104 The Norman Conquest
ing and the make-up of the regular hundred court1 unde
went no change in the early Norman period; by the
time it was held either by the sheriff or by some deput,
directly responsible to him.
In the reign of William II., the holding of the hundred
and shire courts fell into irregularity and abuse. To some
extent, the king was manipulating them in his own in-
terest through his officer, the sheriff; but undoubtedly
the chief abuse was by the sheriff himself. The courts
were summoned capriciously, and unusual or extortion-
ate fines were levied. This would have been impossible
in the Anglo-Saxon period when bishop and earl sat
with the sheriff and the popular character of the courts
was safeguarded by this balance of officials. Henry L,
early in his reign, ordered that these courts be held as
they had been before the Conquest, thus correcting the
sheriffs' abuses of his brother's time.2 This was but a
small part of what Henry did. As has been remarked,
his reign opened the great period of constitution making,
and, more particularly, the twelfth-century judicial devel-
opment. The later fortunes of these ancient courts will
be considered in that connection.3
As to private jurisdiction Anglo-Saxon and continental
ideas and practice ran readily together. At the bottom,
manorial jurisdiction continued, as described above, and
spread as the manorial system of agriculture became more
universal. Private jurisdiction over freemen, criminal
as well as civil, the thing which had started in England in
bookland grants of jurisdictional rights in whole hundreds
or parts of hundreds, also continued and grew. With
the incoming of continental feudalism there was probably
less confusion of thought here than before; such courts
were no longer regarded as hundred courts or parts of hun-
*On the specially full meetings of the hundred court in Henry I.'s
time, meetings that were really becoming king's courts, see below, p. 181.
a Henry had no intention to restore the earl and bishop to their pre-
Conquest position in the court.
3 The borough courts are mentioned below in the division on boroughsr
pp. in, 186, 187 and note *.