COMMUNAL HOUSE DEMOLITION

There was a strange custom peculiar to the ancient community of the Cinque Ports, which has not, so far as I know, been found elsewhere in England. If a member of any one of these towns was elected to serve as Mayor or 'Jurat' (the governing bodies consisting of a Mayor and twelve 'Jurats'), and refused to accept the office, his house was publicly demolished by the community. An extract from the Custumal of Sandwich, headed 'Pena maioris electi recusantis officium suum', will make the custom clear:

Si maior sic electus officium suum recipere noluit, primo et secundo et tercio monitus, tota communitas ibit ad capitale messuagium suum, si habuerit proprium, et illud cum armis omnimodo quo poterit prosternat usque ad terram.... Similiter quicunque juratus fuerit electus, et jurare noluerit, simile judicium.[1]

Although the custom of house demolition is apparently, as I have said, peculiar in England to the Cinque Ports, it was of widespread occurrence abroad. Thither, therefore, we must turn our steps in order to investigate its history.

It is in Flanders and in Northern France, and in Picardy, most of all, that we find this singular custom prevailing, and discover its inseparable connection with the institution of the Commune. It would seem that the penalty of house demolition was originally decreed for offences against the commune in its corporate capacity. Thierry, basing his conclusions mainly on the charters of the commune of Amiens and the daughter-charter of Abbeville writes:

Celui qui se soustrait à la justice de la Commune est puni de banissement, et sa maison est abattue. Celui qui tient des propos injurieux contre la Commune encourt la même peine. Voilà pour les dispositions communes aux chartes d'Amiens et d'Abbeville, c'est-à-dire pour celles qui authentiquement sont plus anciennes que l'acte royal de 1190. Si l'on ne s'y arrête pas et qu'on relève dans cet acte d'autres dispositions, probablement primitives aussi, on trouvera les peines du crime politique, l'abatis de maison et le banissement, appliquées à celui qui viole sciemment les constitutions de la Commune et à celui qui, blessé dans une querelle, refuse la composition en justice et refuse pareillement de donner sécurité à son adversaire.

Une peine moindre, car elle se réduit à ce que la maison du délinquant soit abattue s'il n'aime mieux en payer la valeur, est appliquée à celui qui addresse des injures au Maire dans l'exercice de ses fonctions, et à celui qui frappe un de ses Jurés devant les magistrats, en pleine audience. Ainsi l'abatis de maison, vengeance de la Commune lésée ou offensée, était à la fois un châtiment par lui-même et le signe qui rendait plus terrible aux imaginations la sentence de banissement conditionnel ou absolu. Il avait lieu dans la plupart ... des communes du nord de la France avec un appareil sombre et imposant; en présence des citoyens, convoqués à son de cloche, le Maire frappait un coup de marteau contre la demeure du condamné, et des ouvriers, requis pour service public, procédaient à la démolition qu'ils poursuivaient jusqu'à ce qu'il ne restât plus pierre sur pierre.[2]

The public character of the ceremony, which was no less marked at Sandwich (vide supra), is well illustrated in the Ordonnances of Philip of Alsace (circ. 1178) on the powers of his baillis in Flanders:

Domus diruenda Judicio Scabinorum, post quindenam a scabinis indultam, quandocunque comes præceperit, aut ballivus ejus, diruetur a communia villæ, campana pulsata per Scabinos; et qui ad diruendam illam non venerit, in forisfacto erit, etc., etc.

This ringing of the communal bell—parallel to the moot-bell of England—is an important feature in the matter. Without insisting upon a stray allusion, one may ask whether an entry in the Colchester records in the sixteenth century, threatening that if an offending burgess does not make amends, the town will 'ring him out of his freedom', may not be explained by this practice.

