But since charters are sometimes
fraudulently drawn and gifts falsely taken to be made when they
are not, recourse must therefore be had to the country and the
neighborhood so that the truth may be declared."
In Bracton's view, a villein could buy his own freedom and the
child of a mixed marriage was free unless he was born in the
tenement of his villein parent.
- Judicial Procedure -
The Royal Court split up into several courts with different
specialties and became more like departments of state than offices
of the King's household. The justices were career civil servants
knowledgeable in the civil and canon law. The Court of the King's
Bench (a marble slab in Westminster upon which the throne was
placed) traveled with the king and heard criminal cases and pleas
of the Crown. Any use of force, however trivial, was interpreted
as breach of the royal peace and could be brought before the
king's bench. Its records were the coram rege rolls. The title of
the Chief Justiciar of England changed to the Chief Justice of
England. The Court of Common Pleas heard civil cases brought by
one subject against another. Pursuant to the Magna Carta, it sat
only at one place, the Great Hall in Westminster. It had
concurrent jurisdiction with the King's Bench over trespass cases.
Its records were the de banco rolls. The Court of the Exchequer
with its subsidiary department of the Treasury was in almost
permanent session at Westminster, collecting the Crown's revenue
and enforcing the Crown's rights.
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