Seignorial Powers. 69 



Amongst these survivals we shall class (Mr, Maitland not- 

 withstanding) both the Court Leet and the Frank-pledge. 



It is the fashion for modern theorists to ignore entirely 

 the statements of the 16th and 17th century writers. They, 

 however, had access to works which have long ceased to exist.^ 

 Many of them were lawyers, accustomed by profession to sift 

 evidence and to act on precedent. When, therefore, such 

 writers inform us that the Court Leet was the oldest in the 

 kingdom, we should pause before we reject the statement. 

 It has always been supposed that it originated in some pri- 

 mitive open-air assembly having jurisdictory powers higher 

 than those of the Wapentake. It was confined to the discus- 

 sion of public business, and was presided over by the lord. Its 

 name, derived from the Saxon " Iteo " (i.e. " law ") favours the 

 assumption that it was an early institution. There is no doubt, 

 however, that it must have been frequently reconstituted to 

 suit the continually changing relationship between the lord 

 and the land. In its earliest form it would seem to have been 

 a miniature of the great national assembly of the Witan- 

 gemote. Just as the cyning afterwards presided over the 

 Witan composed of the abbots, bishops, and chief landowners, 

 and possibly also attended by an outside circle of non- voters, 

 so would each chieftain sit under some sheltering tree and 

 hold his Leet Court for the administration of local business 

 within his seignorial territory. Closely associated with this 

 Court was the Frank-pledge, another survival, no doubt, of a 

 communal economy. 



For, where a system of common land tenure and agriculture 

 prevailed, the sins and short-comings of the individual were 

 visited upon the community. If we may take a comparatively 

 trivial example, neglect to weed one plot of land would be 

 felt on adjoining plots, where the breeze-blown seeds would be 

 sure to germinate. One man's dilatoriness in sowing or reap- 

 ing his corn would delay the whole harvest of the district, 

 and consequently the community's resumption of pasturage 



1 Kitchen, Court Leet ; Jacobs, Complete Court Keeper. Vide the list 

 of authorities quoted by this latter author, most of whose works are 

 extinct. 



