Note 32 — Chapter IV · Trial by Battle.
Reading edition
Neilson’s “Trial by Combat,” p. 46.
Clergymen were exempted from the trial by battle and by 41 Edward III., an appellant, on entering the field of battle could avoid the fight, by praying his clergy. (Herbert’s “Antiquities of the Inns of Court,” 130.)
By the Charter of London, the following citizens were also exempted from trial by battle, viz., sexagenarii, or men of three score years; coecus, or those blind by accident after issue joined. (Ante idem.)
The exemption granted by Henry I., by the Charter of London, was followed by many other similar exemptions. Newcastle-on-Tyne, Norwich, Oxford and Winchester, soon followed and almost every borough strove to procure like exemptions. (Stubbs’ Charters, Thompson’s English Mun. History.)
Mayhem was a good ground for exemption from trial by combat. Crown Pleas, No. 4, 9; Bracton, ii, 458, 468; Glanville, XIV., ch. I; Neilson’s “Trial by Combat,” 46.