0:00:09 > 0:00:11'October, Westminster Abbey.'
0:00:13 > 0:00:18'I've come to see one of the great set pieces of English law -
0:00:18 > 0:00:21'the ceremony marking the start of the new legal year.'
0:00:21 > 0:00:26This is the legal establishment on show.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29Ritual, tradition, plenty of wigs.
0:00:29 > 0:00:32It's colourful, it's splendid.
0:00:32 > 0:00:36The danger is that it can make the law seem far removed
0:00:36 > 0:00:38from most people's lives.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42In fact, the public have been
0:00:42 > 0:00:45at the centre of the legal system for centuries.
0:00:45 > 0:00:51Sitting in a jury, it is they who decide guilt or innocence.
0:00:51 > 0:00:55Without precedent in history, English law came to embody
0:00:55 > 0:00:58a fairness and equality barely known elsewhere.
0:00:58 > 0:01:03In this series, I'll show how the story of England's law
0:01:03 > 0:01:06is nothing less than the story of England's people.
0:01:06 > 0:01:11'I'll explain how despite being forged by kings and invaders,
0:01:11 > 0:01:16'by the Church and politicians, English law has always resisted
0:01:16 > 0:01:19'becoming merely the tool of the powerful.'
0:01:19 > 0:01:23But this isn't an open and shut case.
0:01:23 > 0:01:29'The law has also been guilty of brutality and excess.
0:01:29 > 0:01:33'Its methods have sometimes been merciless. It has taken pioneering
0:01:33 > 0:01:37'and courageous individuals to put it back in its path
0:01:37 > 0:01:39'of justice and fairness.'
0:01:39 > 0:01:45The result, in my opinion, exceeds anything England has achieved
0:01:45 > 0:01:47in the arts or the sciences.
0:01:47 > 0:01:51In its importance, and in its influence,
0:01:51 > 0:01:56English law is this country's greatest gift to the world.
0:02:24 > 0:02:28'My name's Harry Potter, and I'm a barrister.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31'I didn't come to the profession by a conventional route.
0:02:31 > 0:02:34'It was while working as a prison chaplain
0:02:34 > 0:02:37'that I became interested in the law.'
0:02:40 > 0:02:45'Now I practice in London and I specialise in criminal defence.'
0:02:48 > 0:02:52Like all my colleagues, I work within a very specific system,
0:02:52 > 0:02:54the English common law.
0:02:54 > 0:02:56Its principles are practised
0:02:56 > 0:03:00in countries as far afield as India and America,
0:03:00 > 0:03:04but it's quite different from the system used on the Continent.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08Or even, in many respects, in my native Scotland.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12'The term common law doesn't just mean something
0:03:12 > 0:03:15'practised uniformly across the country.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18'It denotes a system which places lay people
0:03:18 > 0:03:21'at the heart of justice, in the form of the jury.
0:03:21 > 0:03:25'A system where judges largely base their rulings
0:03:25 > 0:03:29'on earlier, similar cases, actual practice,
0:03:29 > 0:03:32'rather than on theory or on legislation.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36'And it's been that way for centuries.'
0:03:37 > 0:03:38This makes venerable rituals
0:03:38 > 0:03:42like the annual ceremony in Westminster Abbey
0:03:42 > 0:03:48perhaps less detached from reality than they might look.
0:03:48 > 0:03:52Because several of the key features that characterise
0:03:52 > 0:03:57the courtrooms I work in today were in place by the 14th century.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05So how did England, unlike its neighbours,
0:04:05 > 0:04:08develop such a unique and enduring system?
0:04:08 > 0:04:12That's what I'm setting out to explore in this programme.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15The origin of the English common law.
0:04:24 > 0:04:28'The first thing any legal system needs is a set of laws.
0:04:28 > 0:04:30'And I've come to Rochester in Kent
0:04:30 > 0:04:34'to track down the earliest-known English law code.'
0:04:35 > 0:04:37'Established in the 5th century,
0:04:37 > 0:04:41'Kent is thought to have been the first Anglo-Saxon kingdom.
0:04:41 > 0:04:46'Rochester's ancient cathedral and imposing castle testify
0:04:46 > 0:04:49'to the region's early predominance.'
0:04:49 > 0:04:51But Rochester boasts yet another treasure,
0:04:51 > 0:04:56which for a lawyer such as me is even more significant.
0:05:02 > 0:05:07'Stored in the council archives is a book of enormous importance,
0:05:07 > 0:05:12'not just for the law but for the entire English-speaking world.'
0:05:13 > 0:05:17This is the treasure I was telling you about.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20It's the Textus Roffensis, or the Rochester book.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23And it contains a number of documents
0:05:23 > 0:05:27but the most significant is the first, and it's this.
0:05:29 > 0:05:37A few pages of a text dating back to 600.
0:05:38 > 0:05:45It's not only the first writing in English that we have,
0:05:45 > 0:05:48so it's the beginning of English literature,
0:05:48 > 0:05:52it's the first law code that we have.
0:05:56 > 0:06:01It's a very simple list of fines or compensation
0:06:01 > 0:06:05for accidents, injuries, wrongs.
0:06:06 > 0:06:11HE READS IN OLD ENGLISH
0:06:14 > 0:06:21"If hair seizure takes place, 50 sceatta as compensation."
0:06:21 > 0:06:26READING CONTINUES, THEN DIES AWAY
0:06:26 > 0:06:32"If an ear becomes struck off, one is to compensate with 12 shillings."
0:06:32 > 0:06:36"If one strikes off a thumb, 20 shillings."
0:06:36 > 0:06:41And this is perhaps the most sensitive one.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44"If someone disables a genital member,
0:06:44 > 0:06:49"one is to buy him off with three person payments."
0:06:49 > 0:06:53'A person payment was the monetary value ascribed to a man's life.'
0:06:55 > 0:06:58'In this instance, the victim was compensated for the children
0:06:58 > 0:07:01'he would no longer be able to sire.'
0:07:02 > 0:07:06We tend to think that the compensation culture
0:07:06 > 0:07:09is something imported from America.
0:07:09 > 0:07:13But here it is, at the very start of English law.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23'The laws in the Textus have traditionally been attributed
0:07:23 > 0:07:26'to the first English king to become a Christian.'
0:07:28 > 0:07:30'This was Aethelberht, who ruled Kent
0:07:30 > 0:07:32'in the late 6th and early 7th century.'
0:07:34 > 0:07:37'So how did he fit into this early compensation culture?'
0:07:38 > 0:07:41'I asked the historian and linguist Carole Hough
0:07:41 > 0:07:44'to explain how the system worked in practice.'
0:07:44 > 0:07:47There are different ranks within Anglo-Saxon society.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51There's the King, the aristocracy, the ordinary free man, and the slave.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55And it is the rank of the victim that determines the amount of compensation
0:07:55 > 0:07:57that they are entitled to.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00So if you damage the King's toenail,
0:08:00 > 0:08:04he gets more than if you damage a slave's toenail?
0:08:04 > 0:08:07Don't even think about damaging the King's toenail.
0:08:07 > 0:08:09Now in terms of enforcement,
0:08:09 > 0:08:15do we know if this code was enforced, how it was enforced?
0:08:15 > 0:08:20The responsibility for enforcing laws was very much on the families,
0:08:20 > 0:08:22the relatives, the victims.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26Law was enforced by society from within
0:08:26 > 0:08:29rather than by the King from the top.
0:08:29 > 0:08:36So you damage my son's ear and I come to you and say,
0:08:36 > 0:08:40"Well, the code says that's three shillings",
0:08:40 > 0:08:43and you hand over the three shillings?
