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60-457: The term charter covers a range of written legal documentation, including diplomas, writs and wills . A diploma was a royal charter that granted rights over land or other privileges by the king, whereas a writ was an instruction (or prohibition) by the king which may have contained evidence of rights or privileges. Diplomas were usually written on parchment in Latin , but often contained sections in

120-738: A land grant or conveyed instructions to a local court. In the beginning, writs were the documents issued by the King's Chancellor against a landowner whose vassal complained to the King about an injustice, after a first summon by the sheriff to comply had been deemed fruitless. William the Conqueror took over the system unchanged, but was to extend it in two ways: first, writs became mainly framed in Latin, not Anglo-Saxon; second, they covered an increasing range of royal commands and decisions. Writs of instruction continued to develop under his immediate successors, but it

180-459: A writ (Anglo-Saxon gewrit , Latin breve ) is a formal written order issued by a body with administrative or judicial jurisdiction ; in modern usage, this body is generally a court . Warrants , prerogative writs , subpoenas , and certiorari are common types of writs, but many forms exist and have existed. In its earliest form, a writ was simply a written order made by the English monarch to

240-617: A boundary clause that was never copied. A few boundary descriptions survive that do not appear to be related to any surviving charter. The content of these boundary descriptions varied, but in many instances these descriptions revealed the Anglo-Saxons' ideas about their landscape. Charters have provided fundamental source material for understanding Anglo-Saxon England that complements the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and other literary sources. They are often used by historians as sources for

300-626: A clause describing the boundaries of the territory that is the subject of the charter. There are also boundary descriptions in a number of leases and two wills. In the earliest examples, these boundary descriptions are short, in Latin and with few boundary points. In time, the descriptions became longer, more detailed and written in Old English. By the end of the 9th century, all boundary clauses were written in Old English. Many charters, particularly those that have survived in later copies, do not have boundary clauses. In some instances, space has been left for

360-428: A form of "off-the-shelf" justice designed to enable the English law courts to rapidly process lawsuits by allocating each complaint form into a standard category that could be dealt with by standard procedures. The complainant applied to the court for the writ most relevant to his complaint to be sent to the wrongdoer, which ordered him under royal authority to attend a royal court to answer for his actions. The development

420-467: A man's career at court through his position in the witness list, as in the case of Eadric Streona at the court of Æthelred 'the Unready' in the early 11th century. Burdens that were due by landowners to the king , such as providing soldiers , resources and man-power, were sometimes relieved in charters. This gives historians the opportunity to examine aspects of Anglo-Saxon society. A joint committee of

480-500: A particular form of action . It was the role and expertise of a solicitor to select on his client's behalf the appropriate writ for the proposed legal action. These were purchased from the court by payment of a fee. The solicitor would then hire a barrister to speak for his client in court. With the abolition of the Forms of Action in 1832 and 1833, a profusion of writs was no longer needed, and one uniform writ came into use. After 1852,

540-811: A single will from any period is known from further North than Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire . Furthermore, only 22 wills can be found in manuscripts written before 1066; originals are even rarer, as some, like those of Alfred the Great or Wulfric Spot , are known to be pre-Conquest copies, while still other may in fact be mere extracts or ancient forgeries. Only two wills of kings have been preserved, those of Alfred and Eadred , both in later copies. Anglo-Saxon women whose wills survive include Wynflæd (mother of Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury and grandmother of Kings Eadwig and Edgar ), King Edmund I 's second wife Æthelflæd and her sister Ælfflæd. A typical royal diploma had

600-550: A specialist in German history, complained that "Anglo-Saxon diplomatists persist in the belief that it is possible to be slightly dead or slightly pregnant", but Simon Keynes argues that it is unhelpful to adopt the perspective of students of Continental charters, more of which survive as originals. Anglo-Saxon charters are catalogued in Peter Sawyer 's Annotated List (1968), revised and extended online. They are usually referred to in

660-651: A specified person to undertake a specified action; for example, in the feudal era , a military summons by the king to one of his tenants-in-chief to appear dressed for battle with retinue at a specific place and time. An early usage survives in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia in a writ of election , which is a written order issued on behalf of the monarch (in Canada, by the Governor General and, in Australia, by

