5jO Constitutional IIistori/. [chap.
the kitchen, the napery, the chandlery and the like ; every
inmate had his fixed allowance for every day, and his livery of
clothing at fixed times of the year or intervals of years. The
same custom was practised in the reception of guests ; the king
of Scots, when he came to do homage to the king of England,
had his allowance of wax and tallow candles, of fine and common
bread, measured out like that of any servant, and the due delivery
Practical of all was secured by a formal treaty1. The term livery was
livery. however gradually restricted to the gift of clothing, the gift
of food and provisions being known as allowances or corrodies :
the clothing took the character of uniform or badge of service ;
as it was a proof of power to have a large attendance of
servants and dependents, the lords liberally granted their livery
to all who wished to wear it, and the wearing of the livery
became a sign of clientship or general dependence. It was thus
a bond between the great men, who indulged their vanity, and
the poorer, who had need of their protection, sometimes by force
of arms, but generally in the courts of law : it was a revival, or
possibly a survival, of the ancient practice, by which every man
was bound to have a lord, and every lord had to represent his
men or be answerable for them in the courts.
The mis- The English of the middle ages were an extremely litigious
chief of , , , ,
nιainten- people ; it was one of the few qualities which their forefathers
had shared with their Norman masters ; and it was that side of
the national character which was most mischievously developed
by the judicial institutions of Henry I and Henry II. Litigation
was costly, at least to the poor ; and it was far easier for a man
who wished to maintain his own right, or to attack his neigh-
bour’s, to secure the advocacy of a baron who could and would
maintain his cause for him on the understanding that he had
the rights of a patron over his client, than to pay the fees of a
lawyer. This practice of maintenance, the usage of the strong
man upholding the cause of the weak, was liable to gross perver-
sion ; and the maintainers of false causes, whether they were
barons or lawyers, became very early the object of severe legis-
lation. Edward I, in the statute OfWestminster the First, forbad
ɪ See Hoveden, iii. 245.
XXI.]
maintenance.
551
the sheriffs and other officers of his courts to take any part in Legislation
against
quarrels depending in the courts . By a statute of 1327 it is for- mai∏ten-
bidden that any member of the king’s household, or any great man
of the realm, by himself or by another, by sending letters or other-
wise, or any other in the land, great or small, shall take upon him
to maintain quarrels or parties in the country to the let and dis-
turbance of the common law2; in 1346, in an act which marks
by its wording the growth of the practice in the higher classes,
prelates, earls, barons, the great and small of the land, are all
alike forbidden to take in hand or maintain openly or privately,
for gift, promise, amity, favour, doubt or fear, any other
quarrels than their own2. The long list of statutes in which inadequacy
ɪ c, . of the law»
the evil practice is condemned shows how strong it had become ; against
, ι . 1 ∙ mai∏ten∙
the sheriffs are forbidden to return to parliament the mam- ance.
tainers of false suits4 ; the lawyers and the barons are alike
struck at in petition and statute ; and the climax is reached
when Alice Perrers, the king’s mistress, takes her seat in the
law courts and urges the quarrels of her clients5. In the con-
demnation of maintainers pronounced by the Good Parliament,
ladies as well as lords come in for general reprobationβ. The
support given by John of Gaunt and Henry Percy to Wycliffe
at St. Paul’s was a gross act of maintenance7.
The abuse of maintenance for the purpose of increasing the Mainten-
. . ance and
estates of the maintainer, by a compact in which the nominal champerty,
plaintiff shared the profits of victory with his patron, or the
patron secured the whole, was one very repulsive aspect of
the custom. Another, and that more directly connected with
the giving of liveries, was the gathering round the lord’s house-
hold of a swarm of armed retainers whom the lord could not
control, and whom he conceived himself bound to protect. In
the former aspect the law regarded maintenance as a descrip-
tion of conspiracy ; in the latter as an organisation of robbers Riotous
and rioters ; but the difficulty of restraining the abuse was
1 Stat. Westm. I. co. 25, 28, 33 ; Statutes, ɪ. 33, 35.
3 I Edw. Ill, st. 2. c. 14 ; Statutes, i. 256.
3 20 Edw. Ill, ce. 4, 5, 6 ; Statutes, i. 304, 305.
4 See above, p. 416. 5 Vol. iɪ. p. 452.
6 Rot. Parl. iɪ. 329; ɪiɪ. 12. 7 Vol. ii. p. 459.