, Irish and United Kingdom governments, covering a span of about 700 years. The early medieval ones are especially useful for historical study, as they are some of the earliest financial records available from the Middle Ages. A similar set of records was developed for Normandy, which was ruled by the English kings from 1066 to 1205, but the Norman Pipe rolls have not survived in a continuous series like the English.
The Privy Council of England, also known as HisMajesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, was a body of advisers to the sovereign of the Kingdom of England. Its members were often senior members of the House of Lords and the House of Commons, together with leading churchmen, judges, diplomats and military leaders.
The Court of Common Pleas, or Common Bench, was a common law court in the English legal system that covered "common pleas"; actions between subject and subject, which did not concern the king. Created in the late 12th to early 13th century after splitting from the Exchequer of Pleas, the Common Pleas served as one of the central English courts for around 600 years. Authorised by Magna Carta to sit in a fixed location, the Common Pleas sat in Westminster Hall for its entire existence, joined by the Exchequer of Pleas and Court of King's Bench.
The King's Wardrobe, together with the Chamber, made up the personal part of medieval English government known as the King's household. Originally the room where the king's clothes, armour, and treasure were stored, the term was expanded to describe both its contents and the department of clerks who ran it. Early in the reign of Henry III the Wardrobe emerged out of the fragmentation of the Curia Regis to become the chief administrative and accounting department of the Household. The Wardrobe received regular block grants from the Exchequer for much of its history; in addition, however, the wardrobe treasure of gold and jewels enabled the king to make secret and rapid payments to fund his diplomatic and military operations, and for a time, in the 13th-14th centuries, it eclipsed the Exchequer as the chief spending department of central government.
The Ordinances of 1311 were a series of regulations imposed upon King Edward II by the peerage and clergy of the Kingdom of England to restrict the power of the English monarch. The twenty-one signatories of the Ordinances are referred to as the Lords Ordainers, or simply the Ordainers. English setbacks in the Scottish war, combined with perceived extortionate royal fiscal policies, set the background for the writing of the Ordinances in which the administrative prerogatives of the king were largely appropriated by a baronial council. The Ordinances reflect the Provisions of Oxford and the Provisions of Westminster from the late 1250s, but unlike the Provisions, the Ordinances featured a new concern with fiscal reform, specifically redirecting revenues from the king's household to the exchequer.
The Court of King's Bench, formally known as The Court of the King Before the King Himself, was a court of common law in the English legal system. Created in the late 12th to early 13th century from the curia regis, the King's Bench initially followed the monarch on his travels. The King's Bench finally joined the Court of Common Pleas and Exchequer of Pleas in Westminster Hall in 1318, making its last travels in 1421. The King's Bench was merged into the High Court of Justice by the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1873, after which point the King's Bench was a division within the High Court. The King's Bench was staffed by one Chief Justice and usually three Puisne Justices.
The history of the English monarchy covers the reigns of English kings and queens from the 9th century to 1707. The English monarchy traces its origins to the petty kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England, which consolidated into the Kingdom of England by the 10th century. Anglo-Saxon England had an elective monarchy, but this was replaced by primogeniture after the Norman Conquest in 1066. The Norman and Plantagenet dynasties expanded their authority throughout the British Isles, creating the Lordship of Ireland in 1177 and conquering Wales in 1283.
The Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper was a civil servant within the Irish Chancery in the Dublin Castle administration. His duties corresponded to the offices of Clerk of the Crown and Clerk of the Hanaper in the English Chancery. Latterly, the office's most important functions were to issue writs of election to the Westminster Parliament, both for the House of Commons and for Irish representative peer in the House of Lords.
The Parliament of 1327, which sat at the Palace of Westminster between 7 January and 9 March 1327, was instrumental in the transfer of the English Crown from King Edward II to his son, Edward III. Edward II had become increasingly unpopular with the English nobility due to the excessive influence of unpopular court favourites, the patronage he accorded them, and his perceived ill-treatment of the nobility. By 1325, even his wife, Queen Isabella, despised him. Towards the end of the year, she took the young Edward to her native France, where she entered into an alliance with the powerful and wealthy nobleman Roger Mortimer, who her husband previously had exiled. The following year, they invaded England to depose Edward II. Almost immediately, the King's resistance was beset by betrayal, and he eventually abandoned London and fled west, probably to raise an army in Wales or Ireland. He was soon captured and imprisoned.
Certain former courts of England and Wales have been abolished or merged into or with other courts, and certain other courts of England and Wales have fallen into disuse.
From the Norman Conquest of 1066 to the death of King John in 1216, England was governed by the Norman and Angevin dynasties. The Norman kings preserved and built upon the institutions of Anglo-Saxon government. They also introduced new institutions, in particular, feudalism. For later developments in English government, see Government in late medieval England.