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Indiana University Studies 
relative of the slain man could ‘‘appear’ against the slayer. 
The latter then threw down his glove and claimed combat. 
If the accuser did not take up the challenge the accused went 
free. If the challenge was accepted, a day was appointed, 
and in lists presided over by the sheriff, or itinerant justices, 
the combat took place, beginning at sunrise and lasting to 
sunset if not previously determined. If the accused pro- 
longed the fight to sunset he was declared guiltless, and the 
accuser was fined and declared infamous. If the accused lost 
he was hanged if still alive. Appeal of felony continued to 
the Tudor period. It was claimed in 1817 by a man named 
Thornton, who was acquitted when his accuser declined the 
challenge. Two years later the appeal was abolished. Wager 
of battle also obtained in “affairs of honour”. The duel was 
a mode of trying issues of fact in actions commenced in the 
king’s courts. The writ of right was tried either by duel or 
jury, and the judgments in the assizes were without prejudice 
to later settlement by battle. In civil cases champions (or 
prochein amys) fought, in order to guard against ending the 
suit by killing one of the parties to the action. Wager of 
battle had almost died out in civil actions by the end of the 
reign of Henry III, but it was not abolished; it fell into disuse 
because the writ of right ceased to be used. There is a case 
on record as late as Elizabeth. 
Jury. The great mode of trial introduced by the Normans 
was trial by jury. The origin of the jury in criminal trials 
is wrapped in more or less doubt. Alfred the Great estab- 
lished a system of frankpledge, or presentment of criminals 
for trial by sworn men of the hundred, and some think this 
was the origin of the grand jury. The Frankish kings had 
employed a sworn inquest for the purpose of detecting crime, 
that is, an officer of the king called upon neighbors to de- 
clare the truth about crime. William I, in compiling the 
Domesday Book, introduced the sworn inquest into England. 
The sheriff and certain selected men had to hold a sworn 
inquiry into the local customs, tenures, etc., and to take a 
kind of census of the population. The Norman kings used 
the sworn inquest for fiscal and administrative purposes. The 
sworn inquest survives today in the coroner’s inquest. Others 
think that the grand jury had its origin in this sworn inquest. 
At any rate the accused was presented or indicted by some 
