A Brief History of Life in the Middle Ages by Martyn Whittock

Author:Martyn Whittock
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472107664
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

The abuses and limitations of the law

As with all systems, the system of law in the Middle Ages was open to abuse. Royal justices were at times accused of corruption. Indeed, Sir Thomas Willoughby, who was kidnapped by the Folville gang, was himself accused of selling laws ‘as if they had been oxen or cattle’. As we saw earlier, under Canon Law those lay people who were able to quote a memorized Latin verse of the Bible could escape the punishments of the royal courts by claiming the right to be tried by Church courts instead. In addition, the cost of litigation meant that wealthy landowners could financially cripple rivals by bringing land disputes to court even if the case was dubious. Numerous examples exist of such cases and also of aggressive litigants accompanying these actions with violence and intimidation as part of a campaign against a rival. By the fifteenth century such disputes had become so widespread that many landowners thought it prudent to send a son to the Inns of Court, in London, where lawyers were trained. Having a lawyer in the family was a useful weapon in a local landowner’s arsenal of defence (and attack). The increasing scale of legal property disputes can be seen in the fact that while some 900 writs were issued in the early fourteenth century, about 2,500 were issued in the early sixteenth century.

The Paston family of East Anglia (famous for their surviving letters) were locked in just such a bitter dispute with a rival – Lord Moleyns – over the ownership of the manor of Gresham (Norfolk). Each side used violence at different times to take control of the manor. John’s wife, Margaret, wrote to him in 1449:

Get some crossbows and wyndlacs [hooks to wind back the bow] to wind them with and quarrels [crossbow bolts]. For this house has so few of them that none of our men can shoot out, although we have never had so much need.

Partryche [one of Lord Moleyn’s men] and his friends are frightened that you will get in [to the house they had taken from the Pastons]. They have made bars to bar the doors, and they have made wykets [holes to fire through] on every corner of the house to shoot out through, both with bows and hand-guns.

I ask that you will make sure that you buy me 1 lb of almonds and sugar and that you will buy some frese [cloth] to make a gown for your child.

Crossbows, arrows, some almonds and sugar, plus some cloth for a spot of home-tailoring . . . Just an everyday shopping list for Margaret Paston! While this may have been a rather extreme example, it illustrates how violent such disputes over land could become. And it could occur on a much smaller scale too. In 1451 the Pastons were in dispute with neighbours again. This time it was over a wall which neighbours claimed encroached on their land. John Paston’s mother, Agnes, wrote to him:

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