IN EYRE. Certain judges es tablished, if not first appointed, A. D. 1176, 22 Hen. II.
England was divided into certain circuits, and three justices in eyre—or justices itinerant, as they were sometimes called—were appointed to each dis trict, and made the circuit of the kingdom once in seven years, for the purpose of trying causes. They were afterwards, when the judicial functions assumed greater importance, directed, by Magna Charta, c. 12, to be sent into every county once a year. The itinerant justices were sometimes more justices of assize or dower, or of general jail de livery, and the like.
Speaking of the 12th century it is said that "the visitation of the counties by itinerant justices has been becoming systematic." The holding of the assize on circuit was evidently committed to judges of great prominence. "From the early years of the reign- (Henry II.) we hear of pleas on cuit by Richard Lucy the chief justiciar, by Henry of Essex the constable, and by Thomas Becket the chancellor. . . In 1176, to execute the assize of Northampton, eighteen justices were employed, and the country was divided Into six circuits; in 1179, twenty-one justices were employed, and the coun try was divided into four circuits ; indeed from 1176 onwards hardly a year went by without there being a visitation of some part of England. These itinerant justices seem to have been chiefly em ployed In hearing the pleas of the crown (for which purpose they were equipped with the power of ob taining accusations from the local juries), and in entertaining some or all of the new possessory ac tions. The court that they held was, as already said, curia regis, but it was not capitalis curia regis, and probably their powers were limited by the words of a temporary commission. They were not necessarily memhers of the central court, and they might be summoned before it to bear record of their doings ; still it was usual that each party of justices should include some few members of the permanent tribunal." 1 Poll. & Matti. 134.
These justices in eyre in the reign of Henry III. are thus described: "But we may distinguish the main types of these commissions. What seems treated as the humblest is the commission to de liver a jail. This . . . is dens very frequently; generally it is done by some three or four knights of the shire, and thus long before the institution of justices of the peace, the country knights had been accustomed to do high criminal justice. In order to dispose of the possessory assizes of novel dis seisin and mort d'ancestor, a vast number of com missions were issued in every year. Early in Hen ry's reign this work was often entrusted to four knights of the shire ; at a later time one of the permanent justices would usually be named and allowed to associate some knights with himself. Apparently a justice of assize had often to visit many towns or even villages in each county ; he did not do all his work at the county town. It must have been heavy work, for these actions were extremely popular. In the second year of Ed
ward's reign some two thousand commissions of assize were issued. Just at that time the practice seems to have been to divide England into four circuits and to send two justices of assize round each circuit; but a full history of the circuits would be intricate and wearisome. Above all the other commissions rank the commission for an iter ad amnia placita, or more briefly for an iter, or eyre. An eyre had come to be a long and laborious busi ness. In the first place, if we suppose an eyre in Cambridgeshire announced, this has the effect of stopping all Cambridgeshire business in the bench. Litigants who have been told to appear before the justices at Westminster will now have to appear before the justices in eyre at Cambridgeshire. There is no business before the bench at West minster if an eyre has been proclaimed in all the counties. Then again the justices are provided with a long list of interrogatories (capitula itineris) which they are to address to local juries. Every hundred, every vill in the county must be rep resented before them. These interrogatories—their number increases as time goes on—ransack the memories of the jurors, and the local records for all that has happened in the shire since the last eyre took place some seven years ago ; every crime, every invasion of royal rights, every neglect of po lice duties must be presented. The justices must sit in the county town from week to week and even from month to month before they will have got through the tedious task and inflicted the due tale of Sines and amercements. Three or four of the permanent judges will be placed in the commis sion ; with them will be associated some of the magnates of the district; bishops and even abbots, to the scandal of strict churchmen, have to serve as justices in eyre. Probably it was thought expe dient that some of the great freeholders of the country should be commissioned, in order that no man might say that bis judges were not his peers.
An eyre was a sore burden ; the men of Cornwall fled before the face of the justices ; we hear asser tions of a binding custom that an eyre shall not take place more than once in seven years. Expe dients are being adopted which in course of time will enable the justices of assize to preside in the country over the trial of actions which are pend ing before the benches; thus without the terrors of an eyre, the trial of civil actions can take place in the counties and jurors need no longer be ever journeying to Westminster from their remote homes. But these expedients belong for the most part to Edward's reign ; under his father a jury wearily travelling from Yorkshire or Devonshire towardn London must have been no very uncom mon sight." 1 Poll. & Maitl. 179, 180, 181.
The general eyre practically ceased by the reign of Edward III.
See 3 Bla. Com. 58 ; Crabb, Eng. Law 103 ; Co. Litt. 293.