Law and Justice in the Court of the Marshalsea of the King’s Household, 1509–1547

Abstract

The court of the marshalsea, which originated in the late thirteenth century, exercised jurisdiction over a circular area of twelve miles’ radius centered on the king’s current residence. This article offers the first scholarly discussion of this mysterious court in the reign of Henry VIII. It begins by discussing the court’s criminal jurisdiction and its judicial procedure in felony cases, explaining the significance of a 1542 statute that expanded and clarified its jurisdiction over serious crimes committed within the palace precinct. The article then analyzes the court’s civil jurisdiction and suggests reasons why its officers may have been willing to stretch jurisdictional rules in cases of trespass. Next, the article discusses what is known about the personnel of the court, charting the rise of the under-steward of the marshalsea (referred to as steward from 1539) as its chief controlling officer. I show that by 1542, the court’s jurisdiction had become trifurcated into a plea side, an ordinary criminal side, and a “palace” criminal side. Reforms to the court in the reign of Henry VIII illustrate a general process of judicial regularization that occurred in the early sixteenth century. The regularization of legal institutions during Henry’s reign was a “reformation from within” that promised to be far less destructive than the “reformation from without” forced on the marshalsea and other legal institutions under the Stuarts.