A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



appealed to the king, and forwarded a petition setting out their various 

 grievances. 133 



The case was brought before the Parliament at Lincoln in February, 

 1301, where Bek on being asked by Edward I if he would support the king 

 against the earls, replied that as they laboured for the advancement and 

 honour of the realm and the crown, he stood by them and not by the king 

 against them. By this reply Bek is said to have lost the king's goodwill, 13 * 

 and that consequently, when at Easter, 1303, Edward in person dealt with 

 the case at Durham, the agreement 135 which resulted was greatly to the 

 benefit of the bishop's subjects. 



Bek's charter to his subjects has been analysed by Dr. Lapsley (op. cit. 

 131) as follows : 



(a) Correction of abuses in the administration of justice. 



I . No freeman to be imprisoned except by inquest of Sakeber (see Pollock and 

 Maitland, Hist, of Eng. Law, ii, 160) or if he be taken with the stolen goods in 

 his possession. 



2. No freeman shall be impleaded in the court Christian except for matters 

 relating to testament and matrimony ; and if any other action be attempted he shall 

 have prohibition and attachment against the official. 



6. No freeman shall be impleaded in a halmote or other villein court, and even 

 if a villein be party to the suit the freeman shall have a writ enabling him to plead in 

 a free court. 



7. For the purposes of arrest and imprisonment, the wapentake of Sadberge is 

 to be regarded as a venue distinct from the rest of the palatinate except in cases of 

 trespass against the bishop. 



9. The bishop shall not seize any lands or goods in the palatinate without a 

 writ, except in the case of the death of a tenant in chief. 



10. Without due recovery in court no officer of the bishop shall levy debt on 

 any freeman except the ascertained debts of the bishop. 



15. In the forest courts procedure by inquest is to be allowed and fines are to 

 be amerced by the suitors of the court and not arbitrarily by the bailiffs. 



1 6. Arbitrary imprisonment and refusal of procedure by inquest for forest 

 offences are not to be tolerated. 



21. Except for distress no issues shall be levied on any freeman until the party 

 has come into court. 



(b) Suppression of unauthorized exactions from the freemen of the palatinate. 



8. No tolls shall be taken on sales and purchases except in vills merchant, and 

 all transactions in the open country (uppelaunde) shall be free. 



ii. Except in time of war no carriage shall be levied of freemen without re- 

 imbursement, unless such carriage is involved in their tenure. 



1 8. Forest officers shall make no unaccustomed exactions of freemen in the 

 way of corn sheaves and the like. 



20. Dues from such of the bishop's wastes as have been put to farm and sub- 

 sequently abandoned by reason of poverty shall not be levied from the neighbours. 

 (f) Restraint of abuse of feudal privileges by the bishop. 



3. The bishop shall have the wardship of only such tenements in drengage as 

 are held of himself and the prior. 



4. Like the king the bishop may have the wardship of all the tenements of his 

 tenants in chief, whether such tenements be held of himself or of a mesne lord. 



5. The freemen of the palatinate may make mills on any of their lands that do 

 not owe suit at the bishop's mill, and they may open and work mines of coal and iron 

 on their own land. 



ton documents being included under Northumbria. It would appear, however, that the term applied to some 

 parts of the present county of Northumberland, for in some charters in the treasury at Durham relating to 

 Ellingham Church (twelfth century), Ralph de Calgi addresses himself to 'omnibus baronibus et amicis suis et 

 hominibus de Haliwerfolch,' 4**, 2 dae , No. I. See Lapsley, op. cit. 28, Reg. Pal. Dunelm. i, 8, for use in 

 time of Hen. II ; Durham Miscellaneous Charters, 420. 



133 fallow's Reg. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 41, translation 550. 13< Graystanes, Script. Tres (Surt. Soc.), 78. 



135 The agreement is printed in Registrum Pa/at. Dunelm. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 61, 555. 



154 



