THE JUSTICES OF LABOURERS 



23 



that the petition of the commons in the spring of 1354 

 seems superfluous — qzie les Gardeyns de la Pees et les 

 Justices des Laborers soicnt uns la ou bonement poet estre 

 fait.' 



The precise reason why the justices of labourers had 

 proved unsatisfactory it is difificult to understand : Lam- 

 bard's statement that they were disHked is not an ex- 

 planation.^ After Michaelmas, 1354, the penalties under 

 the statutes no longer went to the subsidy, ^ so there was 

 not the same need for the separation of the two sets of 

 estreats; therefore, the cumbersomeness of a system that 

 forced such large numbers of men to act in a double 

 capacity, making necessary two series of quarter sessions 

 etc., may have become apparent. Administrative diflfi- 

 culties increased in connection with the whole problem 

 of the claims of the lords to a share in the penalties 

 under the statutes of labourers. The climax seems to 

 have been reached in Warwickshire and Leicestershire, 

 and is perhaps indicated in a petition to the king in the 

 spring of 1359 from the magnates of these counties:'* to 

 their complaint of the trouble caused by the necessity of 

 separating fines from " excess," ^ as well as of distin- 



"^ Rot. Pari., ii, 2575-2583. Possibly the petition had some effect, for 

 the duplication of names is peculiarly noticeable in the commissions 

 issued during the following summer. Reeves, Hist . of Eng. Law, ii, 

 276, says: "The commission to execute the statute of labourers was 

 usually directed to the same persons who were in the commission of the 

 peace," a somewhat different statement from that quoted p. 9, note i. 



^ Eirenarcha , 563. ''pt. i, ch. iii, s. 2, A. 



<Mem. K. R., ZZ~ Trin., Breu. Baron., rot. 8d. Cf. also Mem. L. 

 T. R., 33, Trin., Precepta, rot. 4 and 3, Warwick and Leicester. A 

 peculiarly large number of claims to penalties are here recorded as made 

 by the lords in these two counties. 



^For the reason for this separation, see pt. 1, ch. ii, s. 5, and ch. iii, 

 s. 2, B. 



