Lecture 1.
Political system of the UK today.
The UK and Northern Ireland
Great Britain (no article)
England (no article)
the Queen
Parliament: unicameral; bicameral. Parliament – without article.
1. Legislative branch – led by parliament, bicameral, but the Crown is also formally part of parliament, so there are three parts:
1) House of Lords. Its members are called peers: hereditary peer (наследственные) and life peer – it’s a personal right that cannot be given (passed) to their children. parliament – 1) unicameral 2) bicameral;
2) House of Commons. Its members are called members of parliament (MPs). Elected every 5 years. Three major parties: conservative party, labour party, liberal-democratic party. House of Commons is more important; may check the laws enacted by the Government;
2. Executive branch. The head of the executive branch is the Prime Minister who is the leader of the party that has won the elections. PM is elected every 5 years as well as MPs. The main executive body is the Cabinet of Ministers. Before 1970s the Queen personally chose the Prime Minister. Every minister and Prime Minister are the MPs. Members of the executive are taken from the leading party – the legislative and executive branches are merged ( сливаются ).
3. Judicial branch. Main court in the country is the Supreme Court. This young Court was established in 2009. Until 2009 it was connected with legislative branch.
The main function of this branch was resolving disputes, judicial branch not only interpret law but make it by precedents. Case law is not a synonym of common law. Case law – present-day term; common law – historic term. The Act of Settlement
Separated Uncodified constitution:
1) Magna Carta (the Great Charter of freedoms);
2) Habeas Corpus Act;
3) The Bill of Rights.
The principle of separation of powers is not observed – it is the main problem of the UK.
If you are hereditary peer it means that you have inherited your title and your right to sit in the House of Lords and you can pass it on to your children. There is a very relatively small number of hereditary peers in the House of Lords now. Life peers are those people who are pointed to the House of Lords maybe, for example, a very outstanding MP or lawyer, maybe actor sometimes. The queen under the advise of the prime-minister may appoint MP role and give them the title and the right to sit in the House of Lords but they will only have this role during their lifetime, this means that they will not be able to pass this title and the right to sit in parliament to their children. The prime-minister works closely with the House of Commons because he is usually the leader of the majority party (the party that has won the recent general election) and he needs the support from his party. Probably the main function of the parliament is to legislate and here the House of Commons is more important, it has more legislative authority than the Hose of Lords.
Parliament can also change the existing rules and check the work of the government, mainly the financial decisions taken by the government. If we talk about the Executive branch of Government than we have to remember about the prime-minister and the Cabinet (the key ministers in the Government). What is so special about the Executive branch in the UK is that members of the Executive branch are always selected from the House of Commons which brings us to the very important idea that the Legislative and the Executive branch are merged not only separated. The government is always countable to parliament, checked by parliament and parliament can even dismiss the government in certain circumstances and call for a new general election. The judicial power until recently was also merged with the Legislative branch, however in 2009 the Supreme Court was established and with that the judicial branch of government was completely separated from the rest of branches in the UK. The main function of this branch is to resolve disputes that concern various areas. But (this is very special for the UK) the judiciary has one more important function - not just interpreting the law but making it. Judge made law that is very typical to the UK - case law. The term ‘case law’ is used with the term ‘common law’ BUT the term ‘common law’ mainly refers to history and ‘case law’ reflects the present-day situation. Case law is the legal system when certain interpretations and decisions of Senior Courts become precedents, meaning that all lower costs in the future cases (if the case is similar) should take the same decision. And due to this very important function hedges in the UK are extremely independent of any political influence.
Magistrates' Court (Justices of Peace) – part-time job, these judges may not be lawyers (Sentence for up to 6 months of prison), deals with minor criminal offences (petty crimes) + matrimonial proceedings
If a case is criminal and more serious, you should go to the Crown Court.
If it is a civil case, but it involves more serious thing such as corruption – to County Court (deals with the majority of civil litigations).
High Court has three divisions (formed due to influence of medieval courts):
1) Family division – is a divisional court that concerns appeals from the magistrates' court.
2) Queen's bench – deals with contract and tort law. Includes Administrative court that has supervisory and appellate [epelit] jurisdiction overseeing the legality of decisions and actions of inferior courts, tribunals and local authorities.
3) Chancery Division – deals with trusts, taxes and bancruptcy – appeals from County Courts on bancruptcy and land
Tribunal – hears appeals from decisions about immigration, child support, pension and taxes. Quick trial, for example about taxes. Tribunal is about fast court.
Two instances of Appeal:
Criminal Division – Appeals from the Crown Court
Civil Division – Appeals from High Court and tribunals
After court of Appeal – to the Supreme Court that has a significant public influence, its decisions forms precedents.
European Court of Justice
European Court of Human Rights
(not clearly included because of Brexit)
This scheme of courts refers to England and Wales; Scotland's system differs
If you want to bring the case you should always start at the lowest (primary) level of court system and very often you would just go to Magistrates’ Courts (мировые суды). People working there as judges are usually not lawyers, they do this as part-time job and they are not paid for it. These people are called ‘JPs’ - justices of the peace. The office of JPs has been formed through many centuries. Magistrates usually deal with minor offences, for example, when you have to pay your fine for what you have done. The maximum you can get here is 6 months in prison. Also, if you need a license, for example, to open a bar you will go to Magistrates’ Court. If your case is criminal and a bit more serious than something requiring a fine then it needs to go to the Crown Court which is a bit higher and the Crown Court has a lot of branches all over England and Wales. If your case is not a criminal one (if it is a civil case) but it involves more serious situations like bankruptcy or divorce then you will have to apply to County Court. It's one more primary level of the Court System. Tribunals - for example, if you are in dispute with the government (let's say over taxes) and you want a quick trial then the Tribunal is your choice. Those disputes that involve large sums of money usually start at the High Court. High Court has 3 divisions. Depending on what case it deals with it will either go to Family Division, Queen’s Bench Division or the Chancery Division. High Court has been formed through the influence of old English Medieval (средневековый) Court.
If you’re not quite happy with decisions in these courts there are the 2 instances of appeal - the Court of Appeal and then the Supreme Court. The Court of Appeal has 2 divisions depending on whether it’s a criminal case or a civil case we are talking about (Criminal Division and Civil Division). The Supreme Court is very special because it only hears cases that trace a general point of law and that has very significant public influence or injures. The decisions of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal are extremely important because these are mainly first decisions that form precedents and other ways for new interpretations of law. Certain cases may also refer to the European Court of Justice or the European Court of Human Rights although now with Brexit we don’t know for sure if it's going to function the same way. (this represents the situation in England and Wales; Scotland is very special).
Scheme from HSE textbook:
Law in the UK
– Common law (judges). Case-law is present-day term
– Statute law (parliament and the Government – delegated legislation I mean)
– law of equity (separate type of law). Equity is a whole different type of law
It's about principles of fairness.
Lecture 1. William the Conqueror. (Почти полностью состоит из лекции Анжелы Сулеймановой, которую она перепечатала по аудио)
Plan:
1. Before 1066:
a. the Saxons;
b. the Vikings and the problem of succession
2. The Conquest
3. Feudalism and the Domesday's Book
4. Church and state relations
5. Legal and administrative system
By 4th century AD the Britain could be described as rather wealthy territory populated mainly by the Celts and as the territory with a very good mild (мягкий) climate. What is also important, this territory was quite peaceful when centuries could go by without a war. At some point there was someone who have got attracted to such a territory and these were mainly Germanic tribes. They were willing to get control of this land and that's why they started raiding Britany.
The Anglo-Saxons managed to established in several parts of the country.
Sussex – West Saxes
Essex – east Saxes
Anglo-saxons eventually managed to establish a number of kingdoms. Names of these kingdoms (some of them) survived up till the present moment. Now these are names of Counties or Shires (for example, Essex - former kingdom of East Saxons, Sussex - South Saxons, Wessex - West Saxons).
By the middle of the 7th century there were 3 largest kingdoms that had most power - Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex. The Saxons in their kingdoms managed to create some institutions that survived for about 500 years and what is more these institutions kept England strong politically. One of these institutions was the Kings’ Council (at that time it was called the Witan).
The Witan grew out of informal group of senior worries and churchmen. The king would often turn to this people for advice or support on some difficult matters.
By the 10th century the Witan was already a formal body that could even issue laws and charters. It was not a total democratic because the king could always choose to ignore the advice of the Witan, however most of the Anglo-Saxon kings realized that it was a dangerous thing to do. The Witan’s authority was based on its right to choose the king. At that time the succession to the throne was not automatic so you could not pass on the throne automatically to your eldest son. That's why without the support of the Witan the kings’ authority, his chances for a peaceful succession were in danger. The Witan established part of a system that is still important today because even today the Queen has a privy [privi] council - a group of advisers on matters of the state.
The Saxons also divided the land into new administrative areas - Shires. The fascinating thing about the Shires is that present day administrative division in England is almost the same to first Shires that were established.
Sheriffs initially were local administrators of the king. Apart from that each shire usually had a manor (усадьба, поместье) - a large house. This was an important administrative building because people came there to pay taxes, to join the army etc. There was also the lord of the manor - a person who was responsible for house function. And this was the beginning of the manorial system in England which was fully developed when the normans conquered the territory.
Firstly, manor lords were simply local officials (чиновники) but then at the beginning of the 11 century they were mainly war lords - kind of military officers - and very soon they started to be called by a danish word - earl (граф). Initially earls were warlords. A class system of England at that time:
1. King
2. His lords (including earls)
3. Soldiers
4. Workers on the land
5. The men of learning - special group - people coming from the christian church (primary source of education).
Sax and kings helped the church to grow in England because church increased the power of monarchs. Kings had, as they said, gods approval, which was very important because the succession to the throne was an uncertain business. That's why some kings chose to be crowned in a church - to make their power look more legitimate. But there were other ways in which English church increased the power of English state. For example, the fact that it established a lot of monasteries (minsters) all over the country. Some of them became centers of education. These were places from which literate people came out, people who could read and write. These people were later used by the king for state, legal matters.
The Saxons also made a lot of laws but these laws varied quite a lot from shire to shire, were very local specific.
Towards the end of the 8 century new raiders appeared. Now there were Anglo-Saxons who were being raided by people from the north - the Vikings. They burned churches, raided the shores, robbed people living closer to the borders. Then these raids became more and more frequent and some Vikings even started settling in present day England. During this period several Anglo-Saxons rulers attempted somehow to fight the Vikings but the problem was that sometimes it was quite difficult because you had to unite and join forces while Anglo-Saxon kingdoms would often ссорится among themselves. However, this effort led to the emergence of the kingdom of England in the 10th century. Starting from the 10th century we can talk about England.
A bit earlier than that in the 9th century by 875 there was Anglo-Saxon King - King Alfred - who ruled Wessex and probably was most successful in opposing the Vikings. He was the one who managed to win a decisive battle in 878 and capture London. After this battle the territory of present-day England was roughly divided into the territory controlled by King Alfred and the territory controlled by the Danes. The Viking controlled area became known as the Dane-law because the danish would collect taxes there and exercise their influence on this territory. As for the rest of England this was the foundation of the present-day England controlled by Anglo-Saxons.
King's council (the Witan – дружина) – the King turns to these people to get an advice; the King could always ignore the Witan. The Witan's authority was based on his right to choose the King; the King's authority was in danger;
Shires and Counties – sometimes
Shire – fascinating thing is that present division of England is quite the same is historical one.
Sheriff – initially were local administration of the King. Local officials.
the manorial system (manors: collect taxes, protect land and so on)
Military
Earl (графы) – initially earls were warlords. Manors were administrated by earls who were the warriors.
Christian Church was primary source of education; bishops gave support to the kings; God's approval was crucial and important; it made the power more legitimate.
Monasteries or minsters (Westminster for example). The Church also contribute to the system of law and government. Monasteries were established by the Crown and were the places of knowledge
Edward the Confessor - English king in 1035. Originally, he came from Normandy (France). He spent most of his life there. Basically, he only came to England when he was crowned. He brought quite a few Normans with him to England (these were children and grandchildren of the Vikings who had formally raided the north of France the way they did with England and then settled there). Edward lived only until 1066.
The question now was who should follow Edward the confessor on the throne? There were 3 possible answers.
The first one of them was the Harald III of Norway. He was the Viking but he claimed the English throne based on the fact that some of his previous ancestors (предки) had reigned in England and that's why he thought he had claims to the English throne as well. But he was quite unpopular with the English.
The most popular claimant was Harold Godwinson. He had no royal blood but he was a good and brave warrior and an Anglo-Saxon. He was liked by the English and by the English nobility (знать) and the Witan. That's why at some point soon after Edward the Confessors’ death the Witan shows Harold Godwinson to be the next English king.
But the situation got even more complicated when one more claimant on the throne appeared. This was William of Normandy. He claimed that Edward the Confessor himself not long before his death promised him to pass on the throne to him. What is more is that William said Harold Godwinson at some point had a conversation with him and promised him that he will not claim the English throne after the king's death. So, William of Normandy generally thought that he had all legal claims to the English throne.
