Today, we live in a globalised society with well-established procedures for keeping law and order nationally and internationally; how was medieval law and order different? The medieval period saw the beginning of what we recognise today as organised law enforcement, courts and primitive policing. There were also substantial developments in making laws, settling disputes, and trying criminals. Let's look at the development of these pillars of the law through the medieval period.
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Team Medieval Law and Order Teachers
| Date | Event |
| Early-900s | England was divided into ten "shires" (regions). Each shire had a shire reeve, who was a local sheriff. |
| 900s - mid-1000s | Tithes of men were responsible for enforcing the law by apprehending criminals in the community. |
| Mid-1000s | The Normans established church courts to try clergy members, and introduced the Forest Laws. |
| Late-1000s | The Exchequer became a form of High Court, able to set precedents for lower courts. |
| 1215 | Trial by ordeal ended. |
| 1250 | The first local constables were appointed. |
| Early-1300s | Justices of the Peace with powers of arrest were established. |
| Later Middle Ages | More kinds of officials were established, each with varying powers of law enforcement; something resembling a modern "police force" was recognisable. |
First, it's important to understand how Anglo-Saxon society worked. Power was based on land ownership and the basic premise was that if you owned the land, you owned the people on it and essentially sub-leased land to them. This was called the feudal system.
This survived in very limited form in Scotland until 2004!
Amongst freemen, the feudal relationship was technically voluntary. However, without a Lord, they couldn't access justice if they were involved in a dispute. It was therefore almost universal for all freemen to have a Lord, as otherwise, they had no protection from the law until the development of a wider court system.
When this development occurred, freemen and those of higher rank were able to take advantage of it, but those entirely dependent on a Lord usually remained as such.
Fig. 1 Tapestry of an homage - where a vassal pledged to submit to the feudal Lord and in return recieved his protection
During the Anglo-Saxon period, there was hardly any written-down law. Most law was customary, meaning that there were practices and customs that were just generally followed, as they were the accepted way of doing things.
Of the written laws, there was not really anything to do with civil law; most of it was to do with criminal law.
Civil law
Law that is to do with the relationship between private parties, i.e. not the state and an individual
Today, it is usually called private law, and citizen-state law (including criminal law) is called public law.
As civil disputes were generally settled by the relevant Lord, there was little need for civil law to be written down. Anything that was written had a special status by virtue of being deemed important enough to require writing. These laws were fairly limited, however, and mainly related to murder, theft (particularly of livestock or crops), abduction and maltreatment of women.
Written laws were made by the King with the help of his advisors and were generally codification of a well-established custom, giving it this special status.
Codification
Essentially, "writing things down"
The codification of customary law means formally writing down what was already done in practice so that it could be officially enforced.
Later, we'll come to how criminal law developed, but first, we'll look at how the courts developed, and a system of civil dispute resolution emerged.
The development of the courts led to precedents being set, impacting the future of the law. This is still how much law gets made today.
By the end of the tenth century, England had been divided into ten shires (regions).
So, how were disputes settled in this system?
| Hundred court | Shire court | King's courts | |
Type of disputes dealt with | Most minor disputes | More major disputes or those involving important people | Disputes involving very significant people such as bishops, or disputes crossing county lines |
Judges | Local noblemen | Local noblemen | As trials were ordeals, God was believed to be the judge |
Frequency of meeting | Every four weeks | Every six months | Ad-hoc; when needed |
Remember that this system was usually only available to freemen and above. Vassals and other unfree men had to look to their Lord for dispute resolution.
Fig. 2 Map of English Counties
The Normans established church courts, which heard cases on "moral" issues, such as family disputes, adultery, the birth of children out of wedlock, and others. They also became the only courts in which clergy (ordained church leaders) could be tried. The structure of other courts for civil disputes remained largely the same.
Church courts didn't impose the death penalty, and were often favourable to members of the clergy on trial.
Later on, under Henry I (reign 1100-1135), the Exchequer became the principal court for high-level disputes, replacing the King's court. This court met twice a year, and cases were heard by Barons of the Exchequer. They began to set precedents which were followed in later cases and became "judge-made law". This form of law remains extremely important in the UK's legal system today.
The Exchequer was (and still is) the central financial agency for the Crown (now the government). However, Henry I gave it jurisdiction as a very early form of what we recognise today as a High Court. Its judgements set precedents for other lower-level judges to follow.
