ENGLAND: LONDON, IPSWICH
In Anglo-Saxon England, as elsewhere in western Europe, the emergence of the modern city was a phenomenon of the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. Prior to that time the Anglo-Saxon town (borough), as Stephenson states, "was not a community of privileged citizens.
Its inhabitants enjoyed no uniform burgess franchise; they held their properties by no systems of burgage tenure; they had no selfgovernment. The typical borough of 1066 was essentially what it had been a century earlier -- a military and official centre. The men who lived inside the walls [were] principally members of the agrarian aristocracy [and] their dependents. Except for the fact that the borough might be administrative headquarters for a larger district, its judicial organization was that of a rural hundred." 30In the last third of the eleventh century, however -- after the Norman conquest -- English towns grew substantially in population, and their character began to change. As in other parts of Europe, the commercial
380- quarters (the markets) often swallowed up the adjacent fortified places. The expanding agricultural population migrated in substantial numbers to the boroughs. That remarkable survey of the English economy called Domesday Book, compiled in 1086, describes 46 boroughs: of these only York had as many as 10,000 inhabitants (unaccountably, London and Winchester are not described), Norwich
and Lincoln had over 5,000, and Oxford, Thetford, and Ipswich about 4,000; 21 other boroughs had a population of from 1,000 to 3,000; and the remaining 16 had fewer than 1,000 people, including some boroughs that had hundreds or only scores of inhabitants. In the early 1100s the number and size of the boroughs increased dramatically, and by the end of the twelfth century several hundred of them had substantial populations. 3 1 Still more important, almost all of them had charters of liberties, a distinctive form of government, and their own legal systems.
In Stephenson's words, "From the time of Henry I [ 1100_1135] the borough... appears as a town... Burgage was more than a tenure [that is, more than the right to alienate or devise town land]. It was a civil and legal status, a mode of life dependent on membership in a community." 3_2_ During the twelfth century, the military and fiscal boroughs of Anglo_Saxon times __ essentially royal fortifications, largely undifferentiated politically from the countryside______ became "free" associations with their own law,their own government, their own common consciousness.
The history of London illustrates this development. Although Roman legions had occupied the town from the first to the fifth centuries A.D., little that was Roman survived the Anglo-Saxon invasions except for the remains of roads and buildings and the great stone wall. With the introduction of Christianity in the seventh century, a bishop was installed in London (officially entitling it to be called a "city"). The Venerable Bede, who died in 735, described London as a meeting place of many people coming by land and sea. It was mentioned next in Anglo-Saxon sources over a century later, in connection with King Alfred's wars against the Danes. Archaeological remains indicate that it was a substantial city in the tenth and eleventh centuries, after Venice the largest in Europe, with over 10,000 inhabitants. At the time of the Norman Conquest more than twenty moneyers were minting simultaneously. Folkmoots, which all citizens were expected to attend, met three times a year. Dealings took place between English and foreign traders. Nevertheless, London had no charter and few "liberties" in the twelfth-century sense. Like other Anglo-Saxon cities and towns, it was a military and official center, with substantial trade, but not a self-governing "community of privileged citizens."
Almost immediately after the Conquest, William granted London a charter, and in the next two generations the rights of London citizens and of London as a city expanded dramatically.
In the early twelfth cen- -381 tury, the two ruling "reeves" (sheriffs), previously appointed by the king, were elected from among the citizens, and this right of election was granted in perpetuity by a charter issued by Henry I in 1129. At that time London was referred to as a "commune," and it was headed by a mayor. The king agreed to lower the annual tax to be paid by the city (called the "ferm" or "farm") from five hundred to three hundred pounds. The city exercised its jurisdiction through a folkmoot of the entire citizenry meeting three times a year and through a smaller court called a husting. The twenty_four aldermen who managed the city's affairs took an oath to exercise their duties "by the law of the lord king which belongs to them in the city of London, saving the liberty of the city." Citizens had the right to sell their land on account of poverty, in defiance of heirs. Imprisonment as a form of attachment fo r claims of debt was available only when suitable pledges could not be found. Foreign merchants' right s were to be protected. Each alderman was charged with the duty of assuring that everyone in his ward had weapons and a horse for purposes of defense. The wages of carpenters, masons, tilers, plasterers, and ditchers were fixed. Thatched and reed roofs were forbidden, fire watches were established, and every house was required to maintain a tub of water in front of it for33
emergency use. 33
The charter of London issued by Henry I ( 1129) provided "that the citizens... shall appoint from among themselves as justice whomsoever they choose to look after the pleas of my crown and the pleadings which arise in connection with them. No other shall be [royal] justice over the same men of London. And the citizens shall not plead outside the walls of the city in respect of any plea; and they shall be quit of scot and of Danegeld and the murder-fine. Nor shall any of them be compelled to offer trial by battle." It provided further that "no one be billeted within the walls of the city, either of my household, or by the force of anyone else.
