It also decided cases in which the powers of the
popular courts had been exhausted or had failed to do justice. The
Royal Court also decided land disputes between barons who were too
strong to submit to the county courts.
The King's Court of the Exchequer reviewed the accounts of
sheriffs, including receipts and expenditures on the Crown's
behalf as well as sums due to the Treasury, located still at
Winchester. These sums included rent from royal estates, the
Danegeld land tax, the fines from local courts, and aid from
baronial estates. Its records were the "Pipe Rolls", so named
because sheets of parchment were fastened at the top, each of
which dropped into a roll at the bottom and so assumed the shape
of a pipe.
The county and hundred courts assessed the personal property of
individuals and their taxes due to the King. The county court
decided land disputes between people who had different barons as
their respective lords.
The free landholders were expected to attend county, hundred, and
manor courts. They owed "suit" to it. The suitors found the dooms
[laws] by which the presiding officer pronounced the sentence.
The county courts heard cases of theft, brawling, beating, and
wounding, for which the penalties could be exposure in the pillory
or stocks. The pillory held an offender's head and hands in holes
in boards, and the stocks held one's hands and feet.
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