There are plenty of other early instances of this house demolition in recognized Communes. At Bruges we read (circ. 1190): 'Si scabini voluerint domum eius prosternere, poterunt', etc., etc. So, too, at Roye, the charter (circ. 1183) provides: 'Domus forisfactoris diruetur si Major voluerit, et si Major redempcionem accipiet de domibus diruendis', etc., etc.... 'Si quis extraneus ... forisfactum fecerit ... Major et homines ville ad diruendam domum ejus exeant; quæ si sit adeo fortis ut vi Burgensium dirui non possit, ad eam diruendam vim et auxilium conferemus'.[3] So essential was the power of distraint, as we might term it, given to the community over its members, by the possession of a house, that it was sometimes made compulsory on a new member to become possessed of a house within a year of his joining. This was the case at Laon, one of the oldest of the Communes, the charter of Louis VI (1128) providing that 'Quicunque autem in Pace ista recipiatur, infra anni spatium aut domum sibi edificet, aut vineas emet ... per que justiciari possit, si quid forte in eum querele evenerit'. Where, in the absence of such provision, the culprit had no house to be demolished, it would seem that, in some cases, he had to procure one, for the express purpose of being demolished, before he could be restored to his membership. Thus, at Abbeville, the charter of Commune provides that 'si domum non habuerit, antequam villam intret, domum centum solidorum, quam communia prosternat, inveniet'.

Thierry pointed out how the 'commune' of north-eastern France found its way, through its adoption in Normandy, to the opposite corner of the country 'sur les terres de la domination Anglaise'.[4] The form 'jurats' adopted by the Cinque Ports for the members of their governing body suggests, indeed, some connection with Gascony, to which region, as Thierry observed, it more especially belongs.[5] I was much struck, when visiting Bayonne, with its interesting municipal history. Thierry alludes to its peculiar character;[6] and, as the town had commercial relations with the Cinque Ports, and illustrates, moreover, the tendency of a commercial port to adopt, from other regions, a constitution peculiar to itself, I shall here give from its local customs the provisions as to house demolition.

Appended to John's charter granting a communa to Bayonne (April 19, 1215) we find a code of communal ordinances based partly on those in the Rouen and Falaise charters and partly on the customs of La Rochelle. In this code the penalty of destroying the offender's house was decreed for a magistrate who accepted bribes,[7] for a citizen who shirked his military service,[8] for a perjured man,[9] for a thief.[10]

It again appears as the penalty for receiving bribes in the local Custumal assigned to 1273: 'La soe maison sera darrocade, et que jameis ed ni son her no hage juridiccion en le communi.' In the foundation-charter granted to Sanabria by Alphonso IX of Leon, in 1220, we find this penalty similarly assigned to perjury ('que la su casa sea derribada por esta razon'); but when the charter was altered by Alphonso X (September 1, 1258), the penalty was commuted for a pecuniary fine of sixty 'sueldos', on the ground that the destruction of the house was an injury to the city and to himself.[11] This is important as affording an instance of the actual introduction of commutation.

Now, my contention is that, as the practice of communal house demolition wandered down into Gascony, and thence actually crossed the Pyrenees into Spain, so—in the opposite direction—it crossed the channel and established itself in the Cinque Ports. As these movements become better understood, we are learning to treat them scientifically, and to trace them through their growth to their origin. In the case of the commune, the principle of filiation enables us to accomplish this with remarkable success.

But, it may be asked, is there any instance, on the other side of the channel, of house demolition being the penalty prescribed for refusal to accept office as Mayor or Jurat? It is, I reply, at Amiens the very penalty prescribed for that offence! The Custumal of Amiens contained these two clauses:

Et convient que chis qui pris est faiche le serment de le mairie; et se il ne veult faire, on abatera se maison, et demourra en le merchy du roy au jugement de esquevins.

Derekief se li maires qui eslus seroit refusoit le mairie et vausist souffrir le damage, jà pour che ne demouerroit qu'il ne fesist l'office; et se aucuns refusoit l'esquevinage, on abateroit sa maison et l'amenderoit au jugement de esquevins, et pour chou ne demoureroit mie que il ne fesist l'office de l'esquevinage.[12]

