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Home Dictionary Name: king Page: 4 Page 4 of about 712 results ( seconds)Clarendon, constitutions of, assize of
Clarendon, constitutions of, assize of. At a great council held at Clarendon, in Wiltshire, A.D. 1164, in the tenth year of the reign of Henry II., a code of laws was brought forward by the king, under the title of the ancient customs of the realm and known as the 'Constitutions of Clarendon'; and as Becket had solemnly promised he would observe what were really such, the king procured the principal propositions in dispute to be enacted, and declared by the council under that denomination. The main provisions of them were that clergy charged with crimes were to be tried in the civil courts, and that a justice of the king should be present in the king's courts; that no prelate was to quit the realm without the king's permission; that prelates were to be subject to feudal burdens; that the king was to hold all vacant benefices and receive their revenues till the vacancies were filled; and that goods forfeited to the Crown were not to be protected by sanctuary.As in the Constitutions of C...
Magna Carta
Magna Carta, [Latin 'great charter'] The English charter that King John granted to the barons in 1215 and Henry III and Edward I later confirmed. It is generally regarded as one of the great common-law documents and as the foundation of constitution liberties. The other three great charters of English Liberty are the Petition of Right (3 Car. (1628)), the Habeas Corpus Act (31 Car. 2 (1679)), and the Bill of Rights (1 Will. SM. (1689)). Also spelled Magna charta, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 963.This Great Charter is based substantially upon the Saxon Common Law, which flourished in this kingdom until the Normaninvasion consolidated the system of feudality, still the great characteristic of the principles of real property. The barons assembled at St.Edmund's Bury, in Suffolk, in the later part of the year 1214, and there solemnly swore upon the high alter to withdraw their allegiance from the Crown, and openly rebel, unless King John confirmed by a formal charter the ancient li...
Prerogative of mercy
Prerogative of mercy. In early times the operation of the Royal Prerogative of Mercy was far wider than at the present day, as it was not only extended to some persons who in later ages would not be considered to have incurred any criminal respon-sibility, e.g., persons who had committed homicide by misadventure or in self-defence (Pollock and Maitland's Hist. Engl. Law, vol. ii., pp. 476 et seq.), but was even extended to jurors who had been attained for an oath that, though not false, was fatuous: ibid. p. 661. The power of pardoning offences is stated by Blackstone to be one of the great advantages of monarchy in general above every other form of government, and which cannot subsist in democracies. Its utility and necessity are defended by him on all those principles which do honour to human nature: see 4 Bl. Com. c. 31, p. 397. In early times, again, there were fewer offences that did not admit of being pardoned. In appeals (i.e., private accusations of felony) which were not the s...
Petition of Right
Petition of Right, 3 Car. 1, c. 1, a parliamentary declaration of the liberties of the people, assented to by Charles I. in the beginning of his reign.In the first Parliament of Charles I., which met in 1626, the Commons refused to grant supplies until certain rights and privileges of the subject, which they alleged had been violated, should have been solemnly recognised by a legislative enactment. With this view they framed a petition to the king, in which, after reciting various statutes by which their rights and privileges were recognized, they prayed the king 'that no man be compelled to make or yield any gift, loan, benevolence, tax, or suchlike charge, without common consent by Act of Parliament; that none be called upon to make answer so to do; that freemen be imprisoned or detained only by the law of the land, or by due process of law, and not by the king's special command, without any charge; that persons be not compelled to receive soldiers and mariners into their houses agai...
Testa de nevil
Testa de nevil, an ancient document in two volumes, in the custody of the King's Remembrancer in the Exchequer, more properly called Liber Feodorum.These books contain principally accounts (1) of fees holden either immediately of the king, or others who held of the king in capite, and if alienated whether the owners were in feoffed ab antiquo or de novo, as also fees holden in frankalmoigne, with the values thereof respectively; (2) of serjeanties holden of the king, distinguishing such as were rented or alienated, with the values of the same; (3) of widows, and heiresses of tenants in capite, whose marriages were in the gift of the king, with the values of their lands; (4) of churches in the gift of the king, and in whose hands they were; (5) of escheats, as well of the lands of Normans as others, in whose hands the same were, and by what services holden; (6) of the amount of the sums paid for scutage and aid, etc., by each tenant.These volumes were printed in 1807, under the authorit...
