Overview

Sir Frederick Pollock and Frederic William Maitland's legal classic The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I expanded the work of Sir Edward Coke and William Blackstone by exploring the origins of key aspects of English common law and society and with them the development of individual rights as these were gradually carved out from the authority of the Crown and the Church. Book one examines Anglo-Saxon law, goes on to consider the changes in law introduced by the Normans, then moves to the twelfth-century Age of Glanvill followed by the thirteenth century Age of Bracton. Book two takes up different areas of English law by topic, including land tenure, marriage and wardship, fealty, the ranks of men both free and unfree, aliens, Jews, excommunicates, women, and the churches and the King, before turning to the various jurisdictions of that decentralised era.

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9780865977495

Table of Contents

Reviews

Reference & Research Book News November 2010 To generations of medievalists, Pollock and Maitland has served as the Bible for the development of English Common law. This two-volume edition reprints the 1898 one, adding a bibliography from the 1968 reissue. Despite its age, there is no other work that covers the topic so completely. The authors begin with legal codes, Roman, German, and Anglo-Saxon, that influenced English justice. They then move to Anglo-Saxon and Norman law and their blending under the Norman kings. They also describe the influence of and disputes with canon law. The next two sections focus on the legal reforms of Henry II and his grandson, Henry III and the codification of the laws. Book II looks at the laws by subject. Land ownership and duties owed take up a large part of this section. The services owed are both military and labor in fields and construction. Laws considering social status from unfree serfs to small farmers to earls and barons are listed. Laws affecting clerics, foreigners, Jews, outlaws, excommunicants, lepers and women follow. Church property was difficult under law since religious institutions were often under the jurisdiction of a mother-house in another place or even the pope. The final section examines areas of legal jurisdiction and how justice was administered at each level. Violent crimes are incorporated into the other topics. Since the source of modern Anglo-American law is in the creation of medieval law, historians and attorneys still consult this work.

Reference & Research Book News November 2010 To generations of medievalists, Pollock and Maitland has served as the Bible for the development of English Common law. This two-volume edition reprints the 1898 one, adding a bibliography from the 1968 reissue. Despite its age, there is no other work that covers the topic so completely. The authors begin with legal codes, Roman, German, and Anglo-Saxon, that influenced English justice. They then move to Anglo-Saxon and Norman law and their blending under the Norman kings. They also describe the influence of and disputes with canon law. The next two sections focus on the legal reforms of Henry II and his grandson, Henry III and the codification of the laws. Book II looks at the laws by subject. Land ownership and duties owed take up a large part of this section. The services owed are both military and labor in fields and construction. Laws considering social status from unfree serfs to small farmers to earls and barons are listed. Laws affecting clerics, foreigners, Jews, outlaws, excommunicants, lepers and women follow. Church property was difficult under law since religious institutions were often under the jurisdiction of a mother-house in another place or even the pope. The final section examines areas of legal jurisdiction and how justice was administered at each level. Violent crimes are incorporated into the other topics. Since the source of modern Anglo-American law is in the creation of medieval law, historians and attorneys still consult this work.

Reference & Research Book NewsNovember 2010To generations of medievalists, Pollock and Maitland has served as the Bible for the development of English Common law. This two-volume edition reprints the 1898 one, adding a bibliography from the 1968 reissue. Despite its age, there is no other work that covers the topic so completely. The authors begin with legal codes, Roman, German, and Anglo-Saxon, that influenced English justice. They then move to Anglo-Saxon and Norman law and their blending under the Norman kings. They also describe the influence of and disputes with canon law. The next two sections focus on the legal reforms of Henry II and his grandson, Henry III and the codification of the laws. Book II looks at the laws by subject. Land ownership and duties owed take up a large part of this section. The services owed are both military and labor in fields and construction. Laws considering social status from unfree serfs to small farmers to earls and barons are listed. Laws affecting clerics, foreigners, Jews, outlaws, excommunicants, lepers and women follow. Church property was difficult under law since religious institutions were often under the jurisdiction of a mother-house in another place or even the pope. The final section examines areas of legal jurisdiction and how justice was administered at each level. Violent crimes are incorporated into the other topics. Since the source of modern Anglo-American law is in the creation of medieval law, historians and attorneys still consult this work.

Author Information

Sir Frederick Pollock (1845-1937) was admitted to the bar in 1871 and to the Privy Council in 1911. He taught at the University of Oxford from 1883 to 1903. Frederic William Maitland (1850-1906) was an English jurist and historian.

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