William Statutes

William Statutes in United Kingdom

This issue under the Ruling of William of England

William Laws

Preservation of Old English law

We may safely say that William did not intend to sweep away English law and to put Norman law in its stead. On the contrary, he decreed that all men were to have and hold the law of King Edward—that is to say, the Old English law—but with certain additions which he, William, had made to it. So far as we know, he expressly legislated about very few matters.

The Conqueror’s legislation

He forbad the bishops and archdeacons to hold in the hundred courts pleas touching ecclesiastical discipline; such pleas were for the future to be judged according to the canons and not according to the law of the hundred; the lay power was to aid the justice of the church; but without his leave, no canons were to be enacted and none of his barons or ministers excommunicated. He declared that his peace comprehended all men both English and Normans.22 He required from every freeman an oath of fealty. He established a special protection for the lives of the Frenchmen; if the slayer of a Frenchman was not produced, a heavy fine fell on the hundred in which he was slain. He declared that this special protection did not extend to those Frenchmen who had settled in England during the Confessor’s reign. He defined the procedural rules which were to prevail if a Frenchman accused an Englishman, or an Englishman a Frenchman. He decreed that the county and hundred courts should meet as of old. He decreed that every freeman should have pledges bound to produce him in court.26 He forbad that cattle should be sold except in the towns and before three witnesses. He forbad that any man should be sold out of the country. He substituted mutilation for capital punishment.27 This may not be an exhaustive list of the laws that he published, nor can we be certain that in any case his very words have come down to us; but we have good reason to believe that in the way of express legislation he did these things and did little more.

Character of William’s laws

In the long run by far the most important of these rules will be that which secures a place in England for the canonical jurisprudence. And here we have a good instance of those results which flow from the Norman Conquest—a concrete conquest of England by a certain champion of Roman orthodoxy—which are in no wise the natural outcome of the mere fact that Englishmen were subju-gated by Normans. For the rest, there are some rules which might have come from a king of the old race, could such a king have been as strong a ruler as William was. He would have had many precedents for attempting to prevent the transfer of stolen goods by prohibiting secret sales.28 It was old, if disregarded, law that men were not to be sold over sea.

It was law of Cnut’s day that every freeman should be in pledge. A wave of religious sentiment had set against capital punishment. Whether the king could exact an oath of fealty from all men, even from the men of his men, was a question of power rather than of right. Only two rules drew a distinction between French and English. We may doubt, however, whether the murder fine had not its origin in the simple principle that the lives of the Normans were to be as well protected in England as the lives of strangers were in Normandy; at any rate the device of making a district pay if a stranger was murdered in it and the murderer was not produced in court, was not foreign to Frankish nor yet to Scandinavian law. We are also told, though the tale comes from no good source, that Cnut had protected his Danes by a fine similar to that which was now to protect the Normans.

Again, the procedure in criminal cases is by no means unfavourable to the men of the vanquished race. The Englishman whom a Frenchman accuses has the choice between battle and ordeal. The Englishman who brings an accusation can, if he pleases, compel his French adversary to join battle; otherwise the Frenchman will be able to swear away the charge with oath-helpers “according to Norman law.” Certainly we cannot say that the legislator here shows a marked partiality for one class of his subjects. In this matter mere equality would not be equity, for English law has not known the judicial combat, and perhaps the other ordeals have not been much used in Normandy. As it is, the Englishman, whether he be accuser or accused, can always insist on a wager of battle if he pleases; he is the Norman’s peer.

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

Collections of Statutes

William Statutes and Medieval Law

William Statutes and Legal History

Legal Materials

(Compiled by the University of South Caroline Gould School of Law) Liebermann, Felix, ed. Hic Intimatur. Halle: M. Niemeyer, 1893.

Abstract: Incorporated in Liebermann’s Gesetze. Sometimes called “Laws of William the Conqueror” these ten articles are almost certainly not the Conqueror’s legislation. Also published in Stubbs, Charters and English Historical Documents, vol. 2.

___, ed. Leges Willelmi Conquestoris. Halle: M. Niemeyer, 1903.

Notes: Original manuscripts found in both Latin and Old French. The first section, which professes to contain the laws observed in the time of Edward the Confessor and newly promulgated by the Conqueror, is made up largely of Anglo-Saxon dooms by a compiler who knew some Roman law. Incorporated in Liebermann’s Gesetze.

Rightmire, George W., ed. The Law of England at the Norman Conquest. Columbus, OH: F. J. Heer, 1932.

Abstract: Contains the laws of William the Conqueror, with Latin and English texts and index on pp. 59-95, and certain fragments from Liebermann’s Gesetze der Angelsachsen in English on pp. 155-180.

Robertson, Agnes J., ed. and trans. Laws of the Kings of England From Edmund to Henry I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Abstract: A sequal to Attenborough’s Laws of the earliest English kings. Text in Anglo-Saxon and Latin, with English translation. Contains a detailed index to the laws. Contents: The laws of Edmund and Elgar; Promissio regis; The laws of Aethelred; The laws of Canute; The laws of William I and Henry I.

Thorpe, Benjamin, and R. Price, eds. & trans. Ancient Laws and Institutes of England; Comprising Laws Enacted Under the Anglo-Saxon Kings From Aethelbirht to Cnut, With an English Translation of the Saxon; the Laws Called Edward the Confessor’s; the Laws of William the Conqueror, and Those Ascribed to Henry the First; Also, Monumenta Ecclesiastica Anglicana, From the Seventh to the Tenth Century; and the Ancient Latin Version of the Anglo-Saxon Laws. With a Compendious Glossary, Etc. 2 Vols. London: Commissioners of the Public Records, 1840.

Notes: Also available online in HeinOnline and Modern Economy (subscription databases)Abstract: Contains the earliest recorded Anglo-Saxon laws – enactments or dooms made by King and Witan from ca. 601 up to and including the laws of Henry I. Vol. 1, Secular laws; Vol. 2, Ecclesiastical laws. Contains a concordance. Begun by R. Price and completed after his death by B. Thorpe. Reprinted in 2003.

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

  • Chattels (in this legal Encyclopedia)
  • Pleas of the Crown (in this legal Encyclopedia)
  • Ancient Law (in this legal Encyclopedia)
  • Medieval Legal History (in this legal Encyclopedia)

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