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JUSTICIAR (med. Lat. justiciarius or ...

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 595 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JUSTICIAR (med. See also:Lat. justiciarius or justitiarius, a See also:judge) , in See also:English See also:history, the See also:title of the See also:chief See also:minister of the See also:Norman and earlier Angevin See also:kings. The history of the title in this See also:connotation is somewhat obscure. Justiciarius meant simply " judge," and was originally applied, as See also:Stubbs points out (Const. Hist. i. 389, See also:note), to any. officer of the See also:king's See also:court, to the chief See also:justice, or in a very See also:general way to all and sundry who possessed courts of their own or were qualified to See also:act as judices in the See also:shire-courts, even the See also:style capitalis justiciarius being used of See also:judges of the royal court other than the chief. It was not till the reign of See also:Henry II. that the title summus or capitalis justiciarius, or jusliciarius totius Angliae was exclusively applied to the king's chief minister. The See also:office, however, existed before the style of its holder was fixed; and, whatever their contemporary title (e.g. Custos Angliae), later writers refer to them as justiciarii, with or without the prefix summus or capitalis (ibid. p. 346). Thus Ranulf See also:Flambard, the minister of See also:William II., who was probably the first to exercise the See also:powers of a justiciar, is called justitiarius by Ordericus Vitalis. The origin of the justiciarship is thus given by Stubbs (ibid.p.

276). The See also:

sheriff " was the king's representative in all matters judicial, military and See also:financial in the shire. From him, or from the courts of which he was the presiding officer, See also:appeal See also:lay to the king alone; but the king was often absent from See also:England and did not understand the See also:language of his subjects. In his See also:absence the See also:administration was entrusted to a justiciar, a See also:regent or See also:lieutenant of the See also:kingdom; and the convenience being once ascertained of having a minister who could in the whole kingdom represent the king, as the sheriff did in the shire, the justiciar became a permanent functionary." The fact that the kings were often absent from England, and that the justiciarship was held by See also:great nobles or churchmen, made this office of an importance which at times threatened to overshadow that of the See also:Crown. It was this latter circumstance which ultimately led to its abolition. See also:Hubert de See also:Burgh (q.v.) was the last of the great justiciars; after his fall (1231) the justiciarship was not again committed to a great See also:baron, and the See also:chancellor soon took the position formerly occupied by the justiciar as second to the king in dignity, as well as in See also:power and See also:influence. Finally, under See also:Edward I. and his successor, in See also:place of the justiciar—who had presided over all causes See also:vice regisseparate heads were established in the three branches into which the See also:curia regis as a judicial See also:body had been divided: justices of See also:common pleas, justices of the king's See also:bench and barons of the See also:exchequer. Outside England the title justiciar was given under Henry II. to the See also:seneschal of See also:Normandy. In See also:Scotland the title of justiciar was See also:borne, under the earlier kings, by two high officials, one having his See also:jurisdiction to the See also:north, the other to the See also:south of the Forth. They were the king's lieutenants for judicial and administrative purposes and were established in the rzth See also:century, either by See also:Alexander I. or by his successor See also:David I. In the 12th century a magister justitiarius also appears in the Norman kingdom of See also:Sicily, title and office being probably borrowed from England; he presided over the royal court (Magna curia) .and was, with his assistants, empowered to decide, inter alia, all cases reserved to the Crown (see Du Cange, s.v. Magister Justitiarius).

See W. Stubbs, Const. Hist. of England; Du Cange, Glossarium (See also:

Niort, 1885) s.v.

End of Article: JUSTICIAR (med. Lat. justiciarius or justitiarius, a judge)

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