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Arbitration and the Law in England in the Late Middle Ages (The Alexander Prize Essay)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Edward Powell
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Extract

The central problem facing the student of public order in England in the late middle ages is to reconcile two conflicting lines of research. On one hand the institutional historians, through their studies of the central courts at Westminister, the provincial circuits of assize and gaol delivery and the justices of the peace and coroners in the counties, have proved beyond doubt the sophistication of the late-medieval legal system. On the other hand the historians of crime have shown equally clearly that the courts were often incapable of keeping the peace or of doing justice. Indeed the late-medieval period has long been notorious as one of widespread uncontained disorder. Reviewing the secondary literature on the subject Professor Bellamy concluded: ‘Not one investigator has been able to indicate even a few years of effective policing in the period 1290–1485.’

Type
Research Article
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 33 , December 1983 , pp. 49 - 67
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1983

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References

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48 In certain circumstances, appeal from arbitration to the ecclesiastical courts was, however, permitted at canon law: see above, footnote 35.

49 See below, 63–6.

50 Ibid., 63–4.

51 Cal. Close Rolls, 1409–13, 69, 187; 1413–19, 369; 1429–35, 157.

52 As, for example in the Meryng – Tuxford and Paston–Aslake disputes, below, 57–8, 61–2.

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58 P.R.O., KB 27 (King's Bench, Plea Rolls)/614, Rex, mm. 9, 12; 616, Rex, mm. 17d, 28d.

59 Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1216–1509 (1891–1916), 1408–13, 43–2; Cal. Close Rolls, 1409–13, 397.

60 Cal. Close Rolls, 1413–19, 50–4.

61 Ibid., 373–4; Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1416–22, 54–5.

62 Historiae Croylandensis Continuatio, ed. Fulman, W. (Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores Veteres, i, Oxford, 1684), 500–12Google Scholar; Ingulph's Chronicle of the Abbey of Croyland, trsld. Riley, H. T. (1854), 366–87Google Scholar.

63 Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1413–16, 406; P.R.O., C 1 (Early Chancery Proceedings)/6 no. 272. The dispute with Spalding also appears to have been heard before the Duchy of Lancaster Council: P.R.O., DL 41 (Duchy of Lancaster, Miscellanea)/42, no. 3.

64 Hist. Croyland, 501.

65 Ibid., 502.

66 Ibid., 502, 506.

67 Ibid., 502–12. The award against Moulton and Weston is calendared in Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1413–16, 375–6. In view of these penal settlements it is not surprising that the disputes continued throughout the fifteenth century: P.R.O., C 1/12, no. 53; Ingulph's Chronicle, 393–5, 506–7.

68 See above, 52–3.

69 Plumpton Correspondence, 3–4.

70 P.R.O., KB 27/802, m. 5d.

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72 P.R.O., C 1/6, no. 257; Cal. Close Rolls, 1413–19, 369; Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1413–16, 223–4; 1416–22, 111. The other arbitrator was the duke of Clarence. For the importance of arbitration in the rise of the Chancellor' equitable jurisdiction, see below, 64–6.

73 For royal justices as arbitrators or umpires, see Amundesham, , Annales S. Albani, i. 266–72Google Scholar; Rot. Part, iii. 649–50; Cal. Close Rolls, 1385–89, 437–8; 1409–13, 59, 183–5, 211, 222, 227, 235, 319, 330, 338–9, 397; 1447–54, 63, 173–4. 264, 360; Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1416–22, 183–95.

74 Burton-on-Trent Public Library, D. 27, no. 654.

75 For another example, see Cal. Close Rolls, 1413–19, 197.

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78 Two conflicting versions of this dispute appear in Paston Letters and Papers of the Fifteenth Century, ed. Davis, N. (Oxford 1971, 1976), i. 7–12Google Scholar; ii. 505–7.

79 Ibid., ii. 506.

80 Ibid., i. 9.

81 Ibid., ii. 506–7.

82 Ibid., i. 10.

83 Ibid., i. 11–12. Aslake's parliamentary petition of 1426 is the one published by Davis in the Paston Letters: see above, footnote 78.

84 Paston's memorandum to arbitrators on the dispute apparently survives from this attempt: Paston Letters, ed. Davis, , i. 7–8Google Scholar.

85 Cal. Close Rolls, 1422–29, 393–4, 406.

86 See above, 53.

87 Ibid., 55.

88 See Cal. Plea and Mem. Rolls London, 1381–1412, xxix–xxx, for the involvement of urban courts in arbitration; for ecclesiastical courts, see above, 52–4.

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100 P.R.O., C 1/10, no. 311 (bonds lost); C 1/9, no. 68 (oral submission to arbitrators).

101 P.R.O., C 1/9, nos. 237, 476.

102 P.R.O., C 1/10, no. 243; C 1/33, nos. 191, 332.

103 P.R.O., C 1/9, nos. 160, 279; C 1/10, nos. 141, 337; C 1/16, no. 260; C 1/33, nos. 22, 327.

104 Cf. Harding, , Law Courts, 101–2Google Scholar. The court of Star Chamber was later to exercise a similar function: Guy, , Cardinal's Court, 97–105Google Scholar.

105 Throughout the late middle ages the Chancellor was usually a cleric, but his concern to promote arbitration may have derived less from experience as an ecclesiastical judge than from considerations of equity and conscience which were the basis of his jurisdiction in Chancery: see Milsom, S. F. C., Historical Foundations of the Common Law (1969), 81Google Scholar.

106 e.g. P.R.O., C 1/4, nos. 61, 193; Cal. Close Rolls, 1409–13, 69; 1419–22, 117 (Drax v. Bosvyle). C 1/16 no. no; Cal. Close Rolls, 1409–13, 187 (Covert v. Pensford). C 1/6, nos. 270–1; Cal. Close Rolls, 1413–19, 523–4 (Barstable v. Blount et al.). C 1/33, no. 210; Cal. Close Rolls, 1429–35, 157 (Herwarde v. Waterman et al.).

107 e.g. Trussell v. Porter (see above, 59–60), and Auncell v. Clerk: P.R.O., C 1/9, no. 20; Cal. Close Rolls, 1429–35, 297; Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1429–36, 351, 470.

108 The bill, now lost, is referred to in Cal. Close Rolls, 1441–47, 52–3.

109 Cal. Close Rolls, 1435–41, 67; 1441–47, 52–3.

110 P.R.O., C 1/16, no. 196.

111 Cal. Close Rolls, 1441–47, 306; Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1441–46, 352.

112 Cal. Close Rolls, 1447–54, 63.

113 ‘Ladbroke Manor Dispute’, ed. Post, , 292–7Google Scholar; Rawcliffe, C., 'Baronial Councils in the Later Middle Ages, in Patronage, Pedigree and Power, ed. Ross, , 91–3Google Scholar.

114 See above, 58–9, 61–2.