Free warren—often simply warren—refers to a type of franchise or privilege conveyed by a sovereign in mediaeval England to a subject, promising to hold them harmless for killing game of certain species within a stipulated area, usually a woods or small forest. The sovereign involved might be either the monarch or a marcher lord. In law, an exclusive right is the power or right to perform an action in relation to an object or other thing which others cannnot perform. ... A privilege—etymologically private law or law relating to a specific individual—is an honour, or permissive activity granted by another person or a government. ... Look up Sovereign in Wiktionary, the free dictionary The adjective sovereign is used to refer to a state of sovereignty. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... See subject (grammar) for the linguistic definition of subject. ... Tug of war is an easily organized, impromptu game that requires little equipment. ... Woods may refer to: woodland or forest types of wood a category of golf clubs Various notable people have the surname Woods: Don Woods, computer programmer George David Woods, USA banker and World Bank President George Lemuel Woods, USA Oregon State and Utah Territory governor James Woods, actor Jermaine Woods... Eucalyptus Forest at Swifts Creek in East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. ... Look up Sovereign in Wiktionary, the free dictionary The adjective sovereign is used to refer to a state of sovereignty. ... Look up monarch in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A Marcher Lord is the English equivalent of a margrave (in the Holy Roman empire) In this context the word march means a border region or frontier, and is cognate with the verb to march, both ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *mereg-, edge or boundary. ...

Law

The grant of free warren could be as a gift, or in exchange for consideration, and might be later alienated by the grantee. The stipulated area might be coextensive with the frank-tenement of the grantee, or it might be discontinuous or even at a considerable remove from the grantee's holdings. The right of free warren did not extend automatically to the freeholder of the soil.^[1] Freehold is a term used in real estate or real property law, land held in fee simple, as opposed to leasehold, which is land which is leased. ...

Although the rights of free warren are usually discussed in the context of forest law, the only law which applied within the warren was common law. Thus, even though the warrant ultimately derived from the sovereign, the only statutes applied to poachers in a warren were the common-law crimes of theft and trespass.^[2] Forrest Law is a character in the Tekken fighting game series. ... This article concerns the common-law legal system, as contrasted with the civil law legal system; for other meanings of the term, within the field of law, see common law (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Poaching (disambiguation). ... Everyday instance of theft: the bike which fits on this wheel has disappeared. ... A sign warning against trespassing In law, trespass can be: the criminal act of going into somebody elses land or property without permission of the owner or lessee; it is also a civil law tort that may be a valid cause of action to seek judicial relief and possibly...

The privilege of free warren was a reciprocal relationship. The grantee of the warren was granted an exemption from the law (under which all game in the realm was property of the sovereign), but the grantee owed the sovereign the stewardship and protection of the game from all others who might wish to hunt it.

Etymology

Modern English warren ← ME warrene, warreine ← ONF warrenne ← Germanic present participle of *warian "to take care; to cause to care (for)" ← causative of *waran "to care" ← *war "care". Doublet of guarantor. Related to OHG werien (i.e. *wärian) "to defend, protect", and also to English "a-ware, wary". ^[3] The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Middle English is the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman invasion of 1066 and the mid-to-late 15th century, when the Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the... The Anglo-Norman language is the name given to the variety of Norman spoken by the Anglo-Normans, the descendants of the Normans who ruled England following the conquest by William of Normandy in 1066. ... A contract is a promise or an agreement that is enforced or recognized by the law. ... The term Old High German (OHG, German: Althochdeutsch) refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. ...

