In the same court he was amerced for causing damage estimated at three sheaves of beans in the lord's crop, but his
amercement was waived because he was, according to the roll, poor.(58) A year previously, a jury had presented that he had secretly leased an acre to Robert, which may also have been a gage for a loan.(59) By the late 1290s, Nicholas seems once again to have been in a spiral of debt, possibly the ever-tightening coils of the same spiral.
Violation of this rule shall be punished with the first
amercement"[1] (Shamasastry, 1915c, p.
Laster [1970, 76] stresses that the loss of restitution and its accompanying incentives, and the potential for
amercement for false accusation, meant that English citizens had to be "forced" into carrying out their policing functions.
In this sense, a fine is not a financial punishment for a violation of law or privilege (usually referred to as an
amercement), but derives from the Latin word finis, which means at root "end." Fines were used in settling an issue or bringing it to an end, most frequently in the sense of coming to a financial agreement over a particular matter.
man shall have a larger
amercement imposed upon him, than his
However, if we look at what alewives charged and at the fines they had to pay, we realize that there is a connection between the price of a gallon and the amount of the
amercement, although such a connection varied over time.
In arguing that the help-ales of Wakefield would have excluded the poor, she seems to consider the following points to be self-evident: (a) that 'there is a connection between the price of a gallon and the amount of the
amercement' paid by commercial brewers; (b) that this same relationship must apply to
amercements levied on hosts of help-ales; (c) that she can therefore determine the prices charged at help-ales; and (d) that these prices will show both who could afford to attend help-ales and how many people attended these events.(7) Not one of these points is self-evident to me; indeed, each is quite problematic.
In addition, the
amercement of John Caunceller shows that those who had exposed commodities for sale in the market were not allowed to withdraw them speculatively in the hope or expectation of higher prices later in the day.
Clause 20 extended at least a part of this protection to merchants and villeins, adding the protection that in all cases
amercements should only be fixed according to the testimony of reliable local men.
29, 39, 41, 45; see also Table of Fines, Forfeitures, Penalties and
Amercements, in 2 A COLLECTION OF All Such Acts OF THE General Assembly of Virginia of a Public and Permanent Nature as Have Passed Since the Session of 1801, app.
They did not object in principle to scutage,
amercements, fines and other demands for taxes, but John had increased the amounts significantly without consulting them, and his demands were administered arbitrarily and coercively.
* casual profits from sale of wood, from
amercements (penalties) and copy-hold fines;
A little money was also needed for any money-rents or
amercements (fines) which might fall due.
(26) For example, the Magna Carta contains three chapters on the system of
amercements, that, in many respects, operated in a similar manner to punitive damages under the current U.S.
Moreover, royal courts provided either reparation or capital punishment; the church courts offered excommunication,
amercements, at best the bishop's prison.
