Quadripartitus, Leges Henrici Primi and the Scholarship of English Law in the Early Twelfth Century

Summary

This paper is based on two sources, the Leges Henrici Primi and Quadripartitus. They are the two largest and most important sources for English law in the Anglo-Norman era, and are usually regarded as though they were written by the same individual. Nonetheless, they differ greatly in nature and content. Quadripartitus consists of two parts – the title is attested no earlier than the sixteenth century and is probably misleading – one of which is a translation into Latin of a wide range of pre-Conquest legal documents, prefaced by a lament on the condition of England in the reign of William II, while the other is much shorter, and consists of a few documents of Henry I’s time and an appendix of correspondence, prefaced by an encomium to Henry I. The Leges Henrici Primi – again, the title is an editorial one, more or less misleading, and certainly should not be read as implying any official origin – is a lengthy tract in Latin which sets out in general terms ideas about procedure and conduct in court, and how courts should proceed in cases concerning public order, among other matters, and it draws extensively on the same pre-Conquest legal materials seen in Quadripartitus.

These sources have been used and cited very widely in discussions of a range of problems. In addition to their obvious relevance to legal matters, there is much in them relating to governmental, administrative, and political history, and they are also much used for social history too. Perhaps most important, though, is that they bear on the biggest question of all in Anglo-Norman history: how twelfth-century society and state related to the Anglo-Saxon past, and what the epic events of 1066 and thereafter really signified. That both sources depend so extensively on pre-Conquest written materials supports the belief that these were still sources of authority well into the twelfth century. Quadripartitus is built on the premise that pre-Conquest sources were still of relevance to law, society, and government, as its prefaces assert. Leges Henrici Primi, meanwhile, blends extensive quotation from pre-Conquest documents with much material which was not written exclusively for England, and which incorporates ideas, habits, and arrangements that were unknown here before 1066.