0:08:43 > 0:08:46And your family would be standing behind you,
0:08:46 > 0:08:49saying "And we insist that you hand it over."
0:08:49 > 0:08:52And I think one of the things we have to remember is that the laws
0:08:52 > 0:08:55would be a starting point for negotiation between the families.
0:08:55 > 0:09:00So it wouldn't necessarily be 50 shillings that was handed over.
0:09:00 > 0:09:03It would be, "Look, this injury is worth 50 shillings."
0:09:03 > 0:09:08"Well, I've got a cow here that's worth 10 shillings and a few pigs
0:09:08 > 0:09:11"that are worth six, so we'll make it up in that way to settle the matter."
0:09:11 > 0:09:14COWS MOOING
0:09:16 > 0:09:19AUCTIONEER SPEAKS AT PACE
0:09:24 > 0:09:27'The clear categories and prices of Aethelberht's code
0:09:27 > 0:09:31'are bound to have suited his Anglo-Saxon subjects,
0:09:31 > 0:09:36'whose economy centred around farming and livestock rearing.'
0:09:38 > 0:09:40At 40, four...
0:09:40 > 0:09:46'Still, a law code solely based on cost appears morally rather empty.
0:09:46 > 0:09:51'Surely human beings can't be treated like commodities or cattle?'
0:09:53 > 0:09:57You might accuse Aethelberht's code of knowing the price of everything
0:09:57 > 0:09:59and the value of nothing.
0:09:59 > 0:10:04But in the context of the time, it had much merit.
0:10:06 > 0:10:11The ability to settle a dispute, to draw a line under a grievance,
0:10:11 > 0:10:14was crucial in the early Anglo-Saxon era
0:10:14 > 0:10:18when the greatest threat to the stability of society
0:10:18 > 0:10:23came not from external enemies but from internal feuds.
0:10:24 > 0:10:28'Before the Royal regulation of law, blood feuds were the only form
0:10:28 > 0:10:34'of justice available in Anglo-Saxon lands, and they could lead
0:10:34 > 0:10:38'to escalating conflicts that threatened the entire realm.
0:10:38 > 0:10:40'By ensuring justice for the people,
0:10:40 > 0:10:46'Aethelberht and his successors were safeguarding their thrones.'
0:10:58 > 0:11:02'If laws are the essential basis of any legal system,
0:11:02 > 0:11:04'the next step is having institutions to administer
0:11:04 > 0:11:07'and implement them. Courts.
0:11:07 > 0:11:12'Anglo-Saxon society was ordered into areas known as hundreds,
0:11:12 > 0:11:14'so-called according to one theory
0:11:14 > 0:11:18'because they may have contained roughly 100 homesteads.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22'These had their own assemblies to deal with minor cases.
0:11:22 > 0:11:27'More serious disputes and crimes were referred to the shire courts,
0:11:27 > 0:11:29'forerunners of our county courts.'
0:11:31 > 0:11:35This mound goes by the characterful name of Scutchamer Knob,
0:11:35 > 0:11:39sometimes corrupted to Scotsman's Knob.
0:11:39 > 0:11:43Anyway, in Anglo-Saxon times, the shire court of Berkshire met here
0:11:43 > 0:11:45and you couldn't have missed it.
0:11:51 > 0:11:53'Sited prominently on the Ridgeway,
0:11:53 > 0:11:57'assemblies here would have been visible for miles around.'
0:12:01 > 0:12:04'Presiding over the shire court might have been a senior cleric
0:12:04 > 0:12:08'such as a bishop, especially when a dispute involved the church,
0:12:08 > 0:12:12'or otherwise a representative of the King,
0:12:12 > 0:12:16'a figure known as a shire reeve or sheriff.
0:12:16 > 0:12:18'And trials would be resolved
0:12:18 > 0:12:22'using a remarkably simple method of proof.'
0:12:22 > 0:12:25Early trials were based on oaths. To prove your innocence,
0:12:25 > 0:12:28all you had to do was to swear an oath that you weren't guilty
0:12:28 > 0:12:32and to get people to come here to swear to your honesty.
0:12:32 > 0:12:36If you could rustle up the prescribed level of support,
0:12:36 > 0:12:39you were off the hook.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42'Just how many oath helpers you needed
0:12:42 > 0:12:47'depended on your social status and the nature of the alleged offence.
0:12:47 > 0:12:49'One 10th-century text stipulates
0:12:49 > 0:12:54'36 people were required in a case of arson or murder.'
0:12:56 > 0:13:01To us, it all sounds very odd and open to abuse.
0:13:01 > 0:13:06But this was a society suffused with religious faith.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09To lie on oath was to risk damnation,
0:13:09 > 0:13:13and your friends might be less than keen to support you
0:13:13 > 0:13:16if they considered you a liability
0:13:16 > 0:13:20who could compromise their good standing in the community.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23So yes, it was simple,
0:13:23 > 0:13:29but that needn't mean it was ineffective or unjust.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34'The Anglo-Saxons didn't distinguish
0:13:34 > 0:13:37'between what we now regard as civil and criminal law.
0:13:37 > 0:13:42'So oaths could be used to resolve property disputes as well.
0:13:42 > 0:13:47'Of course, if two opposing parties swore contradictory oaths,
0:13:47 > 0:13:51'it meant at least one of them was committing a mortal sin.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54'A situation the authorities preferred to avoid.'
0:13:56 > 0:13:59There's a record of an important case
0:13:59 > 0:14:03being adjudicated on this very spot in 990.
0:14:03 > 0:14:08A wealthy woman named Winfled lay claim to a couple of estates
0:14:08 > 0:14:11and the suit was heard here at shire court
0:14:11 > 0:14:14under the auspices of two bishops.
0:14:14 > 0:14:17Winfled's oath-helpers included such luminaries
0:14:17 > 0:14:21as the Abbot of Abingdon and the Abbess of Reading.
0:14:21 > 0:14:27In the event the dispute was settled by arbitration and compromise,
0:14:27 > 0:14:32the parties having been urged not to resort to oaths.
0:14:32 > 0:14:37Which shows just how serious such a step would have been.
0:14:43 > 0:14:47'The system of hundred and shire courts expanded across the country
0:14:47 > 0:14:50'as successive Anglo-Saxon kings increased their territory.'
0:14:51 > 0:14:56'By the 10th century, England had a legal infrastructure
0:14:56 > 0:14:59'unmatched in Europe, with its capital here in Winchester.'
0:15:02 > 0:15:06As the size of their kingdoms and the scale of their power grew,
0:15:06 > 0:15:11the Anglo-Saxon monarchs continued to issue law codes.
0:15:11 > 0:15:17But these now went well beyond the old compensation-based system
0:15:17 > 0:15:21to include physical punishments such as mutilation and death.
0:15:21 > 0:15:26The codes made an increasingly gruesome read.
0:15:26 > 0:15:27'Around 925,
0:15:27 > 0:15:32'King Athelstan proclaimed his first law code for England.
0:15:32 > 0:15:36'Right at the beginning he decrees that no thief be spared
0:15:36 > 0:15:39'who may be taken red-handed,
0:15:39 > 0:15:44'if he is older than 12 years and has stolen more than 8p.'
0:15:47 > 0:15:50'And new crimes were beginning to emerge,
0:15:50 > 0:15:53'reflecting important social and economic changes.'
0:15:55 > 0:16:00Athelstan minted the first single currency for England.
0:16:00 > 0:16:05This coin, in Winchester's Museum, bears the following inscription.
