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Updated: May 15, 2025
As long as our sovereign lord the king, and his faithful subjects, the lords and commons of this realm, the triple cord which no man can break, the solemn, sworn, constitutional frank-pledge of this nation, the firm guaranties of each other's being and each other's rights, the joint and several securities, each in its place and order, for every kind and every quality of property and of dignity, as long as these ensure, so long the Duke of Bedford is safe, and we are all safe together, the high from the blights of envy and the spoliations of rapacity, the low from the iron hand of oppression and the insolent spurn of contempt.
Bristol could claim its own coroners; it could assert its right to be free of frank-pledge; its burghers were in 1164 taken under the king's special patronage and protection; in 1172 he granted them the right of colonizing Dublin and holding it with all the liberties with which they held Bristol itself, to the wrath of the men of Chester who had long been rivals of the Bristol men, and who hastened to secure a royal writ ordering that they should be as free to trade with Dublin as they had ever been, for all the privileges of Bristol.
The part of trial by jury which has been politically of so much importance, its popular character, as opposed to arbitrary trial by a royal or imperial officer that of which the preservation, amidst the general prevalence of judicial imperialism, has been the glory of England was simply Teutonic; so was the frank-pledge, the rude machinery for preserving law and order by mutual responsibility in the days before police; so were the hundreds and the tithings, rudimentary institutions marking the transition from the clan to the local community or canton.
All freemen were ordered to attend the courts held by the justices. The judges were given power to enter on all estates of the nobles, to see that the men of the manor were duly enrolled under the system of "frank-pledge," in groups of ten men bound to answer for one another as "pledges" for all purposes of police. Strict rules were made to prevent the possible escape of criminals.
Aside from his position as landlord, the most important of these rights was that of holding a court-baron and a court-leet and view of frank-pledge. Various powers and activities had long gathered around these petty courts, but the whole group of manorial rights and duties of jurisdiction and administration was, in 1600, fast becoming an obsolete and insignificant institution.
Or they were fighting a sturdy battle with the king's justices to preserve some ancient privilege, the right of the borough perhaps to "swear by itself," that is, to a jury of its own or its freedom from the general custom of "frank-pledge."
As long as our sovereign lord the king, and his faithful subjects, the lords and commons of this realm, the triple cord, which no man can break; the solemn, sworn, constitutional frank-pledge of this nation; the firm guarantees of each other's being, and each other's rights; the joint and several securities, each in its place and order, for every kind and every quality, of property and of dignity: as long as these endure, so long the duke of Bedford is safe: and we are all safe together the high from the blights of envy and the spoliations of rapacity; the low from the iron hand of oppression and the insolent spurn of contempt.
The manor-court was held in its hall; it was here that the lord or his steward received homage, recovered fines, held the view of frank-pledge, or enrolled the villagers in their tithing. Here too, if the lord possessed criminal jurisdiction, was held his justice court, and without its doors stood his gallows.
Grants of manorial powers, "court-leet, court- baron, and view of frank-pledge," were made in several of the colonial charters; but these institutions showed little inclination to renew in America a vitality they had lost in England.
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