COURT LEET

An English criminal court for the punishment of small offences. The word Leet, denoting a territorial and jurisdictional area, was used in entries relating to East Anglia in the Domesday Book (1086) and in the proceedings of Edward I. In the C14 its use spread throughout England and the term Court Leet came to mean a court in which a private lord assumed, for his own profit, jurisdiction that had previously been exercised by the sheriff. The Court Leet was essentially a Royal Court, its president being considered a delegate of the king.

The court met twice a year under the presidency of the lord’s steward, who, by the end of the C13, was always a professional lawyer and acted as a judge. The two main functions of the court were to hold view of Frankpledge, the pledge of responsibility made by each freeman, and to receive notices of accusation of crimes made by the juries, constituted in the Assize of Clarendon in 1166. Because serious cases were increasingly reserved to itinerant justices, the rights of trial of small local courts became restricted to petty misdemeanours only. The C17 jurist Sir Edward Coke held that a Court Leet could not imprison but could only fine or apply other pecuniary penalties, and as time went on its capacity to enforce its judgements became progressively weaker. After the C16 the duties of the Court Leet were increasingly transferred to the Justice of the Peace. Lords retained the courts for the sale of profits and some boroughs continued to use them in Local Government. Their importance, however, declined steadily; they are practically extinct today.

FRANKPLEDGE

System in medieval England under which all but the greatest men and their households were bound together by mutual responsibility to keep the peace. Frankpledge can be traced back to the laws of King Canute II the Great of Denmark and England  (died 1035), who declared that every man, serf or free, must be part of a hundred, a local unit of government, that could put up a surety in money for his good behaviour. By the C13, however, it was the unfree and landless men who were so bound. while a freeholder’s land was sufficient pledge, the unfree had to be in Frankpledge, generally an association of 12, or in a tithing, an association of 10 householders. Frankpledge existed more commonly in the area under the Danelaw, from Essex to Yorkshire, whereas tithing was found in the south and southwest of England. In the area north of Yorkshire the system does not appear to have been imposed.

WAPENTAKE

An administrative division of the English counties of York, Lincoln, Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Rutland. First clearly referred to at the end of the C10 and corresponding to the ‘hundred’ in other parts of England. Wapentake is of Scandinavian origin and meant the taking of weapons. It later signified the clash of arms by which the people assembled in a local court expressed assent. Danish influence was strong in the counties where Wapentake existed.

VASSAL

A man who entered into a personal relationship with a lord to whom he paid homage and fealty in return for protection and often a fief. A vassal was dependent on his lord for protection in exchange for fealty etc..

FIEF

The property or fee granted to a vassal for his maintenance by his lord in return for service.

FEALTY

The loyalty sworn to one’s lord on becoming his vassal.

FEUD

Land held in return for service.

SUBINFEUDATED

The granting of land by a vassal to another man who then became his vassal. the tenure of relationship so established.

HOMAGE

The act of respect and allegiance made by a vassal to his lord.