0:16:07 > 0:16:13"Athelstan Rex Tot Brit."
0:16:13 > 0:16:16King of all Britain.
0:16:18 > 0:16:24It's a tiny object, but it embodies royal authority.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27And if you were caught making a counterfeit,
0:16:27 > 0:16:29you were in a whole lot of trouble.
0:16:31 > 0:16:35Athelstan's code says "If the monier be guilty,
0:16:35 > 0:16:40"let the hand be struck off that wrought the offence
0:16:40 > 0:16:44"and set up upon the money smithy."
0:16:44 > 0:16:45Nailed to the Mint.
0:16:53 > 0:16:55'Anglo-Saxon law had become much harsher
0:16:55 > 0:16:59'because, in an attempt to increase its effectiveness,
0:16:59 > 0:17:03'kings had started to take over the administration of justice.
0:17:03 > 0:17:08'Any serious crime was now deemed an offence against the Crown,
0:17:08 > 0:17:10'a breach of the King's peace,
0:17:10 > 0:17:14'and would be punished with appropriate severity.'
0:17:16 > 0:17:19'There was now, in effect, a tacit contract with the people.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22'By acting as the guarantor of justice,
0:17:22 > 0:17:26'the King could claim fines and forfeitures from the offender.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29'In return, the injured party was given the satisfaction
0:17:29 > 0:17:32'of seeing the wrong-doer maimed or executed.'
0:17:36 > 0:17:40'Some of the best physical evidence for how justice operated
0:17:40 > 0:17:42'in later Anglo-Saxon England
0:17:42 > 0:17:45'has been found on the outskirts of Winchester.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49'The archaeologist Andrew Reynolds took me to Harestock,
0:17:49 > 0:17:52'close to the old Roman road.'
0:17:52 > 0:17:55What was found here that makes it so special?
0:17:55 > 0:17:57Some archaeological excavation
0:17:57 > 0:17:59uncovered the remains of 16 individuals
0:17:59 > 0:18:01buried in a series of graves.
0:18:01 > 0:18:03The modern name Harestock
0:18:03 > 0:18:05is derived from the old English "shaffod stockan",
0:18:05 > 0:18:08which literally means "heads on stakes".
0:18:08 > 0:18:10It basically tells us
0:18:10 > 0:18:14that it's an Anglo-Saxon judicial execution cemetery.
0:18:17 > 0:18:20So you can imagine here in the Anglo-Saxon period
0:18:20 > 0:18:23a traveller moving along the road behind us,
0:18:23 > 0:18:27we're at a particularly prominent place in the landscape here.
0:18:27 > 0:18:29You can see this rising ground.
0:18:29 > 0:18:33A very prominent place, a series of poles with heads on sticks.
0:18:33 > 0:18:36A very dramatic sight for travellers.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39So it's making a statement as well?
0:18:39 > 0:18:42It's sending a very clear message of power and authority.
0:18:42 > 0:18:46When you look at the Anglo-Saxons' continental neighbours,
0:18:46 > 0:18:49even though they have very highly developed legal culture,
0:18:49 > 0:18:52they don't seem to have anywhere near the kind of approach
0:18:52 > 0:18:55to using the landscape in a very precise way
0:18:55 > 0:18:58in terms of where criminals and outcasts were buried.
0:18:58 > 0:19:01So what was happening in Anglo-Saxon England was unique?
0:19:01 > 0:19:04It was indeed, Harry, yes.
0:19:04 > 0:19:09'As a lawyer, I put great emphasis on the quality of the evidence.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12'The remains recovered from the Harestock site
0:19:12 > 0:19:15'are now kept in storage by Winchester museums.
0:19:15 > 0:19:16'Andrew showed me one example.'
0:19:18 > 0:19:21Now this is astonishingly well-preserved
0:19:21 > 0:19:25for somebody who has been in the ground 1,000 years.
0:19:25 > 0:19:29To layman's eyes, there's nothing here to indicate anything other
0:19:29 > 0:19:31than the sad death of a young person.
0:19:31 > 0:19:33It was a very different picture
0:19:33 > 0:19:36when the body was actually taken out of the ground
0:19:36 > 0:19:38because rather than the hands being to either side,
0:19:38 > 0:19:41as they are here, when the body was excavated,
0:19:41 > 0:19:45they were found crossed over each other underneath or behind the back.
0:19:45 > 0:19:49And that's a clear indication, really, that you've got foul play
0:19:49 > 0:19:52or something that's not quite usual going on there.
0:19:52 > 0:19:57But the greatest indication that this is not a normal burial
0:19:57 > 0:19:59is the fact that the head,
0:19:59 > 0:20:03which you can see here at the correct anatomical position,
0:20:03 > 0:20:06was actually found by the side of the leg.
0:20:17 > 0:20:19So how was decapitation done?
0:20:19 > 0:20:21Well, almost certainly with a sword,
0:20:21 > 0:20:24probably with the hands tied behind the back.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26If you take a look at this bone here
0:20:26 > 0:20:30where the blade of the sword caught the underside of the jaw
0:20:30 > 0:20:32when the person was executed.
0:20:32 > 0:20:34And that would be one blow, would it?
0:20:34 > 0:20:36That would have been one blow.
0:20:36 > 0:20:39'In the absence of a police force, the threat of death or mutilation
0:20:39 > 0:20:45'was a clear way of preventing crime but in later Anglo-Saxon times
0:20:45 > 0:20:49'it wasn't just punishment that was a deterrent.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53'Even before you were found guilty, the trial itself could be an ordeal.
0:20:53 > 0:20:54'Literally.'
0:20:54 > 0:20:56THUNDERCLAPS
0:21:00 > 0:21:02'In common with much of Europe,
0:21:02 > 0:21:04'the later Anglo-Saxons
0:21:04 > 0:21:07'adopted an additional method of determining proof.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10'One which drew on the power of the elements -
0:21:10 > 0:21:13'of water, and of fire -
0:21:13 > 0:21:16'and which invited God himself to intervene in the trial.'
0:21:18 > 0:21:25This was the Judicium Dei, the judgment of God, trial by ordeal.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28If you were suspected of a crime,
0:21:28 > 0:21:34you were subjected to a ritualised but painful and dangerous test.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37God would come to the aid of the innocent,
0:21:37 > 0:21:40but for the guilty, there would be no such comfort.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45The ordeal was neither torture nor punishment -
0:21:45 > 0:21:48it was a mode of proof.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51Only if you failed were you punished.
0:21:51 > 0:21:53WHIP CRACKS
0:21:56 > 0:21:58'Because of their religious element,
0:21:58 > 0:22:01'ordeals were supervised by the clergy.
0:22:01 > 0:22:03'Two main kinds of ordeal were employed in England.
0:22:03 > 0:22:09'The first involved carrying a piece of red-hot iron in your bare hand.'
0:22:09 > 0:22:14Before the ordeal, the priest called upon God to bless the hot iron,
0:22:14 > 0:22:19so that it would be a pleasing coolness to those who carry it
0:22:19 > 0:22:24with justice and fortitude, but a burning fire to the wicked.
0:22:27 > 0:22:32The accused had to walk a few paces holding the iron.
0:22:32 > 0:22:36The hand was then bandaged and after three days was inspected
0:22:36 > 0:22:38to see if it were healing.
0:22:39 > 0:22:43'If the wound were clean, that was proof of your innocence,
0:22:43 > 0:22:47'but if it had started to fester, you were deemed guilty.'
0:22:52 > 0:22:56'The second kind of ordeal was more dangerous.
