<論説>バロンの反乱期における在地領主の相続問題

Abstract

一二五八〜六七年にかけて、イングランド国王ヘンリ三世と特権諸侯との間で生じた国政改革をめぐる対立や抗争の過程で、一二六五年一月のいわゆるシモン・ド・モンフォールの議会へと初めて都市代表が召集されたことなどが過大評価され、中小領主や都市民の利害を優先した改革が行われたという見解が長く学界を支配してきた。実際に改革運動の主導権を握ったのは伯やバロンなどの特権諸侯であるが、当時彼らは封臣である在地の中小領主との間に、領地の占有や相続、寡婦産の帰属、後見権者による不当収奪と、それに対抗する封臣による封の生前下封など、封建的付帯義務に由来する問題を抱えていた。本稿ではケムブリッジシァの在地領主と、その封主で国王の寵臣であったバロン家系との、相続権、鰥夫産、寡婦産、荘園占有をめぐる封主封臣間の紛争とその解決が、国王巡回裁判や財務府裁判所でのやりとりを経て、諸侯による国政改革の重要課題となり、その結果、封建法手続のルールとその適正な運用方法が、パーラメントにおいて制定法として成立する過程を例示した。

During the Barons' War in England, 1258 67, various constitutional reforms were initiated by the magnates in King's Council. In June 1264 shire Knights from each county were summoned to a parliament. And in January, 1265, two burgesses of some boroughs were summoned to a parliament in London. These two events were overvalued by the constitutional historians in late nineteenth century England. They stressed that during the baronial reform movement some reforms were planned for the benefit of the new growing class, knights and burgesses, by the altruistic magnates. In fact the initiative of the movement was assumed by several magnates, among whom there were earls of Leicester, Gloucester and Norfolk. But were they intending to reform for the benefit of knights and burgesses actually? Before the movement began they had been suffering from various troubles, such as unjust distraint, arising from feudal connection between their compeer barons and their knightly tenants. For example, some tenants quit the obligation of suit of court to their lords. Lords sometimes violently distressed those quitters. Both lords and tenants were annoyed with wardship, dower and curtesy. In this article some examples of judicial cases in eyre and in the court of common pleas concerning the troubles abovementioned are analyzed, and how those local problems became the crucial issues of reform even necessary for magnates as lords of those tenants, will be explained. Reforms initiated in the baronial movement were to be completed in the form of statutes in Edward I's reign.