CHAPTER X 
ARCHAIC PERIOD (NORMANS AND FIRST 
PLANTAGENETS) 
Normans. The Norman kings continued the work begun 
under the Anglo-Saxon kings, and Henry II, the first of the 
Plantagenets, did more than regulate vengeance and self- 
help; he almost supplanted them by the machinery of the 
state. 
William the Conqueror continued the Anglo-Saxon law, both 
for his own sake and for the sake of his subjects. He ap- 
plied the murder fine to his own uses, and he developed the 
idea of the king’s peace. He also introduced some new fea- 
tures. He introduced in place of the witanagemot the Curia 
Regis, composed of the officers of state, barons, and justices; 
and the feudal system, altho he also kept the old English 
militia of foot soldiers in addition to the feudal system. He 
restored national unity, and just before his death broke the 
neck of the feudal system (so far as the political power of the 
lords was concerned) by requiring every landowner to take an 
oath to be faithful to him first. The barons triumphed over 
Stephen. But Henry II again conquered the barons by sub- 
stituting scutage for military service. 
The Normans had high administrative skill. Their ability 
was high, and there was little corruption among them. They 
had no written code. They applied the Anglo-Saxon com- 
mon law (dooms, etc.) as developed by a French-speaking 
court and some Roman law maxims, principles, logic, method, 
and spirit, and allowed the canon law to be introduced thru the 
Roman Catholic church in probate, divorce, and admiralty 
matters. Their legal language was Latin, and this continued 
to be the legal language in records of litigation until 1731, 
when English was substituted ; and in published laws and law 
books until the thirteenth century, when French was sub- 
stituted. In the sixteenth century, English supplanted French 
in laws and law books. The Normans introduced the feudal 
system, but their real contribution to English legal history 
was the idea that justice should be administered by the king’s 
justices. This kept English law from going back to Anglo- 
Saxon law, on the one hand, and from becoming Roman law, 
on the other hand. 
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