The manor was the sphere of operations of a manor court. On every manor the tenants gathered at frequent periods for a great amount of petty judicial and regulative work. The most usual period for the meeting of the manor court was once every three weeks, though in some manors no trace of a meeting is found more frequently than three times, or even twice, a year. In these cases, however, it is quite probable that less formal meetings occurred of which no regular record was kept.
Different kinds of gatherings of the tenants are usually distinguished according to the authority under which they were held, or the class of tenants of which they were made up. If the court was held by the lord simply because of his feudal rights as a landholder, and was busied only with matters of the inheritance, transfer, or grant of lands, the fining of tenants for the breach of manorial custom, or failure to perform their duties to the lord of the manor, the election of tenants to petty offices on the manor, and such matters, it was described in legal language as a court baron. If a court so occupied was made up of villain tenants only, it was called a customary court. If, on the other hand, the court also punished general offences, petty crimes, breaches of contract, breaches of the assize, that is to say, the established standard of amount, price, or quality of bread or beer, the lord of the manor drawing his authority to hold such a court either actually or supposedly from a grant from the king, such a court was called a court leet. With the court leet was usually connected the so-called view of frank pledge.
Frank pledge was an ancient system, according to which all men were obliged to be enrolled in groups, so that if any one committed an offence, the other members of the group would be obliged to produce him for trial. View of frank pledge was the right to punish by fine all who failed to so enroll themselves. In the court baron and the customary court it was said by lawyers that the body of attendants were the judges, and the steward, representing the lord of the manor, only a presiding official, while in the court leet the steward was the actual judge of the tenants. In practice, however, it is probable that not much was made of these distinctions and that the periodic gatheringswere made to do duty for all business of any kind that needed attention, while the procedure was that which had become customary on that special manor, irrespective of the particular form of authority for the court.
Q1) Which of the following can be inferred from the information in the passage?A. The concept of frank pledge was created to promote solidarity within groups of people
B. The duration between successive meetings of a manor court was not fixed
C. A court baron had more powers than a customary court
D. The manor court was the highest legal authority during the period mentioned in the passage
E. The manor court did not always have a presiding official
Q2) Each of the following is mentioned in the passage as a power of the court baron EXCEPT:A. To judge matters related to inheritance
B. To resolve disputes related to grants of land
C. To punish tenants for negligence of duties
D. To elect tenants to offices on the manor
E. To fine petty criminals
Q3) According to the information in the first para, the fact that ‘in some manors no trace of a meeting is found more frequently than three times, or even twice, a year’ does NOT necessarily suggest that:A. more meetings were actually not held during that period
B. meetings were not necessarily held every three weeks
C. informal meetings may have been held during this period
D. manor courts probably did not keep a record of all their meetings
E. some courts met fewer times than the others
Q4) According to the information in the passage, which of the following is a point of difference between a cour baron and a court leet?A. A court baron could elect tenants to petty offices whereas a court leet could not
B. A court leet was authorised by the king whereas a court baron was not
C. A court baron treated a steward as a presiding official whereas a court leet treated a steward as a judge
D. A court baron could judge matters related to inheritance whereas a court leet could not
E. A court leet was always connected to the frank pledge whereas a court baron was not
Updated on: 14 Jul 2020, 06:36
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