Degree Type
Honors Capstone Project
Date of Submission
Spring 5-1-2007
Capstone Advisor
Samantha Khan Herrick
Honors Reader
Chris R. Kyle
Capstone Major
History
Capstone College
Arts and Science
Audio/Visual Component
no
Capstone Prize Winner
no
Won Capstone Funding
no
Honors Categories
Social Sciences
Subject Categories
European History | History | Other History
Abstract
The development of the common law in medievalEnglandwas one of the most important forces driving the unification of the kingdom. Law was not always applied uniformly, however. In 1313 a panel of royal justices was sent to thecountyofKentto record crimes, collect fines, and see that justice had been served. The justices informed the people ofKentthat they would be allowed to keep their unique customs. One custom the people claimed was that they did not present the English ancestry of slain individuals, a practice which had a complex history and relationship with the murder fine. To validate this claim, the people ofKentmade an appeal to the past, to the Norman Conquest. Detailed analysis of the records from the eyre ofKent, and those of several other eyres throughout the kingdom, shows how presentment of Englishry evolved over time and space. Royal charters, legal treatises and other sources show how presentment of Englishry was defined and how it related to homicide. Ultimately, the appeal to the past was overridden in favor of recent documentation which proved to the justices that Englishry had been presented inKentat the last eyre and thus should be in the current eyre of 1313. This marks an important transition—the recent past gained the authority that the distant past once commanded.
Recommended Citation
Stamato, Lydia, "Presentment of Englishry at the Eyre of Kent, 1313" (2007). Honors Capstone Projects - All. 582.
https://surface.syr.edu/honors_capstone/582
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