0:22:56 > 0:23:00'You were bound and lowered into a body of sanctified water.
0:23:00 > 0:23:06'And your guilt was determined by whether you floated or sank.'
0:23:06 > 0:23:10Now you might assume that sinking meant you were guilty.
0:23:10 > 0:23:12After all, you were much more likely to drown.
0:23:12 > 0:23:17But the belief was that the water was so pure as to repel sin.
0:23:17 > 0:23:24Sinking indicated innocence. Floating was proof of guilt.
0:23:24 > 0:23:29'Ordeals like these may sound barbaric
0:23:29 > 0:23:34'but they were carried out in Christian Europe for centuries.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37'I asked legal historian John Hudson what factors determined
0:23:37 > 0:23:41'whether you were sent for ordeal in the first place.'
0:23:41 > 0:23:43They seem to have been often proposed
0:23:43 > 0:23:46as a way of settling cases that you couldn't settle in other ways.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49For example, if you don't have any factual proof,
0:23:49 > 0:23:52no marks on the person who is accused,
0:23:52 > 0:23:55no evidence that they are holding stolen goods,
0:23:55 > 0:23:56no blood on their hands.
0:23:56 > 0:24:00Then there's a chance that no one will know who committed the offence,
0:24:00 > 0:24:03and then the likelihood is that they would have to go to trial by ordeal.
0:24:03 > 0:24:07The number of people who actually undergo the ordeal,
0:24:07 > 0:24:10having been threatened with it, may well be much smaller.
0:24:10 > 0:24:13It seems to be a way of trying to scare people
0:24:13 > 0:24:16either into confessing or very often into settling.
0:24:16 > 0:24:18This was the judgment of God,
0:24:18 > 0:24:22so how often did God acquit in such circumstances?
0:24:22 > 0:24:25We have quantitative evidence.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29We've got registers from the 13th century from Hungary,
0:24:29 > 0:24:32which give us numbers of people going to ordeal
0:24:32 > 0:24:35and we find that more than 50% of people get off.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38Why might the acquittal rate have been so high?
0:24:38 > 0:24:41It must be physiological in some way.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44People have done studies of throwing people into swimming pools
0:24:44 > 0:24:46and seeing how many of them naturally float
0:24:46 > 0:24:49and how many of them naturally sink.
0:24:49 > 0:24:53And, of course, carrying a hot iron should cauterise your hand.
0:24:53 > 0:24:55What convicts you, it seems,
0:24:55 > 0:24:58in England, is not whether you're burnt or not -
0:24:58 > 0:25:02everyone would be burnt - it's whether your hand is clean or foul.
0:25:02 > 0:25:04Has it turned pus-y or not?
0:25:04 > 0:25:08What really matters to you is whether you are bound up thereafter
0:25:08 > 0:25:10with good ointment and clean bandages.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15While officially God was determining the outcome,
0:25:15 > 0:25:19it seems that human intervention was quite possible
0:25:19 > 0:25:22at all stages of the ordeal.
0:25:22 > 0:25:27And nobody had greater control over the process than the clergy.
0:25:27 > 0:25:30How often they might have given the Almighty helping hand
0:25:30 > 0:25:34in declaring guilt innocence we'll never know,
0:25:34 > 0:25:38but it's clear that the whole ordeal system
0:25:38 > 0:25:43ensured for the Church a central role in the dispensing of justice.
0:25:45 > 0:25:49'This raised an important question - who was in charge of the law?
0:25:49 > 0:25:51'The Church or the King?
0:25:51 > 0:25:54'It would become a thorny political issue
0:25:54 > 0:25:57'but not for the Anglo-Saxon kings.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01'Their role was about to come to a sudden end.'
0:26:02 > 0:26:06One night in September 1066,
0:26:06 > 0:26:10Duke William of Normandy landed with his army on the south coast.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13It is said, here, at Pevensey Bay.
0:26:21 > 0:26:26The Norman invaders quickly exerted an iron grip
0:26:26 > 0:26:28over the entire country.
0:26:28 > 0:26:33Which should have been bad news for the law of the Anglo-Saxons,
0:26:33 > 0:26:36now a vanquished race.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39Except it wasn't.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44'William grasped an important principle for any ruler of England.
0:26:44 > 0:26:48'It's always better to go with rather than against
0:26:48 > 0:26:50'the grain of the law.
0:26:50 > 0:26:54'William had political and practical reasons for this.
0:26:54 > 0:26:55'He had invaded England
0:26:55 > 0:26:58'because he believed he had the right to the throne.
0:26:58 > 0:27:03'If he wanted to be seen as the true heir of Anglo-Saxon England,
0:27:03 > 0:27:05'dumping or even damaging its legal system
0:27:05 > 0:27:08'would have been counter-productive.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12'Besides, the hundred and shire court system was highly organised
0:27:12 > 0:27:15'and efficient by continental standards.'
0:27:17 > 0:27:21The English, it appears, were rather better at running the country
0:27:21 > 0:27:23than they were at defending it.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29'However, one key innovation introduced by the Normans
0:27:29 > 0:27:31'was their favoured method of ordeal.'
0:27:31 > 0:27:35GRUNTING
0:27:37 > 0:27:42'In trial by combat, God would grand victory to the righteous.
0:27:42 > 0:27:47'This was seen by the wealthy as a more dignified means
0:27:47 > 0:27:52'of resolving civil disputes than hot iron or water.
0:27:52 > 0:27:56'It could also be used in criminal cases.'
0:27:56 > 0:27:59This is the sword you've just been fighting with?
0:27:59 > 0:28:02That's right, Harry. We have here a couple of examples
0:28:02 > 0:28:06of swords of the early medieval period, looking a bit like this.
0:28:06 > 0:28:10So if the person was engaging in a judicial combat,
0:28:10 > 0:28:13is of this sort of sword that that person would use,
0:28:13 > 0:28:14depending on their status?
0:28:14 > 0:28:17Presumably this cost quite a lot of money at the time.
0:28:17 > 0:28:19The equivalent price would be
0:28:19 > 0:28:24that of a Mercedes Benz or a Rolls-Royce today.
0:28:24 > 0:28:26What was the purpose of the combat?
0:28:26 > 0:28:29Was it to kill your opponent or just bludgeon them into submission?
0:28:29 > 0:28:31Well, for a civil case,
0:28:31 > 0:28:35which would be about large amounts of money or land,
0:28:35 > 0:28:39you would probably try to bludgeon them into submission
0:28:39 > 0:28:42and by the time one opponent is on the ground and calls out "I yield",
0:28:42 > 0:28:45it is probably equivalent to an out-of-court settlement
0:28:45 > 0:28:46in a large civil case.
0:28:52 > 0:28:53My Lord!
0:28:53 > 0:28:57'Criminal cases were an altogether less dignified affair,
0:28:57 > 0:29:01'often involving the kind of riff-raff
0:29:01 > 0:29:04'who couldn't afford a decent blade.'
0:29:04 > 0:29:07This wooden stick would have been a far more likely weapon
0:29:07 > 0:29:09in trial by combat in a criminal case
0:29:09 > 0:29:14and, in so many words, you try to hit your opponent where it hurts.
0:29:14 > 0:29:20Head, shoulder, arms, knees, feet, and all the male places.
0:29:20 > 0:29:25- Would you like to try?- I would go like that, or like that, boink?- Yes.
0:29:25 > 0:29:26- And what about that?- I think so.
0:29:26 > 0:29:30There's no reason to believe that this wouldn't have been sharpened
0:29:30 > 0:29:33to a very nasty point, and it may even have had nails in it.
