Types of Courts

Besides the Canon law courts who independently administered justice to clerics and those able to claim church jurisdiction, the main civil law courts were the baronial (or manor, or hundred) courts, in which a feudal lord sat in judgement over crimes committed within his demesne and in cases between his vassals. These small courts were hives of inter peasant intrigue, with justice often being influenced by bias, local issues and favouritism.

Counties were divided up into smaller areas, which could vary greatly in area (in England called hundreds, nominally the land needed to support 100 households–and to which twice a year, representatives from each tithing had to report). The local manor courts, which generally sat either monthly or each fortnight, administered a large proportion of trivial cases, although they could only deal with minor offences. These courts could also judge disputes between a lord and his vassals, but most vassals preferred that such cases were heard in the royal courts. Pleas to the Crown, in such crimes as homicide, were passed on to the county court. Some manorial courts were administered by the King, but many were controlled by landowners or religious houses (an example being the abbey of Glastonbury and it’s wide holdings).

Royal (or county) courts dealt with a wide range of business, although access to royal justice was not automatic. Gentry had the right, peasant serfs hadn’t always; however, legally aware peasants increasingly disputed the privilege. These courts sat in the main county towns officially twice a year, but in practice more frequently, being presided over by a King’s Sheriff, an official typically of lesser noble rank, who heard appeals. The practice became more and more for the King’s Magistrates and Royal Justices to hand out judgements for common crimes, involving ‘lesser’ offences and punishments, as well as for more serious offences in the Circuit Courts. Justice and the fines imposed, were increasingly seen as a source of wealth, with most fines being royal revenue–except for counties administered by an earl, who received a third.

Additionally, towns and cities holding charters from rulers (urban centres in Catalonia being particularly independent), might have the right to hold courts to hear cases, usually those that carried sentences of corporal punishment. Cases heard in such courts gave immunity to townsmen from judicial duels, but could still require submission to trials by ordeal in the EF and HC periods.