WESTMINSTER, STATUTES OF

This article appears in Volume V28, Page 552 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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WESTMINSTER, STATUTES OF , two English statutes passed during the reign of Edward I,

Parliament

PARLIAMENT (Anglo-Lat. parliamentum, Fr. parlement, from parler, to speak)

having met at Westminster on the 22nd of April 1275, its main

work

WORK

was the consideration of the

statute

STATUTE

of Westminster I. This was

drawn

DRAWN

up, not in Latin, but in Norman French, and was passed " par le assentement des erceveskes, eveskes, abbes, priurs, contes, barons, et la communaute de la tere ileokes somons." Its pro-visions can be best summarized in the words of

Stubbs

(Const. Hist. cap. xiv.) :
" This act is almost a code by itself ; it contains fifty-one clauses, and covers the whole ground of legislation. Its language now recalls that of Canute or Alfred, now anticipates that of our own day; on the one hand common right is to be done to all, as well poor as rich, without respect of persons; on the other, elections are to be free, and no man is by force, malice or menace, to disturb them. The spirit of the

Great

GREAT

Charter is not less discernible: excessive amercements, abuses of wardship, irregular demands for feudal aids, are forbidden in the same words or by amending enactments. The inquest system of

Henry

HENRY
HENRY (1129-1195)
HENRY (c. 1108-1139)
HENRY (c. 1174–1216)
HENRY (Fr. Henri; Span. Enrique; Ger. Heinrich; Mid. H. Ger. Heinrich and Heimrich; O.H.G. Haimi- or Heimirih, i.e. " prince, or chief of the house," from O.H.G. heim, the Eng.
home
, and rih, Goth. reiks; compare Lat. rex " king "—" rich," therefore " mig
HENRY, EDWARD LAMSON (1841– )
HENRY, JAMES (1798-1876)
HENRY, JOSEPH (1797-1878)
HENRY, MATTHEW (1662-1714)
HENRY, PATRICK (1736–1799)
HENRY, PRINCE OF BATTENBERG (1858-1896)
HENRY, ROBERT (1718-1790)
HENRY, VICTOR (1850– )
HENRY, WILLIAM (1795-1836)

II., the law of wreck, and
the institution of coroners,

measures

MEASURES

of Richard and his ministers, come under review as well as the Provisions of Oxford and the

Statute

STATUTE

of Marlborough."
The second statute of Westminster was passed in the

parliament

PARLIAMENT (Anglo-Lat. parliamentum, Fr. parlement, from parler, to speak)

of 1285. Like the first statute it is a code in itself, and contains the famous clause De donis conditionalibus (q.v.), " one of the fundamental institutes of the medieval land law of England."

Stubbs

says of it: " The law of dower, of advowson, of appeal for felonies, is largely amended; the institution of justices of

assize

ASSIZE

is remodelled, and the abuses of manorial jurisdiction repressed; the statute De religiosis, the statutes of Merton and Gloucester, are amended and re-enacted. Every clause has a bearing on the growth of the later law."
The statute Quia Emptores of 1290 is sometimes called the statute of Westminster III.

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