He was umbraged ['əmbrij] (обижен) when he learned about the fact that the Witan had chosen Harold Godwinson to be the next English king. So, despite the support of the Witan Harold Godwinson found himself in a very complicated situation. He was faced by 2 dangers: one in the south and one in the north. In 1066 Harald of Norway decided to take England by force and he attacked England from the north. To fight the Vikings Harold Godwinson had to march quite a long way up north and then face Vikings there and take part in the battle. He managed to win and Harald of Norway was killed in the battle. But almost immediately after that Harold Godwinson learned that in the south William of Normandy had landed. So, without even having time to rest Harold Godwinson’s army marched back south and had to fight the Normans. Probably if Harold G. had taken some time to think and to give his soldiers some rest or if he had waited for the rest of Anglo-Saxons army to join him, he would have won. But what happened was the fact that his men were tired and the Normans were not, the Normans were armed better, they had horses which the Anglo-Saxons didn’t and they won. William won the battle and marched back to London afterwards. The city gave in quite quickly. Christmas Day 1066 - William of Normandy was crowned as the next English king at Westminster Abbey. He was later to be known as William the Conqueror.
Begore 1066. The Vikings
The emergence of the Kingdom of England (10AD). Anglo-Saxon kingdom quarrelled between themselves.
875 – Alfred who rules Essex, the one who in 878 captured London with the help of the Vikings. Viking controlled that territory and establish the Danelaw.
Edward in 1035 become the king of Normandy (France); he brought some normans to the London. He died in 1066 without obvious will and follower.
Harald III of Norway, was quite unpopular in England, but his ancestors and relatives were rulers in England.
Harold Godvinson was a brave warrior, has no royal blood, but people and the nobility liked him, he was a skilled general and charismatic leader. He was crowned after the death of the Confessor.
William of Normandy.
Despite the support of the Witan Harald Godvinson
1066 ("ten sixty six") – William defeated Harald Godvinson.
Harold Godvinson marched to the north to fight the normans. The normans won due to better horses and arms.
1066 – William of Normandy was crowned as an English King.
The form of medieval societies, in which they existed can simply be called FEUDALISM. Basis of feudalistic society is holding the land. The main purpose of the land is economic, but at the same time the more land you have the more power and influence you have as well. That's why it was generally supposed that all land on the country was owned by the king, but the king could give this land out to his vassals. The main nobles (дворянство; знать) of king (180 barons) would usually get very large pieces of land and that's why they could rather split their piece of land into smaller pieces and give them out to lesser nobles (for example, to the knights 3000-5000) who either paid some rent for this land or did military services for the lord in return for this land. The bottom of this society were peasants ['pesents] (крестьяне) - people who actually worked on the land and in the 11th century they pretty much resembled slaves.
At the time of the Norman conquest and immediately after it England was not the most well-developed country in Europe.
In Europe vast areas of land usually belonged to 1 tenant-in-chief (главный арендатор?). The bigger piece of land you have the more powerful you are and it very often happened do that sometimes the king himself (for example, the king of France) was not the most powerful landlord because he wouldn’t have more land. And that very often led to the struggle between the largest land-lords for power and influence which resulted in private warfare (междоусобицы). As for the financial side, the king usually lived on collecting customers dues (for example, revenues from courts or income from royal land). When William the I became king, he was very careful in the way he gave out land to his vassals. Of course, he had to ‘thank’ them for their support in conquering the country and he gave them quite a lot of land. But a landlord would never get one big piece of land in one phase. William would rather give him a lot of smaller pieces of land in different parts of England. This was made in order to make it difficult for any powerful noble to gather his army quickly in order to, for example, overthrow the king. The only exception here were the border territories close to Wales and Scotland because these were not peaceful regions and it was important to have big army in there in order to control the borders. So as a result, if we look at all the land there was in England at that time, half of the land in total belonged to the Norman nobles, quarter of it belonged to church and 1/5 belonged to the king. So as a result, England was different from the rest of Europe because it had only one powerful family instead of a large number of powerful feudals. And William, as well as many kings after him, thought of England as their personal property. Private warfare was forbidden in England because William very soon understood that it was much easier to profit from a peaceful country rather than from the one that was constantly troubled and damaged by conflicts. Apart from customary dues William started to collect taxes from the population
Feudalism. The basis of medieval society is holding the land. It was generally supposed that all land in the country belongs to the King. The main nobles of the King (180 barons). 3000-5000 knights
Peasants ['pesents] – крестьяне
England was not a very developed country compared to Europe.
Private warfare – междоусобица (only singular – no private warfares, only private warfare).
taxes – for example taxes for court.
The thing is a landlord possessed many lands in different parts
That's why barons cannot quickly bother an army in order to overthrow the King.
1/5 of the land – to the King. One powerful family instead of several ones.
In medieval and early modern Europe the term tenant-in-chief (or vassal-in-chief) is a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as opposed to holding them from another nobleman or senior member of the clergy.
William started to collect taxed apart from customary dues.
Domesday book, 1086 (ten-eighty six) – Книга страшного суда.
– how many ships were kept there
Common people generally were scared by the control.
William generally wanted to be everything in a legal form and legitimize his power and Domesday book helped him. William was still a conqueror in the eyes of many people.
In order to make the taxes system work efficiently William wanted to know exactly who owned which piece of land and how much this land was worth. So, he needed to gather this information in order to plan his economy and to find out how much was produced and how much he could ask in tax. Therefore, he sent a special team of people through England to make what we would call an Economic Survey. So, his men would come to a town or village and ask all sorts of questions, like ‘how much land is here? Who owns it? How much is it worth? How many sheep are kept here? How many farmers work here?’ And so on. This survey was the only one of its kind in Europe at that time. It wasn’t very popular among people because common people were generally scared of all this, they had a feeling that they could not escape from these findings and what was happening reminded them a lot about the day of judgment (судный день), it is also called Dome. That's why the result of the survey is known as a ‘Domesday's book’. It is dated 1086. This survey would establish who held what including what was owned by the Norman lords, not just Anglo-Saxon ones. The survey also helped to clarify what rights and dues were owned to the king and helped to control the lands more effectively. William generally wanted everything to follow the legal form because he wanted to legitimize his time to show that he claimed the thrown not only by the right of conquest but also with the support of the law, that he was a legitimate king. And Domesday's book helped him. What is more important many years to come the Domesday book was also used for administrative purposes.
Before the conquest generally there was a cooperation between the king and the church. The church helped to legitimize the power of the king by telling the nation that he was chosen be god and the king would help church to extend its lands? All over the country. William introduced something new into this relationship, which is the idea of subordination. The king was now superior to the church. William had the right to appoint bishops and remove abbots. He also used the churchmen as his major administrators, because these were the most literate and educated people in the country at that time. He also introduced a successful reform and reorganization of the English Church. This was done in order to make the English church less depending to roman catholic church. Finally, he protected the church itself by establishing its own special courts which became known as ecclesiastical courts. They dealt only with the matters of church law and offenses committed by churchmen.
William introduces something new to the relations between the State and the Church.
Abbots and bishops were literate and educated people.
Monarch and the Church were equal before 1066. Bishops and abbots were the only educated and literate people so they were appointed as officials.
New special Courts – ecclesiastical courts – court that dealt with only church law.
Administative Changes:
– Curia Regis (then the importance of the Witan decreased), body of central government. It was the new form of the Witan. In modern terms it was a legislative and a judicial body at the same time. It was a kind of court and government.
– the system of sheriffs. Each shire was controlled by a sheriff, he collected taxed, raised army and protected the land; William appoint mainly normans to the positions of Sheriffs.
– Separation of lay courts (светские, мирские) and church (or clerical) courts
– Trial by ordeal was replaced with trial by jury. Ordeal – ордалия. William substituted trials by ordeals with jury trials.
Before the Norman conquest there was no strong central government. The King and the Witan had very little control over the whole kingdom. So, William had to introduce a serious reform although we can't say that it changed all the customary laws. The King’s Council (Curia Regis). First of all, the Kings Council was set up and it substituted more or less the Witan in its functions. There were barons, lords, bishops, and people of the army, important figures of the kingdom on whose advice king could rely. They helped the king to administrate the country. And what is also important William used Curia Regis as a court for deciding disputes. So, people could come to this court with their complaints or accusations and then the king along with his advisors would try to give judgment on this case. The king's council was contributed to the establishment of really strong central government. William kept the Anglo-Saxons system of sheriffs. He needed sheriffs to control his nobles locally. As each shire was controlled by sheriffs and sheriffs were local representatives of the king, they were entrusted with collecting taxes, deciding local disputes, raising an army if necessary and protecting the local area. But in order not to make Anglo-Saxons too powerful he appointed only Normans to the positions of sheriffs, so the system was Anglo-Saxon, but the people who were sheriffs were mainly Normans. The church got its own courts so now the lay courts were separated from ecclesiastical (clerical, church) courts and their jurisdictions were from now on different. Another innovation was the introduction of the trial by jury. On any case when it was not quite clear whether the person was guilty or not before William a very popular procedure was a trial by ordeal (ордалия) which was something like ‘let's put hot iron to this man's tongue and then if there is no burn left on his tongue then he’s innocent because god will protect him, however if there is, the he is probably guilty’. William substituted this by trial by jury.
System of Courts
1) Shire divided into 'hundreds'
2) Shire courts existed before the conquest
3) Feudal courts (earls) + ecclesiastical courts (bishops). Church law, secular law and so on.
There were judges in shires who collected local customary law and this was the beginning of common law. Each shire was controlled by sheriffs. William appointed mainly Normans to the position of sheriffs.
Two things to remember:
1) Why did William to keep the system of Sheriffs? He couldn't be everywhere in the same time. Anglo-Saxon institution – he needed sheriffs to control the territory.
2) William didn't appoint Anglo-Saxons in order to prevent rebellions. Anglo-Saxons were not happy about his norman conquest.
William also divided the country further: the country was divided into shires. Each shire was divided into ‘hundreds’. Each hundred had its own court. Then each shire got its court as well. These were mainly ones that already existed before the conquest. In shire courts sheriff would decide disputes. There was a creation of the next level courts - Feudal courts. Here earls acted as judges. Apart from that there were church courts (ecclesiastic courts) were bishops acted like judges. So not only did William introduced judicial laws but also allowed English people to keep quite few of them customary laws. However, at the same time this led to certain confusions because there were local traditional laws, new central laws introduced by Normans, church law, secular law and so on. And William did something very important to the history of English and British law in general. He started the first step of standardizing the law, he understood that this could not be the justice in such a legal chaos, so he started sending judges from Westminster to shires all over England. They would take part in deciding disputes locally and when doing so they would observe local laws and local traditions, the way people decided this or that decision in this or that shire. Then when they came back to Westminster they would share their impressions, discuss local traditions. Sometimes they kept some of the local laws that seemed reasonable. This was the beginning of the formation of common law.
Lecture 2. (перепечатал Сергей Чебан по аудио Софьи Лепневой)
We can single out three branches of government which are legislative, judiciary and executive. Decisions from High Court and Supreme Court usually form precedents. Supreme court deals with important matters of law. Most important matters of law that affect all country.
1/50 of the land belonged to the King and it was a lot, he retained power in his hands, he retained the position of the most powerful feudal in the kingdom.
Domesday's Book – in 1086 – ten-sixty-eight. William wanted to make his position stronger.
England in the 12th century. Добавил некоторую инфу из Dozen lessons.
1. Henry I (1100-1135)
a. coming to power
b. the Charter of Liberties, 1100
c. government;
d. church and state relations
2. Henry II (1154-1189)
a. reform of the judicial system
b. conflict with the church
Henry I, the ablest (способнейший) of the Conqueror's sons. William the Conqueror (after his death in 1087) gave
– Normandy to the first, elder son Robert of Normandy;
– England to his second son William II Rufus (Rufus in Latin means red-haired);
– and five thousand pounds to Henry.
you vs the guy she tells you not to worry about
Robert of Normandy went to the Crusade (Крестовый поход), he wanted to fight the Muslims at the holy land, he needed someone to look after the Normandy at his absence, while he was at the Crusade – and this was William II Rufus. He left William II in charge (=responsible) of Normandy when he was absent.
William II Rufus was shot dead by an arrow in 1100 ('eleven hundred') – he died in a hunting accident. Rumors said that it was not an accident, and Henry, the youngest brother, made sure that it happened. William Rufus hadn't married, didn't have any son to take the Crown the question of succession arose. At the time of William's death Robert was on his way back to Normandy, he was not back yet. Henry realized that if he wanted English crown, he had to act fast.
Henry thought he could take treasure of the king – and he did it, Henry took charge of the king's treasury, he took control over state's finances and then he went to Westminster where he was very quickly crowned as the English king – Robert was furious. It took him about a year to raise (collect) army, organize it and prepare for the invasion.
Norman nobles in England faced a difficult choice between Henry who had already been crowned as an English king and Robert who was in charge of Normandy. The problem was that most Norman nobles had lands both in England and Normandy.
Eventually nobles chose Henry, not Robert, because it was Henry who was already in London and was already crowned. Robert's invasion turned out to be a failure. And two brothers reached a compromise that Robert would recognize Henry as king of England but he would be paid by Henry. Henry in the long run (в долгосрочной перспективе) wanted more.
He knew that many of his nobles in England would follow him to fight Robert in order to take back control of the Norman lands. In 1106 (eleven-o-six) Henry invaded Normandy and captured Robert, and Normandy and England were united under one ruler – Henry I. Robert was to spend the rest of his 80 years in castles dungeons (ˈdənjəns подземелья).
