The system of justice in Middle Ages
The king, of course, was responsible for law and justice. But kings usually had to leave the administration of this important matter to someone who lived close to the place where a crime was committed. Henry I introduced the idea that all crimes, even inside the family, were not a family matter but a breaking of the “king’s peace”. So he appointed a number of judges who traveled from place to place administering justice.
At first the king’s judges had no special knowledge or training. They were nobles or bishops who followed directly the orders of the king.
England was unlike the rest of Europe because it used common law. English lawyers created their own system of law based on customs, comparisons, previous cases and previous decisions.
In England trial by ordeal was replaced with trial by jury. In 1179 Henry II allowed an accused man in certain cases to claim “trial by jury”. The man could choose twelve neighbours, who would help him prove that he was not guilty. Slowly, during the later Middle Ages, the work of these juries gradually changed from giving evidence to judging the evidence of others.
Development of society
In 1066 there were 50 religious houses in England, home for perhaps 1,000 monks and nuns. By the beginning of the fourteenth century there were probably about 900 religious houses, with 17,500 members. (Even though the population in the fourteenth century was three times larger than it had been in 1066, the growth of the monasteries is impressive.) A monk could learn to read and write, and be sure of food and shelter. The monasteries were centres of wealth and learning.
By 1300 the population was probably over four million, about three times what it had been in 1066. This increase, of course, had an effect on life in the country. It made it harder to grow enough food for everyone.
Unfortunately, agricultural skills improved little during this period. Neither peasants nor landlords had the necessary knowledge or understanding to develop them. Many villagers tried to increase their income by other activities and became blacksmith, carpenters, tillers and it is from the 13th century that many villages became known by their trade name.
The growth of literacy in England was closely connected with the twelfth-century Renaissance, a cultural movement which had first started in Italy. Schools of learning were established in many towns and cities. Some were “grammar” schools independent of the Church, while others were attached to a cathedral. All of these schools taught Latin, because most books were written in this language and it was the educated language of almost all Europe.
|
|
|
In England two schools of higher education were established, the first at Oxford and the second at Cambridge, at the end of the 12th century.
The time of wars, plagues and revolts
The fourteenth century was disastrous for Britain as well as most of Europe, because of the effects of wars and plagues. After Edward I’s attempt to take over Scotland in 1295, the Scots turned to the obvious ally, the king of France, for whom there were clear advantages in an alliance with Scotland. This alliance lasted into the sixteenth century. France benefited more than Scotland from it, but both countries agreed that whenever England attacked one of them, the other would make trouble behind England’s back.
To make his position stronger, the king of France began to interfere with England’s trade. French control of two English areas, Gascony and Burgundy, was a direct threat to England’s wealth. Edward III declared war on France in 1337. He claimed the right to the French Crown through his mother. It is unlikely that anyone, except for the English, took his claim very seriously, but it was a good enough reason for starting a war. The war Edward began, later called the Hundred Years War, did not finally end until 1453, with the English Crown losing all its possessions in France except for Calais, a northern French port.
In 1348 was the terrible plague, known as the Black Death, which reached almost every part of Britain during 1348-1349. Probably more than one-third of the entire population of Britain died. The Black Death was neither the first natural disaster of the fourteenth century, nor the last. Plagues had killed sheep and other animals earlier in the century. An agricultural crisis resulted from the growth in population and the need to produce more food. Land was no longer allowed to rest one year in three, which meant that it was over-used, resulting in years of famine when the harvest failed. This process had already begun to slow down population growth by 1300.
|
|
|
After the Black Death there were other plagues during the rest of the century which killed mostly the young and healthy. In 1300 the population of Britain had probably been over four million. By the end of the century it was probably hardly half that figure, and only in the seventeenth century the population reached four million again.
There had been some economic changes during the fourteenth century. The most important of these was the replacement of wool by finished cloth as England’s main export.
It is surprising that the English never rebelled against Edward III. He was an expensive king at a time when many people were miserably poor and sick with plagues. At the time of the Black Death he was busy with expensive wars against France and Scotland. The demands he made on merchants and peasants were enormous, but Edward III handled these people with skill.
Edward’s grandson, Richard, was less fortunate. He became king on his grandfather's death in 1377, as his father The Black Prince died some months before. He had neither the diplomatic skill of his grandfather, nor the popularity of his father. Added to this he became king when he was only eleven, and so others governed for him. In the year he became king, these advisers introduced a tax payment for every person over the age of fifteen. Two years later, this tax was enforced again and the people paid.
But in 1381 this tax was enforced for a third time and also increased to three times the previous amount. There was an immediate revolt in East Anglia and in Kent, two of the richer parts of the country. The Peasants’ Revolt, as it was called, which lasted for four weeks was the first sign of growing discontent with the state.
During the next century discontent with the Church also grew. There had already been a few attacks on Church property in towns controlled by the Church. The greed of the Church was one obvious reason for its unpopularity. The Church was a feudal power, and often treated its peasants and townspeople with as much cruelty as the nobles did. There was another reason why the people ofEngland disliked paying taxes to the pope. Edward’s wars in France were beginning to make the English conscious of their “Englishness” and the pope was a foreigner. It seemed obvious to the English that the pope must be on the French side, and that the taxes they paid to the Church were actually helping France against England. This was a matter on which the king and people in England agreed. The king reduced the amount of tax money the pope could raise in Britain, and made sure that most of it found its way into his own treasury instead.
|
|
|
At the end of the fourteenth century new religious ideas appeared in England which were dangerous to Church authority, and were condemned as heresy. This heresy was known as “Lollardy”.
Richard's successor, Henry IV, was not sympathetic to lollardy. He was deeply loyal to the Church, and in 1401 introduced into England for the first time the idea of executing the Lollards by burning.
Richard’s ruthless behaviour began a bloody period in English history. After Henry’s seizure of the crown, the House of Lancaster, to which Henry IV belonged, didn’t rule in peace. The House of Lancaster sprang from John of Gaunt, son Edward III. But Edward III had had 11 children, and the House of York, through the House of Mortimer, had a stronger claim to the crown. The battles between the Houses of Lancaster and York, which lasted from 1455 till 1485, are known as the Wars of theRoses. (The emblem of the House of Lancaster was a red rose, and that of the House of York was a white rose.)
By the end of the fourteenth century, the long war with France, known as the Hundred Years War, had already been going on for over fifty years. But there had been long periods without actual fighting.
Дата добавления: 2018-04-15; просмотров: 437; Мы поможем в написании вашей работы! |
Мы поможем в написании ваших работ!