Certiorari
Certiorari (to be more fully informed of), an original writ issuing out of the Crown side of the King's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice, addressed, in the king's name, to judges or officers of inferior Courts, commanding them to certify or to return the records of a cause depending before them, to the end that justice maybe done.Certiorari lies to remove into the High Court of Justice, King's Bench Division, which, superseding the King's bench, is the sovereign Court of justice in criminal causes, all indictments, coroners' inquisitions, summary convictions by magistrates, orders of removal of paupers, and of poor's rates, also orders made by commissioners of sewers and other commissioners, town councils, and railway companies, for the purpose of being examined and 'quashed,' if contrary to law. The writ may be granted either at the instance of the prosecutor or the defendant. A prosecutor was formerly entitled to a writ of certiorari as a matter of right, but a defendant c...
Kings peace
Kings peace, means a royal subject's right to be free from crime (to 'have peace') in certain areas subject to the King's immediate control, such as the King's palace or highway. A breach of the peace in one of these areas subjected the offender to punishment in the King's Court. Overtime, the area subject to the King's peace grew, which in turn increased the jurisdiction of the royal courts. Also written King's Peace, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 875....
Precedence or precedency
Precedence or precedency, the act or state of going before; adjustment of place.The rules of precedence may be reduced to the following list, in which those marked * are entitled to the rank here allotted them by 31 Hen. 8, c. 10; marked ' by 1 W. & M. c. 1; marked by letters-patent, 9, 10 & 14 Jac. 1, which see in Seld. Tit. of Hon. ii. 5, 46; marked ' by ancient usage and established custom, Camden's Brit., tit. 'Ordines'; Milles's Cat. of Hon. 1610; and Chamberlayne's Prest. St. of Eng., b. 3, c. iii; see 1 Bl. Com. 404.* The King's children and grandchildren.* The King's consort.* The King's uncles.* The King's nephews.* Archbishop of Canterbury (a).* Lord High Chancellor or Keeper, if a baron.* Archbishop of York.Prime Minister.By royal warrant dated December, 1905.* Lord Treasurer.* Lord President of the Council. } barons.* Lord Privy Seal.(a) The judges of assize, while on circuit, take pre-cedence of every subject.*Lord Great Chamberlain.But see Private Stat.1 Geo. 1, c. 3.* Lo...
Herald
Herald [fr. here, Sax., an army, and heald, a champion; herault, heraut, Fr.; herald, Ger.; araldo, Ital.; because it was part of his office to charge or challenge unto battle or combat], an officer who registers genealogies, adjusts ensigns armorial, regulates funerals, and carries messages between princes, and proclaims war and peace. Heralds were anciently called Dukes at Arms, probably from the Latin ducere ad arma; because the conducting of affairs concerning peace and war devolved upon them, their office being to carry messages to the enemy, and to proclaim war and peace. Hence the persons of heralds were deemed sacred by the law of nations, and were received and protected by belligerent powers, as flags of truce are in the present day. The three chief heralds are called Kings of Arms; of whom (1) Garter is the principal, instituted by Henry V. His office is to attend the Knights of the Garter at their solemnities, and to marshal the funerals of the nobility. (2) Clarencieux King...
Quo minus
Quo minus, a writ which lay for him who had a grant of house-bote and hay-bote in another's woods against the grantor making such waste whereby the grantee could the less enjoy his grant, Old N.B. 148.It also lay for the King's accountant in the Exchequer against any person against whom he had a right of action, and was called a quo minus because in it the plaintiff suggested that he was the King' farmer or debtor, and that the defendant had done himthe injury or damage complained of; quo minus sufficiens existit, by which he is less able to pay the King his debt or rent; see 3 Bl. Com. 45. Afterwards this suggestion of being debtor to the King was allowed to be inserted by any plaintiff who wished to proceed in that Court against any defendant, as a mere matter of form, and in this way the Court of Exchequer obtained a jurisdiction co-extensive with that of the Common Pleas in actions personal. The writ of quo minus was abolished by 2 Wm. 4, c. 39....
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