Having solved the problem with the land, Henry still felt that he had to ensure the support of his people. This was one of the main reasons why he issued the Charter of Liberties in 1100 (eleven hundred).
With this Charter the King formally bound himself by the laws which stated very important principle of English constitutional history – it is the rule of law (верховенство права). The main idea is that the King has no power to take the liberties back. The basic idea – everything and everyone should act according to the law.
The Charter of Liberties was the first document of this kind in the history of England. Moreover, it was Charter of Liberties which inspire those barons who compelled King John to sign Magna Carta in 1215. (принудили Иоанна Безземельного подписать Великую Хартию вольностей). Please do not confuse Charter of Liberties (that was in a way a basis for Magna Carta) and Magna Carta. These are two different documents.
The Charter of Liberties.
1) Henry promised to set rights that the previous administration had violated (нарушали), and he promises to give up many practices of the past, demonstrating how oppressive (жестоким, деспотическим) Norman government had become.
2) He dealt with natural inheritance (вопросы наследования). If you were a son of a noble, and your father died, you couldn't simply inherit your estate, you had to serve for the crown. He guaranteed that sums paid by feudal vassals when they took over ( наследуют ) their fathers' estates would be 'just and legitimate'. And everyone could normally inherit their property without buying it back (без выкупа).
3) promised liberties to the 'people'. By 'people' in this document he meant only barons. No-one thought about peasants or other social classes.
4) promised to forgive any debts that people owed to his brother. Henry promised to end heavy taxation established by his brother William Rufus.
5) promised to refused (в лекции М.В. говорит resign, а когда ей про это сказали в ответах на вопросы, она сказала, что это неверно) Church property which his brother William Rufus had seized
6) promised to do no wrong to the nobles.
7) to restore to the people (восстановить для народа) the laws of Edward the Confessor (who was an ideal lawgiver) with all the improvements of William the Conqueror.
8) promised to give the nobles a choice to do military service for the crown or just to pay scutage instead [pronunciation: скатитч ] (налог на освобождение от военной службы).
William Rufus was not very popular King and good administrator, because he introduced corrupt taxation and very often seized land from his nobles and the Church. But Henry was popular, people were attached to their new king, because he was an Englishman by birth, not a Norman. By issuing this Charter Henry gained support of his people who eventually helped him in his war against his brother Robert.
This document was even too much democratic – there were no effectives ways and mechanism to enforce it actually, no legal mechanism to make people follow the provisions of the Charter (положения Хартии). The King very often ignore the Charter. A lot of practices of the past continued to exist.
Henry proved to be an efficient ruler. He continued and extended administrative work of his father, William I. He appointed not only people from the nobility but also people from lower social classes. His idea was that if you had to win your position, influence, money, you will work much harder and better rather than a person who was born with all of this. It was a quite progressive idea.
Henry has continued to consult Curia Regis. Henry was frequently absent from England and he needed a system that could operate effectively in his absence. For example, the exchequer was set up. The exchequer (казначейство) was a financial department of the king's administration, and he dealt with all royal revenues. Henry continued using Domesday's Book for the matters of taxation.
Sheriffs began to become a lot powerful, Henry created Pipe Rolls – there stated how much sheriffs collected taxes and how much they spent; Pipe Rolls – regular accounting documents at the exchequer (first ones were in 1129-1130). Регулярные отчеты шерифов казначейству.
Royal justices were often sent out to the shires to help and reinforce the local administration; they also inquired (исследовали) into cases that had involved the crown or matters of the kingdom in general (or the profit of the King) – this was another way of controlling sheriffs who also served as judges at shire courts. When justices came to the shires, they even decided cases instead of the sheriffs. Justices imposed royal authority over the authority of the sheriff himself.
Most of 12th century was marked by a struggle between the Church and the State. The struggle was, of course, for power and money. The Church wanted the King to accept its authorities over both spiritual and earthly affairs. Church argue that even the King should answer to the God, be accountable to the God. English (and other kings) wanted to appoint only bishops who were loyal to him.
Church (and Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury) didn't want to be under complete control of the King. Conflicted was so heated – Anselm was even forced into exile ( в ссылку ) for two years. Henry created several new bishops and appointed his loyal people to these offices. Henry appointed new bishops in the absence of Anselm. The problem is that bishop has the authority only if he has the blessing (благословление) of the Archbishop, and these new bishops had no authority because Archbishop was absent. Anselm was absent but he managed to win the support of the Pope.
The Pope threatened Henry I with excommunication ( отлучение от церкви ) – breaking all the diplomatic ties (связи), it was quite scaring to the King.
It was obvious that a compromise had to be reached. In 1107 (eleven-o-seven) the King agrees that only the Church appoints bishops; the King could only supervise the process of the elections and advise, express his own ideas and preferences on this matter, and the Church in return promised to make bishops pay homage to the king for the temporalities (lands used by the Church). Homage ( дань ) – sort of feudal dues. Finally, some peace was made. But when Anselm died, Henry tried to take advantage of the situation (извлечь выгоду из ситуации). Henry delayed appointment of the archbishops for 5 years, and benefitted from the wealth of the Church. And the struggle between the Church and the State continued.
Henry II
(1154–1189)
During the last 15 years of the reign of Henry I the succession to the throne was again a major issue. Problem of succession. Problem was that Henry's only legitimate son William was drowned ( утонул ) in 1120, leaving Matilda as heir to the throne (наследница, читается как air).
Matilda, Henry I's daughter was an unfortunate woman, she was first married with German emperor Henry V, but he died in 1125, and she married the second time. Henry I persuaded his barons to swear an oath in her support but did not consult them over her second marriage to a French nobleman – Geoffrey of Anjou who was 14 and was 11 years her junior. Within (в течение) a year Geoffrey repudiated (развелся) Matilda, but during a temporary reconciliation, Matilda and Geoffrey had three children. Geoffrey Plantagenet came from Anju – large and very important area south of Normandy (южнее Нормандии). With this marriage Henry tried to enlarge family possessions and the land that the English monarch controlled.
Henry publicly quarreled with Matilda and her husband. And soon after that died – nobles didn't know what to do: on the one hand, they promised to the King to make Matilda a queen; on the other hand, there was a quarrel between the King and supposed heir to the throne.
Stephen was Henry's nephew. Stephen went to England to claim the crown. Matilda was still staying in Anju with her husband, and nobody knew when she was going to arrive in England. Nobles in England had to choose between two candidates: Matilda and Stephen. No wonder, most chose Stephen, not Matilda. However, Matilda wouldn't give up her claims to the throne and 4 years later and civil war began. Severe civil war – terrible war between Matilda and Stephen. Neither side could decisively win. By 1153 it was clear that conflict went nowhere, and they reached a compromise: Stephen is the King, but Matilda's son will be the ruler after Stephen's death; Matilda's son Henry would succeed Stephen. Stephen died next year. And finally, the possessions in England and in France were united by the King Henry who was accepted by everyone.
It took years for the country to recover from the civil war.
Henry II – he was the first unquestioned English King for hundred years. Henry was an efficient ruler. He did many things for the legal system. He very often gathered Assizes. Assize – it is meeting with barons where cases could be heard and decided. Assizes could issue binding decrees. They could prescribe rules to be followed by everyone.
Criminal Proceeding:
1166 – Assize of Clarendon – grand jury system for investigating recent crimes;
1176 – Assize of Northampton – a jury to decide which cases should be tried; it provided the jury with the opportunity to decide which cases should be tried and why.
1181 – Assize of Arms – all free men should keep arms and be prepared to defend the country if necessary.
Assize – a step of development of precedent.
Assize – development of the jury system.
Juries is an important step. Jury originally were the people who lived in the area where the crime was committed. Jury has the authority to investigate recent crimes.
Jury decided if there were enough grounds to prosecute this person. Jury swear an oath (приносят клятву) that they will give their honest opinion on whether the prisoner was properly suspected. Henry II was particularly interested in getting local people involved in the administration of justice and shires, because he believed that those people who knew both the accuser and the accused could be more qualified in such kind of job, they could be more objective and best qualified to say whether there was likely to be truth in the allegation (обвинение).
Another principle that was established – during ruling of Henry – only royal courts, not feudal courts, not local feudal can deal with criminal cases and cases concerning property. Certain division of the jurisdiction between local and royal courts.
The reign of Henry II was important for providing stability.
Principle of primogeniture was established |ˌpraɪmoʊˈdʒenɪtʃər|принцип первородства – means that the eldest child of the family inherits the estate when the father dies – consolidation of property. In England it was basically male primogeniture – the eldest son. Other members of the family weren't left poor. 1/3 – to other relatives (whom? I can't make out this word, sorry).
Daughters were given a dowry [dauri] (приданое). Younger brothers were usually left without any financial support of their family.
Another established principle – the principle that individual could sell or give away his land. This sound obvious but before that it was extremely hard to do it because people saw land as a family asset (актив, имущество семьи) – and needed the consent (согласие) of all family members to sell the land – that was extremely hard – now the process was made easier and it increased social mobility and economic changes in the country because there was a market of land in England. For us the most important legacy ['legasi] ( наследие ) of Henry II is the legal system. Legal system was finally formed during his reign.
William I very quickly understood that the system of government was needed to be reformed. Legal system looks like a mixture of Norman laws, Anglo-Saxon laws, Church laws and so on and so forth.
William was the first one who tried to do something about it when he started sending some of his justices to administer justice locally. For centuries English monarchs had to go to the shires and meet people there together with their officials in to secure their authority. When the King travel around the country he very often took the court with himself.
William I took his advisors and went to judge people in shires – they decided some local disputes. People could come to the King and his advisors with their complaints and accusations (grievances). And the King said: sit down on a bench and listen.
Later kings were less inclined (менее склонны) to do this job (judiciary) themselves. Royal justices – professionals who did this job instead of the Kings – and they were appointed by the King. King Henry II was particularly interested in law and order, and he played an important role in the development of the legal system. He understood that a single system of justice for the whole land under the control of one person – the king – would not only help to unify the country, but give him much power.
Henry (and his father and grandfather) set foundations for the professional justiceships. The tradition when the King sits down on a Bench with his advisors and decide cases led to the formation of new royal court that became known as the King's Bench. (Modern Court of King's Bench originated from that court).
18 royal judges
1) 5 of them Henry ordered to always sit 'on the bench' meaning stay at Westminster and decide cases that were brought to them at Westminster.
The rest judges:
2) Following the king – these were judges travelling with the King
3) 'itinerant' justices (айтинерант), traveling justices (странствующие судьи) – travelled without the King. They were sent out to the shires with particular tasks, they had to see how the justice were administered locally and help the local administration apply national laws to the localities – apply laws that have been made by judges at Westminster. They brought national laws to local parts of England and apply national laws within the whole country
Local customary laws were different from shire to shire. Law was unified, and soon became known as common law. If local customary law make sense, if it is reasonable and could be applied – judges bring it to the Westminster, discuss it with other justices and they add it to the list of national laws.
Stare decisis [stea desaisis] (literally – 'let the decision stand') – predictability
It makes legal system more certain and predictable. The idea of stare decisis: if you have to solve the case, and the idea of the case is quite similar to the idea in any other previous case – you should apply the same kind of decision in the same case.
The application of this principle made legal system more certain and predictable.
In the 1250s – the formation of Common law completed. It was 'Common' because common for all of the parts of England and Wales. And Henry II contributed to it most.
The differences between case law and common law (sometimes used as synonyms) – case law refers to a legal system based of precedent. Common law originally meant a combination of precedents + local customs.
Conflict with the Church
(1162–1170)
Under the rule of Henry II the legal system faced a lot of improvements. The only thing that had no changes was ecclesiastical court. They didn't become part of the new legal system which provoke several problems.
Firstly, many people went to the ecclesiastical court because they wanted less punishment. This affected the prestige [pre'stiggg] and authority of Church courts. Secondly, it wasn't clear if a churchman commit a secular crime or a church crime – and should it be dealt in church court or in a lay court (мирском суде)? Issue of jurisdiction was not clear.
Thomas Becket (a friend of the King) in 1162 was appointed by Henry as Archbishop of Canterbury. Henry hoped that his friend would helped him to bring the church under the control of the monarch. It turned out that Henry and Thomas Becket had different ideas about role of the church in its relationships with the state. At first, Becket resisted the King in his attempts gain more authority over the Church. Then he finally changed his mind. The conflict became so heated so T. Becket had to run away to the France. It seemed that the King had won. In 1170 Becket returned to England and this time he was really determine to protect his ideas of the independence of the Church. Henry was angry about this situation, originally Becket was his friend.
At the middle of this conflict at some point the King said something like: "Oh, I wish someone would rid (избавит) me of this rebellious bishop". The King said it because he was angry, and it was rhetorical exclamation (риторическое восклицание). There were 4 knights who simply murdered Becket on 29th of December 1170 because they took the King's words literally – Europe was angry and shocked. Moreover, they killed him in the Canterbury cathedral – the holy place of the King. Thomas Becket soon became saint (святым) and people made pilgrimages |ˈpɪlɡrɪmɪdʒ| to his tomb [tu:m] (паломничества к его могиле). Canterbury tales – famous piece of medieval English literature.