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720-425: A subset of the class of writs, those that are to be heard ahead of any other cases on a court's docket except other such writs. The most common of the other such prerogative writs are habeas corpus , quo warranto , prohibito , mandamus , procedendo , and certiorari . The due process for 'petitions for' such writs is not simply civil or criminal because they incorporate the presumption of non-authority so that

780-498: A writ as "novel, unheard of, and against reason". Ultimately, in 1258, the King was forced to accept the Provisions of Oxford , which among other things, prohibited the creation of new forms of writ without the sanction of the King's council . New writs were created after that time only by the express sanction of Parliament and the forms of writ remained essentially static, each writ defining

840-588: A writ, a command of the King, to enable him to do this. Initially, for common law, recourse to the King's courts was unusual, and something for which a plaintiff would have to pay. For most Royal Courts, the writ would usually have been purchased from the Chancery, although the court of the Exchequer , being, in essence, another government department, could issue its own writs. While originally writs were exceptional, or at least non-routine devices, Maitland suggests that by

900-634: Is given to the Supreme Court of India and the High Courts of Judicature of all Indian states . Parts of the law relating to writs are outlined in the Constitution of India . The Supreme Court, the highest in the country, may issue writs under Article 32 of the Constitution for enforcement of fundamental rights and under Article 139 for enforcement of rights other than fundamental rights, while High Courts,

960-431: Is possible to see who was present at the king's court. The very detailed diplomas drafted by the scribe known as " Æthelstan A " show that several Welsh kings, including Hywel Dda , attended the court of Æthelstan in the late 920s and the 930s. A person's absence from court can be equally revealing: Wulfstan I, Archbishop of York from 931 to 956, failed to attest any royal charters between 936 and 941, during which time

1020-447: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and other literary sources. They are catalogued in Peter Sawyer 's Annotated List and are usually referred to in the specialist literature by their Sawyer number (e.g. S 407). The Anglo-Saxon charter can take many forms: it can be a lease (often presented as a chirograph ), a will, an agreement, a writ or, most commonly, a grant of land. Our picture is skewed towards those that regard land, particularly in

1080-632: The Anglo-Saxon Charters by Agnes Jane Robertson in 1939. Since 1939, contributions to the list were few and far between; in her 2011 Wills and Will-making in Anglo-Saxon England Linda Tollerton published the most up-to-date corpus, with 68 examples in total. The surviving documents are very unevenly distributed both in time and space: from the 9th century, for example, only 9 wills are known, and 6 of them are in Canterbury. Not

1140-653: The Battle of Brunanburh was fought between Æthelstan and an alliance of the Hiberno-Norse king of Dublin , Olaf Guthfrithson and the Scottish king, Constantine . Wulfstan was rather independently-minded, and his absence from the West Saxon court can be linked with possible participation at Brunanburh and his later activity as a kind of kingmaker in York . It is also possible to trace

1200-572: The British Academy and the Royal Historical Society was set up in 1966 to oversee a definitive edition of the entire corpus of Anglo-Saxon charters. The edition is to be published in approximately thirty volumes. The late Professor Nicholas Brooks was chairman of the committee in charge; he has been succeeded by Professor Simon Keynes . The following volumes have been published.: Supplementary volume Writ In common law ,

1260-510: The Christian order , with a pictorial ( cross , chrismon or alpha-omega ) and a verbal invocation to God. Many early charters were granted in anticipation of the founding of a monastery . The document served a largely secular purpose – to document the legal possession of land and to free that land from certain duties that would otherwise be attached to it. The second most common form of Anglo-Saxon charter, although far fewer in number than

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1320-630: The Civil Procedure Rules . Under these, almost all civil actions, other than those connected with insolvency, are now commenced by the completion of a 'Claim Form' as opposed to the obtaining of a 'Writ', 'Originating Application', or 'Summons' (see Rules 7 and 8 of the Civil Procedure Rules). The following writs, amongst others, existed in England: In some Westminster systems , for example, Canada and some other parliamentary systems ,

1380-719: The Governor-General for elections for the House of Representatives, or state governors for state elections) to local officials ( High sheriffs of every county in the United Kingdom) to hold a general election . Writs were used by the medieval English kings to summon people to Parliament (then consisting primarily of the House of Lords ) whose advice was considered valuable or who were particularly influential, and who were thereby deemed to have been created " barons by writ ". Sometime before

