A Constitutional and Legal History of Medieval England

Book excerpt: Understanding our system of laws requires a knowledge of the past, in particular the roots of a legal tradition that took hold in medieval England. This landmark volume is an authoritative study of the inspirational and legal history of England, spanning the period of Richard III on Bosworth Field in 1485. In writing this book, Bryce Lyon has produced a work whose breadth of scholarship is unique among studies of the period. Each of its six sections includes chapters on local and central government and the law, as well as on such topics as feudalism, taxation, church-state relations, the Magna Carta, and parliament. With a modern's cognizance of the impact of bureaucracy in shaping government and law, Professor Lyon places special emphasis on the importance of administrative developments. He also demonstrates that many of medieval England's institutions and legal procedures are the forerunners of both modern English and American legal and governmental institutions, pointing out, for example, the close connection between medieval royal prerogative and modern presidential executive privilege, and the similarities between the procedures and privileges of the medieval parliament and the American Congress. The new edition incorporates the results of the last two decades of medieval scholarship and includes completely new bibliographies for each section, as well as a new discussion of the period 1399-1485, which takes into account the latest interpretations of Lancastrian and Yorkist history.