urisdiction, 222-225;
its protest against the exactions of the church, 238, 239 and _notes_;
its share in the council of Constance, 244 and _note_;
enactment of the statute of praemunire, 251;
effect of Wicliff's principles, 252;
progress of the country under the Anglo-Saxons [see Anglo-Saxons];
its state at the period of the Norman conquest, 302, 303;
fruitless resistance of its people to Norman rule, 304 and _notes_;
expulsion of its prelates and maltreatment of its nobles, 305 and
_note_;
attempted suppression of its language, 306 and _note_;
wholesale spoliation of property, 308;
abject condition of English occupiers, 309, 310;
vastness of the Norman estates explained, 310;
conquered England compared with conquered Gaul, 311;
forest devastations and forest laws, 311, 312 and _notes_;
depopulation of the towns, 312;
establishment of feudal customs, 314;
preservation of the public peace, 315;
difference between feudalism in England and in France, 316, 317;
hatred by the English of the Normans, 318;
oppressions and exactions of the Norman government, 318, 320;
nature of the taxes then levied, 321, 322;
laws and charters of the Norman kings, 323, 324;
banishment of Longchamp by the barons, 325;
establishment of Magna Charta, 326;
difficulty of overrating its value, 327;
outline of its provisions, 321, 328;
confirmation thereof by Henry III., 329;
constitutional struggles between him and his barons, 331, 334;
limitations on the royal prerogative, 334, 335 and _notes_;
institution of the various courts of law, 336-338;
origin of the common law, 339-341;
character and defects of the English law, 341-343;
hereditary right of the crown established, 343-346;
legal position of the gentry, 346-348;
causes of civil equality, 348-351;
character of its government, iii. 147;
prerogatives of its kings, 147-150;
mitigation of the forest laws, 150 and _note_ p;
jurisdiction of its constable and marshal, 151, 152 and _notes_;
spirit of independence exhibited in mediaeval ballads, 265-267;
its customs farmed by Italian bankers, 339, 340 _note_ d.
English constitution, character of the, iii. 152;
Sir John Fortescue's doctrine, 153-155;
Hume's erroneous views regarding it, 155, 158;
causes tending to its formation, 159;
effect of the loss
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