0:29:34 > 0:29:39'Although combat was a means of establishing proof, not a penalty,
0:29:39 > 0:29:43'such a violent procedure sometimes saw the lines become blurred.'
0:29:43 > 0:29:46When you beat the opponent to the ground,
0:29:46 > 0:29:48you might as well carry on and kill them,
0:29:48 > 0:29:51because afterwards they'll be taken away and executed anyway,
0:29:51 > 0:29:54either for the crime they were initially accused of
0:29:54 > 0:29:57or if is the other party that gets beaten to the ground,
0:29:57 > 0:30:00for having committed major acts of perjury.
0:30:05 > 0:30:08'What might happen if you lost and survived
0:30:08 > 0:30:10'is told in one of the few accounts we have of
0:30:10 > 0:30:12'an English judicial duel.'
0:30:13 > 0:30:17A certain Thomas of Eldersfield near Gloucester was defeated
0:30:17 > 0:30:20in combat by a man he'd been accused of wounding.
0:30:20 > 0:30:25Rather than having him hanged, the judges, being merciful,
0:30:25 > 0:30:31ordered that he merely be castrated and blinded.
0:30:31 > 0:30:36The victor and his family set about this task with a degree of relish,
0:30:36 > 0:30:40throwing his eyes on the ground and using his testicles as footballs,
0:30:40 > 0:30:45the local lads kicking them playfully at the girls.
0:30:52 > 0:30:58Norman rule was far from being a disaster for English law.
0:30:58 > 0:31:02It allowed the people to pursue their Anglo-Saxon legal traditions
0:31:02 > 0:31:05in the context of strong and stable government.
0:31:05 > 0:31:10At least, that was the case for almost three-quarters of a century.
0:31:10 > 0:31:15Then, in 1135, Stephen usurped the throne.
0:31:15 > 0:31:19Civil war ensued and the country fell apart.
0:31:34 > 0:31:39'For nearly two decades, from 1135 to 1154,
0:31:39 > 0:31:42'England suffered what has been called both 'The Anarchy'
0:31:42 > 0:31:45'and the 19-Year Winter.'
0:31:48 > 0:31:51'The result was a breakdown in law and order,
0:31:51 > 0:31:56'a myriad of unresolved disputes, a depletion of royal coffers
0:31:56 > 0:31:59'and the collapse of the King's authority.'
0:32:02 > 0:32:08The man who had to sort out this mess was Stephen's cousin, Henry II,
0:32:08 > 0:32:13who came to the throne in 1154 aged just 21.
0:32:13 > 0:32:16The main instrument he used was the law.
0:32:16 > 0:32:20To such an extent that some historians have called him
0:32:20 > 0:32:25nothing less than the father of the English common law.
0:32:30 > 0:32:34'Henry realised that it wasn't sufficient just to issue laws.
0:32:34 > 0:32:37'The trick was to ensure their common,
0:32:37 > 0:32:40'consistent and effective implementation.'
0:32:45 > 0:32:51'So in 1166, Henry established a system of roving Royal Justices.
0:32:51 > 0:32:54'These hand-picked officials represented a new level
0:32:54 > 0:32:58'of intervention by the Crown in English law.
0:32:58 > 0:33:01'The Justices were to travel the country,
0:33:01 > 0:33:05'making sure that the law was being enforced by the shire courts
0:33:05 > 0:33:08'and claiming all the fines that were due to the King.'
0:33:08 > 0:33:11The Justices weren't mere functionaries.
0:33:11 > 0:33:15Henry was pulling out his big guns. The first pair to set off
0:33:15 > 0:33:19included one of his chief ministers and the Earl of Essex.
0:33:19 > 0:33:22They managed to get as far as Carlisle
0:33:22 > 0:33:26when the Earl rather inconveniently fell ill and died.
0:33:26 > 0:33:30Before his demise, in the space of just a few months,
0:33:30 > 0:33:35they'd managed to shake down half the shires of England.
0:33:37 > 0:33:42'The Justices were able to ascertain how well local sheriffs were doing
0:33:42 > 0:33:44'in prosecuting offenders.
0:33:44 > 0:33:47'And how much money was owed in fines to the king.
0:33:47 > 0:33:53'Here, in Lincolnshire, for example, they recorded more than 100 cases.'
0:33:55 > 0:34:00There's Simon Fitzwalter who owes 40 shillings
0:34:00 > 0:34:06for making a false claim, and one Hugo de Cookton,
0:34:06 > 0:34:12who was fined a mark for absenting himself from trial by duel.
0:34:13 > 0:34:19In total, over £250 was forfeit to the Crown.
0:34:19 > 0:34:24Not a lot in today's money, but in 1166,
0:34:24 > 0:34:28that amount could buy you 20 knights
0:34:28 > 0:34:34or 165 soldiers for an entire year.
0:34:34 > 0:34:37'As the Justices made their way across the country,
0:34:37 > 0:34:40'startling disparities emerged.
0:34:40 > 0:34:44'While Yorkshire reported 127 felonies,
0:34:44 > 0:34:47'Wiltshire came up with a mere three,
0:34:47 > 0:34:50'Worcestershire, just one, and Shropshire none.'
0:34:50 > 0:34:55Either these counties had staggeringly virtuous populations
0:34:55 > 0:34:58or somebody wasn't doing their job.
0:35:01 > 0:35:05'This is where Henry's other big idea came into play.
0:35:05 > 0:35:08'He decreed a single set of legal procedures
0:35:08 > 0:35:11'that were strictly to be followed throughout England.
0:35:11 > 0:35:16'Such standardisation was unprecedented in Europe.
0:35:16 > 0:35:18'And, crucially, from then on,
0:35:18 > 0:35:23'members of the public would play an essential role in the legal process.
0:35:23 > 0:35:27'So-called juries of presentment became common practice.'
0:35:29 > 0:35:33Juries of presentment didn't consider evidence
0:35:33 > 0:35:38and determine guilt or innocence. Instead they were representatives
0:35:38 > 0:35:42of local communities who had to report under oath all the crimes
0:35:42 > 0:35:48committed in their area and to name those they deemed responsible.
0:35:48 > 0:35:55So not juries in the modern sense, but a key precursor.
0:35:57 > 0:36:00'Increasingly, the county sheriffs were sidelined
0:36:00 > 0:36:03'and the juries were required to present their reports
0:36:03 > 0:36:05'to the Justices themselves.
0:36:05 > 0:36:08'These Justices were becoming a powerful body,
0:36:08 > 0:36:13'both in the shires and in the capital.
0:36:13 > 0:36:17'There was now a central court firmly established at Westminster.
0:36:17 > 0:36:20'It wasn't a Superior Court or Court of Appeal,
0:36:20 > 0:36:23'but it was the base from which the roving Justices set out
0:36:23 > 0:36:26'and to which they returned.
0:36:26 > 0:36:29'And it sat in regular sessions of its own.
0:36:29 > 0:36:34'In effect, it was Henry's legal headquarters.'
0:36:34 > 0:36:38What was starting to emerge here was a body of judges,
0:36:38 > 0:36:42as we would recognise them now, serving both at Westminster
0:36:42 > 0:36:45and in the shire circuits
0:36:45 > 0:36:50and building up a pool of knowledge and expertise.
0:36:50 > 0:36:52It's easy to imagine them getting together between sessions
0:36:52 > 0:36:55or just over a meal, swapping stories,
0:36:55 > 0:36:59debating the finer points of legal practice,
0:36:59 > 0:37:06and using this shared experience to shape their subsequent rulings.