Free warren and domestic warren

The original use of free warren was as a legal term. However, as the franchise defined both a set of species and a geographic extent, the natural semantic extensions arose, namely for the individual animals as a group, or for the land they inhabited. As it became pragmatically necessary for freeholders not holding a free warren to enclose their breeding establishments, these "closed warrens" or domestic warrens began also to be designated simply as "warrens" (use recorded in 1378; OED). In 1649 the metaphoric use as "cluster of densely populated living spaces" is recorded. A domestic warren is an artificial, enclosed establishment of animal husbandry dedicated to the raising of rabbits for meat and fur. ... Freehold is a term used in real estate or real property law, land held in fee simple, as opposed to leasehold, which is land which is leased. ... A domestic warren is an artificial, enclosed establishment of animal husbandry dedicated to the raising of rabbits for meat and fur. ... OED stands for Oxford English Dictionary Office of Enrollment & Discipline This page concerning a three-letter acronym or abbreviation is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... // Events January 30 - King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland is beheaded. ...

Warren and warden

The Mediaeval Latin form of the word warenna was used in legal documents such as Magna Carta.^[4] In addition, the office of warden is used for the overseer of a warden: Medieval Latin refers to the Latin used in the Middle Ages, after the fall of the Roman empire but before the rise of vernacular languages in the Renaissance. ... Magna Carta Magna Carta (Latin for Great Charter, literally Great Paper), also called Magna Carta Libertatum (Great Charter of Freedoms), is an English charter originally issued in 1215. ... ...

(5) But the warden, as long as he hath the custody of the lands, shall keep up and maintain the houses, parks, warrens, ponds, mills, and other things belonging to them, our of their issues;

The warden of a Royal forest was often the castellan or constable of the nearest royal castle; over time the less exalted title of warrener evolved for the custodian of the lowest of the hunting franchises, the warren. A royal forest has been a concept of land management England since the late eleventh century. ... A castellan was the governor or caretaker of a castle or keep. ... A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. ...

Warren and warrant

The adjective free in free warren does not refer to the lack of enclosure surrounding the precincts of the warren, but rather to the fact the "liberty" of hunting derives from a warrant of the sovereign. That is,^[5] In law, a warrant can mean any authorization. ...

The term "warrant" occurs very early in constitutional documents: it is found in the Assize of Clarendon and the Assize of the Forest, both in the reign of Henry II., but in neither case in its modern meaning. The original meaning seems to have been more akin to guarantee (q.v.), warranty or security; and to some extent the term implies something in the nature of a guarantee or representation by the person issuing the warrant that the person who acts on it can do so without incurring any legal penalty.

All of the terms warrant, warrantor, and warranty are used in Henry II of England's Assize of the Forest (a.k.a. Assize of Woodstock in 1184:^[6] Henry II of England (5 March 1133 – 6 July 1189) ruled as Count of Anjou, Duke of Normandy, and as King of England (1154–1189) and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland[citation needed], eastern Ireland, and western France. ... // Events Abbeville receives its commercial charter. ...

Article 2. Item, he has commanded that no one shall have bows, arrows, dogs, or hounds in his forests, unless [such person] has the warrant of the king or of some other man who can [lawfully] be his warrantor.

Article 9. Item, the king forbids all clergymen to commit any offences touching his venison or his forests. He strictly orders his foresters that, if they find such men committing offences, they shall not hesitate to lay hands on those men in order to hold them and put them under attachment; he himself will give full warranty.

Beasts of warren

The permission to take game was limited to certain types of animals. Generally, the killing of vermin (defined as predators and other beasts not fit for the table) was not regulated. This definition was flexible, however, depending on whether the animal was thought to provide good sport, as wolves, foxes, badgers, or bears. In practice, vermin could only be killed on the commons or waste, since none but the grantee was permitted to have instruments of the hunt within the warren. The bane of Australian farmers - the wild rabbit Mouse Vermin is a pejorative word given to animals which are considered by users of the word to be pests or nuisances, most associated with the carrying of disease. ... This snapping turtle is trying to make a meal of a Canada goose, but the goose is too wary. ... In England and Wales, a common is a piece of land over which other people -- often neighbouring landowners -- could exercise one of a number of traditional rights, such as allowing their cattle to graze upon it. ...

