Stephen Records

Stephen Records in United Kingdom

This issue under the Ruling of Stephen of England

Stephen in Medieval Law

Stephen on his accession conceded to his subjects in vague phrase “all the liberties and good laws which King Henry had given and granted to them, and all the good laws and good customs which they had enjoyed in the time of King Edward.” Later on he had to promise once more that he would observe “the good laws and just and ancient customs, as to murder fines, pleas and other matters,” and that he would extirpate the unjust exactions introduced by the sheriffs and others. More specific promises made to the church, besides the large and dangerous promise that she should be “free.” In the ecclesiastical sphere there had been a good deal of legislation. With the assent of the king, stringent canons had been enacted and enforced; in particular, the rule of celibacy had been imposed upon a reluctant clergy. It was in the ecclesiastical council, rather than the king’s court, that the spirit of reforming legislation was once more active.

Source: Sir Frederick Pollock, The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I (1895)

Parliamentary Full Text Records

Stephen Records and Medieval Law

Stephen Records and Legal History

Legal Materials

(Compiled by the University of South Caroline Gould School of Law) Cobbett, William, and T. C. Hansard, ed. The Parliamentary History of England From the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, From Which Last-MentionedEpoch It Is Continued Downwards in the Work Entitled Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates. 1625-1803.

Notes: Also available online in ECCO and Modern Economy (subscription databases)Abstract: v.1 – 36; 1066-1803.

Prynne, William, ed. The First Part of an Historical Collection of the Ancient Parliaments of England, From the Yeer of Our Lord 673, Till the End of King John’s Reign, Anno 1216 … London: R. Hodges, 1649.

Notes: First and second parts also available online in Early English Books Online (subscription database)Abstract: Second part published by Edward Thomas in 1655.

Bibliographies of English Law History

  • Maxwell, William H. A Legal Bibliography of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Volume 1: English Law to 1800. London: Sweet and Maxwell, 1955-
  • Beale, Joseph H. A Bibliography of Early English Law Books. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1926.
  • Winfield, Percy H. The Chief Sources of English Legal History. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1925.

Resources

See Also

  • Crusader Privileges (in this legal Encyclopedia)
  • Pleas of the Crown (in this legal Encyclopedia)
  • Pleas of the Crown (in this legal Encyclopedia)
  • Custom in Early Britain (in this legal Encyclopedia)

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