0:37:06 > 0:37:09'Accounts of cases began to be written down,
0:37:09 > 0:37:11'allowing them to be consulted,
0:37:11 > 0:37:15'and the first books about English law started to appear.'
0:37:15 > 0:37:18The Justices were establishing a method that remains
0:37:18 > 0:37:23a defining characteristic of the English legal system.
0:37:23 > 0:37:27They were making judgments based on precedent.
0:37:27 > 0:37:32Common law wasn't just about consistency across the realm,
0:37:32 > 0:37:37it was also about being consistent with previous decisions.
0:37:37 > 0:37:42'The Westminster Court mainly dealt with civil litigation.
0:37:42 > 0:37:45'They would hear your suit more quickly than a shire court -
0:37:45 > 0:37:47'for a fee.
0:37:47 > 0:37:52'Making money seems to have been an important aspect of Henry's reforms,
0:37:52 > 0:37:56'a point I raised with legal historian Paul Brand.'
0:37:56 > 0:38:00How much is revenue-raising as opposed to making the country safer
0:38:00 > 0:38:02an underlining priority for Henry?
0:38:02 > 0:38:07Clearly he was not unaware of the fact that Justices brought in money.
0:38:07 > 0:38:15It would be wrong to suppose that he didn't have that in mind at all
0:38:15 > 0:38:21in what he did, but there were rather more profitable things
0:38:21 > 0:38:24for a king to do than ensuring justice.
0:38:24 > 0:38:30He did not charge significantly large amounts
0:38:30 > 0:38:34for access to royal courts.
0:38:34 > 0:38:37So he ensured that royal justice was affordable?
0:38:37 > 0:38:42He ensured that royal justice was affordable
0:38:42 > 0:38:45to the normal man in the street.
0:38:45 > 0:38:49So he had very high ideals as to his role, I suppose?
0:38:49 > 0:38:55He, as it were, reorientates the English monarchy.
0:38:55 > 0:39:01He retools it as....an institution
0:39:01 > 0:39:05deserving the support of the King's subjects
0:39:05 > 0:39:08because it provides justice for them.
0:39:14 > 0:39:18'And that justice was meant to be consistent across society.
0:39:18 > 0:39:22'The common law didn't discriminate, at least in theory,
0:39:22 > 0:39:25'between the rich and poor.'
0:39:25 > 0:39:28But one important group remained safely beyond the grasp
0:39:28 > 0:39:32of the common law. Henry's attempts to deal with that problem
0:39:32 > 0:39:37would come to define his reign and reach a head here in Canterbury.
0:39:40 > 0:39:42'That problem was the clergy.
0:39:42 > 0:39:46'They enjoyed their own legal system, Canon Law.
0:39:46 > 0:39:49'If you were in holy orders,
0:39:49 > 0:39:52'you were subject solely to the jurisdiction of the Church.
0:39:52 > 0:39:55'The Crown couldn't touch you.
0:39:55 > 0:39:59'No matter how serious the crime, the cleric would merely be ordered
0:39:59 > 0:40:03'by his bishop to purge his sin, usually through penance,
0:40:03 > 0:40:08'whereas a layman might be mutilated or hanged.
0:40:08 > 0:40:11'That is, unless they claimed "benefit of clergy." '
0:40:11 > 0:40:15"Benefit of clergy" provided perhaps the biggest loophole
0:40:15 > 0:40:19in English legal history. On the flimsiest of grounds,
0:40:19 > 0:40:24you could claim to be a cleric, thus removing your sanctified soul
0:40:24 > 0:40:27from the grasp of the secular authorities.
0:40:27 > 0:40:30Eventually, the benefit could be claimed
0:40:30 > 0:40:34merely by reciting the first verse of Psalm 51.
0:40:34 > 0:40:36"Have mercy upon me, O God,
0:40:36 > 0:40:42"according to thy loving kindness. According unto the multitude
0:40:42 > 0:40:46"of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions."
0:40:48 > 0:40:53'The inability of royal justice to prosecute criminous clerics
0:40:53 > 0:40:56'represented perhaps the most serious challenge
0:40:56 > 0:40:57'to Henry's authority.
0:40:57 > 0:41:01'So when he appointed his close friend Thomas Becket
0:41:01 > 0:41:03'as Archbishop of Canterbury,
0:41:03 > 0:41:07'he did so on the expectation that under Becket's leadership,
0:41:07 > 0:41:10'the Church would conform and cooperate.'
0:41:11 > 0:41:14'But Becket went native.
0:41:14 > 0:41:17'Henry was NOT amused.'
0:41:18 > 0:41:21Even when working full-time as a priest,
0:41:21 > 0:41:24I had little sympathy for Becket and his stance.
0:41:24 > 0:41:27To defend the independence and rights of the Church
0:41:27 > 0:41:29from secular intrusion is one thing,
0:41:29 > 0:41:33to protect literate murderers, robbers and rapists
0:41:33 > 0:41:37from the full rigours of the law is quite another.
0:41:37 > 0:41:43The clerical child abuse scandals of recent years are Becket's legacy.
0:41:43 > 0:41:48I can well understand how Henry II got more than a little exasperated
0:41:48 > 0:41:51at the pig-headed obduracy of his archbishop,
0:41:51 > 0:41:54and how he demonstrated that frustration
0:41:54 > 0:41:57in an intemperate outburst to the effect of,
0:41:57 > 0:42:00"Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?"
0:42:03 > 0:42:04'What happened next
0:42:04 > 0:42:08'is one of the most famous stories of Medieval England.'
0:42:13 > 0:42:17On the night of 29th December, 1170,
0:42:17 > 0:42:22the story goes Becket was at evening prayer here in Canterbury Cathedral,
0:42:22 > 0:42:26when he was confronted by four knights loyal to the King.
0:42:32 > 0:42:36They struck him down with repeated blows from their swords,
0:42:36 > 0:42:40and they were so ferocious that they sliced off the crown of his head,
0:42:40 > 0:42:43so that, in the words of an eyewitness,
0:42:43 > 0:42:47"The blood, white with the brain, and the brain,
0:42:47 > 0:42:52"no less red from the blood, dyed the floor of the cathedral."
0:42:57 > 0:43:01'It's unlikely Henry actually ordered Becket's murder.
0:43:01 > 0:43:06'His archbishop's demise undermined all that the king wanted,
0:43:06 > 0:43:10'as public opinion rallied round the Church.
0:43:10 > 0:43:14'Becket became a martyr, and a repentant Henry
0:43:14 > 0:43:19'felt he could no longer touch the issue of criminous clerics.'
0:43:19 > 0:43:21THUNDER RUMBLES
0:43:26 > 0:43:29'Although the Church may have remained off-limits,
0:43:29 > 0:43:34'Henry II had given the rest of his kingdom a lasting legacy.'
0:43:37 > 0:43:41Henry and his advisers didn't reinvent law in England,
0:43:41 > 0:43:47but they certainly gave it order, cohesion and a degree of uniformity
0:43:47 > 0:43:50unmatched ANYWHERE in Europe.
0:43:50 > 0:43:55Now England didn't just have laws, it had a legal system.
0:43:55 > 0:43:59A king born in France had laid the stable foundation
0:43:59 > 0:44:04upon which today's English law could be built.
0:44:10 > 0:44:14'Henry II understood royal authority was best maintained in England,
0:44:14 > 0:44:17'not through the arbitrary exercise of power,
0:44:17 > 0:44:21'but by being seen as the guarantor of justice.
0:44:21 > 0:44:26'But perhaps even he underestimated just how quickly the English
0:44:26 > 0:44:31'would come to see justice not as the King's gift, but as THEIR right.
