106 



GUERNSEY HISTORY. 



Waranto." The Archbishop of York, for instance, when 

 called upon to show by what warrant he claimed high justice 

 over his tenants, replied " from time immemorial," not one 

 scrap of parchment did he deign to produce.* It meant 

 simply that the people did not remember a different state 

 of things. We know from the Inquisition of 1248 that 

 the right of electing our jurats was granted to us by King 

 John, but their powers as set forth in that document were 

 very different from the almost sovereign jurisdiction claimed 

 by them in 1309 and 1331. Of the process of the develop- 

 ment we have no record. Mr. Marett Godfrey was inclined 

 to think that the growth of the power of the jurats took 

 place during the period when the assizes were held by local 

 justices.! How far this alteration received royal sanction 

 in the 13th century we cannot at present tell. 



The question of our liberties was finally closed by their 

 confirmation in 1341 by Edward III. ; but before examining 

 the reasons for this act, it is necessary to glance at the 

 invasions of the Isles at the outbreak of the hundred years' 

 war, and at the political situation in our neighbourhood, and 

 in our Isles, which as we shall see were the causes leading 

 up to it. 



The causes that led up to the hundred years' war with 

 France are too well known to everyone to need much ex- 

 planation. On the death of Charles IV., in 1328, without 

 male heirs, the crown of France passed to his cousin, Philip 

 of Valois. Queen Isabella, sister of Charles IV., preferred 

 the claims of her son Edward III. as his nephew, and 

 therefore nearer to the throne than a first cousin. The 

 French magnates repudiated her claim, and Isabella was 

 forced to resign herself to simple protests. For some years 

 the relations between Edward and Philip remained strained, 

 and though no open rupture took place both were secretly 

 preparing for war. In 1335, the king ordered the castles 

 in the islands to be repaired and put into a proper 

 state of defence. The following year, 1336, we w^ere 

 ravaged by the adherents of David Bruce, but Serk and 

 Alderney seem to have been the chief sufferers at the hands 

 of the Scots. In 1337 the French sailors raided our islands 

 and the towns of the Sussex and Hampshire coast. Edward, 

 indignant at this outrage, redoubled his preparations for war. 

 On October 7, 1337, he renewed his claim to the French 

 crown, repudiated his homage, and sent Bishop Burghersh 



* Pollock & Maitland History English Law, Vol. I., p. 584. 

 t Bulletin 18, Soc. Jersiaise, p. 190. 

 L'origine des Jures Justiciers, par H. Marett Godfrey. 



