AULA REGIA (called frequently Aula Regis). The king's hall or palace.
In English Law. A court established in England by William the Conqueror in his own hall.
It was the " great universal" court of the king dom; from the dismemberment of which are de rived the present four superior courts in England, viz.: the High court of Chancery, and the three superior courts of common law, to wit, the Queen's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer. It was composed of the king's great officers of state resi dent in his palace and usually attendant on his person ; such as the lord high constable and lord marescal (who chiefly presided in matters of honor and of arms), the lord high steward and lord great chamberlain, the steward of the household, the lord ohanceller (whose peculiar duty it was to keep the king's seal, and examine all such writs, grants, and letters as were to pass under that authority), and the lord high treasurer, who was the principal ad viser in all matters relating to the revenue. These high officers were assisted by certain persons learned in the laws, who were called the king's justiciary or justices, and by the greater barons of parliament, all of whom had a seat in the aula regia, and formed a kind of court of appeal, or rather of advice in matters of great moment and difficulty. These, in their several departments, transacted all secular business, both civil and criminal, and all matters of the revenue ; and over all presided one special magistrate, called the chief justiciar, or capitolis •usticiaries totius Anylite, who was also the princi pal minister of state, the second man in the king dom, and, by virtue of his office, guardian of the realm in the king's absence. This court was bound
to follow the king's household in all his expedi tions; on which account the trial of common causes in it was found very burdensome to the people, and accordingly the 11th chapter of Magna Charts enacted that "communia placila non eequan tsr curium i.cyie, Bed teneaqjur iu aliquo eerto loco," which certain place was established in Westminster Hall (where the mac( regis originally sat, when the king resided•in that city), and there it has ever since continued, under the name of Court of Col:n inon Pleas, or Common Benoh. It was nutlet the reign of Edward I. that the other several officers of the chief justiciar were subdivided and broken into distinct courts of judicature. A court of chivalry, to regulate the king's domestic servants, and an august tribunal for the trial of delinquent peers, were erected; while the barons reserved to themselves in parliament the right of reviewing the sentences of the other courts in the last resort; but the distribution of common justice between man and man was arranged by giving to the court of chancery jurisdiction to issue all original writs under the great seal to other courts; the exchequer to manage the king's revenue, the common pleas to determine all causes between private subjects, and the court of king's bench retaining all the jurisdiction not cantoned out to the other courts, and particularly the sole cognizance of pleas of the crown, or criminal causes. 3 Stephen, Comm. 397-400,405 ; 3 Blackstone, Comm. 38-40 ; Bracton, 1. 3. tr. 1, c. 7; Fleta, Abr. 2, cc. g, 3; Gilbert, Hist. C. Pleas, Introd. 18; 1 Reeve, Hist. Eng. Law, 48.