Contenu du sommaire : Droit et paysans

Peasant Society and the Law in Medieval England Our contributions are concerned with the specific position of peasants as such with regard to the law, than simply as subjects of the Crown. We consider the peasantry in connection with the courts at various levels. These include the higher royal courts of justice (those of King's Bench, Common Pleas, Justices Itinerant and of Royal Forest) ; the lesser royal courts such as the County Courts ; and seigneurial courts of which the manorial courts were the most important. It is emphasized that we cannot assume that the royal courts were impartial as between lords and peasants. When there was a conflict between lords and peasants, the influence of the lords normally gave them the victory at court. On the other hand, we must not assume that peasants were totally powerless in the manorial courts, for the lords had to rely on the richer and middling peasants for the smooth of the courts. Manorial courts, like those higher up, had important administrative as well as jurisdictional functions.

The Manorial Courts The manorial courts of medieval England, from 1250 to 1500, played an ambiguous role in social relationships. They regulated self-governing village communities, and served as seignorial tribunals. When we assess the relative importance of these two functions, we find that although the courts aided the settlement of disputes between peasants, and defined customary law among the villagers, their primary purpose was to defend the interests of the lords. A popular justice operated outside the formal machinery of the seignorial courts.

The Royal Courts Since they constituted the great majority of the population, the appearances of peasants were frequent in courts dealing with criminal cases (such as, murder, serious assault, burglary and theft of goods above a certain value). Their presence in non-criminal cases, such as disputes about land, debt, broken contract etc., was much less common. This was because, even in the thirteenth century, legal proceedings were expensive, even for well-to-do peasants. Nevertheless, peasants sometimes contributed to a common purse in order to hire lawyers to bring cases in the king's courts against their lords. These cases dealt with matters such as freedom of status and tenure, excessive demands for rent or labour service, encroachment on common rights. After the Black Death a new situation arose. Members of the county gentry were appointed as Justices of the Peace. They dealt not only with matters of public order but also with wage rates, prices and measures. Their justice was seen as an instrument in the hands of the gentry and against the interests of the peasantry, as the Rising of 1381 clearly showed.

The Courts of the Royal Forest Forest Law, whose initial purpose was to preserve vast tracts of land as exclusive hunting grounds for the kings, weighed heavily on the peasantry of thirteenth and early fourteenth century England. It impeded, though it did not prevent, access to a wide range of forest ressources, and imposed a significant burden on forest dwellers, in fines for offences against the law and through widespread involvement in its cumbersome procedures. Harassment by foresters further aggravated the situation. Though baronial and gentry hostility to forest law is better known, peasant hostility was well-grounded and can often be demonstrated.