The Road to Judgment: From Custom to Court in Medieval Ireland and Wales

364 Pages·1994·20.06 MB·English

by  Robin Chapman Stacey

The Road to Judgment
University of Pennsylvania Press
MIDDLE AGES SERIES
Edited by
Edward Peters
Henry Charles Lea Professor
of Medieval History
University of Pennsylvania
The Road to Judgment
From Custom to Court
in Medieval Ireland and Wales
Robin Chapman Stacey
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia
Portions of this volume have been reprinted from the following works:
Robin Chapman Stacey. "Law and Order in the Very Old West: England and Ireland in the
European Middle Ages." In Crossed Paths: Methodological Approaches to the Celtic Aspect of
the European Middle Ages, ed. Benjamin T. Hudson and Vickie Ziegler. Lanham, Md., and
London: University Press of America. Copyright © 1991.
Robin Chapman Stacey. "Ties That Bind: Immunities in Irish and Welsh Law." Cambridge
Medieval Celtic Studies 20 (Winter 1990).
T. M. Charles-Edwards, M. Owen, and D. B. Walters, eds. Lawyers and Laymen: Studies in
the History of Law Presented to Professor Dafydd Jenkins on His Seventy-fifth Birthday. Cardiff:
University of Wales Press, 1986.
Copyright © 1994 by the University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stacey, Robin Chapman.
The road to judgment: from custom to court in medieval Ireland
and Wales / Robin Chapman Stacey.
p. cm. — (Middle Ages series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8I22-32I6-X
i. Suretyship and guaranty—Ireland—History. 2. Suretyship and
guaranty—Wales—History. 3. Law, Medieval. I. Title. II. Series.
KDI752.C48 1994
346.417'074—dc2o
[344.170674] 93-47677
CIP
To Bob and Will
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Abbreviations xiii
Introduction 1
1. Law and Lawbooks in Medieval Ireland and Wales 11
2. Contractual Suretyship in Irish Law 27
3. The Social Context of Personal Suretyship 55
4. The Hostage-Sureties of Irish Law 82
5. The Road to Judgment 112
6. Court and Custom in Medieval Wales 141
7. Past and Present in the Law of Hywel
179
8. The Suretyship of the Gods 199
Conclusion 222
Notes 229
Bibliography 303
Index 329
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