meetings, loitering after dark, or prostitution). Manor courts were profitable
for the lord, who could claim the fines or withhold land from tenants. The sort
of matters they dealt with included small debts, damage caused by straying
animals, trespass, and assaults that did not involve bloodshed.
Cases of serious crime were heard by the justices, who travelled from place
to place on a more or less regular basis. It was the duty of the sheriff to arrest
criminals and keep them until the justices arrived. He could also raise a posse
to help keep law and order, and he presided over the shire court, which heard
cases that could not be heard fairly in manor courts–where one manor lord
was in dispute with another, for example. Some sheriffs were notorious for
using fraud and extortion to line their own pockets, such as John of Oxford,
who was the Sheriff of Nottingham in the earlier fourteenth century. They had
to be careful, though–kings who were dissatisfied with their sheriffs could
seize their lands from them.
A prisoner awaiting trial was in very severe danger of losing his life–
conditions in the gaols were very poor (Plate 5). Most gaols were simply
secure chambers in large castles, and lacked heating or sanitation. Fevers took
many prisoners’lives before they could be tried.
The most serious criminal cases were heard in the Court of King’s Bench,
which sat wherever the king was at the time until it was finally more
permanently located in London. Early kings and queens were peripatetic–
without mass media, the only way for a monarch to control an entire country
was to travel around it and be seen by the people.
Increasingly, the growing towns of medieval Europe developed their own
systems of justice. Towns were defined by their charters, which separated
them from the feudal system operating in the countryside. Municipal tribunals
were set up to maintain law and order, and punishments were meted out in
very public ways. In Europe, the beginnings of police forces began to appear.
Spain had a volunteer force called theHermandades(Brotherhood) which
operated against bandits and protected pilgrims and travellers. In France, a
constabulary was in existence by the fourteenth century, although it was more
of a military unit than a police force.
The coroner was one of the most important law officers. It was his
responsibility to keep records of crimes to enable the justices to prosecute
prisoners when they arrived to hold court, and to collect fines and taxes on
behalf of the king. The keeping of records was vital─it could take years for
the itinerant court to arrive in a district. In London in 1321, there was a lapse
of fortyfour years since the last court sitting. If cases could not be brought
because of a lack of records, much income would be lost to the crown.
MEDIEVAL CRIME