0:44:31 > 0:44:35'It was a lesson that his son John would learn
0:44:35 > 0:44:39'in a landmark moment in English history.'
0:44:43 > 0:44:45'On 15th June, 1215,
0:44:45 > 0:44:50'King John rode from Windsor Castle to meet his barons,
0:44:50 > 0:44:54'who had pitched their camp by the water meadows at Runnymede.'
0:44:54 > 0:44:58On that June morning, nearly 800 years ago,
0:44:58 > 0:45:02these meadows would have been filled with thousands of people -
0:45:02 > 0:45:06soldiers, knights, barons, bishops, the King himself -
0:45:06 > 0:45:12all awaiting something unprecedented in English history.
0:45:12 > 0:45:16The king was about to put his seal on a document
0:45:16 > 0:45:22that had been forced upon him by his subjects.
0:45:25 > 0:45:29'John's disastrous French wars, his repeated demands for money,
0:45:29 > 0:45:33'and his abuse of royal courts to levy fines,
0:45:33 > 0:45:37'had alienated many of England's powerful barons.
0:45:37 > 0:45:40'They had rebelled, forcing the King to negotiate.
0:45:40 > 0:45:42'The result was written down
0:45:42 > 0:45:46'in the most famous legal document in history -
0:45:46 > 0:45:50'the Great Charter, Magna Carta.
0:45:50 > 0:45:55'Its 63 clauses cover a wide range of royal concessions,
0:45:55 > 0:45:59'but Magna Carta was more than just a long list
0:45:59 > 0:46:01'of legal and economic demands.
0:46:01 > 0:46:07'It was a groundbreaking recognition that the English people had rights.'
0:46:08 > 0:46:13Much of Magna Carta may strike the modern reader as impenetrable,
0:46:13 > 0:46:17obscure, and sometimes even trivial.
0:46:17 > 0:46:19But buried among the clauses
0:46:19 > 0:46:23dealing with fish weirs and measures of ale
0:46:23 > 0:46:26are two of enduring significance.
0:46:27 > 0:46:31"No free man shall be seized or imprisoned,
0:46:31 > 0:46:33"or stripped of his rights or possessions,
0:46:33 > 0:46:39"or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way.
0:46:39 > 0:46:42"Nor will we proceed with force against him,
0:46:42 > 0:46:47"or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals
0:46:47 > 0:46:51"or by the law of the land."
0:46:51 > 0:46:54And, "To no-one will we sell,
0:46:54 > 0:46:59"to no-one deny or delay right or justice."
0:47:00 > 0:47:02'These few lines have been hailed
0:47:02 > 0:47:05'as the origin of fundamental civil liberties,
0:47:05 > 0:47:08'including trial by jury.
0:47:08 > 0:47:11'An agreement between the King and the barons
0:47:11 > 0:47:17'had somehow ended up guaranteeing the liberty of wider society.
0:47:17 > 0:47:21'To find out why, I went to meet an expert on Magna Carta.'
0:47:21 > 0:47:23What the baronial opposition
0:47:23 > 0:47:26were doing to King John was clearly deeply controversial.
0:47:26 > 0:47:29There were those who backed it, there were those who did not.
0:47:29 > 0:47:32And there was much to play for.
0:47:32 > 0:47:34John knew that, the baronial opponents knew that.
0:47:34 > 0:47:36The loyalty of the lower free-classes -
0:47:36 > 0:47:41knights, sergeants and others - could not be taken for granted.
0:47:41 > 0:47:45These were constituencies that had to be mobilised, won over.
0:47:50 > 0:47:52'Magna Carta wasn't just a legal document,
0:47:52 > 0:47:58'it was an exercise in medieval public relations.'
0:47:58 > 0:48:01Copies were almost certainly sent out
0:48:01 > 0:48:04to the shire courts of England,
0:48:04 > 0:48:11and read out before the earls, the barons, sergeants, the freemen.
0:48:11 > 0:48:15This reflects the efforts by the baronial opposition
0:48:15 > 0:48:20to broadcast the details and the nature of the settlement.
0:48:21 > 0:48:23'However, while the provisions of Magna Carta
0:48:23 > 0:48:26'were being promulgated throughout the kingdom,
0:48:26 > 0:48:30'the settlement between John and the barons was falling apart.
0:48:30 > 0:48:36'Within months, they were hard at battle in strategic Rochester.'
0:48:36 > 0:48:40John personally directed the siege of Rochester Castle.
0:48:40 > 0:48:43Its eventual surrender in November
0:48:43 > 0:48:49was one of the few glorious moments for John in his troubled reign.
0:48:49 > 0:48:52Not that he had long to savour it.
0:48:52 > 0:48:59Dysentery killed him the following year. But Magna Carta lived on.
0:49:00 > 0:49:05'Magna Carta had been disseminated far too widely across the country
0:49:05 > 0:49:07'to be ignored or forgotten.
0:49:07 > 0:49:11'Of what are believed to be some 40 copies originally distributed,
0:49:11 > 0:49:16'four still survive, including the one sent to Lincoln.'
0:49:17 > 0:49:22At first glance, it's not much to look at.
0:49:22 > 0:49:24But it's had perhaps more influence...
0:49:26 > 0:49:29..in English and world history than any other document.
0:49:29 > 0:49:33'On two occasions of the greatest historical moment,
0:49:33 > 0:49:38'Magna Carta would become a clarion call against overbearing government.
0:49:38 > 0:49:42'Preceding the English Civil War, it was cited by Parliamentarians
0:49:42 > 0:49:45'contesting the authority of Charles I.
0:49:45 > 0:49:47'In the 18th century,
0:49:47 > 0:49:50'it inspired the fathers of the American Revolution,
0:49:50 > 0:49:55'and provided the basis for the United States Constitution.'
0:49:55 > 0:50:03This is probably the most important extant document in our history.
0:50:10 > 0:50:13'1215, the year Magna Carta was signed,
0:50:13 > 0:50:17'was perhaps the most momentous in English legal history.
0:50:17 > 0:50:20'It was the year the law outgrew not only the King,
0:50:20 > 0:50:23'but also, the other great power in the land.'
0:50:23 > 0:50:28The Church may have enjoyed its own separate legal system, canon law,
0:50:28 > 0:50:30but as we've seen, it also maintained
0:50:30 > 0:50:32a strong foothold in the common law,
0:50:32 > 0:50:36because only a cleric could preside over trials by ordeal.
0:50:36 > 0:50:39In 1215, that all changed
0:50:39 > 0:50:43for reasons that had nothing to do with events in England.
0:50:44 > 0:50:46'900 miles away in Italy,
0:50:46 > 0:50:49'Pope Innocent III banned priests
0:50:49 > 0:50:52'from blessing ordeals by water and fire
0:50:52 > 0:50:55'on the basis that God's judgment
0:50:55 > 0:50:58'wasn't at the beck and call of presumptuous mortals.
0:50:58 > 0:51:02'Following the withdrawal of the Church from the legal process,
0:51:02 > 0:51:05'England had to decide whether to follow much of Europe
0:51:05 > 0:51:10'and adopt methods of proof dating back to Roman law.'
0:51:11 > 0:51:14English law was at a crossroads.
0:51:14 > 0:51:17It could have followed the route favoured on the Continent,
0:51:17 > 0:51:20where the authorities would try to extract confessions
0:51:20 > 0:51:26by torture if necessary - the inquisitorial system.
0:51:26 > 0:51:31Instead, England continued along her own exceptional path
0:51:31 > 0:51:34towards trial by jury.
