Criminals conducted to Execution. Fifteenth century. Harl. MS., 4,374.
became general in such cases, but during the wars of the Roses was applied to all descriptions of property. When attempts were made to confiscate the estates of different nobles and gentlemen, they were found to be held by them only for the uses of different parties, and were thus beyond the power of the crown to confiscate. By this means men provided against the accidents of war and party, and in favour of their families in those times of perpetual change.
The statutes of Richard III. were the first that were written in English, and the first which were printed—two most important improvements. The courts of law continued much the same as in the former century. The judges varied in number. Sometimes there were five, and sometimes as many as eight, in the Court of Common Pleas. The chief-justice of the King's Bench had £160 a-year, or £1,600 of our money value; the chief-justice of the Common Pleas £130, or £1,300 of present value. The other judges had £100, or £1,000 of our money. They had also their robes allowed them. Every judge, on entering on his office, swore "That he would not receive any fee, pension, gift, reward, or bribe, of any man having suit or plea before him, saving meat and drink, which should be of no great value."
Execution of a Criminal. From a MS. of Froissart's Chronicles. Fifteenth century
Yet the administration of justice appears to have been very corrupt. The judges complained that their salaries were too small for their station, and as they held their appointments at the option of the crown, they were easily influenced. The clergy, by their exemptions, were almost beyond the power of the law, and the laity could with difficulty obtain any justice from their spiritual guides. Perjury was a great vice of the age, and the Convocation of Canterbury of 1439, declared that numbers of people had no other trade than that of hiring themselves as witnesses, and taking bribes when they were or juries. But, more than all, the violent factions of the times enabled those who were in the ascendant to set law totally at defiance. The great number of sanctuaries in all parts of the kingdom made it the easiest thing in the world to escape from creditors, as well as enemies. The high constable in those times exercised a kind of arbitrary power. He could, and frequently did, from the authority of his commission, put great political offenders, or those deemed such, to death without any