1440-747: The International Medieval Bibliography . He retired early from Leeds in 1982 and was subsequently (in 1998) given the title emeritus professor. Sawyer continued his teaching and research at Göteborg University as a docent , and had various stints as a visiting professor in the United States : at the University of Minnesota from 1966 to 1967 and then again in 1984, and at the University of California, Berkeley in 1985. Between 1996 and 2006 he worked in Trondheim (where his wife Birgit

1500-412: The United States district courts , provide that there is only one form of action in civil cases, and explicitly abolish certain writs by name. Relief formerly available by a writ is now commonly available by a lawsuit (civil action) or a motion in a pending civil action. Nonetheless, a few writs have escaped abolition and remain in current use in the U.S. federal courts: The situation in the courts of

1560-461: The University of Manchester from 1951 to 1953. After his time in Manchester, Sawyer was an assistant at the University of Edinburgh from 1953 to 1956 and a lecturer in medieval history at the University of Birmingham from 1957 to 1964. He taught at the University of Leeds from 1964, becoming professor of Medieval History in 1970. There, in collaboration with Robert Stuart Hoyt , he founded

1620-543: The history of Anglo-Saxon England . It was frequently kings who gave land in charters. By seeing what land was awarded, it is possible to see the extent of a king's control and how he exercised his power. In 846, Æthelwulf of Wessex granted land in Devon by charter, perhaps dividing the spoils from this recently conquered territory among his men. It is possible to use charters to reconstruct models of ownership and land administration. For example, they provide an important basis for

1680-499: The tenth century , officials in England began utilizing writs to convey orders. A " writ " was simply a short written command issued by a person in authority. It was customary for the sender to seal such a command as proof of its authenticity. In the days when writing was a rare art, a writ was revered because the person receiving the command was unlikely to deny or question its legitimacy. The Norman Conquest of England in 1066 led to

1740-454: The vernacular , describing the bounds of estates , which often correspond closely to modern parish boundaries. The writ was authenticated by a seal and gradually replaced the diploma as evidence of land tenure during the late Anglo-Saxon and early Norman periods. Land held by virtue of a charter was known as bookland . Charters have provided historians with fundamental source material for understanding Anglo-Saxon England, complementing

1800-525: The King as he travelled. This council administered all of the King's governmental activities, including judicial matters. One of the most important members of the Curia Regis was the Lord Chancellor . The Lord Chancellor led the chancery. Chancery is a general term for a medieval writing office that was responsible for the production of official documents. The Lord Chancellor wrote writs on behalf of

1860-470: The King, maintained all official documents, and acted as the keeper of the royal seal . This position, in effect, placed the Lord Chancellor as the head of the English legal system. The King, however, was the ultimate leader of the kingdom; therefore, the Lord Chancellor issued writs under the guidance of what he believed to be in the best interests of the King. Between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,

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1920-479: The Lord Chancellor had a large control over the issuance of all original writs. In this history of English common law, original writs began a legal proceeding, while a judicial writ was issued during a legal proceeding. The writ was a unique development of the Anglo-Saxon monarchy and consisted of a brief administrative order, authenticated (innovatively) by a seal . Written in the vernacular , they generally made

1980-545: The Royal Courts, such as the King's Bench or Common Pleas . Some franchise courts, especially in the Counties Palatine , had their own system of writs, which often reflected or anticipated the common law writs. The writ was "served" on (delivered in person to) the wrongdoer and acted as a command that he should appear at a specified time and date before the court specified in the writ, or it might command some other act on

2040-461: The Vikings argued that the Vikings were "traders not raiders", overturning the previously held view that the Vikings' voyages were only focused on destruction and pillaging . Sawyer is particularly known for his annotated catalogue of Anglo-Saxon charters . Anglo-Saxon charters are referenced by "Sawyer" numbers (abbreviated 'S' as for example in charter "S 407") according to his catalogue. Sawyer

2100-450: The boundaries of the land (boundary clause). The eschatocol was composed of a dating clause and witness-list, which usually included powerful lay and ecclesiastical members of the king's court . Much of the language of the diploma was explicitly religious – that a grant was made for the benefit of the grantor's soul or that anyone breaking the charter would be excommunicated . Charters typically opened by situating themselves firmly within

