188 The Period of Constitution Making
ily less. And when the kings began to reflect upon the
amount of criminal jurisdiction which some individuals
already held, they did not critically study the past in
order to understand the matter; they came to the con-
clusion that, while there might be a kind of civil and
petty criminal justice that went with the possession of a
manor, this higher kind could never have been lawfully
acquired except by definite royal grant.1
That this distinction was not clear at the time of the
Conquest, nor for long after, it is hardly necessary to
state. But it led directly to an act of Edward I. which
had a profound effect upon the later history of private
courts. In 1278, he issued the Writ Quo Warranto,
which demanded by "what warrant" those who were exer-
cising what he was pleased to consider regalian rights were
doing so.2 It was assumed that, if they could not show a
written grant from the king, the only means of acquiring
such rights in Edward's time, they were to be deprived of
them. This roused such protest that Edward abated his
demand; he may possibly have foreseen the necessity
of this from the first. Those who could show an unbroken
exercise of these rights from the coronation of Richard I,
were allowed to retain them. But two important things
were accomplished. In the first place, any further ac-
quisition of such rights was out of the question; and,
mindful of the possibilities of forfeiture and deprivation
which a powerful monarchy always possessed, it is easy
to see that the exercise of high judicial power by private
individuals would, at no distant time, pass away. In
1 On the origin of private jurisdiction, see above, pp. 38-41, 77, 78, 105.
3 In 1274 Edward had sent commissioners throughout the country to
collect information about the franchises. This was recorded in what are
known as the Hundred Rolls, because it was gathered from hundred to
hundred—an interesting parallel to the gathering and recording of the
Domesday material. Edward then spent three years in looking the material
over and deciding what use he would make of it. His decision, embodied in
the Writ Quo Warranto, is in the preamble to the Statute of Gloucester.
The barons' pleas or replies to the writ are contained in the Placita de
Quo Warranto. This was Edward's first important governmental meas-
ure and shows how necessary he thought it was to check the growing feudal
assumptions.