Copied below is a letter patent of Edward III which provides
an interesting example of the justice inherent in the person of the king in
practice, in an important land settlement between two very important men, John
Warenne, earl of Surrey, and Richard Fitz Alan, earl of Arundel. After Edward III
had granted that Warenne could enfeoff the king of all his lands, the earl of
Arundel managed to appeal to ‘the court of his [Edward III’s] conscience’ and
have this decision reversed, thus securing himself a large chunk of Warenne’s
estates on the latter’s death. Edward’s use of ‘the court of his conscience’ in
this case is a striking example of the potential of the king to apply equitable
jurisdiction in accordance with the principles of natural law - known to him
through his divine right to rule - in a
complicated legal dispute, the moral aspect of which the common law was inadequate
to hear. This case provides a succinct reminder of the role of the king as the
personal fount of justice, as well as emphasising the informal nature of early
equity.
November 20 1346
Whereas of late it was agreed upon between the king and John
de Warenne, earl of Surrey, that the earl should enfeoff him in perpetuity of
all his lands in the county of Sussex, Wales and elsewhere, which the king was
given to understand could be done without prejudice to any one, it was
afterwards asserted by Richard, earl of Arundel, who came to the king when he
was on his passage, near the Isle of Wight, that such feoffment would be to his
disherison because that in the event of the death of the earl of Surrey without
heir of his body, the lands are known to pertain to him, and the king, at his
prayer, commanded John de Offord, king's clerk, dean of Lincoln, the
chancellor, by writ of privy seal, and afterwards by word of mouth by William
de Clinton, earl of Huntingdon, to cause execution of the feoffment to be
stayed until further order; now on
revolving the matter in the court of his conscience it seems that he ought not
to receive such feoffment and in consideration of the service of the
petitioner in the war of France, he has granted that the same shall not be
carried into execution. By K.
CPR 1345-1348, p.
480. (My italics)
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