FOREST LAW. The old law relating to the forest, under which the most horrid tyr annies were exercised, in the confiscation of lands for the royal forests. Hallam's Const. Hist. ch. 8.
The privilege of reserving the forest for the use of the sovereign alone was iostituted by the Saxon kings, who, however, occasionally conferred it upon a subject by special license. Under the Norman kings the national property became a royal de mesne. The document called Constitutions Cnuti de Foresta, attributed to Cnute, is a forgery. The law which It contains is the early Anglo-Norman law of William I. Brunner, Sources of English Law, 2 Sel. Essays in Anglo-Amer. L. H. IS. For est laws were made absolutely at the klog's will. Mrs. J. R. Green, I id. 113. There were four chiefs of the forest (primarii) who administered justice ; under these were four mediocres who undertook the care of the venison and vert.; and who in turn su perintended two tithing-men whose duties were to care for the vert and venison by night and who, if slaves, became free on being appointed to this of fice. Complaints against the mediocres and the tithing-men were heard by the primarii and by them disposed of, and complaints against the pri marii were dealt with by the king himself ; Hallam, Anc. Laws and Inst. sec. 10. If a freeman used vio lence towards a primarius of the forest, he lost his freedom and his goods ; if a villein, he lost his right band ; and for a repetition of the offence by either, he forfeited his life. Offences against the vert were dealt with leniently as compared with those against the venison, and there was also a dif ference in the penalties Imposed for killing a royal beast and a beast of the forest ; thus for killing the latter, a freeman was fined, while for the former he lost his liberty. A difference was also recognized according to the rank of the offender, as, if a bish op, abbot, or baron killed a royal beast he was subject to a fine, at the pleasure of the king, while for the same offence a slave lost his life. Certain
animals are enumerated in this document for the killing of which no penalty was attached, and the wild boar is especially mentioned as never having been held to be an animal of venison ; id.. sec. 27. Under the Confessor these laws were not enforced with the rigidity of Cnute, the penalties for tres pass were moderate, and the administration of the forest law did not seem to be a subject of complaint from any class of people, but William the Conquer or soon altered this condition of affairs. The hunt ing of wild beasts of the forest being his chief pas time he immediately claimed absolute and exclusive right to all forests then existing, and allowed no one to enter without his license ; he extended those already existing by laying waste (afforestation) whole towns and villages ; and he devastated vast tracts in Hampshire and Yorkshire to form the new forest, "denuding the land of both God and man to make of it a home for wild beasts." Lappenburg. England, under the Anglo-Norman Kings 214. Some times he drove out the people and sometimes per mitted them to remain under severe laws. The Conqueror appointed new judges of the forests to supersede the former judges and keepers ; he cre ated the office of chief justice of the forest and the verderers subordinate to the chief justice, who could convict offenders and send them before the chief justice, but who had no power to punish such of fenders. The verderers sat at SWanimote and all within the limits of the forest were bound to attend this court thrice a year, and to serve on inquests and juries when required. The agistators, the for estorii, and the regarders were also appointed by the Normans as officers of the forest, but without judicial powers. The highest penalty enforced for offences in the forest during the reign of William I. seems to have been the Toss of a limb or the eyes of the offender, and this was enforced and fines were imposed for the most trivial offences; Sax. Chronicles.