The forest law stated that: "he that doth hunt a wild beast and doth make him pant, shall pay 10 shillings: If he be a freeman, then he shall pay double. If he be a bound man, he shall lose his skin." A "verderer" was responsible for enforcing this law, which also stated that: "If anyone does offer force to a Verderer, if he be a freeman, he shall lose his freedom, and all that he hath. And if he be a villein, he shall lose his right hand." Further, "If such an offender does offend so again, he shall lose his life."
A wife's dower is one-third of all her husband's freehold land, unless his endowment of her at their marriage was less than one- third.
Debts to townsmen were recoverable by this law: "If a burgess has a gage Past due rent in a borough was punishable by payment of 10s. as fine. Judicial activity encouraged the recording of royal legislation in writing which both looked to the past and attempted to set down law current in Henry's own day in the Leges Henrici Primi. This showed an awareness of the ideal of written law as a statement of judicial principles as well as of the practice of kingship. In this way, concepts of Roman law used by the Normans found their way into English law. The laws of Henry I in the Leges Henrici Primi have as subjects judicial procedure, proper judging, conduct of people involved in litigation, litigation procedure, required witnesses, evidence, credibility, quotes from legal references, oaths, perjury, geographical divisions of England, court sessions and attendance, order of court proceedings, adjournments, frankpledge, strangers, types of causes and their manner of hearing, royal jurisdiction, ecclesiastical pleas of the king, offenses, compensations, penalties, reliefs, the king's peace, forest pleas, exculpation, soke, jurisdiction of royal judges, the king's judges, summons, oathhelpers, transfer of cases, trials of pleas, unjust judgments, sureties, lords who sue, accusations, court procedure, pleadings, postponements, record of proceedings, failure to appear, counsel, summoning the hundred, summoning the county court, distraints, partners of common property, rights of jurisdiction of a lord over his man, holdings in farm, disputes between neighbors, trial by battle, slaves, pleas between a lord's reeve and those who are subject to him, suits by royal judges, wergelds, murdrum fine, letting go of a thief, slaying of or by a cleric, confessions, men of ill repute, ordeals, compensations, bondmen, intent, inheritance, dowries, homicide by magicians, definition of homicide, killing one's lord, foreigners, debtors, illegitimacy, foundlings, the king's peace, homicide in the king's court, royal highways, self-defense, drinking assemblies, mutual enemies, leading into wrong-doing, lent arms, marauders, weapons, killing a relative, pledge, negligence, and wounds to body parts. A sampling of the laws of Henry I follows: "These are the jurisdictional rights which the king of England has in his land solely and over all men, reserved through a proper ordering of peace and security: breach of the king's peace given by his hand or writ; Danegeld; the pleas of contempt of his writs or commands; the death or injury of his servants wherever occurring; breach of fealty and treason; any contempt or slander of him; fortifications consisting of three walls; outlawry; theft punishable by death; murdrum; counterfeiting his coinage; arson; hamsocn [breach of the right of security and privacy in a man's house by forcible entry into it]; forestel [attacking an enemy unexpectedly or lying in wait for him on the road and attacking him] passenger on the king's highway]; fyrding [action regarding the military array or land force of the whole country]; flymenfyrm [the reception or relief of a fugitive or outlaw]; premeditated assault; robbery; stretbreche [destroying a road by closing it off or diverting it or digging it up]; unlawful appropriation of the king's land or money; treasure-trove; wreck of the sea; things cast up by the sea; rape; abduction; forests; the reliefs of barons; fighting in the king's dwelling or household; breach of the peace in the king's troop; failure to perform burgbot Judicial Procedure Courts extant now are the Royal Court, the King's Court of the Exchequer, county courts, and hundred courts, all of which were under the control of the King. His appointed justices administered justice in these courts on regular circuits. Instead of being the presiding official at the county court, the sheriff now only produced the proper people and preserved order at the county courts and presided over the nonroyal pleas and hundred courts. He impaneled recognitors, made arrests, and enforced the decisions of the royal courts. Also there are manor courts, borough courts, and ecclesiastical courts. In the manor courts, the lord's reeve generally presided. The court consisted of the lord's vassals and declared the customs and law concerning such offenses as failure to perform services and trespass on manorial woods, meadow, and pasture. The King's Royal Court heard issues concerning the Crown and breaches of the King's peace, which included almost all criminal matters: murder, robbery, rape, abduction, arson, treason, breach of fealty, housebreaking, ambush, certain kinds of theft, premeditated assault, and harboring outlaws or excommunicants. Henry personally presided over hearings of important legal cases. He punished crime severely. He hanged homicides, exiled traitors, and frequenly used loss of hand and foot. In comparison, William had no one hanged, but used emasculation and exoculation frequently. Offenders were brought to justice not only by the complaint of an individual or local community action, but by official prosecutors. A prosecutor was now at trials as well as a justice. Trial is still mostly by compurgation but trial by combat was relatively common. These offenses against the king placed merely personal property and sometimes land at the king's mercy. Thus the Crown increased the range of offenses subject to its jurisdiction and arrogated to itself profits from the penalties imposed. The death penalty could be imposed for murder and replaced the old wergeld. But a murderer could be given royal pardon from the death penalty so that he could pay compensation to the relatives. The Royal Court also heard these offenses against the king: fighting in his dwelling, contempt of his writs or commands, encompassing the death or injury of his servants, contempt or slander of the King, and violation of his protection or his law. It heard these offenses against royal authority: complaints of default of justice or unjust judgment, pleas of shipwrecks, coinage, treasure trove [money buried when danger approached], forest prerogatives, and control of castle building.