Infangthief and outfangthief were privileges granted to

feudal lord An overlord in the English feudal system was a lord of a manor who had subinfeudated a particular manor, estate or fee, to a tenant. The tenant thenceforth owed to the overlord one of a variety of services, usually military service or se ...

s (and various corporate bodies such as

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The con ...

s and

cities A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

) under

Anglo-Saxon law Anglo-Saxon law (Old English ''ǣ'', later ''lagu'' "law"; dōm "decree, judgment") is a body of written rules and customs that were in place during the Anglo-Saxon period in England, before the Norman conquest. This body of law, along with early ...

by the kings of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. They permitted their bearers to execute summary justice (including

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

) on

thieves Theft is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word ''theft'' is also used as a synonym or informal shorthand term for some ...

within the borders of their own manors or

fiefs A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form ...

.. The terms are frequently attested in royal writs and charters using formulas such as " sake and soke,

toll and team Toll and team (also spelled ''thol and theam'') were related privileges granted by the Crown to landowners under Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman law. First known from a charter of around 1023, the privileges usually appeared as part of a standard form ...

, and infangthief", which specified the usual rights accompanying grants of land.

Scope

''Infangthief'' ( ang, infangene-þēof,. . "thief seized within") applied to thieves captured within a landowner's estate, although it sometimes permitted them to be chased in other jurisdictions and brought back for trial. Under the 13th-century " laws of Edward the Confessor", the privilege was restricted to the lord's "own thief"—that is, the lord's serfs and staff. According to

Bracton Henry of Bracton, also Henry de Bracton, also Henricus Bracton, or Henry Bratton also Henry Bretton (c. 1210 – c. 1268) was an English cleric and jurist. He is famous now for his writings on law, particularly ''De legibus et consuetudinibus ...

, the privilege was further restricted to those caught ''

in flagrante delicto ''In flagrante delicto'' (Latin for "in blazing offence") or sometimes simply ''in flagrante'' ("in blazing") is a legal term used to indicate that a criminal has been caught in the act of committing an offence (compare ). The colloquial "caught ...

'' or in possession of the stolen object.. ''Outfangthief'' ( ang, ūtfangene-þēof,. . "thief seized without") is a more problematic term, as it is unattested prior to a forged charter included in the 3rd edition of

William of Malmesbury William of Malmesbury ( la, Willelmus Malmesbiriensis; ) was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. He has been ranked among the most talented English historians since Bede. Modern historian C. Warren Hollister described him as " ...

's ''

Deeds of the English Kings The ''Gesta Regum Anglorum'' (Latin for "Deeds of the Kings of the English"), originally titled ("On the Deeds of the Kings of the English") and also anglicized as or , is an early-12th-century history of the kings of England by William of Malme ...

'' ().. It seems to have initially been understood as the right to try a thief among the lord's own men wheresoever he might be apprehended,''The New England Historical & Genealogical Register and Antiquarian Journal''
vol. 16, p. 257. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1857 but this understanding is explicitly rejected by

's '' Laws and Customs of England'' and the ''

Fleta ''Fleta'' is a treatise on the common law of England. It was written in Latin with the sub-title ''seu Commentarius juris Anglicani''. The anonymous author of the book is sometimes referred to as "Fleta", although this is not in fact a person's na ...

'', which instead give it the meaning of permitting thieves captured on the lord's land to be tried by his court regardless of the thief's own origin. The ''Fleta'' further states that the lord had the right to hang thieves from among his own men on his own gallows, once they had been condemned by the jurisdiction where they had been captured. The thief's captor was given a choice between summarily executing him—the usual fate for the poor—or "amercing" him, ransoming him for a fine set according to his rank.Wright, Martin. ''Justice for victims and offenders: a restorative response to crime'', p. 13. Waterside Press, 1996. Such privileges had several advantages: they were profitable, helped to maintain discipline on the estate, and identified the privilege-holder as a figure of authority. They remained in use after the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Con ...

as a standard right given to local lords and did not finally fall into disuse until the time of Edward III. Even then, they continued to be asserted for a considerable time afterwards in Halifax, West Yorkshire.

Examples

According to the '' Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', in 963 AD King Edgar granted a charter to Bishop Æthelwold for the minster of

Medeshamstede Medeshamstede was the name of Peterborough in the Anglo-Saxon period. It was the site of a monastery founded around the middle of the 7th century, which was an important feature in the kingdom of Mercia from the outset. Little is known of its ...

(afterwards

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

) and attached villages. The charter included the grant of "sack and sock, toll and team, and infangthief".

Notes

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2020 Anglo-Saxon law Medieval law English legal terminology

Scope

Examples

See also

Notes

References