That  of  darrein  presentment  was  the  remedy  of  the  claimant  to  possession  of  an
advowson.     It  is  not  unimportant  to  note  that  when  the  justices  in  eyre  were  at
Ilchester  in  the  27th  year  of  Henry  the  Third,  (1242-1243),  the  bailiffs  of  Bristol
produced   a   charter   of  Henry   the   Second  testifying   that   the   writ    of  assize   of
mort  d'ancestor  did  not  run  in  Bristol;  Somerset  Pleas  (Somerset Record  Society),
pi.  525.     It  would  be  interesting  to  know  what  has  become  of  this  charter.
8  Pleas  of  the  Crown.
On  the  other  hand,  the  eyre  was  the  most  powerful
check  the  King  possessed  over  the  seignorial  juris-
dictions. The  barons,  therefore,  were  not  hasty  in  asking
for  more  eyres.  Neither  was  such  a  demand  likely  to
come  from  the  people,  because  the  eyre  was  used  for
fiscal  as  well  as  judicial  purposes,  and  the  exactions
levied  caused  the  populace  to  believe  that  the  increasing
of  the  Exchequer  receipts  was  its  primary,  and  the
repression  of  crime  its  secondary  object.  The  extortions
of  the  judges  were  considered  worse  evils  than  the
perpetration  of  crime.  Crime  is  seldom  the  result  of
sin,  it  is  more  often  the  result  of  starvation.  And
bitterly  had  the  people  learned,  that  starvation  was
the  natural  consequence  of  impositions.  Small  wonder,
then,  popular  dread  of  an  eyre  became  so  great  that
in  1233  the  men  of  Cornwall  ran  away  into  the  woods
on  hearing  of  the  approach  of  the  justices.1  In
season  and  out  of  season  local  authority  pitted  itself
against  centralized  authority,  and,  with  such  success,
that  in  the  second  half  of  the  thirteenth  century  the
visits  of  the  travelling  justices  for  the  trial  of  criminals
were  limited  to  one  in  seven  years.'2

9    l  Annales  Prioratus  de  Dunstaplia;  Annales  Monastici  (Rolls  Series)  ,\\\,  135.