Thierry, who was ignorant of the Cinque Ports custom—as the historians of the Cinque Ports appear to have been ignorant of that at Amiens—describes this provision as 'loi remarquable en ce qu'elle faisait revivre et sanctionnait par des garanties toutes nouvelles ce principe de la législation romaine, que les offices municipaux sont une charge obligatoire'.[13] But this brings us face to face with the difficult and disputed question of the persistence of Roman institutions. Personally, I have always thought it rash to accept similarity as proof of continuity. Here, for instance, the occurrence of this practice at Sandwich might lead to the inference that the institutions of Sandwich were of direct Roman origin. Yet, if this practice was imported from France, we see how erroneous that inference would be. A reductio ad absurdum of this rash argument, as I have elsewhere pointed out, would be found in the suggestion that every modern borough rejoicing in the possession of aldermen had derived its institutions continuously from Anglo-Saxon times. In the particular instance of this practice, we should note that it occurs (a) in that portion of France where the municipal development was least Roman in character; (b) in a peculiar and original form—the 'garanties toutes nouvelles' of Thierry.

Again, we find the infliction of fines for non-acceptance of municipal office a familiar custom in England even to the present day. These fines were undoubtedly commutations for an original expulsion from the community; and at Colchester, for example, we have a case of a man being deprived of 'his freedom' for declining the office of alderman, and of his having to make 'submission' and pay a fine before it was restored. The fact is, that in every community, whether urban or rural, where office was a necessary but burdensome duty—like modern jury-service or mediaeval 'suit'—a penalty had to be imposed upon those who declined to discharge it. The peculiarity of the Sandwich and Amiens cases consists not in the imposition of a penalty, but in the character of the penalty imposed.

Pass we now from the consideration of this penalty to the wider and important conclusions suggested by its local occurrence.

I have always been puzzled by the peculiar phenomena presented by the 'Cinque Ports' organization. To other writers it would seem to present no such difficulty; but to me it is unique in England, and inexplicable on English lines. In that able monograph of Professor Burrows,[13] which is the latest contribution on the subject, the writer, I venture to think, leaves the problem as obscure as ever. I shall now, therefore, advance the suggestion, which has long been taking form in my mind, that the 'Cinque Ports' corporation was of foreign origin, and was an offshoot of the communal movement in Northern France.

From Picardy, which faced the Cinque Ports, they derived, I believe, their confederation. To quote Thierry:

La région du nord, qui est le berceau, et pour ainsi dire la terre classique des communes jurées, comprend la Picardie, l'Artois, etc.... Parmi ces provinces, la Picardie est celle qui renferme le plus grand nombre de communes proprement dites, où cette forme de régime atteint le plus haut degré d'indépendance et où dans ses applications, elle offre le plus de variété. Les communes de Picardie avaient en général toute justice, haute, moyenne et basse. Nonseulement dans cette province les chartes municipales des villes se trouvaient appliquées à de simples villages, dont quelques-uns n'existent plus, mais encore il y avait des confédérations de plusieurs villages ou hameaux réunis en municipalités sous une charte et une magistrature collectives.[14]

Let me briefly summarize the arguments on which I base my hypothesis:

I do not contend that the French 'commune' was adopted intact by the Cinque Ports, for, of course, it was not so. In the matter of names alone, they are not styled a 'commune', nor are the members of their community termed 'jurés' (jurati), but 'barons' (barones). The study, however, of the 'commune' in France itself reveals the adaptation to environment it underwent on transplantation. And, the salient feature of the Cinque Ports organization, the fact that they formed a single community, possessing a single assembly, and receiving a joint charter, is paralleled most remarkably in the joint 'communes' of Picardy, containing from four to eight separate 'Vills'.[20]

It would be very satisfactory if the French 'communes' could throw light on the obscure title of 'barons' appertaining to the men of the Cinque Ports, and to them, I maintain (against Professor Burrows), alone among English burgesses. I have elsewhere shown that there is evidence of the use of this term at an earlier period than is supposed, viz., in the early years of Stephen;[21] but on its origin the 'commune' throws no light. One can only quote the parallel afforded by the 'commune' of Niort, and this is taken from a late document (1579). Its officers are said to hold of the King 'à droit de baronie, à foi et homage-lige, au devoir d'un gant ou cinq sols tournois, pour tous devoirs, payables à chaque mutation de seigneur'.[22] This 'devoir' is parallel, it will be seen, to the 'canopy-service' (or 'Honours at Court') of the Cinque Ports, rendered as it was, in practice, 'à chaque mutation de seigneur'. It is noteworthy that a French royal charter of 1196 contains the clause: 'prefati quatuor ville exercitum et equitationem novis debent sicut alie communie nostre';[23] but one can scarcely connect this with the naval service of the Cinque Ports. Yet it was part, undoubtedly, of the communal principle that the 'commune' should hold directly of the King, and not of any mediate lord, and this principle would explain the style 'barones regis' applied to the men of the Cinque Ports.

