Editing Court leet (section)

==Role==
The court leet was a [[court of record]], and its duty was not only to view the pledges, which were the freemen's oaths of peacekeeping and good practice in trade, but also to try with a [[jury]], and punish, [[crime]]s committed within the jurisdiction; more serious crimes were committed to the king's justices.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref name="Ritson"/> Despite the presence of a jury, it was not ''[[trial by jury]]'' as understood today. The court leet had developed while the jury system was still evolving; the jury indicted wrongdoers, stood witness, and helped decide on punishment.

It also developed as a means of proactively ensuring that standards in such matters as sales of food and drink, and agriculture, were adhered to. The [[Alcester]] Court Leet contained the following wording:<ref name="Alcester">[http://www.alcestercourtleet.co.uk/ Alcester Court Leet] – retrieved 26 August 2018</ref>

{{blockquote|To enquire regularly and periodically into the proper condition of watercourses, roads, paths, and ditches; to guard against all manner of encroachments upon the public rights, whether by unlawful enclosure or otherwise; to preserve landmarks, to keep watch and ward in the town, and overlook the common lands, adjust the rights over them, and restraining in any case their excessive exercise, as in the pasturage of cattle; to guard against the adulteration of food, to inspect weights and measures, to look in general to the morals of the people, and to find a remedy for each social ill and inconvenience. To take cognisance of grosser crimes of assault, arson, burglary, larceny, manslaughter, murder, treason, and every felony at common law.}}

The court generally sat only a few times each year, sometimes just annually. A matter was introduced into the court by means of a "presentment", from a local man or from the jury itself. Penalties were in the form of fines or imprisonment.