The Franchise of Return of Writs

Abstract

Return of writs has been considered an essential privilege of the greater liberties in medieval England, because it entitled liberty-holders to exclude the sheriff and hence to execute royal writs through their own bailiffs. Maitland construed it thus when discussing borough privileges, and again when he included it among the powers of lords exercising ‘the highest justice’. Although return of writs had acquired this meaning by the time Edward I died, neither the king's lawyers nor liberty-holders understood it in this way in the thirteenth century. Each side interpreted it differently. The conflict which ensued has attracted little attention hitherto, yet return of writs can only be understood in its context. This struggle has also a wider significance, as it illuminates the attempts of Henry III and Edward I to impose a new definition of royal sovereignty on libertyholders. The present paper will argue that the franchise of return of writs was the product of conflict between king and magnates.