The Constitutional History of England, in Its Origin and Development, Volume 1Clarendon Press, 1880 |
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Common terms and phrases
Alfred ancient Anglia Anglo-Saxon archbishop Assize Assize of Clarendon barons Bede bishops Bretwalda burh Canute century ceorl character church clergy cloth comitatus comites common connexion Conqueror Conquest constitutional council court crown Curia Regis customs Danegeld Dipl Domesday ealdorman earl ecclesiastical Edgar election England English estates Ethelred Exchequer existence feudal five hides folkland France Frank Freeman German gesith Gneist growth guild Henry Henry II hereditary Hist Hoveden hundred Ibid institutions judicial jurisdiction justice justiciar Kemble Kent king king's kingdom knights land lord mark Maurer ment Mercia nobility Norman Normandy Northumbria oath officers organisation origin Palgrave peace Pipe Roll political possession primitive principle probably quod race reign Richard Roman royal Saxons scarcely scutage Select Charters sheriff shire Tacitus tenure territorial thegn tion township Ueberschau vassals Visigothic vols Waitz wapentake wergild Wessex whilst William witan witenagemot
Popular passages
Page 106 - If any one plot against the king's life, of himself, or by harbouring of exiles, or of his men ; let him be liable in his life and in all that he has.
Page 463 - Omnes malae consuetudines de forestis et warennis, et de forestariis et warennariis, vicecomitibus et eorum ministris, ripariis et earum custodibus, statim inquirantur in quolibet comitatu per duodecim milites juratos de eodem comitatu, qui debent eligi per probos homines ejusdem comitatus...
Page 197 - They greatly oppressed the wretched people by making them work at these castles, and when the castles were finished they filled them with devils and evil men.
Page 386 - No free man shall be taken, or imprisoned, or disseized, or outlawed, or exiled, or any wise destroyed; nor will we go upon him, nor send upon him, but by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land. To none will we sell, to none will we deny or delay, right or justice.
Page 415 - And for holding the general council of the kingdom concerning the assessment of aids, except in the three cases aforesaid, and for the assessing of scutages, we will cause to be summoned the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and greater barons of the realm, singly by our letters. And furthermore we shall cause to be summoned generally by our sheriffs and bailiffs, all others who hold of us in chief...
Page 239 - William was also held in much reverence : he wore his crown three times every year when he was in England : at Easter he wore it at Winchester, at Pentecost at Westminster, and at Christmas at Gloucester. And at these times, all the men of England were with him, archbishops, bishops, abbots, and earls, thanes and knights.
Page 161 - It may be described as a complete organization of society through the medium of land tenure, iu which, from the king down to the lowest landowner, all are bound together by obligation of service and defence, — the lord to protect his vassal, the vassal to do service to his lord...
Page 161 - England that there were very few on this side of the Humber who could understand their rituals in English, or translate a letter from Latin into English; and I believe that there were not many beyond the Humber.
Page 161 - But the result was the same ; feudal government, a graduated system of jurisdiction based on land tenure, in which every lord judged, taxed, and commanded the class next below him, in which abject slavery formed the lowest, and irresponsible tyranny the highest grade, in which private war, private coinage, private prisons, took the place of the imperial institutions of government.
Page 197 - Many thousands they exhausted with hunger. I cannot and I may not tell of all the wounds, and all the tortures that they inflicted upon the wretched men of this land ; and this state of things lasted the nineteen years that Stephen was king, and ever grew worse and worse. They were continually levying an exaction from the towns, which they called Tenserie...