To sum up, there are features about the Cinque Ports organization which can only be accounted for, it seems to me, by the hypothesis here advanced. If this novel solution be accepted,[24] a question at once arises as to the date at which this communal confederacy was established. From what we know of the origin of the 'commune', we can scarcely believe in its adoption here till a generation, at least, after the Conquest. 'Only the least informed and most sceptical,' writes Professor Burrows, 'have placed the act of incorporation later than the date of the Conqueror',[25] but a wider knowledge of municipal institutions would lead to the opposite conclusion. It is possible that the reign of Henry I may have witnessed the superimposing of a communal confederacy on the existing institutions of the several ports; it is impossible, at any rate, to trace it in Domesday, and difficult, indeed, to reconcile with its existence the evidence afforded by the Great Survey. It is conceivable that the position already attained, in the Conqueror's days, by Dover, may have served as a model for the other Ports, when they learnt the power of the principle that lay at the root of the commune—'L'union fait la force'.[26]

[1] Boys' Sandwich, p. 431.

[2] Monographie de la Constitution communale d'Amiens (Essai sur l'Histoire ... du Tiers-Etat, pp. 347-8). The charter of Abbeville prescribed this penalty ('domus ejus et omnia ad ejus mancionem pertinentia prosternantur') for homicide, which lies outside the class of 'political offences'. Giry, in his Etablissements de Rouen (1883), speaks of the 'abattis de maison' as 'caractéristique du droit municipal du Nord' (i. 431), but I do not find that he anywhere mentions it as the penalty appointed for refusing office.

[3] Recueil des Ordonnances des Rois de France, xi., p. 228.

[4] So also p. 263, where he calls attention to 'l'établissement de la constitution communale de Rouen et de Falaise dans quatre des provinces annexées au XIIe siècle à la domination anglo-normande'; and to 'cette adoption de la commune jurée selon le type donné par les grandes villes de la Normandie, événement auquel contribua sans doute la politique des rois d'Angleterre'.

[5] 'À Bordeaux ... le principal titre de magistrature était celui de Jurats, titre qu'on retrouve dans une foule de villes, depuis la Gironde jusqu'au milieu de la chaîne des Pyrénées' (p. 247).

[6] 'Au milieu de cette unité d'organisation administrative et judiciaire la ville de Bayonne se détache, et contraste avec toutes les autres. On la voit, au commencement du XIII^e siècle, abandonner le régime municipal indigène et chercher de loin une constitution éstrangère, celle des communes normandes, transportée et perfectionée dans les villes du Poitou et de la Saintonge; c'est une double cause, la suzeraineté des rois d'Angleterre étendue de la Normandie aux Pyrénées, et le commerce d'une ville maritime, qui amène ainsi aux extrémités de la zone municipale du Midi la commune jurée dans sa forme native, avec toutes ses règles et ses pratiques' (p. 249).

[7] 'La soe maizon, so es del marie o d'aquet quiu loguer aura pres, sera darrocade seins contredit.'

[8] 'E en merce de la comunie, de sa maizon darrocar.'

[9] 'Sera en merce dou maire e dous pars de sa maizon darrocar.'

[10] 'La maison ons ed estaue sera abatude per les justizies de la comunie.'

[11] 'Ca esto tornarie en dano de Nos e de la nuestra Puebla.' (Boletin de la real Academia de la Historia, October 1888.)

[12] 'Ancienne Coutume d'Amiens' (Recueil des Monum. ined. de l'Histoire du Tiers-Etat, I. pp. 159, 160).

[13] He refers us to the Theodosian Code. Lib. XII, tit. 1, 'de decurionibus', and D., Lib. i, tit. 4, 'de muneribus et honoribus'.

