Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- List of Contributors
- Abbreviations
- 1 Cloud-Cuckoo Land? Some Christian Symbols from Post-Roman Britain
- 2 Columbanus's Monasticism and the Sources of his Inspiration: From Basil to the Master?
- 3 Early Irish Priests within their Own Localities
- 4 Political Organisation in Dál Riata
- 5 Irish Boundary Ferta, their Physical Manifestation and Historical Context
- 6 Asser's Parochia of Exeter
- 7 Viking-Age Sculpture in North-West Wales: Wealth, Power, Patronage and the Christian Landscape
- 8 Iona v. Kells: Succession, Jurisdiction and Politics in the Columban Familia in the Later Tenth Century
- 9 A Twelfth-Century Indulgence Granted by an Irish Bishop at Bath Priory
- 10 Gerald of Wales, Gildas, and the Descriptio Kambriae
- 11 Patrick's Reasons for Leaving Britain
- 12 Learning Law in Medieval Ireland
- 13 Holding Court: Judicial Presidency in Brittany, Wales and Northern Iberia in the Early Middle Ages
- 14 The Iorwerth Triads
- 15 The Recovery of Stolen Property: Notes on Legal Procedure in Gaelic Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man
- 16 Contentious Kinship: The Penumbra of Established Kinship in Medieval Irish Law
- 17 Marriage by Purchase in Early Irish Law
- 18 Kingship Made Real? Power and the Public World in Longes Mac nUislenn
- 19 Mongán's Metamorphosis: Compert Mongáin ocus Serc Duibe Lacha do Mongán, a Later Mongán Tale
- Bibliography of the Writings of Thomas Charles-Edwards Maredudd ap Huw
- Index
- Tabula Gratulatoria
13 - Holding Court: Judicial Presidency in Brittany, Wales and Northern Iberia in the Early Middle Ages
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- List of Contributors
- Abbreviations
- 1 Cloud-Cuckoo Land? Some Christian Symbols from Post-Roman Britain
- 2 Columbanus's Monasticism and the Sources of his Inspiration: From Basil to the Master?
- 3 Early Irish Priests within their Own Localities
- 4 Political Organisation in Dál Riata
- 5 Irish Boundary Ferta, their Physical Manifestation and Historical Context
- 6 Asser's Parochia of Exeter
- 7 Viking-Age Sculpture in North-West Wales: Wealth, Power, Patronage and the Christian Landscape
- 8 Iona v. Kells: Succession, Jurisdiction and Politics in the Columban Familia in the Later Tenth Century
- 9 A Twelfth-Century Indulgence Granted by an Irish Bishop at Bath Priory
- 10 Gerald of Wales, Gildas, and the Descriptio Kambriae
- 11 Patrick's Reasons for Leaving Britain
- 12 Learning Law in Medieval Ireland
- 13 Holding Court: Judicial Presidency in Brittany, Wales and Northern Iberia in the Early Middle Ages
- 14 The Iorwerth Triads
- 15 The Recovery of Stolen Property: Notes on Legal Procedure in Gaelic Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man
- 16 Contentious Kinship: The Penumbra of Established Kinship in Medieval Irish Law
- 17 Marriage by Purchase in Early Irish Law
- 18 Kingship Made Real? Power and the Public World in Longes Mac nUislenn
- 19 Mongán's Metamorphosis: Compert Mongáin ocus Serc Duibe Lacha do Mongán, a Later Mongán Tale
- Bibliography of the Writings of Thomas Charles-Edwards Maredudd ap Huw
- Index
- Tabula Gratulatoria
Summary
The capacity to hold court can be a key to the distribution and exercise of political power; to the existence of public or of private power; and to the interplay both between local community and landlords and between local community and rulers' agents. Of course, the phrase ‘holding court’ in modern English offers a multiplicity of meanings, just as the notion of holding court in the early Middle Ages covers a multiplicity of occasions: there were kings' courts, bishops' courts, secular lords' courts, monastic lords' courts – where business was done, celebrations held, visitors received, dues paid, gifts exchanged, plans made. My concern in this paper is with the court as judicial court – the place where disputes were heard, in accordance with fixed procedures and in the knowledge of such law as pertained, and where disputes were sometimes settled, sometimes judged, and unsuccessful litigants were sometimes sentenced.
My particular concern is with the presidency of the court. Did someone always preside, and was the presidency always held by a single individual? Can we always identify a president? Could someone preside in absentia – in other words, be notionally but not physically present? Was presiding separable from judging? Determining who presided in court is much more difficult to fathom than one might initially think. There are issues concerning both the normal actions, powers and obligations of court holders and also the meaning of words: it might be supposed, for example, that use of the Latin word ante ‘before’ would clearly identify a president, but that certainly was not always the case.
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- Tome: Studies in Medieval Celtic History and Law in Honour of Thomas Charles-Edwards , pp. 145 - 154Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2011