The King found himself in a horrible situation that could lead to international problems because the country was about to uprise (rebel). To avoid this Henry had to ask the Pope for forgiveness and swear (поклясться) that he had nothing to do with the murder of the Archbishop. He also performed self-punishment act, he made a pilgrimage in sackcloth to his tomb [tu:m] (паломничество в грубой рубахе к его гробнице).
He accepted public whipping – публичная порка. Can you imagine any Russian ruler who punished himself? It means that legal consciousness of people of England is building up. This episode shows that principle of the rule of law was manifested once again: even if you are the King, you will be punished.
Canterbury cathedral – one of the oldest churches in Europe.
Lecture 3. Sons of Henry II . (Первую половину перепечатала Анжела Сулейманова, вторую – Сергей Чебан; аудио – Сирануш Марабян. Дословная перепечатка текста из мультика – Анжела Сулейманова).
Judicial System
– bribes (corrupted justice). Bribes were really common. The more you pay – the more chances to win you get. If you don't have enough money to pay for the procedure, well, then you are welcome to take a loan (заем) from the King. If you can't pay back afterwards (позднее), your family will be taken into King's serfs (рабы).
– unlawful punishment for enemies. Very often there were no trials, the person could be convicted (осужден) without a trial.
– unfair litigation fees. The money you have to pay to get your case through the court were completely unreasonable and unfair. Very often fines were much bigger than the crimes. Minor offences and a huge fine you have to pay for it.
– no uniform fines and fees.
– taking cases from feudal courts. William I established feudal courts: courts in counties, shire courts and feudal courts (with earls as judges). The earls that decided the cases in such courts profited from them, because people had to pay fine or money to the lord. John took a lot of cases from feudal courts to royal court which meant that now it was the King who profited from this litigation.
John managed to make himself unpopular with at least three most important groups of the English society: the nobles, the merchants ([мёрчентс], торговцы) and the Church. At the end of his reign he was unpopular with all social classes.
Lecture 4
Edward I (1272–1307)
Перепечатка по аудио: первая половина – Анжела Сулейманова; вторая – Сергей Чебан. За аудио спасибо Сирануш Марабян.
Government and justice;
a. central government
b. judicial system
c. development of law
The birth of parliament.
3. Wars of Edward I:
a. war in Wales;
b. war in Scotland;
Edward I (1272–1307)
Edward I had a nickname ‘Longshanks’ (this literally means ‘long legs’). This was due to his great height ([хайт] рост). He was handsome. He was one of the most successful medieval monarchs in England. He was the ideal medieval king. He was a good fighter. At the same time, he enjoyed both war and statecraft (искусство управления). So, on the one hand, his crusading and his military activities gave him prestige and good reputation among his nobles mainly. On the other hand, he also did a lot for the improvement of administrative system of the country.
The first 20 years of his reign marked a high point in cooperation between the crown and the community, because it these years Edward made great strides (шаги) in reforming the government, in consolidating the territory of the country and generally in defining foreign policy ( в определении внешней политики ).
Edward, as the king, believed in the concept of community. On the whole he tried to rule with general welfare (благосостояние) of his subjects in mind. He thought that the position of the monarch required him to act for the public good and to think of the good of the realm ([rɛlm], королевство, государство), because he was the chief legislator of this realm and because he had the greatest authority in the country. So, he believed that this authority granted by law (власть, данная законом) not only gave him a lot of power, but also gave some protection to the king’s subjects (подданным короля).
Edward I thought that a king should rule with the advice and consent ( с советом и согласием ) of those people, whose rights were mostly affected by his decisions.
GOVERNMENT AND JUSTICE
Generally, Edward I added to the bureaucracy [ˌbjʊ(ə)ˈrɒkrəsi], that had already been started by Henry II. He did this to increase the effectiveness of his rule and of his work as a sovereign.
Edward I expanded ( расширил , растянул ) the administration of his country into 4 principal parts. From now on 4 clear administrative divisions could be observed [əbˈzərvd]
(могут быть замечены) in the English government:
• The Chancery
• The Exchequer
• The Household
• The King’s Council
Each division specialized in certain kind of work.
The Chancery - mainly researched and created legal documents.
The Exchequer - is the financial department.
• It received and issued money,
• Scrutinized ([ˈskruːtɪnʌɪzed], изучать, рассматривать) the accounts of local officials (the sheriffs mainly).
• It also kept all financial records of the state.
The Chancery and the Exchequer, of course, operated within the king's authority (в пределах, в границах королевской власти). But they were in a way independent from his personal rule ( управления ), because each department had its own head department.
The Household - was court of clerks |klɑːks| and advisers that, if necessary, traveled with the king.
The King’s Council - this was the most crucial (решающий) element of this administration. It consisted of people of great importance for the realm ( королевства ): trusted judges, clerks, barons, churchmen (sometimes). They also followed the king if necessary (like the Household).
• Council dealt with matters of great national importance (for example, international policy).
• Apart from that The King's Council continued acting as a Court. This court decided cases of national importance.
JUDICIAL SYSTEM
Edward’s reforms in the area of law and justice had important consequences in decreasing some feudal practices (снижении роли феодальных отношений). Thus, for instance, royal jurisdiction became supreme.
With this royal courts started to specialize. By the reign of Edward I, we can see at least 3 specialized royal courts (situation in the shires were different, we don't talk about them now):
• The Court of Exchequer - developed from the Exchequer as the financial department; had (dealt with, concerned) financial disputes and matters of taxation.
• The Court of Common Pleas ([pliː] жалоб) - had disputes of common nature (for example, property disputes, issues of lands, other disputes connected with people’s everyday lives)
• The Court of the King’s Bench - addressed the criminal cases that was somehow important for the king (in which the king had a vested interest – корыстный интерес).
The development of Court system was accompanied by further development in the legal system of England.
By the middle of 13th century the process of formation of common law as the English legal system was nearly complete. however, by the end of the 13th century there were so many cases decided by courts that very often judges could not remember all the precedents. So, quite naturally, there rose a need for codification.
That is why so called ‘Year Books’ were first introduced in 1292.
Year books were special documents where all important cases of the year were mentioned (были упомянуты).
Judges, when they were not sure whether the precedent had already been established or not, could just take such a Year Book, open it and look for similar cases and check whether the precedent is there or not.
With the beginning of codification of common law there started to develop another type of law - statute law. Statute law is made by parliament (opposite to the common law).
No wonder that statute law started to appear in 13th century, because this was the time when the first prototypes of parliaments (in the beginning of the century) started to be summoned ( созывались ). Such first parliaments were usually occasional. They didn’t initiate legislation. They had to agree or disagree in some cases to a proposed law (о выдвинутом на рассмотрении законе). Edward used such parliaments and other councils that were at his disposal ([disˈpōzəl] в его распоряжении) to strengthen his royal authority.
With the development of parliament statute law started to develop as well.
One of the people who played an important role in the process was Edward’s Chancellor - Robert Burnell (a Chancellor is the head of the Chancery).
Lord Chancellor – the head of the Chancery. He dealt with legal documents.
| Statutes dealing with Law and Order | Statutes dealing with the Land issues | Statutes dealing with the Church |
| 1275 - the First Statute of Westminster | 1285 - the Second Statute of Westminster | 1279 - the Statute of Mortmain |
| 1285 - the Statute of Winchester | 1290 - the Statute of Quia Emptores (the Third Statute of Westminster) | |
| 1278 - the Statute of Gloucester | ||
| 1290 - The Statute of Quo Warranto |
STATUTES
LAW AND ORDER
LAND ISSUES
WARS OF EDWARD I
Opposed to King John, Edward I was much less interested in winning back parts of France that English King used to control. He was more interested in bringing the rest of Britain under his control. William I after having conquered England, generally allowed his lords to try and win lands by conquest in Wales. And the Normans slowly extended their control in Wales. By the beginning of the 12th century, much of Wales was held by this people. They built castles and gradually assimilated with the Welsh (с Валлийцами).
By the 13th century a new class here grew up which was a mixture of the Norman and Welsh rulers. They spoke either Norman language or Welsh (usually not English). Despite that most of them became vassals of the English King. The only exception here was the Welsh who lived around Snowdonia. Snowdonia was a wild mountainous area in the North of the Wales.
These people were quite independent in their thoughts and at some point, their prince, Prince Llywelyn [livlin], decide to break all the ties (связи) with England and make his territory completely independent. So, in 1277 he refused to do homage to Edward I (He refused to accept that Edward I was his superior ([sjupirior] начальник, сеньор). Edward couldn't just swallow (проглотить) it. He was determined to defeat Llywelyn and bring Wales completely under English control. Edward invaded Wales with the support of ships – the navy (флот). It happened the same year. As a result, Llywelyn was blocked with his people in Snowdonia. Very soon people started starving (голодать). Llywelyn had to submit to Edward and as a result he was stripped (отобраны) of all his previous lands and possessions.
Apart from that, Edward also build a lot of castles around Wales in order to ensure further English military control after Llywelyn had been defeated. After defeating Llywelyn Edward imposed the English administrative structure on Wales. In other words, Wales was divided into counties and shires just as England. In 1282 another rebellion arose and it was led by Prince Llywelyn and his brother David who was helping him. To suppress (подавить) it, Edward had to start the second campaign against Wales. He reconquered the power and killed both Llywelyn and his brother David. In 1284 the Statute of Wales was issued which united England and Wales under the government of the King of England. 10 years later the Welsh again tried to start a rising (восстание) which lasted for about two years. It was crushed by Edward I, and Wales remained controlled by England for at least the next century. It adopted English administrative system (hundreds and shires) and English legal system. Wales started to apply common law. Even today when we talk about English legal and court system, we may apply the same to Wales, because their systems turned out to be really-really similar.
The English considered Wales now part of England. But Edward made a concession (уступку) to the Welsh. They wanted to have their own Prince, they didn't want to be simply controlled by the English King, and Edward gave them their prince.
At a public ceremony at 1301 Edward I made his one baby son (later known as Edward II) the Prince of Wales. So, on the one hand, the Welsh now have their own prince; on the other hand, the Prince was heir (наследник, читается как air) to the English throne and literally an English King in future. However, the tradition survived and it still applied even today. The eldest son of the King or the Queen gets the title of the Prince of Wales. Now it is Prince Charles (Elizabeth's eldest son and probably the future King).
In Scotland things were quite different.
All those Scottish Kings had sometimes accepted the English King as an overlord (владыка). Generally, they were much stronger than several Welsh King taking together. By the 11th century it was only one King of Scots who managed to unite the North and the East of Scotland. And only a few areas at the West were still completely independent. But even these lands came under the King's control during the 12th and 13th century. Scotland was united under the rule of one King.
It was only the English King with really big army that was fit to fight the Scottish. It much harder to deal with them. And most of the English Kings before Edward didn't even try to conquer Scotland. But Edward was different. He was really focused on winning the control over the whole island.
Scotland had to experience succession crisis (кризис престолонаследия) in 1290 (twelve-ninety). The problem was that four years before that, in 1286, the Scottish King and Alexander III had been killed in an accident. His horse fell, and the King unfortunately didn't survive. He left the heir ( наследников ) to the throne – his granddaughter Margaret. But at the time of his death she was only 3 years old. Obviously, some time had to pass until she could inherit English throne. So, Edward had made an arrangement to marry his son to princess Margaret. But this wonderful plan unfortunately wasn't realized, because Margaret died in 1290. And that left Scotland in the situation of crisis.
There were 13 claimants to Scottish throne. However, there were two main candidates. Their names were John de Balliol [beliel] and Robert de Bruce. They were both Norman-Scottish knights. And they decided to avoid a civil war in Scotland by inviting Edward and asking him to decide the matter of who should be the King.
Edward saw this as a chance to finally unite Scotland and England. So, the first thing that he did – he made both John de Balliol and Robert de Bruce promise to be loyal to him. In other words, to do homage to the English King. He said that only after that he would decide what to with them and their claims.
When it had been done, Edward simply invaded Scotland and put John de Balliol on the Scottish throne in 1292. De Balliol managed to stay the King for four years. And these four years were not the happiest years of his life. The thing was that by putting de Balliol on the Scottish throne, Edward retained (удержал, сохранил) a lot of influence. Very often Edward made de Balliol provide money and troops for the English army, implement English laws in Scotland, and accept the administrative system of England, and apply it to Scotland. Of course, such a treatment provoked resistance of the Scottish people. In 1295 the Scots imposed a council of barons on John de Balliol. And the council made de Balliol sign a treaty with France. The treaty ([triti] договор) stated that if England tried to attack Scotland, France would immediately attack Gascony. (Yes, Henry III managed to win Gascony back from the French, and it was now territory controlled by the English). And if England attacked France – Scotland promised to attack England. Of course, this was infuriating ([инфьюриэйтинг] приводящий в ярость) for Edward I. War was inevitable.
In 1296 –in quick and successful campaign Edward I defeated de Balliol and forced him to abdicate ([абдикейт] отречься от престола).
Revolts started in Scotland against the English officials that had been appointed by Edward. The rebellion was headed by a famous Scottish national hero – William Wallace (Mel Gibson in his film 'Braveheart').