[13] Cinque Ports (Historic Towns Series), by Montagu Burrows.

[14] Essai sur l'Histoire du Tiers-Etat, p. 240. (The italics are my own.)

[15] The Danish 'Five Boroughs' stand apart, as a temporary confederation, the character of which we do not know.

[16] Professor Burrows makes light of this name, asserting that 'it is hard to say when the French form came into common use' (p. 56). But 'the five Cinque Ports', which he admits to be the correct style, is a pleonasm which proves the 'Cinque' to be older than the 'Five'.

[17] 'London and the Cinque Ports stand isolated from their fellows in the common absence of the institution' (Burrows, p. 43).

[18] 'The same may be said of the office of "Alderman" ... The term seems to be only accidentally, if not erroneously, used' (ibid., p. 44).

[19] The mayor and his twelve pairs, jurats (or jurés) or échevins, were an essential feature of the commune, and spread with the communal movement.

[20] Recueil des Ordonnances des Rois de France, xi. 231, 237, 245, 277, 291, 308, 315. The text must now be modified in the light of my further criticism, in the next paper, of the early date alleged for the confederation of the Ports.

[21] This was written in reliance on the statement by Mr Howlett (Chronicles of the reigns of Stephen, Henry II and Richard I, vol. iii., p. xl) that an interesting writ he quoted from 'the cartulary of St Benet-at-Hulme' was 'safely attributable to the year 1137'. It is a writ of Robert, Earl of Leicester, acting as justiciary, and 'gives', says Mr Howlett, 'a clear idea of the Earl's position at the opening of the reign'. As he has made himself master of the period, and has specially studied its manuscript sources, I accepted his assurance without question. But as it subsequently struck me that such a writ was more likely to be issued by the Earl when justiciary under Henry II, I referred to the cartulary and found that the writ contained the words 'avi regis', proving it, of course, to belong to the reign, not of Stephen, but of Henry II:

'R. Com(es) leg(recestriæ) Baronibus regis de Hastingg' salutem. Precipio quod abbas et monachi de Hulmo teneant bene et in pace et juste terras suas in Gernemut ... sicut eas melius tenuerunt tempore Regis H. avi regis ... T. R. Basset per breve regis de ultra mare' (Galba E. 2, fo. 33b).

We can only, therefore, say of its date that it is previous to the Earl's death in 1168. In any case, however, it is of much interest as connecting Yarmouth with Hastings alone, not, as alleged, with the Cinque Ports as a whole. This is in perfect accordance with the fact that John's charter to Hastings in 1205 duly mentions its rights at Yarmouth, of which there is no mention in his charters to the other ports.

I have noted in this same cartulary, and on the same page, an interesting confirmation by Henry II to the Abbey of the land, 'quam lefwinus et Robertus presbyteri et Bonefacius et ceteri barones mei de Hastingges eidem ecclesie dederunt in Gernemut' apud Den ... Test' Thom' cancellario. Apud Westmonasterium'. The name of Thomas fixes the date as not later than 1158. In the charters of 1205, the people of Hastings are styled 'barons', but those of the other ports only 'homines'.

[22] This represents the 'esporle' of South-Western France (cf. p. 243, n. 278).

[23] Recueil (ut supra), xi. 277.

[24] I can find no trace of it in Professor Burrows' careful résumé of the factors in the Cinque Ports organization.

[25] Cinque Ports, p. 56.

[26] Professor Burrows is very severe on those who question the alleged charter of Edward the Confessor to the Ports and 'the sweeping franchises' that it conferred (pp. 55-6, 59). But the sole evidence for its alleged existence is the charter of 1278, which does not even, I think, necessarily imply it. For the allusion to the liberties the Ports possessed in the days of Edward and his successors might well be taken from such a charter as that of Henry II to Lincoln, in which he grants to the citizens all the liberties 'quas habuerunt tempore Edwardi et Willelmi et Henrici regum Anglorum'. This does not imply that those kings had granted charters.

[The result of my further investigation has been to develop much further the position here Arch. Rev., December 1889, adopted, and to modify accordingly the closing paragraph in the text.]