Editing Court leet (section)

==Early history==
{{unref|section|date=May 2025}}
At a very early time in medieval England, the [[lord of the manor]] exercised or claimed certain [[feudalism|feudal]] rights over his [[serfdom|serf]]s and feudal [[wikt:tenant|tenants]]. The exercise of those rights was combined with [[Manorialism|manorial administrative concerns]], in his [[court baron]]. However this [[court]] had no power to deal with [[crime|criminal acts]].

Criminal jurisdiction was held by the [[hundred court]]s; the country was divided into [[Hundred (county division)|hundreds]], and there was a hundred court for each of them. Each hundred comprised 100 [[hide (unit)|hides]], with each hide being an area of land of variable size that is enough to support one entire household. A [[tithing]] was an area of 10 hides, which therefore originally corresponded to about 10 households. The heads of each household were judicially bound to the others in their tithing by an arrangement called [[frankpledge]], which created collective responsibility for behaviour within their tithing. The hundred court monitored this system, in a process called ''view of frankpledge'', with the tithing reporting any wrongdoing in their area, and handing over the perpetrators among them. If the wrongdoing was minor, it would be dealt with by the hundred court, but serious crimes were passed up to the [[shire court]].

Before feudalism, hundred courts had also dealt with administrative matters within their area, such as bridge repairs, road conditions, and so forth, but the courts baron had largely superseded that in practice, and some manorial lords began claiming authority over criminal matters as well. Eventually, [[the Crown|the king]] formally granted certain trusted lords with the [[franchise (law)|legal authority]] that had been held by the hundred court over the tithings in the lord's manor, the most important of those being ''view of frankpledge''.<ref name="Ritson">Ritson, J., The Jurisdiction of the Court Leet (1809): Introduction – [https://books.google.com/books?id=r4U0AAAAIAAJ Full text available on Google Books]</ref> The group of tithings that were located within each manor had come to be called a ''leet'', and hence, in the later [[Middle Ages]] these judicial powers came to be called '''court leet'''.

The ''[[quo warranto]]'' proceedings of [[Edward I of England|Edward I]] established a sharp distinction between the court baron, exercising strictly [[Manorialism|manorial rights]], and the court leet, exercising the powers formerly held by the hundred court, emphasising that the ability to hold court leet depended upon a royally granted franchise.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} However, in many areas it became customary for the court baron and court leet to meet together, as a single operation.