And let all the men of London and their property be quit and free from toll and passage and lastage and from all other customs throughout all England and at the seaports." 34 These liberties and privileges of the citizens of London were expanded by the charters of Henry II.The charter of London served as a model for Norwich, Lincoln, Northampton, and other cities. Similarly, the charter that was granted to York by Henry II served as a model for Wallingford, Andover, Salisbury, Wilton, and Portsmouth; and some of the charters granted to these towns served, in turn, as models for the later chartered towns. 35
The town of Ipswich (about seventy miles northeast of London), which in 1086 had about 4,000 inhabitants, is of special interest because its original charter has survived, as well as a document describing in detail the procedure by which its municipal government was first organized.
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The charter was issued on May 25, 1200, by King John, granting to the citizens (burgesses) of Ipswich exemption from toll, stallage (payments for stalls in markets and fairs), lastage (payments at markets and fairs for buying and selling by measure), passage (payments by outof_town merchants at markets and fairs), pontage (tolls for maintenance of bridges), "and all other customs throughout our whole land and in seaports." The citizens were also to be exempt from all lawsuits outside of Ipswich except those involving foreign tenures and those concerning royal officers. In addition, the town was granted the right to have a merchant guild and a guild hall (hansa). No one was to be billeted, or to take anything by force, within the town. In all cases involving lands or tenures within the town, "justice shall be done them according to the ancient custom of the borough of Ipswich and of our free boroughs," and all cases concerning debts incurred or pledges made in Ipswich were to be tried in Ipswich. No citizen was to be adjudged to pay a fine except "according to the law of our free boroughs." The charter further provided that the burgesses "by common counsel of the town shall elect two of the more lawful and discreet men of the town and shall present them to our chief justice at our Exchequer and they shall keep the office of provost of the aforesaid borough of Ipswich well and faithfully; and they shall not be removed so long as they conduct themselves well in that office [quamdiu se in baillia illa beNe gesserint] except by the common counsel of the aforesaid burgesses." In addition, four "more lawful and more discreet" men were to be elected "by the common counsel of the aforesaid burgesses" to keep the pleas of the Crown and other matters affecting the crown "a nd to see that the borough reeves justly and lawfully treat the poor as well as the rich." 36
A little over a month after the charter was granted, on Thursday, June 29, 1200, the whole community of the town assembled in the churchyard of St. Mary at the Tower.
37They proceeded to elect, with one voice, two bailiffs, who were sworn to keep the office of provost, and four coroners, who were sworn to keep the pleas of the crown and to handle other matters affecting the crown in the town "and to see to it that the aforesaid bailiffs justly and lawfully treat the poor as well as the rich." On the same day it was ordered "by the common counsel of the town" that there should also be twelve sworn capital portmen (capitalesportmenni, literally, "chief townsmen"), "just as there are in other free boroughs England," with "full power to govern and uphold the said borough and all its liberties, and to render the judgments of the town, and to ordain and do in the said borough all things necessary for the status and honor of the town." The following Sunday was appointed for the election of the twelve.On Sunday, July 2, the bailiffs and the coroners, with the assent of the community, appointed four men of each parish of the borough, and they
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elected the twelve capital portmen. (Understandably, the two bailiffs and four coroners were among those elected.) After they were sworn faithfully to govern the borough and maintain its liberties, and justly to render the judgments of its courts, "without respect to any person," all the townsmen stretched forth their hands toward the "Book" (the Gospels) and with one voice solemnly swore to obey and assist, with their bodies and their goods, the bailiffs, coroners, and every one of the twelve capital portmen in safeguarding the borough, its new charter, its liberties and customs, in all places against all persons, the royal power excepted, "according to their ability, so far as they ought justly and rationally to do." On the same day the new charter was placed in charge of two tried and lawful men, who were sworn faithfully to preserve it and to produce it at the request of the community.
