| | 1 | Author: | Herbert
Henry William
1807-1858 | Add | | | Title: | Wager of battle  | | | | Published: | 2003 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | In the latter part of the twelfth century—when, in the reign
of Henry II., fourth successor of the Conqueror, and grandson
of the first prince of that name, known as Beauclerc, the
condition of the vanquished Saxons had begun in some sort to
amend, though no fusion of the races had as yet commenced,
and tranquillity was partially restored to England—the greater
part of the northern counties, from the Trent to the mouths
of Tyne and Solway, was little better than an unbroken chase
or forest, with the exception of the fiefs of a few great barons,
or the territories of a few cities and free borough towns; and
thence, northward to the Scottish frontier, all was a rude and
pathless desert of morasses, moors, and mountains, untrodden
save by the foot of the persecuted Saxon outlaw. “King Henry II. to the Sheriff of Lancaster and Westmoreland,
greeting—Kenric, the son of Werewulf, of Kentmere, in
Westmoreland, has showed to us, that whereas he is a free
man, and ready to prove his liberty, Sir Foulke d'Oilly, knight
and baron of Waltheofstow and Fenton in the Forest of Sherwood,
in Yorkshire, claiming him to be his nief, unjustly vexes
him; and therefore we command you, that if the aforesaid
Kenric shall make you secure touching the proving of his
liberty, then put that plea before our justices, at the first assizes,
when they shall come into those parts, to wit, in our
good city of Lancaster, on the first day of December next ensuing,
because proof of this kind belongeth not to you to
take; and in the mean time cause the said Kenric to have
peace thereupon, and tell the aforesaid Sir Foulke d'Oilly that
he may be there, if he will, to prosecute thereof, against the
aforesaid Kenric. And have there this writ. “In the case of Kenric surnamed the Dark, accused of
deer-slaying, against the forest statute, and of murder, or
homicide, both alleged to have been done and committed
in the forest of Sherwood, on the 13th day of September
last passed, the grand inquest, now in session, do find that
there is no bill, nor any cause of process. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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