The History of the Common Law of England [44]
is apparent, That in Point of Limitation in Actions Ancestral, from the Time of the Coronation of King Henry 2 it was anciently so here in England in Glanville's Time, and was transmitted from hence into Normandy; for it is no way reasonable to suppose the contrary, since Glanville mentions it to be enacted here, Concilio procerum; and though this be but a single Point, or Instance, yet the Evidence thereof makes out a Criterion, or probable Indication, that many other Laws were in like Manner so sent hence into Normandy. Secondly, It appears, That in the Succession of the Kings of England, from King William I to King Henry 2 the Laws of England received a great Improvement and Perfection, as will plainly appear from Glanville's Book, written in the Time of King Henry 2 especially if compared with those Sums or Collections of Laws, either of Edward the Confessor, William I or Henry I whereof hereafter. So that it seems, by Use, Practice, Commerce, Study and Improvement of the English People, they arrived in Henry 2d's Time to a greater Improvement of the Laws; and that in the Time of King Richard I and King John, they were more perfected, as may be seen in the Pleadings, especially of King John's Time: And tho' far inferior to those of the Times of Succeeding Kings, yet they are far more regular and perfect than those that went before them. And now if any do but compare the Contumier of Normandy, with the Tract of Glanville, he will plainly find that the Norman Tract of Laws followed the Pattern of Glanville, and was writ long after it, when possibly the English Laws were yet more refined and more perfect; for it is plain beyond Contradiction, that the Collection of the Customs and Laws of Normandy was made after the Time of King Henry 2, for it mentions his Coronation, and appoints it for the Limitation of Actions Ancestrel, which must at least be 30 years after; nay, the Contumier appears to have been made after the Act of Settlement of Normandy in the Crown of France; for therein is specified the Institution of Philip King of France, for appointing the Coronation of King Richard I for the Limitation of Actions which was after the said Philip's full Possession of Normandy. Indeed, if those Laws and Customs of Normandy had been a Collection of the Laws they had had there before the coming in of King William I, it might have been a Probability that their Laws, being so near like ours, might have been transplanted from thence hither; but the Case is visibly otherwise, for the Contumier is a Collection after the Time of King Richard I, yea, after the Time of King John, and possibly after Henry 3d's Time, when it had received several Repairings, Amendments and Polishings, under the several Kings of England, William I, William 2, Henry I, King Steven, Henry 2, Richard I, and King John; who were either knowing themselves in the Laws of England, or were assisted with a Council that were knowing therein. And as in this Tract of Time the Laws of England received a great Advance and Perfection, as appears by that excellent Collection of Glanville, written even in Henry 2's Time, when yet there were near 30 years to acquire unto a further Improvement before Normandy was lost; so from the Laws of England thus modelled, polished and perfected, the same Draughts were drawn upon the Laws of Normandy, which received the fairest Lines from the Laws of England, as they stood at least in the Beginning of King John's Time, and were in Effect in a great Measure the Defloration of the English Laws, and a Transcript of them, though mingled and interlarded with many particular Laws and Customs of their own, which altered the Features of the Original in many Points. VII. Concerning the Progress of the Laws of England after the Time of King William I, until the Time of King Edward 2 That which precedes in the Two foregoing Chapters, gives us some Account of the Laws of England, as they stood in and after the great Change which happened under King William