Manwood

The most cited authority on Forest Law, John Manwood, cites these beasts of warren:^[7] Forrest Law is a character in the Tekken fighting game series. ... John Manwood (? — 1610) was a barrister of Lincolns Inn, gamekeeper of Waltham Forest, and Justice in Eyre of the New Forest under Elizabeth I of England. ...

"The beasts and fouls of Warren are these, The Hare, the Cony, the Pheasant, and the Partridge, and none other are accompted beasts or fouls of Warren."

However, Manwood is mistaken in his assignments, since the roe deer was transferred to "beast of warren" from "beast of the forest" in the 14th century.^[8] Roe deer are still found within woodlands named "Warren" in contemporary England. The 1911 Encyclopedia adds roe, woodcock, quail, and rail to Manwood's list.^[9] On the other hand grouse are not birds of warren.^[10] Fox, wolf, cat, badger, and squirrel are soemtimes also added.^[11] Binomial name Capreolus capreolus, Capreolus pygargus (Linnaeus, 1758) There are two species of Roe Deer. ... This 14th-century statue from south India depicts the gods Shiva (on the left) and Uma (on the right). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Eleventh Edition of the Encyclop dia Britannica (1911) in many ways represents the sum of knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century. ... Genera Tetrao Lagopus Falcipennis Centrocercus Bonasa Dendrapagus Tympanuchus Grouse are from the order Galliformes which inhabit temperate and subarctic regions of the northern hemisphere. ...

Sometimes domestic swine are mistakenly thought to be beasts of warren, due the right of pannage.^[12] Pannage is an English legal term for the practice of turning out domestic pigs in a wood or forest, in order that they may feed on such things as fallen acorns or beechmast. ...

Bibliography

• ARTFL Project: Webster Dictionary, 1913, p *Blackstone, xxx. 9999. Commentaries on the Laws of England [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/blackstone/bk2ch27.htm Online Version
• Manwood, John. 1598. A Treatise and Discourse of the Lawes of the Forrest Online Version
• Forests and Chases in England and Wales, c. 1500 to c. 1850 A Glossary of Terms and Definitions
• 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica s.v. Game Laws
• 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica s.v. Warren
• 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica s.v. Forest Laws
• Stubbs, William. 1900 Select Charters and Other Illustrations of English Constitutional History, p. 74. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.
• Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John, with and Historical Introduction, by William Sharp McKechnie (Glasgow: Maclehose, 1914).

References

1. ^ 1911 Encyclopedia, s.v. Game Laws.
2. ^ Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John, with and Historical Introduction, by William Sharp McKechnie (Glasgow: Maclehose, 1914).
3. ^ A Celtic etymology for warren has been proposed, based on the notion of "post&rarr:enclosure"; but this ignores the documented evolution of the term from the Germanic, as well as being semantically inappropriate for an unenclosed woodland.[1]
4. ^ [2]
5. ^ 1911 Encyclopedia s.v. Warrant
6. ^ The Assize of the Forest (Woodstock) 1184 Henry II
7. ^ http://homepage.mac.com/calhounabode/josh/TheText.htm Treatise, I:3]
8. ^ The roe ceased to be a beast of forest in the fourteenth century owing to a decision in the Court of King's Bench, 13 Edw. III, which decided that it was a beast of warren on the ground that it drove away the other deer (Turner, Select Pleas of the Forest (Selden Soc.), xxi). 'Sport, ancient and modern: Introduction', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 2: General; Ashford, East Bedfont with Hatton, Feltham, Hampton with Hampton Wick, Hanworth, Laleham, Littleton (1911), pp. 253-58, Note 20.
9. ^ 1911 Encyclopedia Game Laws: "Beasts of (free) warren are roe, hare, rabbit, partridge, pheasant, woodcock, quail, rail and heron."
10. ^ [3] Matthew Bacon’s A New Abridgment of the Law, (1778): Devonshire v. Lodge, 7 Barn. & C. 36.
11. ^ //www.hants.org.uk/newforest/history/history1.html]
12. ^ http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/b/beeton/isabella/household//chapter17.html