but by the Crusader knights. Some of these items may be seen today in
museums in, among other cities, Rome and Venice.
During the Mameluke period, between the 10th and 13th centuriesADin the
Middle East, tomb robbing was so prevalent, that it was officially subject to
tax as an industry. Unfortunately, tomb robbing continues today, resulting in
the loss of irreplaceable archaeological and cultural information in many
countries across the world.
Forest law
The Norman lords were very fond of hunting; large areas of the
countryside were‘emparked’ –designated as hunting grounds. The largest
hunting grounds of all belonged to the king. In these areas, they
encouraged red and roe deer, and probably introduced fallow deer as well,
along with wild boar and game birds. Particular areas were set aside for
another introduction–the rabbit. By the early thirteenth century, about a
third of all the land in England was royal forest. There are some survivals
of these hunting grounds today–Epping Forest, the Forest of Dean, and
the New Forest in particular, but others included Sherwood, Exmoor,
Clarendon, Windsor, High Peak and Pickering. Much of the land in a
hunting forest was open grazing or heath, and sometimes villages and
farms lay within the bounds. In other places, people were summarily
evicted and their homes burned to make way for the lords’ hunting
pleasure. The whole area within the boundary, or pale, was subject to
Forest Law.
It became illegal to hunt or kill any of the game animals or birds, to enclose
any part of the forest, to put up a building, to cut down any trees or scrub, to
carry hunting weapons, or to keep a dog except as a guard dog, and only if its
claws had been pulled out.
Various officers were appointed to patrol the forest, manage the game, and
to prosecute offenders. Foresters policed the area and could arrest people, and
agisters collected the fees and fines levied on the local people for pasturing
their animals within the pale, which they had to pay when, as sometimes
happened, whole counties were enforested. A series of special forest courts
heard cases relating to affairs within the area–there was a Court of Regard
specially to oversee the declawing of dogs, which was held every third year. A
Court of Attachment presided over by verderers (landowners owning
privileges in the forest) every forty days to hear indictments for crimes and to
hand out fines for small infractions, a Swainmote thrice yearly to try offenders
thus indicted, and the Forest Eyre, presided over by travelling royally
MEDIEVAL CRIME