• DOI:10.2307/3678675
• Corpus ID: 154160576

The Transformation of the Keepers of the Peace into the Justices of the Peace 1327–1380

@article{Putnam1929TheTO,
  title={The Transformation of the Keepers of the Peace into the Justices of the Peace 1327–1380},
  author={Bertha Haven Putnam},
  journal={Transactions of the Royal Historical Society},
  year={1929},
  volume={12},
  pages={19 - 48}
}

• B. H. Putnam
• Published 1 December 1929
• History
• Transactions of the Royal Historical Society

For an adequate understanding of the significance of the “keepers” and the “justices” of the peace, precise answers are needed to several questions. How frequent were breaches of the peace and crimes of violence in the reign of Edward III? Was the situation worse than in the reign of his father or than in the time of the Paston Letters? The orthodox view of the universal prevalence of violence, long ago vividly presented by the late L. Owen Pike, has been recently challenged in an article on the internal commerce of fourteenth-century England. Professor Willard's conclusion, based largely on transportation records, is that the “danger of the morrow's journey need not disturb the rest of travellers in an inn” and that “the transportation of goods (other than money) was to a high degree free from danger.” The material used by Pike, and other similar material, certainly afford arguments against so optimistic a theory. The speeches and petitions in parliament and the language of the commissions of Trailbaston, of oyer and terminer, and of the peace, imply persistent attacks on travellers, especially when going to fairs and markets, and innumerable instances of highway robbery, mayhem and homicide. Nor does the language seem exaggerated as one examines the records of courts and the cases appearing on Close and Patent Rolls. Without a quantitative analysis of all possible evidence, it is difficult to ascertain the truth as between these two conflicting opinions.