[1039]. Middle Ages, II. 438. Hallam’s examples are all drawn from Madox, I. 507-9. Other illustrations of fines and amercements may be found under several of the foregoing chapters. Every man who began a plea and lost it, or abandoned it, was amerced.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX.
Si nos disseisivimus vel elongavimus Walenses de terris vel libertatibus vel rebus aliis, sine legali judicio parium suorum, in Anglia vel in Wallia,[[1040]] eis statim reddantur; et si contencio super hoc orta fuerit, tunc inde fiat in marchia per judicium parium suorum, de tenementis Anglie secundum legem Anglie, de tenementis Wallie secundum legem Wallie, de tenementis marchie secundum legem marchie. Idem facient Walenses nobis et nostris.
If we have disseised or removed Welshmen from lands or liberties, or other things, without the legal judgment of their peers in England or in Wales, they shall be immediately restored to them; and if a dispute arise over this, then let it be decided in the marches by the judgment of their peers; for tenements in England according to the law of England, for tenements in Wales according to the law of Wales, and for tenements in the marches according to the law of the marches. Welshmen shall do the same to us and ours.
This is the first of three chapters directed towards redressing wrongs suffered by Welshmen: and the three taken together testify to the importance attached by the barons to the value of the Welsh alliance. Restoration is to be made (a) of illegal disseisins effected by John (chapter 56); (b) of those effected by Henry II. and Richard I. (chapter 57); and (c) of hostages and charters delivered to John as pledges of peace (chapter 58).
The present chapter does for Welshmen what the first part of chapter [52] had already done for Englishmen. The reasons for treating Welshmen separately were probably twofold, partly for the sake of emphasis, and partly because some slight differences of detail were required. “Judgment of peers,” indeed, was applied to both cases, but for the dispossessed Welshmen, “in marchia per judicium parium suorum” takes the place of the “per judicium viginti quinque baronum” provided for Englishmen in like case. The “venue” was thus apparently fixed in the marchland for all Welshmen’s cases, although three different kinds of law were to be applied according to the situation of the property in dispute. This clear indication of the existence of three distinct bodies of law, one for England, another for Wales, and a third for the marches, shows that the unifying task of the common law had not yet been completed. Interesting questions of a nature analogous to those treated by the branch of modern jurisprudence known as International Private Law must constantly have arisen. The “peers” of a Welshman were not defined; but a court composed of Welsh barons or freeholders was probably meant.
The final words of the chapter, declaring that Welshmen were to afford reciprocal redress to John and his subjects, are interesting, since they imply that Welshmen had, in some cases, successfully seized lands claimed by Englishmen. Here, as usual, the barons were mainly interested in securing their own rights.
[1040]. The words “in Anglia vel in Wallia” are written at the foot of one of the Cottonian versions, (cf. supra, 195, n.); but their omission from their proper place is clearly a clerical error, since they appear in situ in the Articles of the Barons.