68 HARVARD LAW REVIEW. probably never heard. 1 Such traces of the duel in England as are found before Glanville's time are collected in Bigelow's Placita Anglo Normannica. Very early cases from Doomsday Book, compiled by William within twenty years of the Conquest, are found here. 2 Selden 3 refers to a civil case in Mich. 6 Rich. I. (i 194), as " the oldest case I have read of." This may be the case in Vol. I. of the Rotuli Curiae Regis, 23-24, 26, which appears to be the earliest one reported in the judicial records. Although the demandant here hoc offert probare versus e?im per RadulpJium filium Stephani, qui hoc offert probare tit de visu patris sui per corpus suum sicut curia consideraverit, and the defendant came and defended the right and inheriting of (the plaintiff), et visum patris Radulphi filii Stephani, per Johannem . . . qui hoc offert defendere per corpus suum consideracione curiae, — yet the case appears to have gone off without the battle on another point. But this record shows the theory of the thing. The plaintiff offers battle and puts forward a champion who is a complaint-witness, and who speaks as of his personal knowledge or, as in this case, on that of his father, 4 and stands ready to fight for his testimony. Before the battle the two champions swear to the truth of what they say. In the mother-country, Normandy, one might hire his champion ; but in England, theoretically, it was not allowed. In 1220 one Elias Piggun was convicted of being a hired champion, and lost his foot. 5 What was thus forbidden seems, however, to have been much practised, and finally, in 1275, the struggle to prevent it came to an end by abandoning any requirement that the champion be a witness. The St. West. I., c. 41, reads: "Since it seldom happens that the demandant's champion is not forsworn in making oath that he or his father saw the seisin of his lord or ancestor and 1 If the lawyers knew how much they could promote the cause of legal learning, and thereby improve our law, by becoming members of this excellent society (it costs a guinea a year), they would not neglect the opportunity. The American Secretary is Professor Keener, of the Columbia Law School, in the city of New York. 2 pp. 41, 42, 43, 61, 305. 8 Duello, c. 13.
- Glanville, lib. 2, c. 3, sets forth that in this class of cases the plaintiff cannot be
his own champion, for he must have a good witness, who shall speak of his own knowl- edge or that of his father. So in the recognition, substituted for the battle, the jurymen — the twelve witnesses of Glanville's eulogy, so much better than the one battle-witness — are to speak of their own personal knowledge, or by the report of their fathers, et Tpertalia quibus fidem teneantur habere ut propriis. lb., lib. 2, c. 17. 6 Seld. Soc. Pub. i. 192; s. c. Bracton, 151 b.
