Two separate legal jurisdictions concerned with family relations held sway in England during the high middle ages: canon law and common law. In thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Europe, kinship rules dominated the lives of laymen and laywomen. They determined whom they might marry [decided in the canon law courts] and they determined from whom they might inherit [decided in the common law courts]. This book seeks to uncover the association between the two, exploring the ways in which the two legal systems shared ideas about family relationship, where the one jurisdiction - the common law - was concerned about ties of consanguinity and where the other - canon law - was concerned to add to the kinship mix of affinity. It also demonstrates how the theories of kinship were practically applied in the courtrooms of medieval England.
Reviews
Worby has provided a significant contribution to the scholarship, and her book must be welcomed as an important corrective to Maitland's criticisms of medieval legal scholarship. JOURNAL OF BRITISH STUDIES
This book makes an important contribution to the narrative of family in late medieval England and the inter-relationship of English common law and the
ius commune. REVIEWS IN HISTORY
Details
First Published: 20 May 2010
13 Digit ISBN: 9780861933051
Pages: 206
Size: 23.4 x 15.6
Binding: Hardback
Imprint: Royal Historical Society
Series:
Royal Historical Society Studies in History New SeriesSubject:
Medieval HistoryBIC Class: HBLC1
Details updated on 13 Jun 2013
Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Canon law kinship structures
- 3 Common law kinship structures
- 4 The dominance of canon law kinship ideas
- 5 Kinship laws in practice
- 6 Trends underlying legal kinship structures
- 7 Conclusion
- 8 Appendix 1: Raymón of Penyafort's Quia tractare intendimus
- 9 Appendix 2: The historical introduction to Sciendum est
- 10 Appendix 3: Common law adaptations of canon law treatises: Quibus modis
- 11 Appendix 4: Common law adaptations of canon law treatises: Triplex est
- 12 Bibliography
