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Government in late medieval England
Related articles:
Tentative outline
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Lead
[edit]The government of the Kingdom of England in the Middle Ages was a monarchy based on the principles of feudalism. The king possessed ultimate executive, legislative, and judicial power. However, some limits to the king's authority had been imposed by the 13th century. Magna Carta established the principle that taxes could not be levied without common consent, and Parliament was able to assert its power over taxation throughout this period.
Historical context
[edit]Not in article From the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the reign of King John, the kings of England were also Dukes of Normandy and rulers of other territories in France. While England's administrative and legal systems were separate from the other parts of the Angevin Empire, they were politically interrelated. The loss of Normandy in 1204 severed many of these ties and "politics became distinctively English" once again.[1] Henry III was king of England, lord of Ireland, duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and count of Anjou. The claim to Normandy and the counties of Anjou, Maine, Touraine, and Poitou was abandoned in 1259. In 1340, Edward III claimed the kingdom of France. The Plantagenets were an Anglo-French dynasty with marriage ties to the French royal family and other ruling families on the continent.[2] Plantagenet dynasty's lineage stretched all the way back to the House of Wessex.[3] English cental and local government was the most sophisticated in medieval Europe.[4] Edward I requested a feudal aid in 1306 "by right of his royal crown".[5] Early in Edward I's reign, those around the king strongly beleived that magnates and others had taken many royal rights for themselves. Through the quo warranto inquiries, the king attempted with limited success to reassert the Crown's rights.[6]
Crown
[edit]Inheritance and coronation
[edit]Not in article: There were many royal crowns. The most important was St Edward's Crown. This was considered a relic and was used for coronations. It was usual for their to be several others in the royal treasury. The queen also had crowns. However, kings did not wear their crowns very often for there were no regular ceremonies in which they woudl do this. The throne was another symbol, but it is unclear how often kings sat on the throne.[7]
Rights and authority
[edit]Unlike other lords, kings were anointed and had greater power. The Crown alone:[8][9]
- could coin money
- had authority over main roads
- could declare war (though it was wise for kings to obtain parliamentary consent)
- could not be sued
- had sole jurisdiction over certain crimes (but could delegate authority to private jurisdictions)
Not in article "Rather curiously, the crown was regarded as being always under age, and therefore subject to all the protections that were applied to land while the holder was a minor."[8] Queens had a traditional role as peacemakers and seeking pardon for those who approached her. This served a valuable political role because it allowed a king to show mercy without looking weak. Beyond this, there wasn't much of a formal role for queens. The role individual queens played depended a lot on their personal relatonship with the king.[10]
Limitations
[edit]Not in article Prestwich notes more but essentially what he says is that "Ideas about the crown were becoming commonplace in political discussion."[11]
King's council
[edit]Not in article By 1237, the curia regis had formally split into two separate councils; though, they had long been separate in practice. The king's council was "permanent, advisory, and executive".[12] It managed day to day government and included the king's ministers and closest advisers. The members of the king's council swore an oath that distinguished between the king and the crown, promising to maintain the rights of the king and the crown.[6]
Royal household
[edit]Not in article: See Prestwich p. 49 for a list of Edward III's household.
Departments
[edit]Royal finances
[edit]Not in article: Until 1344, the sole form of currency were the silver pennies. In 1344, the mints produced gold coins called nobles.[13]
Parliament
[edit]Unicameral Parliament (1215–1307)
[edit]Local government
[edit]Counties
[edit]Hundreds
[edit]Private jurisdictions
[edit]Justice system
[edit]Central courts
[edit]Local courts
[edit]Trials
[edit]Punishment
[edit]Not in article Writs, charters, and financial records were all written in Latin, while French was spoken in the courts. It was only among the lower courts where English may have been spoken.[14] Auditing of financial accounts could also be a complicated process. It could take years before an issue was finally resolved.[15]
References
[edit]Notes
[edit]Citations
[edit]- ^ Prestwich 1990, p. 1.
- ^ Prestwich 2005, p. 27.
- ^ Prestwich 2005, p. 28.
- ^ Prestwich 2005, p. 55.
- ^ Prestwich 2005, p. 32.
- ^ a b Prestwich 2005, p. 35.
- ^ Prestwich 2005, p. 40.
- ^ a b Prestwich 2005, pp. 38–39.
- ^ Bartlett 2000, p. 122.
- ^ Prestwich 2005, p. 39.
- ^ Prestwich 2005, p. 36.
- ^ Jolliffe 1961, p. 290.
- ^ Prestwich 2005, p. 41.
- ^ Prestwich 2005, p. 56.
- ^ Prestwich 2005, p. 57.
Bibliography
[edit]- Bartlett, Robert (2000). England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings, 1075-1225. New Oxford History of England. Clarendon Press. ISBN 9780199251018.
- Burt, Caroline (2013). Edward I and the Governance of England, 1272–1307. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781139851299.
- Butt, Ronald (1989). A History of Parliament: The Middle Ages. London: Constable. ISBN 0-0945-6220-2.
- Downer, L. J., ed. (1972). Leges Henrici Primi. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. OCLC 389304.
- Fitzroy, Almeric (1928). The History of the Privy Council. London: John Murray.
- Green, Judith A. (1986). The Government of England under Henry I. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511560248. ISBN 9780511560248.
- Huscroft, Richard (2016). Ruling England, 1042–1217 (2nd ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-1138786554.
- Jolliffe, J. E. A. (1961). The Constitutional History of Medieval England from the English Settlement to 1485 (4th ed.). Adams and Charles Black.
- Lyon, Ann (2016). Constitutional History of the UK (2nd ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-20398-8.
- Maddicott, John (2009). "Origins and Beginnings to 1215". In Jones, Clyve (ed.). A Short History of Parliament: England, Great Britain, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Scotland. The Boydell Press. pp. 3–9. ISBN 978-1-843-83717-6.
- Maddicott, J. R. (2010). The Origins of the English Parliament, 924-1327. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-199-58550-2.
- Potter, Harry (2015). Law, Liberty and the Constitution: A Brief History of the Common Law. Boydell Press. ISBN 9781783270118.
- Prestwich, Michael (1990). English Politics in the Thirteenth Century. British History in Perspective. Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-41434-9.
- Prestwich, Michael (2005). Plantagenet England, 1225–1360. New Oxford History of England. Clarendon Press. ISBN 0198228449.
Further reading
[edit]- Baker, John (2019). An Introduction to English Legal History (5th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-254074-4.
- Green, Judith A. (2017). Forging the Kingdom: Power in English Society, 973–1189. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521193597.
- Maitland, F. W. (1908). The Constitutional History of England. Cambridge University Press.
- Powell, J. Enoch; Wallis, Keith (1968). The House of Lords in the Middle Ages: A History of the English House of Lords to 1540. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0297761056.
- Sayles, George O. (1974). The King's Parliament of England. Historical Controversies. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0393093220.
The Constitutional History of England, 1216-1399
Volume 3
- Wilkinson, Bertie (1948). The Constitutional History of England, 1216-1399. Vol. 1: Politics and the Constitution, 1216–1307. London: Longmans.