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The Lands and Liberties of the Church at Ely was a 1080 court case and an appeal, where the Abbot of Ely sought recovery of lands that had been taken at the Conquest,[1][2] 14 years beforehand.
The liberty of Ely was re-established in (King) Edgar's charters for the refounded monastery in 970. The Liber Eliensis states that Etheldreda had taken possession of the Isle of Ely in 673: 'she took possession of the Isle and had free disposal of it as her lawful property - and for evermore'.[3]Edward the Confessor reiterated the liberties in 1052 and then William the Conqueror restated them.[4]
Wherever the church of Ely had lands, it had its own courts where defendants in cases of theft could vouch to warranty. Severing of a hand and death were among the common penalties for significant theft.[5]
The court case can be viewed as a part of a large collection of pleadings against a process of Normanization that within a decade saw 64% of land in England consolidated into the hands of just 150 individuals, and many of the nobility and churches deprived of their estates.
References
edit- ^ Liber Eliensis 251; Publisher: Anglican Christian Society.
- ^ Bigelow, Melville Madison (1881). "Lands and Liberties of the Church at Ely". Placita anglo-normannica:law cases from William I. to Richard I. preserved in historical records. Boston: 22.
- ^ Liber Eliensis (2005), The Boydell Press, p.42
- ^ E. Miller, 'The Ely Land Pleas in the reign of William I', E.H.R. lxii (1947), 455.
- ^ Trinity College. Camb. O. 2. 1, f. 115a.
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