Edition of the records of a medieval Suffolk eyre reveal rich details of
life at the time.
The eyre was an organised judicial visitation to the counties of England
by the king's justices to hear all types of plea, civil and crown, as
well as to investigate any matters for the king that pertain to the
county; it was thus a hugely important part of the legal process.
This volume, edited by Eric Gallagher with an introduction by Henry
Summerson, follows on from Dr Gallagher's edition and translation of the
civil pleas of the same eyre, published by the Suffolk Records Society
in 2009. But whereas the civil pleas deal primarily with litigation
between landowners, the crown pleas are mostly concerned with the
actions of townsmen and peasants, recorded both as killers and thieves,
and as the victims of crime. Like the civil pleas, the crown pleas
illuminate the workings of the common law, but in addition they
illustrate the functions and purposes of local and central government,
shedding light in sometimes vivid detail upon the lives of the humbler
members of society, upon their occupations, relationships, misfortunes
and quarrels - and the sometimes bizarre ways in which they met their
deaths. The eyre was led by William of York, the King's justiciar and
later bishop of Salisbury, and his colleagues who met at Ipswich,
Cattishall (outside Bury St Edmunds) and Dunwich.
The eyre roll, now in the National Archives, is the first from Suffolk
surviving in full to have been edited and published; it has the
particular interest of coming from a county that was then one of the
most populous and prosperous of English shires.
