The Origins of the Office of Coroner
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11004517 |
|---|---|
| Authors | R F Hunnisett (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1958 |
| Volume | 8 |
| Pages | 85-104 |
| Publication date | 1958-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Transactions of the Royal Historical Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0080-4401 • E-ISSN: 1474-0648 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/3678910 |
| OpenAlex | W2320624424 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 10 |
ONLY a hundred years ago the question whether or not there had been coroners in Roman Britain could still be seriously discussed, for two pieces of evidence had created a widespread belief that they had existed long before the Conquest. The Mirror of Justices , a thirteenth-century treatise, credits king Alfred with the appointment of coroners and sheriffs in every county, and a rhyming charter, purporting to have been granted by Athelstan to Beverley Minster, restricts the holding of inquests upon dead bodies within its liberty to its own bailiffs, specifically excluding any ‘other coroner’. Later legal writers, especially Coke, strengthened and prolonged the authority of The Mirror of Justices : they unquestioningly accepted the section on the coroner and embodied it in their works. Maitland, however, has brilliantly exposed the wilful mendacity of its author. The rhyming charter is an obvious forgery; the earliest extant version of it has been attributed on palaeographical and linguistic grounds to the reign of Edward II, when it was probably composed
Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Charter · CONQUEST · Coroner · Extant taxon · Literature · Political science · Reign · Section (typography · Death, Funerary Practices, and Mourning · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Law · Medicine · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity
De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae
‘Recueil des actes de Henri II’
Serjeanty Tenure in Medieval England
The King's Approvers
The Early History and Influence of the Office of Coroner
The Anglo-Norman Franchises
The Jury of Presentment and the Assize of Clarendon1 1
The Pleas of the Crown in the Avranchin
| Citations per year | 0.02 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1976 - 1976 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |