@pagefooting{center="(c) 1991 by Charles Donahue."}
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@center(MEDIEVAL STUDIES 117:@*
ENGLISH CONSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL HSTORY)

@center(Professor Donahue, Mr. Berkhofer)

@center(May 13, 1991: 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.)

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     This exam has two questions that will be given approximately equal
weight.  For the first question you are to choose @i{one} of the three
subparts.  For the second question you are to write on the one question
offered.  You have an hour and a half to write each essay.  You should
not write furiously for the full hour and a half.  Rather you should
spend some time outlining what you are going to say and revising what
you have written.  The result should be two coherent essays.

@center(I.)

@center(A.)

     Examine the following extract from @i{Glanvill} (Mats. p. 5-29):

     "The king to the sheriff, greeting.  N. has complained to me that
R. unjustly and without a judgment has disseised him of his free
tenement in such-and-such a vill since my last voyage to Normandy. 
Therefore I command you that, if N. gives you security for prosecuting
his claim, you are to see that the chattels which were taken from the
tenement are restored to it, and that the tenement and the chattels
remain in peace until the Sunday after Easter.  And meanwhile you are
to see that the tenement is viewed by twelve free and lawful men of the
nieghbourhood, and their names endorsed on this writ.  And summon them
by good summoners to be before me or my justices on the Sunday after
Easter, ready to make the recognition.  And summon R., or his bailiff
if he himself cannot be found, on the security of gage and reliable
sureties to be there then to hear the recognition.  And have there the
summoners, and this writ and the names of the sureties.  Witness, etc."

     Write a commentary on this quotation.  You should, of course,
examine the prior and subsequent history of the institutions to which
it refers, but your principal focus should be on the passage itself and
its meaning.

@center{B.}

     Examine the following extract from Mats. p. 14-5:

@center{The Miller's Case@*
Y.B. Mich. 41 Ed. 3, f. 24, pl. 17@*
A.D. 1367}

     "A writ of @i{Trespas sur le case} was brought against a Miller,
and the plaintiff counted that, whereas he was wont to grind his corn
at the mill of T. for himself and his ancestors for all time without
toll and he had brought his corn there to be ground, the defendant came
and took two bushels' weight with force and arms, etc.  And the writ
ran: `The whereas the aforesaid John, etc, and his ancestors from a
time the memory of which runneth not to the contrary could grind
without toll, etc., the aforesaid defendant, etc., impeded the
aforesaid complainant from grinding without toll by force and arms,
etc.'

     "@i{Cavendish} [the serjeant representing the miller].  You see
well how the writ runs, that he will not suffer him to grind without
toll, and he has declared in his count that he took toll; and in this
case he should have a general writ that he carried off the corn with
force and arms, and not this writ: [I demand] judgment of the writ.

     "@i{Belknap} [a senior serjeant, soon to become a justice,
representing the plaintiff].  The writ is taken on my matter, and if he
has taken toll where he should not have taken it, I shall have a writ
against him.

     "THORPE, C.J. [i.e., Chief Justice of Common Pleas].  You shall
have @i{Quod permittat} [a writ in the @i{precipe} (command) form
brought against a landowner to compel him to allow him to use his land
in a particular way]@foot{An example of the writ that Thorpe has in
mind is contained in an early 14th century register of writs: "The king
to the sheriff, greeting.  Command B. that justly he permit [@i{quod
juste permittat}] A. to grind his corn at the mill of the said B. quit
of multure [toll] as he ought to do, as he says, and if he does not do
so, ... then summon him by good summoners to be before our justices
[etc.]"} against the tenant of the soil and thus it shall be tried, and
not on a writ against the defendant.

     "@i{Belknap}.  If a market be set up to the nuisance of my market,
I shall have against him such a writ of @i{Quod permittat}, but if a
stranger disturbs folks so that they cannot come to my market, I shall
have against him such a writ as this and shall make mention of the
circumstances; and so here I shall have a writ of Trespass against him,
because I cannot have @i{Quod permittat}.

     "WINCHINGHAM, J. [one of the justices of Common Pleas].  Suppose
he had taken all your corn or the half of it, should you have such a
writ as this, because he had taken more than he should take by way of
toll?  You should not have it, but a common writ of Trespass; and so
you shall have here.  Wherefore take nothing by your writ."

     Write a commentary on this quotation.  You should, of course,
examine the prior and subsequent history of the institutions to which
it refers, but your principal focus should be on the passage itself and
its meaning.

@center{C.}

     Examine the following extract from @i{Doctor and Student} (Mats.
p. 30-43 to 30-44):

     "@i{Doctor}: ... I pray thee touch shortly upon some of the causes
why there hath been so many persons put in estate of lands to the use
of others as there have been, for, as I hear say, few men be sole
seised of their land.

     "@i{Student}: There have been many causes thereof, of the which
some be put away by divers statutes, and some remain yet.  Wherefore
thou shalt understand that some have put their land to feoffment
secretly, to the intent that they that have right to the land should
not know against whom to bring their action, and that is somewhat
remedied by divers statutes that give actions against pernors [roughly
"takers"] and takers of profits.  ...  And sometime they were made to
use of mortmain, which might then be made without forfeiture, though it
were prohibited that the freehold might not be given in mortmain.  But
that is put away by the statute of Richard the Second.  And sometime
they were made to defraud the lords of wards, reliefs, heriots [a
payment due a lord upon succession to the land of a villein], and of
the lands of their villeins, but those points be put away by divers
statutes made in the time of king Henry VII. ... And yet remain
feoffments, fines and recoveries [types of conveyance] in use for many
other causes, in manner as many as there did before the said
statute[s].  And one cause why they be yet thus used is, to put away
tenancy by the courtesy and titles of dower. ... And sometimes such
uses be made that he to whose use, etc., may declare his will thereon,
and sometime for surety of divers covenants in indentures of marriage
and other bargains.  And these last two articles be the chief and
principal cause why so much land is put in use."

     Write a commentary on this quotation.  You should, of course,
examine the prior and subsequent history of the institutions to which
it refers, but your principal focus should be on the passage itself and
its meaning.

@center(II.)

     We have dealt with a number of institutions of English governance
in this course: the @i{witenagemot}, the @i{curia regis}, the chancery,
the exchequer, the council, the wardrobe, the chamber, parliament. 
Some historians in discussing these institutions emphasize their
essential continuity; others emphasize their discontinuity.  Write a
coherent essay on these institutions in which you try to give a
balanced picture of the extent to which these institutions remained the
same over the course of time and the extent to which they changed.