2160-469: The charter by invoking God and enumerating the pious considerations for the King's act (proem). The corpus was usually in Latin and named the beneficiary , recorded the grant or transfer (dispositive clause), reserved common burdens (reservation clause) and invoked the wrath of God on anyone who failed to observe it (anathema or sanction). The corpus' final section, which was often in Old English , described

2220-465: The diploma, is the royal writ. These differed from the diploma in both form and function. A writ was an instruction from the king to a named official or group of recipients. It started with a greeting and was authenticated by a royal seal. The writ did not require witnesses and was often written in Old English . Under the Normans, the use of writs was extended to cover many other aspects of royal business and

2280-450: The discussion of early medieval Fenland . Some scholars employ charters to analyse Roman infrastructure and the relationship of early medieval inhabitants of Britain to the Roman past. The way these documents use Roman remains in and outside of boundary clauses can tell us a lot about how the past was understood and constructed. Charters give lists of persons that attested the document and so it

2340-496: The earlier period. Land charters can further be subdivided into royal charters , or diplomas, and private charters (donations by figures other than the king). Over a thousand Anglo-Saxon charters are extant today, as a result of being maintained in the archives of religious houses . These preserved their charters so as to record their right to land. The oldest extant original charter, now in Canterbury Cathedral archive,

2400-476: The establishment of a strong, centralized monarchy. The first Norman King of England , William the Conqueror , modified writs to become mainly framed in Latin, increased the number of writs to cover additional royal commands, and established the Curia Regis in England. The Curia Regis , a Latin term meaning "royal council", consisted of the King of England and his loyal advisors. The Curia Regis accompanied

2460-412: The mid-13th century at Wilton Abbey , still includes a significant amount of Anglo-Saxon material. The importance of charters in legal disputes over land as evidence of land tenure, gave rise to numerous charter forgeries , sometimes by those same monastic houses in whose archives they were preserved. The primary motivation for forging charters was to provide evidence of rights to land. Often forging

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2520-665: The name of the Crown was ended. From that time, a writ simply required the parties to appear. Writs applied to claims to be heard in one of the courts, eventually forming part of the High Court of Justice . The procedure in a county court , which was established by statute, was to issue a 'summons'. In 1999, the Woolf Reforms unified most of the procedures of the Supreme Court and the county courts in civil matters. These reforms brought in

2580-411: The need to state the name of the form of action was also abolished. In 1875, the form of writ was altered to conform more to the subpoena used in the Chancery. A writ was a summons from the Crown to the parties to the action, with on its back the substance of the action set out, together with a 'prayer' requesting a remedy from the court (for example, damages). In 1980, the need for writs to be written in

2640-506: The official who is the respondent has the burden to prove his authority to do or not do something, failing which the court has no discretion but to decide for the petitioner, who may be any person, not just an interested party. In this, they differ from a motion in a civil process in which the burden of proof is on the movant and in which there can be a question of standing . Under the Indian legal system, jurisdiction to issue ' prerogative writs '

2700-410: The original form, whilst others are post- Conquest copies, that were often made by the compilers of cartularies (collections of title-deeds ) or by early modern antiquaries . The earliest cartularies containing copies of Anglo-Saxon charters come from Worcester, early-11th-century Liber Wigorniensis and Hemming's Cartulary of a century later; a much later example, Wilton Cartulary , compiled in

2760-420: The part of the recipient. Where a plaintiff wished to have a case heard by a local court or by the justice of an Eyre if one happened to be visiting the county, there would be no need to obtain a writ. An informal complaint could usually start actions in local courts. However, if a plaintiff wished to avail himself of Royal — and by implication superior — justice in one of the King's courts, then he would need

2820-530: The phrase ' dropping the writ ' refers colloquially to a dissolution of parliament and the beginning of an election campaign to form a new one. This phrase derives from the fact that to hold an election in such a system, a writ of election must be issued on behalf of the monarch ordering the High Sheriffs of each county to set in motion the procedure for elections. Early law of the United States adopted

2880-407: The plaintiff's case, provided the legal means to remove the dispute from the jurisdiction of the local court, often controlled by a lesser noble , and instead have it heard by the King's judges. The nobility thus saw the creation of new writs as an erosion of their influence. Over time, opposition to the creation of new writs by the Chancery increased. For example, in 1256, a court was asked to quash

