Justiciary Duty

The King's Court: Walter Boynton and Sheriff Percy, we want you to handle this trial for us [justiciarii ad hoc] to make sure it's carried out properly.

......

Radulfus de Acton: He broke into the house and attacked my brother with an axe. I saw him as he was escaping. My brother died a week later.

Richard Vaccarium: No. No. No! I did none of those things.

That was the record the judges had to work with. [court records]

We know what would happen next -- a trial. And that is what happened in 1208; they had a trial. But a trial to determine who was speaking truly in 1208 was not like our trials. They had two forms of trial: trial by ordeal and trial by combat. In this case trial by combat was the choice, and a duel was scheduled.

However, there had been problems with trials by combat. Non-participants had been getting into the act. So the court asked William de Percy, who was sheriff of Yorkshire, and Walter de Boynton to serve as ad hoc justiciaries. The courts wanted distinguished representatives to insure the appropriate procedures were followed.

Trial by combat was standard operating procedure in the 12th century and into the 13th century. It would be another decade before the courts invented trial by jury for criminal trials [Jury Duty].