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NORTHAMPTON, ASSIZE OF

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Originally appearing in Volume V19, Page 767 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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NORTHAMPTON, See also:ASSIZE OF , a See also:short See also:code of See also:English See also:laws issued in 1176, is See also:drawn up in the See also:form of instructions to six committees of three See also:judges each, which were to visit the six circuits into which See also:England was divided for the purpose. Though purporting to be a reissue of the Assize of See also:Clarendon (1166), it contains in fact many new provisions. As compared with the earlier assize it prescribes greater severity of See also:punishment for criminal offences; See also:arson and See also:forgery were henceforth to be crimes about which the jurors are to enquire; and those who failed at the See also:ordeal were to lose a See also:hand as well as a See also:foot. In what is perhaps the most important See also:section we may probably see the origin of the possessory See also:action of most d'ancestor, an innovation scarcely less striking than the institution of the novel disseisin in the See also:winter of 1166. The justices were also ordered to try proprietary actions commenced by the See also:king's See also:writ for the recovery of See also:land held by the service of See also:half a See also:knight's See also:fee or less. In their fiscal capacity they were to enquire into escheats, churches, lands and See also:women in the king's See also:gift. The royal bailiffs were to See also:answer at the See also:exchequer for rents of assize and all the perquisites which they made in their offices, and apparently the See also:duty of enforcing this See also:provision was entrusted to the justices. As a result of the See also:rebellion of 1173–1174 it was provided that an See also:oath of fealty should be taken by all, " to wit, barons, knights, freeholders and even villeins (rustici)", and that any one who refused should be arrested as the king's enemy, and the justices were to see that the castles whose demolition had been ordered were completely razed.

End of Article: NORTHAMPTON, ASSIZE OF

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