0:51:36 > 0:51:40'Over the centuries, the role of "the man in the street"
0:51:40 > 0:51:44'had become steadily entrenched in English legal practice.
0:51:44 > 0:51:48'From the people who might back up your oath in Anglo-Saxon times,
0:51:48 > 0:51:53'to Henry II's juries of presentment who indicted local criminals.'
0:51:54 > 0:51:58'These juries were cheap. They tapped into local knowledge,
0:51:58 > 0:52:02'and it was both logical and common sense
0:52:02 > 0:52:06'that they should be adapted to replace ordeals in trials.'
0:52:08 > 0:52:11Now it was no longer the Almighty,
0:52:11 > 0:52:16but a rather less exotic tribunal that would determine the outcome.
0:52:16 > 0:52:18The judge would ask the members of the jury,
0:52:18 > 0:52:22when declaring whether the accused were guilty or not,
0:52:22 > 0:52:24to give a truthful answer.
0:52:24 > 0:52:30In the Anglo-French of the time - aver-de.
0:52:30 > 0:52:32Our "verdict".
0:52:32 > 0:52:38'The first known English jury trial took place in 1220.
0:52:38 > 0:52:41'A woman condemned for murder, called Alice,
0:52:41 > 0:52:44'accused five others of criminality.
0:52:44 > 0:52:47'They submitted to the judgment of their neighbours.
0:52:47 > 0:52:49'In the phrase of the time,
0:52:49 > 0:52:53' "Putting themselves for good and ill upon a verdict."
0:52:53 > 0:52:57'These neighbours decided that one was lawful,
0:52:57 > 0:52:59'but that four were thieves.
0:52:59 > 0:53:02'And they were sent to the noose.
0:53:02 > 0:53:05'By the late 13th century,
0:53:05 > 0:53:08'juries were a familiar part of English law.
0:53:08 > 0:53:11'Unlike modern ones, they didn't weigh evidence,
0:53:11 > 0:53:16'but came to a decision based on their own knowledge or belief.
0:53:16 > 0:53:20'For ordinary people to have such power in a society
0:53:20 > 0:53:25'that was in other respects full of inequalities was revolutionary.'
0:53:27 > 0:53:30Your peers had been given an authority
0:53:30 > 0:53:33that had previously been the preserve of God.
0:53:33 > 0:53:39Your guilt was now decided in public by members OF the public,
0:53:39 > 0:53:42independent of the state.
0:53:42 > 0:53:48The jury - the institution that most defines English justice -
0:53:48 > 0:53:51truly begins here.
0:53:57 > 0:54:01'By the end of the 13th century, we can see a number
0:54:01 > 0:54:05'of the elements of English law that remain with us today.
0:54:05 > 0:54:09'A unified set of laws across the country, the jury,
0:54:09 > 0:54:13'the structure of local and central courts,
0:54:13 > 0:54:16'a body of judges who share and exchange
0:54:16 > 0:54:17'their knowledge and experience,
0:54:17 > 0:54:23'and one other important part of our legal system has begun to emerge.'
0:54:23 > 0:54:27Major civil suits often ended up being heard at Westminster,
0:54:27 > 0:54:31irrespective of where they'd originated.
0:54:31 > 0:54:34But suppose you live in a distant shire.
0:54:34 > 0:54:37Travelling to London to plead your own case
0:54:37 > 0:54:39will certainly require lots of time and money,
0:54:39 > 0:54:45and dealing with an expert Justice may be well beyond your capacity.
0:54:45 > 0:54:48So why not turn to a new kind of practitioner
0:54:48 > 0:54:50who's come on the scene?
0:54:50 > 0:54:54Someone like me - a professional lawyer.
0:54:56 > 0:54:59'In fact, then, as now,
0:54:59 > 0:55:03'there were two branches of the legal profession.'
0:55:06 > 0:55:08'You would appoint an attorney
0:55:08 > 0:55:11'to act as your agent and manage your case.
0:55:11 > 0:55:15'The word comes from the Old French atorne - "to appoint".
0:55:15 > 0:55:18'But the actual pleading of your case in court
0:55:18 > 0:55:21'would be done by a sergeant.
0:55:21 > 0:55:24'Attorneys and sergeants were the equivalent of today's
0:55:24 > 0:55:26'solicitors and barristers.'
0:55:28 > 0:55:30'And by the later 13th century,
0:55:30 > 0:55:34'there were around 30 sergeants practising in the courts,
0:55:34 > 0:55:37'and 200 attorneys.'
0:55:39 > 0:55:41'Business was booming,
0:55:41 > 0:55:44'and it was transforming an important part of the capital.'
0:55:46 > 0:55:49Here's the famous Temple Church,
0:55:49 > 0:55:53built by the Knights Templar in the last years of Henry II's reign,
0:55:53 > 0:55:56and preserved to this day
0:55:56 > 0:55:59as the chapel of Inner and Middle Temple -
0:55:59 > 0:56:02two of the four Inns of Court
0:56:02 > 0:56:06that have existed in this area since the Middle Ages.
0:56:09 > 0:56:10'The Inns of Court,
0:56:10 > 0:56:14'which also include Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn,
0:56:14 > 0:56:16'have been training schools for lawyers
0:56:16 > 0:56:18'since at least the 14th century.'
0:56:20 > 0:56:23'It was here that my predecessors were lodged,
0:56:23 > 0:56:26'and learned legal procedures and precedents.'
0:56:28 > 0:56:29'And down the centuries,
0:56:29 > 0:56:34'the Inns have continued to support and educate barristers.'
0:56:34 > 0:56:38The ceremony for York Hall this evening will commence at 1800.
0:56:38 > 0:56:41'One of the Inns of Court's most important responsibilities
0:56:41 > 0:56:45'is the formal recognition of qualified barristers.
0:56:45 > 0:56:49'In a ceremony I remember well - the call to the Bar.'
0:56:49 > 0:56:52GAVEL BANGS
0:56:54 > 0:56:57In the name of the Masters of the Bench,
0:56:57 > 0:56:59I call you to the degree of the utter Bar.
0:56:59 > 0:57:03'The Bar was the barrier which traditionally separated the public
0:57:03 > 0:57:06'from the working area of a courtroom.
0:57:06 > 0:57:10'Today, men and a women from a whole host of countries
0:57:10 > 0:57:13'come here to qualify from the very same institutions
0:57:13 > 0:57:16'where England's first lawyers trained
0:57:16 > 0:57:18'more than six centuries ago.'
0:57:23 > 0:57:27English common law has become a model for legal systems
0:57:27 > 0:57:28all over the world.
0:57:28 > 0:57:31The secret of its survival in England
0:57:31 > 0:57:35is that it was never imposed upon the nation.
0:57:35 > 0:57:40Rather, it grew and evolved through many centuries.
0:57:40 > 0:57:43The common law runs through our national story
0:57:43 > 0:57:46like veins through a body.
0:57:46 > 0:57:51It has proved both robust and adaptable, and it's had to be.
0:57:53 > 0:57:56'As it moved beyond its medieval origins,
0:57:56 > 0:58:01'the common law would face a whole new set of challenges.'
0:58:06 > 0:58:09Next time, how the champions of the common law
0:58:09 > 0:58:13battled tyranny in the lead-up to the English Civil War...
0:58:15 > 0:58:17..signed the death warrant of a king...
0:58:18 > 0:58:22..triggered the end of the transatlantic slave trade,
0:58:22 > 0:58:26and secured the liberties we still enjoy today.
0:58:44 > 0:58:47Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd