English Economic History: Select Documents. Various
if any sheriffs or bailiffs of any liberty soever have not made summons in due manner according to the form of the writ of the lord the King, or have otherwise fraudulently or insufficiently executed the royal commands through prayer, price or favour, and at what time.
Again, touching those who have had approvers[75] imprisoned and have caused them to appeal[76] loyal and innocent persons for the sake of gain, and sometimes have hindered them from appealing guilty persons, and from what time.
Again, who have had felons imprisoned and permitted them for money to depart and escape from prison free and unpunished, and who have extorted money for dismissing prisoners by plevin,[77] when they have been replevied, and from what time.
Again, who have received any gifts or bribes for exercising or not exercising or executing their offices, or have executed the same or exceeded the limits of the King's command otherwise than pertained to their office, and at what time.
And let all these things be enquired of, as well in the case of sheriffs, coroners, their clerks and bailiffs whomsoever, as in the case of lords and bailiffs of liberties whatsoever.
Again, what sheriffs or keepers of castles or manors of the lord the King, for any [works], or also what surveyors of such works wheresoever made by the King's command, have accounted for a greater sum in the same than they have reasonably spent and hereupon have procured false allowances to be made to them. And likewise who have retained or moved away to their own use stone, timber or other things bought or purveyed for such works, and what and how much damage the lord the King has had thence, and at what time.
Touching escheators and subescheators, during the lord the King's seisin, doing waste or destruction in woods, parks, fishponds, warrens within the wardships committed to them by the lord the King, how much, and in the case of whom, and in what manner and at what time.
Again, touching the same, if by reason of such seisin they have unjustly taken goods of deceased persons or of heirs into the hand of the lord the King, until they were redeemed by the same, and what, and how much they have so taken for such redemption and what they have retained thereof to their own use, and at what time.
Again, touching the same, who have taken gifts from any for executing or not executing their office, how much and from whom and at what time.
Again, touching the same, who have insufficiently extended[78] the lands of any man for favour to him or another to whom the wardship of those lands should be given, sold or granted, to the deception of the lord the King, and where and in what manner, and if they have taken anything therefor, and how much, and at what time.[79]
[69] Geoffrey Fitz Peter, justiciar of England, 1198–1213.
[70] It was to writs of this nature that the barons objected. Cf. Magna Carta, 34. "The writ called Precipe shall not hereafter be issued to any one touching any tenement, whereby a freeman may lose his court." It illustrates the method by which the King stole from the barons the administration of justice.
[71] Printed in Fœdera, I., ii., 517.
[72] The recovery of goods equivalent in value to goods wrongfully seized by way of distraint.
[73] For a curious instance of this liberty, see No. 22.
[74] Encroachments.
[75] A criminal who turns King's evidence.
[76] To bring an action for treason or felony.
[77] Surety or pledge.
[78] Surveyed.
[79] The results of this enquiry were embodied in the Hundred Rolls and served as a basis for the Placita de quo warranto; these records are as important for the thirteenth century as is Domesday Book for the eleventh.
22. Wreck of Sea [Fine Roll, 10 Edward III, m. 1], 1337.
The King to the sheriff of Kent, greeting. Because we have been given to understand that a great mass of a whale lately cast ashore by the coast of the river Thames between Greenwich and Northfleet in your county, which should pertain to us as our wreck, and whereof a great part has been carried away by certain evildoers in contempt of us, remains still in your keeping, to be delivered to us or others at our command, as is fitting: We order you, straitly enjoining on you, that you cause all of the whale aforesaid, which is thus in your keeping, to be entirely delivered without any delay to our beloved and trusty Nicholas de la Beche, constable of our Tower of London, to be kept to our use, as has been more fully enjoined on him by us; and that you in no wise neglect so to do; for we have commanded the same Nicholas to receive from you that mass, to be kept in the form aforesaid. Witness the King at Westminster 14 January. By the King himself.
SECTION III
THE JEWS
1. Charter of liberties to the Jews, 1201—2. Ordinances of 1253—3. Expulsion of a Jew, 1253—4. Punishment for non-residence in a Jewry, 1270—5. Grant of a Jew, 1271—6. Ordinances of 1271—7. Removal of Jewish communities from certain towns to others, 1275—8. Disposition of debts due to Jews after their expulsion, 1290.
The documents in the following section illustrate the anomalous position of the Jews in England, the nature of the royal protection, which accorded them a security due to them as the king's personal property (No. 1), the restrictions put upon their religious and social life (No. 2) and upon their possession of land (No. 6), the summary treatment dealt out to them if they failed to fulfil their function (No. 3), or dwelt outside the narrow range of a Jewry-town (No. 4), the arbitrary manner in which they were transferred from person to person, or uprooted from one town and transplanted (Nos. 5 and 7), and the manner of their expulsion (No. 8).
Their function in the state was twofold, to supply the crown at any moment with ready money, and to act as a channel for the conveyance to the king of the property of his subjects. The degree of their usefulness must be gauged by the provisions of their charter (No. 1). It is reasonable to suppose that their expulsion was only determined on when the crown had drained their resources, or when, as was the case, there were other supplies available from a class of financiers less obnoxious to the racial and religious prejudices of the age. The place of the Jews was immediately occupied by the merchants of Lucca, and later by the Friscobaldi, the Bardi and Peruzzi and other wealthy societies of Italian merchant-bankers.
AUTHORITIES
The principal modern writers dealing with the subject in this section are:—Jacobs, The Jews in Angevin England; Jacobs, London Jewry (Anglo-Jewish Exhibition Papers); Gross, Exchequer of the Jews (Anglo-Jewish