Edward invaded Scotland again and captured all the main Scottish castles and some of the abbeys. During this invasion he managed to steal something from Scone abbey – Sacred Stone of Destiny (aka Stone of Scone). (Священный камень судьбы). There is a big stone placed under big throne. The legend said that all Scottish Kings had to sit on this Sacred Stone of Destiny – to somehow legitimize their rules. Edward proved that without that stone any Scottish coronation would seem illegal. Secondly, the fact that it was now owned by Edward himself would probably persuade the Scots to accept him as the King.
Neither Edward nor his successors (ни Эдвард, ни его наследники) became kings of scots, and Scottish kings pretty much managed to do without the Stone.
William Wallace was a leader of rebels and Scottish national hero. He managed to unite different highlanders (горцев) against the English. And his army (known as the People's army) even managed to win at least one big victory over the English. However, this didn't last too long and by 1297 the People's army was falling apart and eventually destroyed by the Edward I. However, this was followed by a serious and quite lengthy (долгий) and costly struggle (затратная борьба) against Scotland, which only brought some success by the beginning of the 14th century, by about 1304.
It seemed that Edward had won in the war, he even managed to capture William Wallace himself and execute him in 1305 (казнил). Edward tried to make Scotland part of England, just the way he had done this with Wales before. And some Scottish nobles even accepted him. But people mainly refused to be under the rule of the English King. Some historians even say that the day when William Wallace was executed was the day when Scottish nationalism was born.
Instead of William Wallace there was a new leader who took his place. And this was Robert de Bruce. He was able to defeat the English in several battles. Edward had to start another campaign against Robert de Bruce. So, he marched to the North in 1307 and unfortunately Edward I died on his way. This reopened conflict continued into the reign of Edward II who succeeded his father the same year. But probable the most important consequence of these events in Scotland is the fact that unlike Wales, Scotland managed to keep its independence, and as a result, develop of its own legal system. Even now the legal system and system of courts in Scotland are quite different from the one in England and Wales.
This picture refers to Scottish referendum.
Lecture 1.
Political system of the UK today.
The UK and Northern Ireland
Great Britain (no article)
England (no article)
the Queen
Parliament: unicameral; bicameral. Parliament – without article.
1. Legislative branch – led by parliament, bicameral, but the Crown is also formally part of parliament, so there are three parts:
1) House of Lords. Its members are called peers: hereditary peer (наследственные) and life peer – it’s a personal right that cannot be given (passed) to their children. parliament – 1) unicameral 2) bicameral;
2) House of Commons. Its members are called members of parliament (MPs). Elected every 5 years. Three major parties: conservative party, labour party, liberal-democratic party. House of Commons is more important; may check the laws enacted by the Government;
2. Executive branch. The head of the executive branch is the Prime Minister who is the leader of the party that has won the elections. PM is elected every 5 years as well as MPs. The main executive body is the Cabinet of Ministers. Before 1970s the Queen personally chose the Prime Minister. Every minister and Prime Minister are the MPs. Members of the executive are taken from the leading party – the legislative and executive branches are merged ( сливаются ).
3. Judicial branch. Main court in the country is the Supreme Court. This young Court was established in 2009. Until 2009 it was connected with legislative branch.
The main function of this branch was resolving disputes, judicial branch not only interpret law but make it by precedents. Case law is not a synonym of common law. Case law – present-day term; common law – historic term. The Act of Settlement
Separated Uncodified constitution:
1) Magna Carta (the Great Charter of freedoms);
2) Habeas Corpus Act;
3) The Bill of Rights.
The principle of separation of powers is not observed – it is the main problem of the UK.
If you are hereditary peer it means that you have inherited your title and your right to sit in the House of Lords and you can pass it on to your children. There is a very relatively small number of hereditary peers in the House of Lords now. Life peers are those people who are pointed to the House of Lords maybe, for example, a very outstanding MP or lawyer, maybe actor sometimes. The queen under the advise of the prime-minister may appoint MP role and give them the title and the right to sit in the House of Lords but they will only have this role during their lifetime, this means that they will not be able to pass this title and the right to sit in parliament to their children. The prime-minister works closely with the House of Commons because he is usually the leader of the majority party (the party that has won the recent general election) and he needs the support from his party. Probably the main function of the parliament is to legislate and here the House of Commons is more important, it has more legislative authority than the Hose of Lords.
Parliament can also change the existing rules and check the work of the government, mainly the financial decisions taken by the government. If we talk about the Executive branch of Government than we have to remember about the prime-minister and the Cabinet (the key ministers in the Government). What is so special about the Executive branch in the UK is that members of the Executive branch are always selected from the House of Commons which brings us to the very important idea that the Legislative and the Executive branch are merged not only separated. The government is always countable to parliament, checked by parliament and parliament can even dismiss the government in certain circumstances and call for a new general election. The judicial power until recently was also merged with the Legislative branch, however in 2009 the Supreme Court was established and with that the judicial branch of government was completely separated from the rest of branches in the UK. The main function of this branch is to resolve disputes that concern various areas. But (this is very special for the UK) the judiciary has one more important function - not just interpreting the law but making it. Judge made law that is very typical to the UK - case law. The term ‘case law’ is used with the term ‘common law’ BUT the term ‘common law’ mainly refers to history and ‘case law’ reflects the present-day situation. Case law is the legal system when certain interpretations and decisions of Senior Courts become precedents, meaning that all lower costs in the future cases (if the case is similar) should take the same decision. And due to this very important function hedges in the UK are extremely independent of any political influence.
Magistrates' Court (Justices of Peace) – part-time job, these judges may not be lawyers (Sentence for up to 6 months of prison), deals with minor criminal offences (petty crimes) + matrimonial proceedings
If a case is criminal and more serious, you should go to the Crown Court.
If it is a civil case, but it involves more serious thing such as corruption – to County Court (deals with the majority of civil litigations).
High Court has three divisions (formed due to influence of medieval courts):
1) Family division – is a divisional court that concerns appeals from the magistrates' court.
2) Queen's bench – deals with contract and tort law. Includes Administrative court that has supervisory and appellate [epelit] jurisdiction overseeing the legality of decisions and actions of inferior courts, tribunals and local authorities.
3) Chancery Division – deals with trusts, taxes and bancruptcy – appeals from County Courts on bancruptcy and land
Tribunal – hears appeals from decisions about immigration, child support, pension and taxes. Quick trial, for example about taxes. Tribunal is about fast court.
Two instances of Appeal:
Criminal Division – Appeals from the Crown Court
Civil Division – Appeals from High Court and tribunals
After court of Appeal – to the Supreme Court that has a significant public influence, its decisions forms precedents.
European Court of Justice
European Court of Human Rights
(not clearly included because of Brexit)
This scheme of courts refers to England and Wales; Scotland's system differs
If you want to bring the case you should always start at the lowest (primary) level of court system and very often you would just go to Magistrates’ Courts (мировые суды). People working there as judges are usually not lawyers, they do this as part-time job and they are not paid for it. These people are called ‘JPs’ - justices of the peace. The office of JPs has been formed through many centuries. Magistrates usually deal with minor offences, for example, when you have to pay your fine for what you have done. The maximum you can get here is 6 months in prison. Also, if you need a license, for example, to open a bar you will go to Magistrates’ Court. If your case is criminal and a bit more serious than something requiring a fine then it needs to go to the Crown Court which is a bit higher and the Crown Court has a lot of branches all over England and Wales. If your case is not a criminal one (if it is a civil case) but it involves more serious situations like bankruptcy or divorce then you will have to apply to County Court. It's one more primary level of the Court System. Tribunals - for example, if you are in dispute with the government (let's say over taxes) and you want a quick trial then the Tribunal is your choice. Those disputes that involve large sums of money usually start at the High Court. High Court has 3 divisions. Depending on what case it deals with it will either go to Family Division, Queen’s Bench Division or the Chancery Division. High Court has been formed through the influence of old English Medieval (средневековый) Court.
If you’re not quite happy with decisions in these courts there are the 2 instances of appeal - the Court of Appeal and then the Supreme Court. The Court of Appeal has 2 divisions depending on whether it’s a criminal case or a civil case we are talking about (Criminal Division and Civil Division). The Supreme Court is very special because it only hears cases that trace a general point of law and that has very significant public influence or injures. The decisions of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal are extremely important because these are mainly first decisions that form precedents and other ways for new interpretations of law. Certain cases may also refer to the European Court of Justice or the European Court of Human Rights although now with Brexit we don’t know for sure if it's going to function the same way. (this represents the situation in England and Wales; Scotland is very special).
Scheme from HSE textbook:
Law in the UK
– Common law (judges). Case-law is present-day term
– Statute law (parliament and the Government – delegated legislation I mean)
– law of equity (separate type of law). Equity is a whole different type of law
It's about principles of fairness.
Lecture 1. William the Conqueror. (Почти полностью состоит из лекции Анжелы Сулеймановой, которую она перепечатала по аудио)
Plan:
1. Before 1066:
a. the Saxons;
b. the Vikings and the problem of succession
2. The Conquest
3. Feudalism and the Domesday's Book
4. Church and state relations
5. Legal and administrative system
By 4th century AD the Britain could be described as rather wealthy territory populated mainly by the Celts and as the territory with a very good mild (мягкий) climate. What is also important, this territory was quite peaceful when centuries could go by without a war. At some point there was someone who have got attracted to such a territory and these were mainly Germanic tribes. They were willing to get control of this land and that's why they started raiding Britany.
The Anglo-Saxons managed to established in several parts of the country.
Sussex – West Saxes
Essex – east Saxes
Anglo-saxons eventually managed to establish a number of kingdoms. Names of these kingdoms (some of them) survived up till the present moment. Now these are names of Counties or Shires (for example, Essex - former kingdom of East Saxons, Sussex - South Saxons, Wessex - West Saxons).
By the middle of the 7th century there were 3 largest kingdoms that had most power - Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex. The Saxons in their kingdoms managed to create some institutions that survived for about 500 years and what is more these institutions kept England strong politically. One of these institutions was the Kings’ Council (at that time it was called the Witan).
The Witan grew out of informal group of senior worries and churchmen. The king would often turn to this people for advice or support on some difficult matters.
By the 10th century the Witan was already a formal body that could even issue laws and charters. It was not a total democratic because the king could always choose to ignore the advice of the Witan, however most of the Anglo-Saxon kings realized that it was a dangerous thing to do. The Witan’s authority was based on its right to choose the king. At that time the succession to the throne was not automatic so you could not pass on the throne automatically to your eldest son. That's why without the support of the Witan the kings’ authority, his chances for a peaceful succession were in danger. The Witan established part of a system that is still important today because even today the Queen has a privy [privi] council - a group of advisers on matters of the state.
The Saxons also divided the land into new administrative areas - Shires. The fascinating thing about the Shires is that present day administrative division in England is almost the same to first Shires that were established.
Sheriffs initially were local administrators of the king. Apart from that each shire usually had a manor (усадьба, поместье) - a large house. This was an important administrative building because people came there to pay taxes, to join the army etc. There was also the lord of the manor - a person who was responsible for house function. And this was the beginning of the manorial system in England which was fully developed when the normans conquered the territory.
Firstly, manor lords were simply local officials (чиновники) but then at the beginning of the 11 century they were mainly war lords - kind of military officers - and very soon they started to be called by a danish word - earl (граф). Initially earls were warlords. A class system of England at that time:
1. King
2. His lords (including earls)
3. Soldiers
4. Workers on the land
5. The men of learning - special group - people coming from the christian church (primary source of education).
Sax and kings helped the church to grow in England because church increased the power of monarchs. Kings had, as they said, gods approval, which was very important because the succession to the throne was an uncertain business. That's why some kings chose to be crowned in a church - to make their power look more legitimate. But there were other ways in which English church increased the power of English state. For example, the fact that it established a lot of monasteries (minsters) all over the country. Some of them became centers of education. These were places from which literate people came out, people who could read and write. These people were later used by the king for state, legal matters.
The Saxons also made a lot of laws but these laws varied quite a lot from shire to shire, were very local specific.
Towards the end of the 8 century new raiders appeared. Now there were Anglo-Saxons who were being raided by people from the north - the Vikings. They burned churches, raided the shores, robbed people living closer to the borders. Then these raids became more and more frequent and some Vikings even started settling in present day England. During this period several Anglo-Saxons rulers attempted somehow to fight the Vikings but the problem was that sometimes it was quite difficult because you had to unite and join forces while Anglo-Saxon kingdoms would often ссорится among themselves. However, this effort led to the emergence of the kingdom of England in the 10th century. Starting from the 10th century we can talk about England.
A bit earlier than that in the 9th century by 875 there was Anglo-Saxon King - King Alfred - who ruled Wessex and probably was most successful in opposing the Vikings. He was the one who managed to win a decisive battle in 878 and capture London. After this battle the territory of present-day England was roughly divided into the territory controlled by King Alfred and the territory controlled by the Danes. The Viking controlled area became known as the Dane-law because the danish would collect taxes there and exercise their influence on this territory. As for the rest of England this was the foundation of the present-day England controlled by Anglo-Saxons.
King's council (the Witan – дружина) – the King turns to these people to get an advice; the King could always ignore the Witan. The Witan's authority was based on his right to choose the King; the King's authority was in danger;
Shires and Counties – sometimes
Shire – fascinating thing is that present division of England is quite the same is historical one.
Sheriff – initially were local administration of the King. Local officials.
the manorial system (manors: collect taxes, protect land and so on)
Military
Earl (графы) – initially earls were warlords. Manors were administrated by earls who were the warriors.
