Gildhall News August 2013

Contributions to the Gildhall News ***************************** History of Freemen – Part 7, Legislation in Mediaeval Leicester By the middle of the 14th century the authority of the burgesses of Leicester in respect of legislation was still not complete and there were limitations imposed by the Norman administration. They did, however, pass many local by-laws even though those local laws covered matters that were the subject of laws passed by Royal proclamation.

An act passed by Edward III forbade men to go armed in ’affray of the peace’ and power was given to the mayor of the borough to deal with offenders. In Leicester they added to the act by adding that men were forbidden to go in armour night or day and offenders were to be kept in prison until the King and the lords of the town had done their will upon them. At the same time period an order was passed in Leicester forbidding the mixing of wine-lees with new wine which again resulted from a similar proclamation by Edward III. The price of beer and bread was fixed in accordance with a proclamation that covered the whole of the country. In the middle of the 14th century the country was decimated by the first visitation of the Black Death and prices fluctuated wildly as a result of shortages of food and drink. In the country harvests were left to rot because of the shortage of labour to gather the harvest and livestock perished creating shortages of meat. A law was passed by parliament forbidding labourers from demanding higher wages during harvesting as it was forbidden for the storage of grain in excess of a personal requirement.

An unusual feature of the plague was that it affected young, strong people more than the elderly and weak population.

During the early part of the 15th century Edward IV granted a charter creating the role of Justices of the Peace in Leicester of which there were four. This move brought Leicester into line with many other boroughs up and down the country where the respective mayors and justices of the peace ensured that new laws were made known to the population and enforced. Leicester was conveniently divided into four quarters by the two main highways passing east to west and north to south and crossing at the high cross and each quarter was the responsibility of a justice of the peace.

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