2940-474: The specialist literature by their Sawyer number (e.g. S 407). The three most common forms of Anglo-Saxon charter are diplomas, writs and wills. They are certified by the attestations of witnesses, who are listed at the end of the charter. The largest number of surviving charters are diplomas, or royal charters, that granted privileges and rights, usually over land. The typical diploma had three sections: protocol , corpus , and eschatocol . The protocol opened

3000-557: The superior courts of the States, may issue writs under Articles 226. The Constitution broadly provides for five kinds of "prerogative" writs: habeas corpus , certiorari , mandamus , quo warranto and prohibition: Peter Hayes Sawyer Peter Hayes Sawyer (25 June 1928 – 7 July 2018 ) was a British historian. His work on the Vikings was highly influential, as was his scholarship on Medieval England . Sawyer's early work The Age of

3060-497: The time of King Henry II (1154–1189), the use of writs had become a regular part of the system of royal justice in England. At first, new writs were drafted to fit each unique situation. However, in practice, the clerks of the Chancery would use wording from previously issued writs, with suitable adjustments, often taken from reference books containing collections of forms of writ, much as in modern times, lawyers frequently use fixed precedents or boilerplate , rather than re-inventing

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3120-483: The traditional English writ system, in the sense of a rigid set of forms of relief that the law courts were authorized to grant. The All Writs Act authorizes United States federal courts to "issue all writs necessary or appropriate in aid of their respective jurisdictions and agreeable to the usages and principles of law." However, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure , adopted in 1938 to govern civil procedure in

3180-489: The various U.S. states varies from state to state but is often similar to that in the federal courts. Some states continue to use writ procedures, such as quo warranto , that have been abolished as a procedural matter in federal courts. In an attempt to purge Latin from the language of the law, California law has for many years used the term 'writ of mandate' in place of writ of mandamus and writ of review in place of writ of certiorari . The "prerogative" writs are

3240-410: The wording of a new legal document. The problem with this approach was that a plaintiff's rights and available forms of action at his disposal, would be defined, and in most cases limited, by the limited variety of writs available to him. Thus, the power to create new writs was akin to the power to create new rights, a form of extra-parliamentary legislation. Moreover, a writ, if one could be found fitting

3300-608: Was born in Oxford , England , on 25 June 1928, the son of Grace Woodbridge and Bill Sawyer, a tobacconist . He grew up in Oxford, except for time spent with relatives in Milford Haven during WWII . Sawyer studied at Oxford University from 1948 to 1951, where he was a member of Jesus College and graduated with a B.A. Honours in Modern History . He then was a research student at

3360-720: Was focussed on providing written evidence for the holdings recorded as belonging to a religious house in the Domesday Book . It is important when studying charters to establish their authenticity. The study of charters to determine authenticity gave rise to diplomatics – the science of ancient documents. Relatively few charters survive in their form as single sheets, and copies may have been altered for various purposes. Historians attempt to extract useful information from all types of charters, even outright fabrications, which may be of interest because they are apparently based on genuine documentation or for some other reason. Timothy Reuter ,

3420-479: Was issued in 679 by King Hlothhere of Kent granting land to the Reculver Abbey . Some surviving charters are later copies, which sometimes include interpolations . Anglo-Saxon charters were sometimes used in legal disputes , and the recording of the contents of a charter within a legal document has ensured the survival of text when the original charter has been lost. Overall, some two hundred charters exist in

3480-401: Was not until Henry II that writs became available for purchase by private individuals seeking justice, thus initiating a vast expansion in their role within the common law. Writs could take two main forms: ' letters patent ', which were open for all to read, and 'letters close' for one or more specified individuals alone. The development of writs as a means of commencing a court action was

3540-413: Was part of the establishment of a Court of Common Pleas , for dealing with commonly made complaints by subjects of the crown, for example: "someone has damaged my property". The previous system of justice at the royal court of Chancery was tailor-made to suit each case and was thus highly time-consuming. Thus eventually the obtaining of a writ became necessary, in most cases, to have a case heard in one of

3600-532: Was written in Latin. Florence Harmer provided the text (and translation when written in Old English) of 120 pre-Conquest royal writs. Anglo-Saxon wills were intended to make gifts of property (including land) after the writer's death, but they were not wills in the modern sense. Wills are rarer than writs. The first dedicated study, Anglo-Saxon Wills by Dorothy Whitelock was able to identify 39 documents. The number grew to 55 with publication of another 16 among

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