Christian Church was primary source of education; bishops gave support to the kings; God's approval was crucial and important; it made the power more legitimate.
Monasteries or minsters (Westminster for example). The Church also contribute to the system of law and government. Monasteries were established by the Crown and were the places of knowledge
Edward the Confessor - English king in 1035. Originally, he came from Normandy (France). He spent most of his life there. Basically, he only came to England when he was crowned. He brought quite a few Normans with him to England (these were children and grandchildren of the Vikings who had formally raided the north of France the way they did with England and then settled there). Edward lived only until 1066.
The question now was who should follow Edward the confessor on the throne? There were 3 possible answers.
The first one of them was the Harald III of Norway. He was the Viking but he claimed the English throne based on the fact that some of his previous ancestors (предки) had reigned in England and that's why he thought he had claims to the English throne as well. But he was quite unpopular with the English.
The most popular claimant was Harold Godwinson. He had no royal blood but he was a good and brave warrior and an Anglo-Saxon. He was liked by the English and by the English nobility (знать) and the Witan. That's why at some point soon after Edward the Confessors’ death the Witan shows Harold Godwinson to be the next English king.
But the situation got even more complicated when one more claimant on the throne appeared. This was William of Normandy. He claimed that Edward the Confessor himself not long before his death promised him to pass on the throne to him. What is more is that William said Harold Godwinson at some point had a conversation with him and promised him that he will not claim the English throne after the king's death. So, William of Normandy generally thought that he had all legal claims to the English throne.
He was umbraged ['əmbrij] (обижен) when he learned about the fact that the Witan had chosen Harold Godwinson to be the next English king. So, despite the support of the Witan Harold Godwinson found himself in a very complicated situation. He was faced by 2 dangers: one in the south and one in the north. In 1066 Harald of Norway decided to take England by force and he attacked England from the north. To fight the Vikings Harold Godwinson had to march quite a long way up north and then face Vikings there and take part in the battle. He managed to win and Harald of Norway was killed in the battle. But almost immediately after that Harold Godwinson learned that in the south William of Normandy had landed. So, without even having time to rest Harold Godwinson’s army marched back south and had to fight the Normans. Probably if Harold G. had taken some time to think and to give his soldiers some rest or if he had waited for the rest of Anglo-Saxons army to join him, he would have won. But what happened was the fact that his men were tired and the Normans were not, the Normans were armed better, they had horses which the Anglo-Saxons didn’t and they won. William won the battle and marched back to London afterwards. The city gave in quite quickly. Christmas Day 1066 - William of Normandy was crowned as the next English king at Westminster Abbey. He was later to be known as William the Conqueror.
Begore 1066. The Vikings
The emergence of the Kingdom of England (10AD). Anglo-Saxon kingdom quarrelled between themselves.
875 – Alfred who rules Essex, the one who in 878 captured London with the help of the Vikings. Viking controlled that territory and establish the Danelaw.
Edward in 1035 become the king of Normandy (France); he brought some normans to the London. He died in 1066 without obvious will and follower.
Harald III of Norway, was quite unpopular in England, but his ancestors and relatives were rulers in England.
Harold Godvinson was a brave warrior, has no royal blood, but people and the nobility liked him, he was a skilled general and charismatic leader. He was crowned after the death of the Confessor.
William of Normandy.
Despite the support of the Witan Harald Godvinson
1066 ("ten sixty six") – William defeated Harald Godvinson.
Harold Godvinson marched to the north to fight the normans. The normans won due to better horses and arms.
1066 – William of Normandy was crowned as an English King.
The form of medieval societies, in which they existed can simply be called FEUDALISM. Basis of feudalistic society is holding the land. The main purpose of the land is economic, but at the same time the more land you have the more power and influence you have as well. That's why it was generally supposed that all land on the country was owned by the king, but the king could give this land out to his vassals. The main nobles (дворянство; знать) of king (180 barons) would usually get very large pieces of land and that's why they could rather split their piece of land into smaller pieces and give them out to lesser nobles (for example, to the knights 3000-5000) who either paid some rent for this land or did military services for the lord in return for this land. The bottom of this society were peasants ['pesents] (крестьяне) - people who actually worked on the land and in the 11th century they pretty much resembled slaves.
At the time of the Norman conquest and immediately after it England was not the most well-developed country in Europe.
In Europe vast areas of land usually belonged to 1 tenant-in-chief (главный арендатор?). The bigger piece of land you have the more powerful you are and it very often happened do that sometimes the king himself (for example, the king of France) was not the most powerful landlord because he wouldn’t have more land. And that very often led to the struggle between the largest land-lords for power and influence which resulted in private warfare (междоусобицы). As for the financial side, the king usually lived on collecting customers dues (for example, revenues from courts or income from royal land). When William the I became king, he was very careful in the way he gave out land to his vassals. Of course, he had to ‘thank’ them for their support in conquering the country and he gave them quite a lot of land. But a landlord would never get one big piece of land in one phase. William would rather give him a lot of smaller pieces of land in different parts of England. This was made in order to make it difficult for any powerful noble to gather his army quickly in order to, for example, overthrow the king. The only exception here were the border territories close to Wales and Scotland because these were not peaceful regions and it was important to have big army in there in order to control the borders. So as a result, if we look at all the land there was in England at that time, half of the land in total belonged to the Norman nobles, quarter of it belonged to church and 1/5 belonged to the king. So as a result, England was different from the rest of Europe because it had only one powerful family instead of a large number of powerful feudals. And William, as well as many kings after him, thought of England as their personal property. Private warfare was forbidden in England because William very soon understood that it was much easier to profit from a peaceful country rather than from the one that was constantly troubled and damaged by conflicts. Apart from customary dues William started to collect taxes from the population
Feudalism. The basis of medieval society is holding the land. It was generally supposed that all land in the country belongs to the King. The main nobles of the King (180 barons). 3000-5000 knights
Peasants ['pesents] – крестьяне
England was not a very developed country compared to Europe.
Private warfare – междоусобица (only singular – no private warfares, only private warfare).
taxes – for example taxes for court.
The thing is a landlord possessed many lands in different parts
That's why barons cannot quickly bother an army in order to overthrow the King.
1/5 of the land – to the King. One powerful family instead of several ones.
In medieval and early modern Europe the term tenant-in-chief (or vassal-in-chief) is a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as opposed to holding them from another nobleman or senior member of the clergy.
William started to collect taxed apart from customary dues.
Domesday book, 1086 (ten-eighty six) – Книга страшного суда.
– how many ships were kept there
Common people generally were scared by the control.
William generally wanted to be everything in a legal form and legitimize his power and Domesday book helped him. William was still a conqueror in the eyes of many people.
In order to make the taxes system work efficiently William wanted to know exactly who owned which piece of land and how much this land was worth. So, he needed to gather this information in order to plan his economy and to find out how much was produced and how much he could ask in tax. Therefore, he sent a special team of people through England to make what we would call an Economic Survey. So, his men would come to a town or village and ask all sorts of questions, like ‘how much land is here? Who owns it? How much is it worth? How many sheep are kept here? How many farmers work here?’ And so on. This survey was the only one of its kind in Europe at that time. It wasn’t very popular among people because common people were generally scared of all this, they had a feeling that they could not escape from these findings and what was happening reminded them a lot about the day of judgment (судный день), it is also called Dome. That's why the result of the survey is known as a ‘Domesday's book’. It is dated 1086. This survey would establish who held what including what was owned by the Norman lords, not just Anglo-Saxon ones. The survey also helped to clarify what rights and dues were owned to the king and helped to control the lands more effectively. William generally wanted everything to follow the legal form because he wanted to legitimize his time to show that he claimed the thrown not only by the right of conquest but also with the support of the law, that he was a legitimate king. And Domesday's book helped him. What is more important many years to come the Domesday book was also used for administrative purposes.
Before the conquest generally there was a cooperation between the king and the church. The church helped to legitimize the power of the king by telling the nation that he was chosen be god and the king would help church to extend its lands? All over the country. William introduced something new into this relationship, which is the idea of subordination. The king was now superior to the church. William had the right to appoint bishops and remove abbots. He also used the churchmen as his major administrators, because these were the most literate and educated people in the country at that time. He also introduced a successful reform and reorganization of the English Church. This was done in order to make the English church less depending to roman catholic church. Finally, he protected the church itself by establishing its own special courts which became known as ecclesiastical courts. They dealt only with the matters of church law and offenses committed by churchmen.
William introduces something new to the relations between the State and the Church.
Abbots and bishops were literate and educated people.
Monarch and the Church were equal before 1066. Bishops and abbots were the only educated and literate people so they were appointed as officials.
New special Courts – ecclesiastical courts – court that dealt with only church law.
Administative Changes:
– Curia Regis (then the importance of the Witan decreased), body of central government. It was the new form of the Witan. In modern terms it was a legislative and a judicial body at the same time. It was a kind of court and government.
– the system of sheriffs. Each shire was controlled by a sheriff, he collected taxed, raised army and protected the land; William appoint mainly normans to the positions of Sheriffs.
– Separation of lay courts (светские, мирские) and church (or clerical) courts
– Trial by ordeal was replaced with trial by jury. Ordeal – ордалия. William substituted trials by ordeals with jury trials.
Before the Norman conquest there was no strong central government. The King and the Witan had very little control over the whole kingdom. So, William had to introduce a serious reform although we can't say that it changed all the customary laws. The King’s Council (Curia Regis). First of all, the Kings Council was set up and it substituted more or less the Witan in its functions. There were barons, lords, bishops, and people of the army, important figures of the kingdom on whose advice king could rely. They helped the king to administrate the country. And what is also important William used Curia Regis as a court for deciding disputes. So, people could come to this court with their complaints or accusations and then the king along with his advisors would try to give judgment on this case. The king's council was contributed to the establishment of really strong central government. William kept the Anglo-Saxons system of sheriffs. He needed sheriffs to control his nobles locally. As each shire was controlled by sheriffs and sheriffs were local representatives of the king, they were entrusted with collecting taxes, deciding local disputes, raising an army if necessary and protecting the local area. But in order not to make Anglo-Saxons too powerful he appointed only Normans to the positions of sheriffs, so the system was Anglo-Saxon, but the people who were sheriffs were mainly Normans. The church got its own courts so now the lay courts were separated from ecclesiastical (clerical, church) courts and their jurisdictions were from now on different. Another innovation was the introduction of the trial by jury. On any case when it was not quite clear whether the person was guilty or not before William a very popular procedure was a trial by ordeal (ордалия) which was something like ‘let's put hot iron to this man's tongue and then if there is no burn left on his tongue then he’s innocent because god will protect him, however if there is, the he is probably guilty’. William substituted this by trial by jury.
System of Courts
1) Shire divided into 'hundreds'
2) Shire courts existed before the conquest
3) Feudal courts (earls) + ecclesiastical courts (bishops). Church law, secular law and so on.
There were judges in shires who collected local customary law and this was the beginning of common law. Each shire was controlled by sheriffs. William appointed mainly Normans to the position of sheriffs.
Two things to remember:
1) Why did William to keep the system of Sheriffs? He couldn't be everywhere in the same time. Anglo-Saxon institution – he needed sheriffs to control the territory.
2) William didn't appoint Anglo-Saxons in order to prevent rebellions. Anglo-Saxons were not happy about his norman conquest.
William also divided the country further: the country was divided into shires. Each shire was divided into ‘hundreds’. Each hundred had its own court. Then each shire got its court as well. These were mainly ones that already existed before the conquest. In shire courts sheriff would decide disputes. There was a creation of the next level courts - Feudal courts. Here earls acted as judges. Apart from that there were church courts (ecclesiastic courts) were bishops acted like judges. So not only did William introduced judicial laws but also allowed English people to keep quite few of them customary laws. However, at the same time this led to certain confusions because there were local traditional laws, new central laws introduced by Normans, church law, secular law and so on. And William did something very important to the history of English and British law in general. He started the first step of standardizing the law, he understood that this could not be the justice in such a legal chaos, so he started sending judges from Westminster to shires all over England. They would take part in deciding disputes locally and when doing so they would observe local laws and local traditions, the way people decided this or that decision in this or that shire. Then when they came back to Westminster they would share their impressions, discuss local traditions. Sometimes they kept some of the local laws that seemed reasonable. This was the beginning of the formation of common law.
Lecture 2. (перепечатал Сергей Чебан по аудио Софьи Лепневой)
We can single out three branches of government which are legislative, judiciary and executive. Decisions from High Court and Supreme Court usually form precedents. Supreme court deals with important matters of law. Most important matters of law that affect all country.
1/50 of the land belonged to the King and it was a lot, he retained power in his hands, he retained the position of the most powerful feudal in the kingdom.
Domesday's Book – in 1086 – ten-sixty-eight. William wanted to make his position stronger.
England in the 12th century. Добавил некоторую инфу из Dozen lessons.
1. Henry I (1100-1135)
a. coming to power
b. the Charter of Liberties, 1100
c. government;
d. church and state relations
2. Henry II (1154-1189)
a. reform of the judicial system
b. conflict with the church
Henry I, the ablest (способнейший) of the Conqueror's sons. William the Conqueror (after his death in 1087) gave
– Normandy to the first, elder son Robert of Normandy;
– England to his second son William II Rufus (Rufus in Latin means red-haired);
– and five thousand pounds to Henry.
you vs the guy she tells you not to worry about
Robert of Normandy went to the Crusade (Крестовый поход), he wanted to fight the Muslims at the holy land, he needed someone to look after the Normandy at his absence, while he was at the Crusade – and this was William II Rufus. He left William II in charge (=responsible) of Normandy when he was absent.
