The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I: Volume IAlthough this book was envisaged as a joint venture and bears the name of both Pollock and Maitland, it is substantially the work of Maitland. It was recognized at once as a masterpiece and has since been accepted as one of the great histories in the English language. In Maitland's lifetime Acton pronounced him the ablest historian in England. Plucknett said that 'everything he wrote exercises a deep fascination and a personal attraction'. To Sir Maurice Powicke he was 'one of the immortals'. Lord Annan, in the preface to his Leslie Stephen, called him 'perhaps the greatest of all professional historians'. To read The History of English Law, even many years after Maitland's death, is to feel at once the touch of a master. |
Other editions - View all
The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I Volume 2, Volume 2 Sir Frederick Pollock No preview available - 2013 |
The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I; Volume 2 Frederic William Maitland,Frederick Pollock No preview available - 2018 |
The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I;, Volume 2 Frederic William Maitland,Frederick Pollock No preview available - 2017 |
Common terms and phrases
abbot action alienation amerced ancient demesne assize bailiffs barons become bishop borough bound Bracton burgesses canon charter church claim clerk common law Conquest corporation county court crown custom demesne Domesday Book doubt duty Earl ecclesiastical England English law exchequer feoffment feudal franchises frankalmoin frankpledge freeholders French gild Glanvill grant hand heir held Henry Henry II Hist hold homage hundred Hundred Rolls Ibid judgment jurisdiction jury king king's court king's justices knight's fee knight's service knights land lawyers Leges litigation lord's manor Manorial Courts matter merchet mesne lord military monks Norman Normandy Note Book ordinance person Pipe Roll question quod regarded Regis reign rent rolls Roman royal rule scutage seems seisin Select Pleas serf serjeanty sheriff socage sokemen statute Stubbs temporal tenants in chief tenement tenure term thegn thirteenth century township unfree villein villeinage wardship whole word writ
Popular passages
Page 150 - No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or disseised or outlawed or exiled or in any wise destroyed, save by the lawful judgment of his peers or the law of the land 1 .
Page 442 - children born without the ligeance of the king, whose fathers and mothers at the time of their birth be and shall be at the faith and ligeance of the king of England, shall have and enjoy the same benefits and advantages to have and bear
Page xxxv - The first and indispensable preliminary to a better legal history than we have of the later middle ages is a new, a complete, a tolerable edition of the Year Books. They should be our glory, for no other country has anything like them : they are our disgrace, for no other country would have so neglected them.
Page 662 - In the construction of every enactment relating to an offence punishable on indictment or on summary conviction .... the expression person shall, unless the contrary intention appears, include a body corporate.
Page 449 - they are not bound to sue according to the law of the land, nor to abide the trial by twelve men and other solemnities of the law of the land, but shall sue in the Chancery and the matter shall be determined by the law of nature 1 .
Page 166 - of liberty, no remote fastness in which the remnant of an ancient race has found refuge; it is the garden of England, of all English counties the one most exposed to foreign influences. The great roads which join London to the seaboard are the arteries along which flows money, the most destructive solvent of seignorial power.
Page 584 - granted by the ancient kings of this realm to the lords or barons, with liberty to parcel the land out to inferior tenants, reserving such duties and services as they thought convenient, and with power to hold a court, (from thence called
Page v - It is proper for me to add for myself that, although the book was planned in common and has been revised by both of us, by far the greater share of the execution belongs to Mr Maitland, both as to the actual writing and as to the detailed research which was constantly required.
Page 451 - has about the Jew :—he with all that he has belongs to the king. Bracton puts the same thought in these words:— 'The Jew can have nothing that is his own, for whatever he acquires, he acquires, not for himself, but for the king; for the Jews live not for themselves but for others, and so they acquire not for themselves but for others
Page 445 - hold land in England, but when he has to explain why the king should seize the land which aliens acquire, we feel that he is in difficulties. He suggests that this forfeiture ' is intended by way of punishment for the alien's presumption in attempting to acquire any landed property