Leges Henrici Primi

The Leges Henrici Primi or Laws of Henry I is a legal treatise, written in about 1115, that records the legal customs of medieval England in the reign of King Henry I of England.

Background and similar works
The Leges Henrici Primi or Laws of Henry I is a legal treatise, written in about 1115, that records the legal customs of medieval England. It was written during the reign of King Henry I of England, and was part of a small group of similar writings devoted to legal procedures that were written for royal administrators. Besides the Leges, other works of this type produced at this time were the Quadripartitus, parts of the Leges Edwardi Regis, the Instituta Cnuti, and the Consiliatio Cnuti. It is possible the Leges Whillhelmi was also written during this time period. It is the longest of the legal tracts from its time, and made some effort to be comprehensive. It also draws a number of its codes from non-English sources, including Isidore of Seville and Ivo of Chartres, as well as legal codes such as Frankish and canon law.

Contents
The law code recognised the difference in the laws of the Danelaw, the old Kingdom of Mercia, and the lands of the Kingdom of Wessex. It also set out a list of legal proceedings that could only be tried before the king or his officials, the cases of which were known as "royal pleas" or "pleas of the crown", and included crimes such as treason, murder, rape, robbery, arson, and some types of theft. Another concern of the monarchy was any treasure finds or wrecks. Other royal cases involved counterfeiters or false judgement, or acts against the king himself or his household and servants. The king also reserved the right to hear appeals from other courts conducted by local authorities or by his nobles. The tract also set out who should attend the shire court, ruling that the local bishop and earl, as well as the sheriff, local barons, among others, should attend.

The work assumes that the royal legal system would still address some issues that later would have been dealt with by ecclesiastical courts. Clergy are not only to take part in the shire court, but could be summoned to answer charges in the court. It also sets out the various courts that were established and their jurisdiction. It takes for granted that the Anglo-Saxon laws of England are still in effect. It also addresses the administration of forest law under Henry I. Another new concern in the Leges is law covering the roadways and highways.

Another area covered by the work is royal finance, with the Leges setting out the rate of Danegeld, at a rate of one shilling per hide. It also covers judicial fines, setting forth a fine of 46 marks as the penalty for committing murder. The author of the work criticised the royal justices, calling them greedy. It sets out elaborate procedures for the conduct of murder cases, or murdum.

The Leges not only covered the laws and legal procedures, it devoted some effort to the theory of the law, and attempted to make generalisations about legal procedures and practices. It also contains a number of dicta which became cliches, such as "who unknowingly offends will knowingly amend" and "witness is not needed as to what did not occur, but as to what an accused claims did occur".

Authorship and legacy
It was written between 1114 and 1118, by an unknown Norman, who also wrote another legal work, the Quadripartitus. Probably, the Leges was part of a project including the Quadripartitus, the two works part of a planned work in four volumes to cover not only the laws of the writer's own time, but previous laws of the Anglo-Saxon monarchs, as well as how to handle legal cases. As part of both works, the author has included the Charter of Liberties, which was King Henry's coronation charter promising to no longer follow the administrative and legal policies of his predecessor, King William II. About a third of the Leges is material that is also in the Quadripartitus. There is evidence that the author of the two works had been a member of the household of Gerard, who had been Chancellor under Kings William I and William II before becoming Archbishop of York under Henry I.

The work is an important historical source for the study of the Middle Ages. An edition was published along with other 12th century legal treatises, in the Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, and more recently it has been studied by the historian L. J. Downer. The historian Patrick Wormald says of the Leges that it "has had more effect on views of English law before Henry II than any other". The work comes down to the present day in two manuscript traditions, one coming from the Red Book of the Exchequer, another from the London Collection. Neither tradition contains many manuscripts.