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Law, order and plunder at sea: a comparison of England and France in the fourteenth century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 April 2017

THOMAS K. HEEBØLL-HOLM
THOMAS K. HEEBØLL-HOLM*
Affiliation:
University of SouthernDenmark.
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Abstract

This article addresses the management of maritime plunder and conflict in the waters of England and France in the fourteenth century. It argues that during this century a fundamental change occurred. Around 1300, maritime conflict was handled by recourse to the strictly civil law merchant and law maritime, or by Marcher law. However by the 1350s and 1360s the kings of England and France, moved by contemporary political events and theories of sovereignty at sea, created courts of Admiralty that challenged the previous systems’ jurisdiction. These initiatives eventually paved the way for the criminalisation of private maritime conflict.

Loi, ordre et pillage en mer: une comparaison entre angleterre et france au xive siècle

Cet article étudie la gestion du pillage en mer et les conflits intervenus dans les eaux anglaises et françaises au XIVe siècle. L'auteur soutient qu'un changement fondamental s'y est produit à cette époque. Vers 1300, tout conflit maritime était traité en recourant au strict droit civil commercial et au droit de la mer ou bien conformément à la Loi des Marches ou Frontières d'Angleterre. Cependant, dans les années 1350 et 1360, inspirés par les événements politiques contemporains et les théories de la souveraineté en mer, les rois d'Angleterre et de France ont créé des Tribunaux d'Amirauté qui remettaient en cause la compétence des juridictions antérieures. Ces initiatives ont finalement ouvert la voie à une criminalisation des conflits maritimes d'ordre privé.

Gesetz, ordnung und plünderung auf see: ein vergleich zwischen england und frankreich im 14. jahrhundert

Dieser Aufsatz behandelt das Management maritimer Plündereien und Konflikte in den Gewässern Englands und Frankreichs im 14. Jahrhundert. Die These ist, dass in diesem Jahrhundert ein grundlegender Wandel eintrat. Um 1300 wurden maritime Konflikte bewältigt, indem man sich strikt an das zivile Handelsrecht und das Seerecht oder auf das Markenrecht hielt. In den 1350er und 60er Jahren jedoch schufen die Könige von England und Frankreich, angeregt durch zeitgenössische politische Ereignisse und Theorien der Seehoheit, spezielle Seegerichte, welche die Rechtsprechung des früheren Systems in Frage stellten. Diese Initiativen führten schließlich zur Kriminalisierung privater maritimer Konflikte.

Type
Research Article
Information
Continuity and Change , Volume 32 , Special Issue 1: Merchants and Commercial Conflicts in Europe, 1250–1600 , May 2017 , pp. 37 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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References

ENDNOTES

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39 Marsden, Reginald Godfrey ed., Select pleas in the Court of Admiralty, 2 vols. (London, 1894)Google Scholar, I, xviii–xix; Heebøll-Holm, Ports, 151, 186–90.

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58 Marsden, ‘Vice-Admirals’, 472.

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62 Charles Johnson ed., ‘An early Admiralty case (A.D. 1361)’, in Camden Miscellany, Volume XV (Camden Third Series Vol. XLI, London, 1929), 4: ‘ceste court qest office damiralle ne serra pas rullez si estroit come serront les autres courtz du roialme qe sont rullez par commune ley de la terre, mes est reullable par equite et ley marine ou chescun homme serra resceu a dire sa verite, et le dit Johan Houeel est alien et nad pas conisaunce des leys de la terre [this court [of law] which is the office of the admiral will not be ruled as narrowly as the courts of the realm that follow common law. Rather it is governed by equity and law maritime where all men shall be received to tell his truth, and the said Johan Houeel is a foreigner and is ignorant of the laws of the land]’; my translation); Ward, Medieval shipmaster, 36.

63 Johnson, ‘Early Admiralty’, 1–5; EMDP I, 370, n. 36; Cushway, Edward III, 178.

64 This closely resembled the procedure employed in traditional law merchant suits. Sachs, ‘Conflict resolution’, 27–8.

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