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Treason Trials under the Law of Arms
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
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On 13 July 1405 Henry de Boynton, knight, was brought before the Court of Chivalry of England, sitting in Berwick at a place called ‘Waleisgreene’, and was there condemned to death for high treason. His crime had been that of levying war against the king in his own realm, in the company of Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland. The evidences of his guilt were a series of warlike acts against the king's lieges, committed ‘si notoirement et si publicement que par nulle tergiversacion nautre excusacion queconque purra estre concele ne denie’. He had ridden in arms, robbed, plundered and taken ransom in the lands of his liege lord, and he had surrendered the keys of Berwick into the hands of the king's enemies, the Scots. He had refused his sovereign entry into the town when the royal host lay before it, so that the king had been forced to fire his cannon at the walls of his own city. These acts amounted to notorious treason, and as such they were judged by John of Bedford, constable of England, presiding in the court, ‘par1 comandement mon tresredoute seigneur et pere le roy avantdit ton liege seigneur’. Boynton was therefore condemned to death, to be hanged, beheaded and quartered, and all his goods and chattels to be forfeit to the king.
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References
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page 102 note 4 Chronicles of the Reigns ofEdward1and Edward II, ed. Stubbs, , 2, p. 75.Google Scholar This suggests that the king's own banner had to be displayed before a state of war was deemed to exist. This would explain the Appellants’ anger at the display of the king's banner by de Vere at Radcot Bridge in 1387 (Rot. Part., iii, pp. 235–36); together with the statement of the civil lawyers that they could present no case against the Appellees (Rot. Pad., iii, p. 236b). If a state of war had existed, proceedings under the law of arms might have been instituted before Gloucester in the constable's court, but it was clearly not in the Appellants’ interest to suggest that there had been a state of open war.
page 103 note 1 One reason for this may have been that in some of these cases, e.g. that of Wallace, the accusation rested in part on ordinary common law offences; only certain of the charges were of an extraordinary nature.
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