Court Venues and the Politics of Justice

Summary

The fourteenth century encompasses a significant chapter in the evolution of the judicial system in England. During this period various (often overlapping) influences were in evidence and there was considerable experimentation in the agencies and personnel employed to administer justice. Historians have traditionally set such changes against a background of conflict between the crown and the parliamentary commons with apparent tensions emerging from the centralising tendencies of royal government and a preference on the part of the localities for devolved judicial powers. A more nuanced interpretation, however, favours constructive dialogue between the crown and the parliamentary classes over issues of judicial administration that in turn brought about ‘a remarkably integrated system that linked the centre to the provinces and for the first time established a permanent judicial presence by the crown in the localities’ in the form of the assize circuits and the justices of the peace.

Yet in balancing this equation little consideration has so far been afforded the practical realities of holding judicial sessions (whether at Westminster or in the provinces) and in particular what part national, regional or local politics played in influencing the choice of or determining the venues in which court sessions were actually held. The comparatively fixed nature of the higher royal courts at Westminster from the late fourteenth century onwards and assumptions about where sessions were held have skewed views on the administration of justice and overlooked the political (let alone economic, architectural and geographical) considerations involved in the location of court venues.