Amercements Act 1275

STATUTUM WEST' PRIMUM. The Statute of WESTMINSTER, the First, Made at Westminster 25 die Aprilis, Anno 3 EDWARDI I. and Anno Dom. 1275.

Amercements Act 1275

1275 (3 Edw. 1) C A P. VI.

THESE be the Acts of King EDWARD, Son to King HENRY, made at Westminster at his first Parliament general after his Coronation, on the Mondayof Easter Utas, the third Year of his Reign, by his Council, and the Assent of Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Priors, Earls, Barons, and all the Commonalty of the Realm being thither summoned, because our Lord the King had great Zeal and Desire to redress the State of the Realm in such Things as required Amendment, for the common Profit of holy Church, and of the Realm: And because the State of the holy Church had been evil kept, and the Prelates and religious Persons of the Land grieved many ways, and the People otherwise intreated than they ought to be, and the Peace less kept, and the Laws less used, and the Offenders less punished than they ought to be, by reason where of the People of the Land feared the less to offend; the King hath ordained and established these Acts underwritten, which he intendeth to be necessary and profitable unto the whole Realm.

Amerciaments shall be reasonable, and according to the Offence.

''2 Inst. 169. Regist. 187. 9 H. 3. stat. 1. c. 14.''

''See 34 Ed. 3. c. 1. ordaining that Fines for Trespasses shall be reasonable; and 1 W. & M. sess. 2. c. 2. declaring excessive Fines and cruel Punishments to be illegal, and likewise Grants of Fines before Conviction.'' AND that no City, Borough, nor Town, nor any Man be amerced, without reasonable Cause, and according to the Quantity of his Trespass; that is to say, every Free-man saving his Freehold, a Merchant saving his Merchandise, a Villain saving his Waynage, and that by his or their Peers.

Note : this act is listed in the Chronological Table of Statutes as the Amercements Act, 1275