On Thursday, July 13, the bailiffs, coroners, and other capital portmen assembled and ordained that, in future, the customs of the town should be collected by the bailiffs and four tried and lawful men of the borough; that the right and customary farm should be paid annually at the king's exchequer; that there should be two beadles to make attachments and to execute the commands of the bailiffs, coroners, and capital portmen; that one of the beadles should be keeper of prisoners arrested by order of the bailiffs; that a common seal should be made for use in important matters touching the community of the borough, and that it should be placed in the charge of three or four tried and lawful men of the borough.
It was also ordained that the new charter be sent to the full county courts of Suffolk and Norfolk, to be openly read, so that the liberties contained therein would be publicly known and proclaimed in the individual localities of each county.On Sunday, September 10, the whole community assembled once more to hear all the new ordinances, that is, the ones that had been made on July 13. After hearing them publicly read, the whole community consented to them with one voice. They then elected two bailiffs for the next year and four men to help them collect the customs of the town, as well as two beadles.
On Thursday, October 12, another full assembly was called. The common seal was shown and three men were elected to keep it. They were also to have custody of the charter.
On the same day five of the capital portmen were elected to govern the merchant guild -- one alderman and four associates. They swore that they would govern the guild well and faithfully, and all the articles relating to it, and that they would treat all guild brothers well and lawfully. "Afterwards the alderman and his four colleagues, in the presence of the people of the town, stated that all who are of the freedom of the town shall come before the alderman and his colleagues on a certain day,
384- when and where to be hereafter made known to them, to constitute a gild and to give their initiation fee (hansa) to the gild." The report continues as follows: "On the same day the aforesaid bailiffs, coroners, and other portmen and the whole community discussed by what means and in what way they could better maintain the aforesaid merchant gild and all that pertains to it. The bailiffs, coroners, and other portmen and the whole community with one voice consented and ordered that the alderman who had just been elected and all aldermen to be elected thereafter ought to have and to exercise for the profit of the gild the purchase and sale of all the following merchandise, namely... [various kind of stones] and mortars and pavingstones of marble. And that from year to year the alderman ought on his oath to give a right and just account before the bailiffs and coroners of the aforesaid town concerning all profit and increment which he gained in the previous year and which he acquired by reason of the purchase and sale of all the abovementioned merchandise. And beyond that, by unanimous assent and consent they consented that no inhabitants of the aforesaid town nor any other person, native or foreign, within the aforesaid town or within its liberties and precincts, shall have or ought to exercise the purchase or sale of the aforesaid merchandise except only the alderman of the aforesaid gild for the use and profit of that gild. And this under penalty of forefeiture of all the said merchandise thus bought or sold."
On the same day "the whole community" granted to the twelve capital portmen the meadow of Odenholm for the keeping and feeding of their horses, in return for the labor which they were to do for the community. And it was further ordered and agreed to by the whole community that the laws and free customs of the town be placed in a certain roll, to be called "the Domesday," which was to remain in the custody of the bailiffs "so that they will be able to know and to recognize how they ought to act in their office." Also all the statutes of the merchant guild were to be entered in another roll, "as is done elsewhere in cities and boroughs where there is a merchant gild," and this roll the alderman should always have near him, "so that he will know how to operate in his office." 38
In general, English cities and towns did not achieve the same degree of independence from royal or princely control that was achieved by cities and towns in many other parts of Europe. Formal grants of selfgovernment to the English boroughs were infrequent. Some charters granted citizens the right to elect borough officials: thus London in 1131 was granted the right to elect its sheriffs and a justiciar, and a century later it received the right to elect a mayor; Northampton in 1189 gained the right to elect reeves and later coroners; and other cities gradually gained similar rights. Nevertheless, the crown kept ultimate control over urban political life, including urban justice and urban finance.
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Yet despite ultimate control by the crown, the everyday rights, privileges, liberties, and immunities of the English burgesses in the late eleventh, the twelfth, and the early thirteenth centuries did not differ essentially from those of burghers in other parts of Europe. The burgess was a freeman; a serf who migrated to the borough acquired that freedom in England, as in Europe generally, by residence of a year and a day. Citizenship in the town carried the right to bear arms, exemption from feudal and manorial dues and services, free hereditary tenure of land with the right to buy and sell it, the right t o trial in the borough court with freedom from trial by ordeal or by battle, and restrictions upon the power of the crown to tax and to fine. 39 Moreover, although the crown would not relinquish its formal power to govern the borough, it did recognize the rights of merchant and artisan guilds t o govern the professional lives of their members; and in fact borough officials in
England, as in Europe generally, viewed public works, made arrests, issued proclamations, arrayed troops, imposed local taxes, and themselves collected the annual tax owed to the crown.