William II Rufus was shot dead by an arrow in 1100 ('eleven hundred') – he died in a hunting accident. Rumors said that it was not an accident, and Henry, the youngest brother, made sure that it happened. William Rufus hadn't married, didn't have any son to take the Crown the question of succession arose. At the time of William's death Robert was on his way back to Normandy, he was not back yet. Henry realized that if he wanted English crown, he had to act fast.
Henry thought he could take treasure of the king – and he did it, Henry took charge of the king's treasury, he took control over state's finances and then he went to Westminster where he was very quickly crowned as the English king – Robert was furious. It took him about a year to raise (collect) army, organize it and prepare for the invasion.
Norman nobles in England faced a difficult choice between Henry who had already been crowned as an English king and Robert who was in charge of Normandy. The problem was that most Norman nobles had lands both in England and Normandy.
Eventually nobles chose Henry, not Robert, because it was Henry who was already in London and was already crowned. Robert's invasion turned out to be a failure. And two brothers reached a compromise that Robert would recognize Henry as king of England but he would be paid by Henry. Henry in the long run (в долгосрочной перспективе) wanted more.
He knew that many of his nobles in England would follow him to fight Robert in order to take back control of the Norman lands. In 1106 (eleven-o-six) Henry invaded Normandy and captured Robert, and Normandy and England were united under one ruler – Henry I. Robert was to spend the rest of his 80 years in castles dungeons (ˈdənjəns подземелья).
Having solved the problem with the land, Henry still felt that he had to ensure the support of his people. This was one of the main reasons why he issued the Charter of Liberties in 1100 (eleven hundred).
With this Charter the King formally bound himself by the laws which stated very important principle of English constitutional history – it is the rule of law (верховенство права). The main idea is that the King has no power to take the liberties back. The basic idea – everything and everyone should act according to the law.
The Charter of Liberties was the first document of this kind in the history of England. Moreover, it was Charter of Liberties which inspire those barons who compelled King John to sign Magna Carta in 1215. (принудили Иоанна Безземельного подписать Великую Хартию вольностей). Please do not confuse Charter of Liberties (that was in a way a basis for Magna Carta) and Magna Carta. These are two different documents.
The Charter of Liberties.
1) Henry promised to set rights that the previous administration had violated (нарушали), and he promises to give up many practices of the past, demonstrating how oppressive (жестоким, деспотическим) Norman government had become.
2) He dealt with natural inheritance (вопросы наследования). If you were a son of a noble, and your father died, you couldn't simply inherit your estate, you had to serve for the crown. He guaranteed that sums paid by feudal vassals when they took over ( наследуют ) their fathers' estates would be 'just and legitimate'. And everyone could normally inherit their property without buying it back (без выкупа).
3) promised liberties to the 'people'. By 'people' in this document he meant only barons. No-one thought about peasants or other social classes.
4) promised to forgive any debts that people owed to his brother. Henry promised to end heavy taxation established by his brother William Rufus.
5) promised to refused (в лекции М.В. говорит resign, а когда ей про это сказали в ответах на вопросы, она сказала, что это неверно) Church property which his brother William Rufus had seized
6) promised to do no wrong to the nobles.
7) to restore to the people (восстановить для народа) the laws of Edward the Confessor (who was an ideal lawgiver) with all the improvements of William the Conqueror.
8) promised to give the nobles a choice to do military service for the crown or just to pay scutage instead [pronunciation: скатитч ] (налог на освобождение от военной службы).
William Rufus was not very popular King and good administrator, because he introduced corrupt taxation and very often seized land from his nobles and the Church. But Henry was popular, people were attached to their new king, because he was an Englishman by birth, not a Norman. By issuing this Charter Henry gained support of his people who eventually helped him in his war against his brother Robert.
This document was even too much democratic – there were no effectives ways and mechanism to enforce it actually, no legal mechanism to make people follow the provisions of the Charter (положения Хартии). The King very often ignore the Charter. A lot of practices of the past continued to exist.
Henry proved to be an efficient ruler. He continued and extended administrative work of his father, William I. He appointed not only people from the nobility but also people from lower social classes. His idea was that if you had to win your position, influence, money, you will work much harder and better rather than a person who was born with all of this. It was a quite progressive idea.
Henry has continued to consult Curia Regis. Henry was frequently absent from England and he needed a system that could operate effectively in his absence. For example, the exchequer was set up. The exchequer (казначейство) was a financial department of the king's administration, and he dealt with all royal revenues. Henry continued using Domesday's Book for the matters of taxation.
Sheriffs began to become a lot powerful, Henry created Pipe Rolls – there stated how much sheriffs collected taxes and how much they spent; Pipe Rolls – regular accounting documents at the exchequer (first ones were in 1129-1130). Регулярные отчеты шерифов казначейству.
Royal justices were often sent out to the shires to help and reinforce the local administration; they also inquired (исследовали) into cases that had involved the crown or matters of the kingdom in general (or the profit of the King) – this was another way of controlling sheriffs who also served as judges at shire courts. When justices came to the shires, they even decided cases instead of the sheriffs. Justices imposed royal authority over the authority of the sheriff himself.
Most of 12th century was marked by a struggle between the Church and the State. The struggle was, of course, for power and money. The Church wanted the King to accept its authorities over both spiritual and earthly affairs. Church argue that even the King should answer to the God, be accountable to the God. English (and other kings) wanted to appoint only bishops who were loyal to him.
Church (and Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury) didn't want to be under complete control of the King. Conflicted was so heated – Anselm was even forced into exile ( в ссылку ) for two years. Henry created several new bishops and appointed his loyal people to these offices. Henry appointed new bishops in the absence of Anselm. The problem is that bishop has the authority only if he has the blessing (благословление) of the Archbishop, and these new bishops had no authority because Archbishop was absent. Anselm was absent but he managed to win the support of the Pope.
The Pope threatened Henry I with excommunication ( отлучение от церкви ) – breaking all the diplomatic ties (связи), it was quite scaring to the King.
It was obvious that a compromise had to be reached. In 1107 (eleven-o-seven) the King agrees that only the Church appoints bishops; the King could only supervise the process of the elections and advise, express his own ideas and preferences on this matter, and the Church in return promised to make bishops pay homage to the king for the temporalities (lands used by the Church). Homage ( дань ) – sort of feudal dues. Finally, some peace was made. But when Anselm died, Henry tried to take advantage of the situation (извлечь выгоду из ситуации). Henry delayed appointment of the archbishops for 5 years, and benefitted from the wealth of the Church. And the struggle between the Church and the State continued.
Henry II
(1154–1189)
During the last 15 years of the reign of Henry I the succession to the throne was again a major issue. Problem of succession. Problem was that Henry's only legitimate son William was drowned ( утонул ) in 1120, leaving Matilda as heir to the throne (наследница, читается как air).
Matilda, Henry I's daughter was an unfortunate woman, she was first married with German emperor Henry V, but he died in 1125, and she married the second time. Henry I persuaded his barons to swear an oath in her support but did not consult them over her second marriage to a French nobleman – Geoffrey of Anjou who was 14 and was 11 years her junior. Within (в течение) a year Geoffrey repudiated (развелся) Matilda, but during a temporary reconciliation, Matilda and Geoffrey had three children. Geoffrey Plantagenet came from Anju – large and very important area south of Normandy (южнее Нормандии). With this marriage Henry tried to enlarge family possessions and the land that the English monarch controlled.
Henry publicly quarreled with Matilda and her husband. And soon after that died – nobles didn't know what to do: on the one hand, they promised to the King to make Matilda a queen; on the other hand, there was a quarrel between the King and supposed heir to the throne.
Stephen was Henry's nephew. Stephen went to England to claim the crown. Matilda was still staying in Anju with her husband, and nobody knew when she was going to arrive in England. Nobles in England had to choose between two candidates: Matilda and Stephen. No wonder, most chose Stephen, not Matilda. However, Matilda wouldn't give up her claims to the throne and 4 years later and civil war began. Severe civil war – terrible war between Matilda and Stephen. Neither side could decisively win. By 1153 it was clear that conflict went nowhere, and they reached a compromise: Stephen is the King, but Matilda's son will be the ruler after Stephen's death; Matilda's son Henry would succeed Stephen. Stephen died next year. And finally, the possessions in England and in France were united by the King Henry who was accepted by everyone.
It took years for the country to recover from the civil war.
Henry II – he was the first unquestioned English King for hundred years. Henry was an efficient ruler. He did many things for the legal system. He very often gathered Assizes. Assize – it is meeting with barons where cases could be heard and decided. Assizes could issue binding decrees. They could prescribe rules to be followed by everyone.
Criminal Proceeding:
1166 – Assize of Clarendon – grand jury system for investigating recent crimes;
1176 – Assize of Northampton – a jury to decide which cases should be tried; it provided the jury with the opportunity to decide which cases should be tried and why.
1181 – Assize of Arms – all free men should keep arms and be prepared to defend the country if necessary.
Assize – a step of development of precedent.
Assize – development of the jury system.
Juries is an important step. Jury originally were the people who lived in the area where the crime was committed. Jury has the authority to investigate recent crimes.
Jury decided if there were enough grounds to prosecute this person. Jury swear an oath (приносят клятву) that they will give their honest opinion on whether the prisoner was properly suspected. Henry II was particularly interested in getting local people involved in the administration of justice and shires, because he believed that those people who knew both the accuser and the accused could be more qualified in such kind of job, they could be more objective and best qualified to say whether there was likely to be truth in the allegation (обвинение).
Another principle that was established – during ruling of Henry – only royal courts, not feudal courts, not local feudal can deal with criminal cases and cases concerning property. Certain division of the jurisdiction between local and royal courts.
The reign of Henry II was important for providing stability.
Principle of primogeniture was established |ˌpraɪmoʊˈdʒenɪtʃər|принцип первородства – means that the eldest child of the family inherits the estate when the father dies – consolidation of property. In England it was basically male primogeniture – the eldest son. Other members of the family weren't left poor. 1/3 – to other relatives (whom? I can't make out this word, sorry).
Daughters were given a dowry [dauri] (приданое). Younger brothers were usually left without any financial support of their family.
Another established principle – the principle that individual could sell or give away his land. This sound obvious but before that it was extremely hard to do it because people saw land as a family asset (актив, имущество семьи) – and needed the consent (согласие) of all family members to sell the land – that was extremely hard – now the process was made easier and it increased social mobility and economic changes in the country because there was a market of land in England. For us the most important legacy ['legasi] ( наследие ) of Henry II is the legal system. Legal system was finally formed during his reign.
William I very quickly understood that the system of government was needed to be reformed. Legal system looks like a mixture of Norman laws, Anglo-Saxon laws, Church laws and so on and so forth.
William was the first one who tried to do something about it when he started sending some of his justices to administer justice locally. For centuries English monarchs had to go to the shires and meet people there together with their officials in to secure their authority. When the King travel around the country he very often took the court with himself.
William I took his advisors and went to judge people in shires – they decided some local disputes. People could come to the King and his advisors with their complaints and accusations (grievances). And the King said: sit down on a bench and listen.
Later kings were less inclined (менее склонны) to do this job (judiciary) themselves. Royal justices – professionals who did this job instead of the Kings – and they were appointed by the King. King Henry II was particularly interested in law and order, and he played an important role in the development of the legal system. He understood that a single system of justice for the whole land under the control of one person – the king – would not only help to unify the country, but give him much power.
Henry (and his father and grandfather) set foundations for the professional justiceships. The tradition when the King sits down on a Bench with his advisors and decide cases led to the formation of new royal court that became known as the King's Bench. (Modern Court of King's Bench originated from that court).
18 royal judges
1) 5 of them Henry ordered to always sit 'on the bench' meaning stay at Westminster and decide cases that were brought to them at Westminster.
The rest judges:
2) Following the king – these were judges travelling with the King
3) 'itinerant' justices (айтинерант), traveling justices (странствующие судьи) – travelled without the King. They were sent out to the shires with particular tasks, they had to see how the justice were administered locally and help the local administration apply national laws to the localities – apply laws that have been made by judges at Westminster. They brought national laws to local parts of England and apply national laws within the whole country
Local customary laws were different from shire to shire. Law was unified, and soon became known as common law. If local customary law make sense, if it is reasonable and could be applied – judges bring it to the Westminster, discuss it with other justices and they add it to the list of national laws.
Stare decisis [stea desaisis] (literally – 'let the decision stand') – predictability
It makes legal system more certain and predictable. The idea of stare decisis: if you have to solve the case, and the idea of the case is quite similar to the idea in any other previous case – you should apply the same kind of decision in the same case.
The application of this principle made legal system more certain and predictable.
In the 1250s – the formation of Common law completed. It was 'Common' because common for all of the parts of England and Wales. And Henry II contributed to it most.
The differences between case law and common law (sometimes used as synonyms) – case law refers to a legal system based of precedent. Common law originally meant a combination of precedents + local customs.
