Note 820 — MAGNA CARTA. (continued 5)

See Rot. Claus., I. 215. Mr. Pike (House of Lords, p. 170) maintains, indeed, that the prevention of disseisins “sine judicio” was the chief, if not the sole, object of the chapter under discussion:—“The judgment of peers had reference chiefly to the right of landholders to their lands, or to some matters connected with feudal tenure and its incidents.” This goes too far: the barons by no means confined the safeguard afforded by the judicium parium to questions of land and land-tenure. Pollock and Maitland, I. 393, countenance a broader interpretation. One point is beyond doubt: judicium parium extended to the assessing of amercements. In c. 21 earls and barons are confirmed in the right to be amerced only per pares suos.