Kings & rulers > History of the reign of the Emperor Charles V. > Volume 1

286 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
ries. The laws of Edward, de pace regis, are rtill more
explicit than thofe of the French monarchs, and, by
feveral provifions in them, difcover that a more perfefl
police was eftablilhed in England at that period. Lam-
bard, p. u8. fol. verf. Even after the conqueft, pri¬
vate wars, and the regulations for preventing them,
were not altogether unknown, as appears from Madox
Formuhre Anglicanum, Nu CXLV. and from the ex-
tra£!s from Domefday Book, publilhed by Gale Scrip-
tores Hill. Britan, p. 759. 777. The well-known
claufe in the form of an Englilh indiftment, which, as
an aggravation of the criminal’s guilt, mentions his hav¬
ing allaulted a perfon, who was in the peace of God
and of the King, feems to be borrowed from the Treuga
or Fax Dei, and the Pax Regis, which I have explained.
But after the conquelf, the mention of private wars
among the nobility occurs more rarely in the Englilh
hiftory, than in that of any other European nation, and
no laws concerning them ate to be found in the body of
their rtatutes. Such a change in their own manners,
and fuch a variation from thofe of their neighbours, is
remarkable. Is it to be afcribed to the extraordinary
power that William the Norman acquired by right of
conquefl, and tranfmitted to his fuccelFors, which ren¬
dered the execution of jufiice more vigorous and de-
ciftve, and the jurifdidfion of the King’s court more ex-
tenlive than under the Monarchs on the Continent? Or,
was it owing to the fettlement of the Normans in Eng¬
land, who having never adopted the pradlice of private
war in their own country, abolifhed it in the kingdom
which they conquered ? It is alferted in an ordonance
of John king of France, that in all times pall, perfons
of every rank in Normandy have been prohibited to
wage private war, and the practice has been deemed
unlawful. Ordon. tom. ii. p. 407. If this fact were
certain, it would go far towards explaining the peculi¬
arity which I have mentioned. But as there are fome
Englifh afls of Parliament, which, according to the re-
markof the learned author of the Obfervationson the Statutes,
MeJij the mere ancient, recite falfchoods, it may be added,
that