Conflict with the Church
(1162–1170)
Under the rule of Henry II the legal system faced a lot of improvements. The only thing that had no changes was ecclesiastical court. They didn't become part of the new legal system which provoke several problems.
Firstly, many people went to the ecclesiastical court because they wanted less punishment. This affected the prestige [pre'stiggg] and authority of Church courts. Secondly, it wasn't clear if a churchman commit a secular crime or a church crime – and should it be dealt in church court or in a lay court (мирском суде)? Issue of jurisdiction was not clear.
Thomas Becket (a friend of the King) in 1162 was appointed by Henry as Archbishop of Canterbury. Henry hoped that his friend would helped him to bring the church under the control of the monarch. It turned out that Henry and Thomas Becket had different ideas about role of the church in its relationships with the state. At first, Becket resisted the King in his attempts gain more authority over the Church. Then he finally changed his mind. The conflict became so heated so T. Becket had to run away to the France. It seemed that the King had won. In 1170 Becket returned to England and this time he was really determine to protect his ideas of the independence of the Church. Henry was angry about this situation, originally Becket was his friend.
At the middle of this conflict at some point the King said something like: "Oh, I wish someone would rid (избавит) me of this rebellious bishop". The King said it because he was angry, and it was rhetorical exclamation (риторическое восклицание). There were 4 knights who simply murdered Becket on 29th of December 1170 because they took the King's words literally – Europe was angry and shocked. Moreover, they killed him in the Canterbury cathedral – the holy place of the King. Thomas Becket soon became saint (святым) and people made pilgrimages |ˈpɪlɡrɪmɪdʒ| to his tomb [tu:m] (паломничества к его могиле). Canterbury tales – famous piece of medieval English literature.
The King found himself in a horrible situation that could lead to international problems because the country was about to uprise (rebel). To avoid this Henry had to ask the Pope for forgiveness and swear (поклясться) that he had nothing to do with the murder of the Archbishop. He also performed self-punishment act, he made a pilgrimage in sackcloth to his tomb [tu:m] (паломничество в грубой рубахе к его гробнице).
He accepted public whipping – публичная порка. Can you imagine any Russian ruler who punished himself? It means that legal consciousness of people of England is building up. This episode shows that principle of the rule of law was manifested once again: even if you are the King, you will be punished.
Canterbury cathedral – one of the oldest churches in Europe.
Lecture 3. Sons of Henry II . (Первую половину перепечатала Анжела Сулейманова, вторую – Сергей Чебан; аудио – Сирануш Марабян. Дословная перепечатка текста из мультика – Анжела Сулейманова).
Richard I The Lionheart (1189–1199)
a. financial difficulties;
b. solutions.
2. King John (1199–1216);
a. conflicts and losses;
b. raising money;
c. conflict with the nation
d. Magna Carta, 1215
Henry II
Henry II was a ruler of far more land than any previous English king. As lord of Anjou he added his father's lands to the empire. He also ruled lands south of Anjou (к югу от Анжу). Although Henry recognized the king of France as the overlord (владыка) of all his French lands, he actually controlled the greater amount of lands than the king of France himself. Many of Henry’s nobles held land on both sides of the English Channel.
Unfortunately, Henry’s sons didn’t manage either to preserve the territory and its borders or to preserve its wealth.
Richard I 'The Lionheart' (1189–1199)
Richard I was Henry’s eldest son. He has always been one of England’s most popular kings, probably because he hardly spent any time in England when he was the king. Of course, he had the territory in France as well. Basically, his nickname was originally French word combination, so he belonged more to the French culture than the English one. It is also important, Richard very often went on crusades, took parts in a lot of battles and wars, so very frequently he was absent from England. But he was brave, he was good soldier and he was everyone's idea of a perfect feudal king. He went to the Holy Land to make war on the Muslims [maslims] and fought with them with skill, courage and honor.
However, if we look at Richard as the administrator of his land, we can't say that he was very successful. Through his reign Richard experienced significant financial difficulties and there were several reasons for that.
1. Firstly, wars and crusades are costly business and Richard spent a lot of his money from the royal treasury on his military activities and when he saw that it wasn’t enough he also sold public offices (for example, if you wanted to be appointed as a sheriff, you had to pay the king first).
2. Secondly, on his way back from one of his crusades Richard was captured by the Duke of Austria with whom he had previously been on this crusade and had quarrel being on this crusade. So, to take revenge the Duke of Austria captured the English king and demanded money before he would let the king go and the sum was about 150,000 marks which was a huge sum. It took England about 2 years to collect this money and repay for the captured king.
Richard had to deal with his financial difficulties. He tried to get more money from his people, and did it in three ways:
1. Scutage ['скатитч]- the money that a knight or a noble could pay the king instead of doing the military service. The scutage was mainly collected when the country was at war and when it needed military sources of financial sources to fight this war. Richard started to collect this tax much more often even at the time of peace and increased the number of money that had to be paid.
2. Richard introduced a new tax - Carucage /ˈkærəkɪdʒ/ - a tax on the plow land ([plau] – пахотную) - the land that one could work, grow something on it. The general idea was that the amount of tax depended on the amount of land that someone possessed (the more land you have, the more money you have to pay for it).
3. General tax – 1/4 of person's revenue that had to be given to the crown. But even at the time of Richard, although he turned to this tax, it wasn’t collected too often, so it wasn’t annual or it wasn’t collected every month. It was more or less rare.
In 1199 Richard was killed in France. In total he spent about 4-5 years in England. The rest of the time he had been busy with crusades and was in France. What is more, when he died, the French king took over parts of Richard’s lands in France to rule over them himself. So not only the country lost part of its territory, but the treasury had been considerably exhausted (исчерпаны) while the population still was really pressed for money.
King John (1199–1216)
Famous for being the worst king of English history.
King John – Richard’s younger brother. He inherited English crown and became quite famous for being the worst king in English history. But in fact, he wasn’t much better or worse than the rest of medieval kings, but he found himself in a very unfortunate circumstances when he came to power, he had to deal with certain difficulties that no-one before him had experienced. Secondly, he wasn’t the best diplomat ['dipləmat] and in certain cases he made mistakes that turned out in fatal for him afterwards.
In 1199 Richard was killed in France and John became the king of England. His reign started in an unfortunate way - in a series of conflicts with various influential people.
1199 – his reign started with a series of conflicts.
I. John had a conflict with his young nephew - Arthur of Brittany. Arthur tried to claim English throne. In order to be recognized as a lawful heir (наследник, читается как air) it was necessary for the King John to win the support of the French king because the English king still recognized the fresh king as an overlord (владыка) of his French positions, and Brittany was a part of France. John thought that the best way to win the support of the French king was to secure (добиться этого) it with money and he paid the French king a huge bribe - 20,000 marks. It made a serious damage to the state's treasury but somehow John managed to keep the crown to himself.ру
II. Two years after the conflict with Arthur John had to face another one. This time with Philip II of France. The conflict itself was not that harsh, but John for a very long time kept ignoring his people’s complaints (people in France) and so they had to get to French king and to complain to him about John's behavior. Philip II of France, being the overlord (сюзереном) for King John, tried to summon John to his court in order to somehow settle this dispute, but John refused to come. For the king of France that meant that his vassal disobeyed him and had to be punished for that. Philip took away John's possessions in France, quite big pieces of land that King John hoped to control. Philip of France confiscated John’s French lands. This led to war between England and France for these territories. Philip had a powerful supporter – Arthur of Brittany. He sided (встал на сторону) with the French king. In 1202 Arthur was suddenly captured and he disappeared (the rumor was that he had been murdered). A lot of people, especially people in Brittany believed that their duke had been murdered by King John himself. That's why these people rebelled against John. Eventually in 1204 John's army was defeated in Brittany and John had to retreat. He lost all his lands in France except Gascony. This was a disaster both for the country and John himself well. For any king his military standing was very important, because that’s how you gain respect among your nobles. John lost a lot of respect and he was even given a nickname - John ‘Softsword’. So, the defeat at north France was a major blow for John and his treasury, because afterwards he had to compensate it – he increased the taxes, and this measure wasn’t popular with anyone.
III. John also succeeded in falling out ( ссора ) with the Pope in 1207. Two years before that, the archbishop of Canterbury had died and there was a need to appoint a new one. John wanted to appoint someone who was loyal to him, he wanted to appoint archbishop himself. But the churchmen demanded that the king stayed away from this, they wanted to vote for the archbishop. They ensured the support of the Pope. The Pope, of course, sided with them, had them elect person named Steven Langston. He was an Englishmen who at that time lived on Rome, so he knew things about both England and Rome itself, and he was also very educated person. He seemed like the best choice for the job, but despite all that John still persisted in his wish and named someone else. So, he appointed the archbishop himself. The Pope reacted and he did 2 things. First of all, in 1208 he issued an imposition (навязывание, наложение) of an interdiction on England: the pope issued special church law, that said that no marriage, no funeral, no christening ( М . В . произносит ' кристченинг ') could be legal in England until the Pope said otherwise. For the Medieval country it was a real disaster, because the church law said that only Christian people could get to heaven, only children who were born in a christian marriage would avoid hell after death. So, people were forced to live in sin and they couldn’t do anything about it. This placed ordinary people of England under a terrible strain (напряжение) and they blamed just one person for that - their King. The second thing that the Pope did was excommunicating in 1208. It meant that the Pope stopped recognizing John as a lawful king and proclaimed that anybody who would try to overthrow king John would be legal entitled to do so (имеет право на это) and there was nothing wrong about it.
King John did something that make things only worse. He simply seized the finance of Canterbury and confiscated a lot of Church lands. Mainly the lands which were possessed by churchmen who obey Pope's instructions. Instead of dealing of the conflicted, he only got it worse. But the Pope knew that John was in no position to do such things (не в состоянии, не в том положении) because people generally were already very-very irritated by the fact that Pope issued this interdict (интердикт; отлучение от церкви) on England. That's why Pope decided to press the English King even further and he called the King of France to invade England. In 1212 (twelve-twelve) the second conquest of England by the French nearly became a reality. In 1214 (twelve-fourteen) John lost another battle to French and this defeat resulted in losing all English possessions in France. Taking all the dissatisfaction of people inside the country and his military defeats John had to finally accept the Pope's choice of archbishop. John also admitted that he had been wrong about what he had done to the Church. So, he gave back everything that he had seized from the Church and, apart from that, he paid the Church compensation. And you can imagine this was another burden (?) for the royal treasury (бремя для королевской казны). When you find yourself in such a difficult financial situation, you start looking for sources of income. 
And for John primary source was taxation of course. Apart from the existing difficulties, John had been constantly waging |ˈweɪdʒɪŋ| war (вел войну) against France. He was trying to reclaim all the lands that he had lost. And of course, he needed money. The main source of income available to King John was his feudal tights.
1) Annual scutage in increased amounts. First and foremost, it was scutage [скатитч]. And during the reign of King John this tax became annual which was unprecedented, nobody had done this before. And apart from that, he increased the amount of scutage.
2) High fines and payments for marriage and succession. Increased all the customary dues. He also collected some more traditional customary dues, but the sums demanded by the crown amounted to (составляли) enormous numbers (огромные числа). It was always normal for a feudal lord to pay a certain amount of money to the King when his daughter got married. And nobody questioned that custom. But John actually asked a lot more than a custom demanding. Similarly (подобным образом), when a noble died without a son, it was normal practice for this land (?) to be passed on to a member of a noble family. John stopped this from happening for at least several years. Instead he kept this land himself and profited from it. In order to pay such taxes many barons – this was the richest class – had to borrow (брать в долг) money. And when they couldn't pay their taxes, their lands were simply confiscated.
3) General tax collected twice. For about 15 years general tax was collected twice. It was a great burden (бремя) for the people.
4) Expensive and unsuccessful war. Most of money that Richard collected was spent on his wars in France. In order to fight the French he amassed [əˈmas] (собрал) an army. But the barons had no significant gains of territories, there were no great victories that would justified the amount of money that the King demanded from them. On the contrary (вопреки этому), it seemed that instead of winning lands the King only kept losing them.
Another source of revenue was the judicial system. Making the judicial system into a source of money, King John allowed judges to abuse the judicial power (злоупотреблять судебной властью).
Judicial System
– bribes (corrupted justice). Bribes were really common. The more you pay – the more chances to win you get. If you don't have enough money to pay for the procedure, well, then you are welcome to take a loan (заем) from the King. If you can't pay back afterwards (позднее), your family will be taken into King's serfs (рабы).
– unlawful punishment for enemies. Very often there were no trials, the person could be convicted (осужден) without a trial.
– unfair litigation fees. The money you have to pay to get your case through the court were completely unreasonable and unfair. Very often fines were much bigger than the crimes. Minor offences and a huge fine you have to pay for it.
– no uniform fines and fees.
– taking cases from feudal courts. William I established feudal courts: courts in counties, shire courts and feudal courts (with earls as judges). The earls that decided the cases in such courts profited from them, because people had to pay fine or money to the lord. John took a lot of cases from feudal courts to royal court which meant that now it was the King who profited from this litigation.
John managed to make himself unpopular with at least three most important groups of the English society: the nobles, the merchants ([мёрчентс], торговцы) and the Church. At the end of his reign he was unpopular with all social classes.
Дата: 2018-11-18, просмотров: 489.
