The hundred court heard neighborhood disputes, for instance concerning pastures, meadows and harvests. It policed the duty of frankpledge, which was required for those who did not have a lord to answer for him. It met once a month.
The free landholders were expected to attend shire, hundred, and baronage courts. They owed "suit" to it. The suitors found the dooms [laws] by which the presiding officer pronounced the sentence.
The barons held court on their manors for issues arising between people living on the manor, such as bad ploughing on the lord's land or letting a cow get loose on the lord's land, and land disputes. They also made the decision of whether or not a person was a villein or free. The manor court took over issues which had once been heard in the vill or hundred court. The baron charged a fee for hearing a case and received any fines he imposed, which amounted to significant "profits of justice".
Boroughs held court on trading and marketing issues in their towns such as measures and weights, as well as issues between people who lived in the borough. The borough court was presided over by a reeve who was a burgess as well as a royal official.
Wealthy men could employ professional pleaders to advise them and to speak for them in a court.
The ecclesiastical courts dealt with family matters such as marriage, annulments, marriage portions, legitimacy, wife-beating, child abuse, orphans, bigamy, adultery, incest, fornication, personal possessions, slander, usury, mortuaries, sanctuary, sacrilege, blasphemy, heresy, tithe payments, church fees, certain offences on consecrated ground, and breaches of promises under oath, e.g. to pay a debt, provide services, or deliver goods. It decided inheritance and will issues which did not concern land, but only personal property. This developed from the practice of a priest usually hearing a dying person's will as to the disposition of his goods and chattel when he made his last confession. It provided guardianship of infants during probate of their personal property. Trial was by compurgation. An alleged offender could be required to answer questions under oath, thus giving evidence against himself. The ecclesiastical court's penalties were intended to reform and determined on a case-by-case basis. They could include confession and public repentance of the sin before the parish, making apologies and reparation to persons affected, public embarrassment such as being dunked in water (e.g. for women scolds), walking a route barefoot and clad only in one's underwear, whippings, extra work, fines, and imprisonment in a "penitentiary" to do penance. The ultimate punishment was excommunication with social ostracism. Then no one could give the person drink, food, or shelter and the only people he could speak to were his spouse and servants. Excommunication included denial of the sacraments of baptism, penance, eucharist, and extreme unction at death; which were necessary for salvation of the soul; and the sacrament of confirmation. However, the person could still marry and make a will. Excommunication was usually imposed for failure to obey an order or showing contempt of the law or of the courts. It required a due process hearing and a written reason. If this measure failed, it was possible to turn the offender over to the state for punishment, e.g. for blasphemy or heresy. Blasphemy [speaking ill of God] was thought to cause God's wrath expressed in famine, pestilence, and earthquake and was usually punished by a fine or corporal punishment, e.g. perforation or amputation of the tongue. It was tacitly understood that the punishment for heresy was death by burning. The state usually assured itself the sentence was just before imposing it. The court of the rural dean was the ecclesiastical parallel of the hundred court of secular jurisdiction and usually had the same land boundaries.
Chapter 6
The Times: 1154-1215
King Henry II and Queen Eleanor, who was twelve years older, were both intelligent, educated, energetic, well-traveled, and experienced in affairs of state. Henry was the first Norman King to be fully literate. Eleanor often served as regent during Henry's reign and the reigns of their two sons: Richard, the Lion-Hearted, and John. Henry II was a modest, courteous, and patient man with an astonishing memory and strong personality. He was indifferent to rank and impatient of pomp to the point of being careless about his appearance. He usually dressed in riding clothes and was often unkempt. He was thrifty, but generous to the poor.
Henry revived and augmented the laws and institutions of his grandfather, Henry I, and developed them to a new perfection. Almost all legal and fiscal institutions appear in their first effective form during his reign. For instance, he institutionalized the assize for a specific function in judicial proceedings, whereas before it had been an ad hoc body used for various purposes.