The land over which the jurisdiction of the sheriff extended, is said to have been distinguished as reve land. The thanes or nobles had, in the lands granted to them, a similar jurisdiction of their own, both civil and criminal. (1, Reeve's Mist. of English Law, 7.) The limits between the jurisdiction of the sheriff and that of the lord were strictly preserved. But when the lord had no court, or refused to do justice, or when the parties were not both subject to his jurisdiction, the snit was referred to the tribunal of the reeve ; and a suit commenced before the lord might be removed by the defendant before the higher tribunal.
The civil tribunal of the lord was similar to the county court in its consti tution and its powers, except that the presiding officer was not a public func tionary (as the reeve was), but the bailiff of the lord. This court still exists under the style of the court baron, and is inci dent to every manor in the kingdom. The judges are the freeholders who owe suit and service to the lord of the manor, and if there are not at least two such free holders in the manor, the court is lost. This was formerly the proper court in which to commence real actions to try the title to lands within the manor. The lord's court in criminal cases, in which he had the same powers that the sheriff exercised in his turn, was called the Lest.
The same powers which were exercised over a particular manor by the court baron and court leet, were also exercised over particular hundreds by the hundred court and the leet of the hundred. But the number of these courts was much diminished by stet. 14 Edward III., by which all hundreds, except such as were of estate in fee, were rejoined (as to the bailiwick of the same) to the counties at large these courts of inferior juris diction, there was also a Supreme Court in which the king presided. In the Saxon age, and for some time after, the legis lative, the administrative, and the ju dicial functions of the government had not been separated ; and the Wittenage mote, or meeting of the wise, was con sulted by the king in all these depart ments indiscriminately. The Anglo Saxon king had the same jurisdiction over his thanes that they had over their own vassals. Hepunished all enormous crimes committed against the king's peace. His court was likewise open to all those to whom justice had been refused in the inferior courts ; and he had the power of punishing the judges if they pronounced an iniquitous sentence. It also seems probable that the king's court was a court of appeal, in which the judg ments of all other tribunals, if erroneous, might be reversed.
The Norman Conquest does not seem to have produced any immediate change in the constitution of this national assem bly, which thenceforth became more known as the Great Council. The mem bers exercised the same varied functions as under the Saxons ; but when they sat in their judicial capacity, they had the assistance of the great officers of state and certain persons learned in the law, styled justiciars, or justices. William the Con queror also created an officer to preside over judicial business, under the title of chief justiciar. The functions of this court thus became gradually separated from the general business of the grand council ; and from being held in the hall of the king's palace, it was distinguished by the style of Aula Regis. A great dis tinction was drawn between this and all the courts of Saxon origin, from the mode of authenticating its proceedings. There were at this time no written memorials of legal proceedings, and indeed of few other public acts ; and when it was neces sary to establish any judgment or statute which had been made by the king assisted by his council, it was usual to call the testimony of some of the nobles who were present, to bear record of the fact. In progress of time, all such proceedings were written down at the time on parch rnent, the nobles present signing their names as witnesses, and so bearing record of the truth of what was there alleged. The writing itself was called a Record ; and it was held to be evidence so con clusive, that when produced, nothing was allowed to be alleged in derogation of it. The entry of proceedings on record was adopted in the judicial, as well as in the other departments of the great council, and hence the Aula Regis became dis tinguished as a court of record. The power and importance of the Aula Regis rapidly increased. It not only maintained the former powers of the council in punishing offences against the public, in controlling the proceedings of inferior courts, and in deciding on questions re lating to the revenue of the king, but it engrossed also a great portion of the 1‘ common pleas," or causes between party and party. And though we may suppose that it was only the more important causes that were taken into the Aula Regis, yet as early as the reign of Edward I., when the jurisdiction of the county courts was confined to 40s., all actions above that amount were brought into the king's courts.