While the way in which private disputes were resolved had a big structural change throughout medieval times, criminal law has almost always used trials in a court. The way these trials were held, however, did develop throughout the Middle Ages, as did the methods of keeping law and order.
During Anglo-Saxon times, each hundred was divided into tithes, groups of ten men who were responsible for keeping law and order amongst themselves. If one member of a tithe did something illegal, it was up to the rest of the tithe to apprehend them and bring them to court. If they didn't, they were all fined.
If someone witnessed a crime, they were under a duty to raise the hue and cry, and upon hearing it, all able-bodied men were required to assist in catching the suspect.
There were several developments in law enforcement in the Later Middle Ages:
Under the Anglo-Saxons, almost all crimes were tried in the local Manorial Court. These were held multiple times a year, and all local people had to attend or face a fine. The residents chose juries of twelve for each defendant, and they had to decide upon their guilt or innocence.
The most serious crimes were dealt with in the King's Court, where trials were by ordeal, such as burning, water or morsel. These involved the accused doing a task, supervised by a priest, and guilt or innocence was determined by God.
| Ordeal | Description |
| Ordeal by Burning, or Ordeal by Fire | The accused would have to grip a white-hot iron bar and walk three or four paces. The wounds were then bandaged and examined after three days - if they had begun to heal, the accused was innocent. If not, guilty. |
| Ordeal by Cold Water | The accused's hands and feet were tied together, and they were thrown into a body of water. If they sank, they were innocent. If they floated, they were guilty. |
| Ordeal by Hot Water | Essentially the same as Ordeal by Burning, except the accused was scalded with boiling water. If the wounds had begun to heal in three days, they were innocent; otherwise, they were guilty. |
| Ordeal by Morsel | Sometimes referred to humorously as Ordeal by Cake, this more unusual ordeal involved a certain amount of bread and cheese being blessed by a priest and then eaten by the accused. If they choked, they were guilty. If they didn't, they were innocent. |
The Normans introduced trial by combat, where the accused and their accuser would face each other in battle, often to the death. The loser was wrong, and if they weren't already dead, they were hanged after the battle.
Trial by ordeal ended in 1215 when the Pope declared that churches should no longer practise it. After that, all trials became jury trials.
During the medieval period, the English legal system developed from vigilante justice into something more recognisable as the system we have today. The Anglo-Saxon Kings came into power, ended blood feuds, and introduced wergild. By the end of the period, the criminal justice system had developed into a tiered system of courts for different levels of crimes. However, the civil justice system remained dependent on Lords adjudicating disputes between the tenants on their land.
Trial by ordeal was the most common method of trial for the most serious offences but was abolished in 1215. Thereafter, a trial by jury was used for all offences. As the population grew and methods of detection improved, more officials were appointed to supervise different types of crime, such as bailiffs and shire reeves.
Under the Normans, Church Courts were established to try "moral crimes", such as adultery, and to try members of the clergy who were suspected of crimes. They were sympathetic to clergymen and didn't impose the death penalty.
Trial by Water
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What were medieval law and order?
Medieval law and order were based on community action and involvement. The primary methods of keeping law and order involved community policing and deterrent punishments.
Why was law and order harsh in medieval England?
Because methods of detecting crime were so primitive, criminals often got away with it unless they were caught red-handed. The aim of punishments was to make an example of the people who were caught to put other people off committing crimes.
What is the medieval justice system?
There were different kinds of court for different kinds of crime. Under the Anglo-Saxons, the Manorial Court dealt with all but the most serious crimes. The King’s Court dealt with those. The Normans establsihed Church Courts to try “moral crimes” and clergymen. The Exchequer was also given judicial power as a very early form of High Court under Henry I.
How did courts work in medieval England?
As with today, there were several levels of courts for different types of offence. Although the names of these courts changed throughout the period, minor offences were dealt with by a local lord, whereas serious offences such as murder and arson were dealt with by regional and national courts. Clergymen were tried in Church Courts.
What was law and order like in medieval England?
Law and order in medieval England saw the beginning of organised law enforcement and a court system that developed throughout the period. More officials were appointed by the end of the period, and the nature of trials had changed. The community remained important in law enforcement.
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