English law English law is the common law legal system of England and Wales, comprising mainly criminal law and civil law, each branch having its own courts and procedures. Principal elements of English law Although the common law has, historically, be ...

, the assize of novel disseisin ("recent dispossession"; ) was an action to recover lands of which the plaintiff had been disseised, or dispossessed. It was one of the so-called "petty (possessory) assizes" established by Henry II in the wake of the

Assize of Clarendon The Assize of Clarendon was an act of Henry II of England in 1166 that began a transformation of English law and led to trial by jury in common law countries worldwide, and that established assize courts. Prior systems for deciding the winning ...

of 1166; and like the other two was only abolished in 1833.

Origin

Facing the disorder of self-help over the possession of land in the wake of the reign of King Stephen, Henry II in his nationwide assizes of Clarendon and Northampton had his justices "cause an inquisition to be made concerning dispossessions carried out contrary to the assize". Drawing on the sophisticated models offered by canon law, the king subsequently created the private (and purchasable) writ of novel disseisin, which enabled individuals to take disputed possession cases to the royal courts. The action became extremely popular due to its speed (avoiding the delays or

essoin In old English law, an essoin (, , Old French ''essoignier'', "to excuse") is an excuse for nonappearance in court. Essoining is the seeking of the same. The person sent to deliver the excuse to the court is an essoiner or essoineur. There were ...

s of feudal justice), accessibility, and expediency. Rather than dealing with the issue of lawful possession, it simply asked whether dispossession had taken place, in which case the property was restored to the plaintiff, and the question of true ownership was dealt with later.

Development

Although Henry had intended his newly created

Grand Assize The Grand Assize (or Assize of Windsor) was a legal instrument set up in 1179 by King Henry II of England, to allow tenants to transfer disputes over land from feudal courts to the royal court. Origins Given the capacity of feudal justice for dela ...

to determine issues of right, not possession, in land, in practice quite quickly novel disseisin superseded the Grand Assize and became itself the primary determinant of right in land—partly because, from dealing only with 'recent' disseisin, its remit was gradually extended further and further back in time. A further significant extension involved the application of the writ to profits and rights emanating from land, including rents. Thus, for example, the date of disseisin allowed at the Common Bench by 1321 went back as far as 1242; while in the 1321 London eyre, of eighty-one cases of novel disseisin, only half concerned property (houses or shops), the other half dealt with rents.

Format

Ranulf de Glanvill Ranulf de Glanvill (''alias'' Glanvil, Glanville, Granville, etc., died 1190) was Chief Justiciar of England during the reign of King Henry II (1154–89) and was the probable author of ''Tractatus de legibus et consuetudinibus regni Anglie'' ( ...

's ''Treatise on the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom of England'' gives examples of novel disseisin writs, which were issued to a sheriff as a command from the king. The general structure was: * The king acknowledges, with particular facts, the plaintiff's claim that the defendant disseised him of his land "unjustly and without a judgment" since the king's last voyage to Normandy. * The sheriff, upon receiving security from the plaintiff, shall have twelve local men view the condition of the land and sign their names on the writ. * These men shall be summoned later to the king's court, along with the defendant or his representative, to testify. The date for the defendant to appear in court was rigorously enforced, in contrast to other processes that allowed excused absences (

s).

Abuses

Despite its advantages, novel disseisin was also open to abuse – as when a dispossessor pre-empted its use against the rightful seisin. With the passage of time, legalistic means of obstructing its working were devised, and, under

bastard feudalism "Bastard feudalism" is a somewhat controversial term invented by 19th century historians to characterise the form feudalism took in the Late Middle Ages, primarily in England in the Late Middle Ages. Its distinctive feature is that middle-rankin ...

, the suborning of the juries that were the new assize's great strength also multiplied.

Notable examples

*In 1422,

Sir Thomas Malory Sir Thomas Malory was an English writer, the author of ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', the classic English-language chronicle of the Arthurian legend, compiled and in most cases translated from French sources. The most popular version of ''Le Morte d'Ar ...

was involved in pursuing a case of novel disseisin against Richard Clodeshall in the Midlands.

Christina Hardyment Christina Hardyment (born 1946) is a British writer who has written on a wide range of subjects including parenting, food, gardens, children's books, domestic life, and British history. Personal life Hardyment lived mainly in England, save f ...

, ''Malory'' (London 005) p. 136

Origin

Development

Format

Abuses

Notable examples

See also

References

Further reading