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Chapters
The Early Development of the Laws of the
Anglo-Scottish Marches, 1249-1448
Henry Summerson
Considering that they helped to regulate the affairs of a not inconsiderable
portion of Britain for several centuries, the laws of the Anglo-Scottish marches
have been surprisingly neglected by legal historians. 1 Documentary evidence is
fullest for the sixteenth century and good studies exist of their administration
and observance in this period, 2 but less work has been done on the medieval
antecedents of the march laws, 3 and so this essay will try to fill a gap by
attempting to trace their development over the two centuries following their
first codification in 1249. 4 As recorded in that year, the Laws of the Marches
were essentially a set of regulations for the prosecution of offences committed
by the inhabitants of one country inside the territory of the other, and for the
recovery of property stolen or lent across their common border. In theory all
acts of theft or violence committed by Scots against Englishmen in the latter's
country, and vice-versa, were to be judged on the march in accordance with
these laws. In practice, a Scot assaulted in London was unlikely to sue for
redress on the Solway or at Reddenburn - though robberies at sea continued
to be so justiciable - and the jurisdiction of the laws was effectively limited to
the border lands of England and Scotland.
Some very ancient elements, going back perhaps as far as the tenth century
(the prescribed sites for judicial meetings may be an example) have been
identified in the code of 1249 by Professor Barrow. 5 Nevertheless, it is
possible to see that that code was something more than an antiquarian rag-bag.
Compurgation, of course, was ancient in both England and Scotland, though
in the form prescribed in 1249 - the recovery of stolen goods was obtained
1
Unless otherwise stated, all unpublished documents cited are in the Public Record Office, London.
2
In D.L.W. Tough, The Last Years of a Frontier (Oxford, 1928) and T.I. Rae, The Administration
of the Scottish Frontier, 1513-1603 (Edinburgh, 1966).
3
The best account, though written at the beginning of this century, remains that of G. Neilson, 'The
March Laws', Stair Society Miscellany I, Stair Society, xxvi (Edinburgh, 1971), 12-77. See also D.
Hay, 'Booty in Border Warfare', Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and
Antiquarian Society, Third Series, xxxi (1952-53), 145-66, and C. Neville, 'Border Law in Late
Medieval England', Jour. Legal Hist., ix (1988), 335-56.
4
A[cts of the] Parliaments of] Scotland], I, (A.D. 1124-1423), T. Thomson and C. Innes, ed.
(Record Commission, 1844), 413-16.
5
G.W.S. Barrow, The Kingdom of the Scots (1973), 155-60.