The constitution of the general police of the country being of such a nature that it was powerless to enforce any universally unpopular measure, a distinct and separate organisation was required to administer the well-hated code of law which had to do with the royal prerogative of hunting. The whole subject of forest law and forest police is of sufficient interest and importance to warrant an account of its main characteristics in some detail.

The King's Peace, as we have already seen, was of two kinds—there was the public peace of the realm, and there was the royal or private peace, enjoyed by the Sovereign, and by those closely connected with him. If we examine further these main divisions, we shall find that each is composed of certain sub-divisions, with their own particular laws and customs: thus under the general heading of public peace must be included—(1) the peace and privacy to which every man is entitled at his own fireside, securing him against all intrusion as long as he commits no felonious action—(2) the "peace of the church" as kept by the Ecclesiastical Courts—and (3) the "peace of the sea" with its court (afterwards known as the Court of Admiralty) "to maintain peace and justice amongst the people of every nation passing through the sea of England."[60]

The private peace of the King, besides protecting his person and the precincts of his palaces, extended also over all the Royal Forest land, that is to say, over about a third part of the whole area of England: Canute's law was "I will that every man be entitled to his hunting in wood and field, on his own possession. And let everyone forego my hunting";[61] but there is no evidence to prove that the Danish King enforced his forest law otherwise than by the ordinary law of the land. The system of game preservation that grew up under the Normans, however, was so rigid that it necessitated the creation of special laws, special courts of law, and a special police for the prevention and punishment of illegal hunting. The Norman code was modified somewhat by Magna Carta,[62] and again in 1217; but it continued to oppress the nation through many generations, for wherever the peace of the forest was well maintained, there did the peace of the people suffer.

The amount of afforested land varied considerably from time to time. Henry II. possessed 68 forests, 13 chaces and 781 parks,[63] but it was not necessarily those monarchs who were particularly devoted to sport that were the most exacting, a strict enforcement of the forest laws brought much money to the royal exchequer in the shape of fines levied on trespassers and others who were tempted to offend against the arbitrary restrictions imposed.

"A Forest," says Manwood,[64] "is a certain territory of woody grounds and fruitful pastures, privileged for wild beasts and fowls of forest, chase and warren to rest, and abide there in the safe protection of the King, for his delight and pleasure: which territory of ground so privileged is mered and bounded with irremovable marks, meres and boundaries, either known by matter of record or by prescription: and also replenished with wild beasts of venery and chase, and with great coverts of vert, for the succour of the said beasts (to have their abode in): for the continuance and preservation of the said place, together with the vert and venison,[65] there are particular officers, laws and privileges belonging to the same, requisite for the purpose, and proper only to a Forest and no other place."

In connection with every forest there were four Courts, called respectively the Woodmote Court, the Court of Regard, the Court of Swanimote, and the Court of the Justice Seat. Of these the first was only competent to inquire of offences, and could not proceed to conviction. The Verderers, as the judicial officers of this Court were called, met once in every forty days, and could acquit accused persons, or hold them to bail—in the latter case the attachment had to be by the goods of the offender, unless he was "taken with the Mayneer," i.e. in flagrante delicto,[66] when the attachment might be by his body. "If any Forester shall find any man attachable for Vert in the Forest, first he shall attach him by two pledges, if they be to be found: and if he be afterwards found, he shall attach him by four pledges: and if the third time, he shall be presented before the Verderers, and be put by eight pledges: after the third attachment, his body shall be attached and retained, that he may remember what thing Vert is."[67]

Coke tells us that there were four degrees of "Mayneer," viz.:—