The peace of the king now did not die with the king, but
renewed automatically without an interval before the inauguration
of a new king.
Notorious felons who would not consent or put themselves on
inquests for felonies with which they were charged at royal courts
were put in strong and hard imprisonment to persuade them to
accept trial by assize. This inducement progressed into being
loaded with heavy chains and placed on the ground in the worst
part of the prison and being fed a only little water one day and a
little bread the next. Sometimes pieces of iron or stones were
placed one another onto their prone bodies to persuade them to
plead. This then developed into being loaded with as much iron as
could be borne, and finally into being pressed to death ["peine
forte et dure"]. Many of these men chose to die by this pressing
so that their families could inherit their property, which would
have been forfeited if they had been convicted of serious crimes.
The most common cases in the Court of Common Pleas were "detinue"
[wrongful detention of a good or chattel which had been loaned,
rented, or left for safe-keeping with a "bailee", but belonged to
the plaintiff], "debt" [for money due from a sale, for money
loaned, for rent upon a lease for years, from a surety, promised
in a sealed document, or due to arbitrators to whom a dispute had
been submitted] and "account" [e.
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