Regiam Majestatem


The Regiam Majestatem is the earliest surviving work giving a comprehensive digest of the Law of Scotland. The name of the document is derived from its first two words. It consists of four books, treating civil actions and jurisdictions, judgments and executions, contracts, and crimes.
Dating from the early fourteenth century, it is largely based on the 1188 Tractatus de legibus et consuetudinibus regni Angliae of Ranulf de Glanvill, and incorporates features of thirteenth century canon law, the Summa in Titulos Decretalium of Goffredus of Trano, and the Scottish Celtic Laws of the Brets and Scots.
The documentary basis of Scots law had been largely destroyed by the confiscations of Edward I of England in the thirteenth century and by two devastating English invasions led by Edward I and Edward III in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. When the Regiam Majestatem was discovered in the early fifteenth century after Scotland's legal provenance had been destroyed, it was immediately embraced as an authoritative source of law, surviving as such into the modern era.
Sir John Skene had compiled and edited versions of the document at his own expense, and this was published by the Parliament of Scotland in 1609. Skene's version is not entirely consistent with the original document, but it held up as the standard version. Later legal references to the document are references to the 1609 publication.

Ancestry

The Regiam Majestatem was written perhaps as early as the time of Robert the Bruce, and certainly later than 1318, as a statute from that date was included in it. The details of how this was accomplished are unknown, as is the identity of the author.

Background

In the events leading up to his invasion of Scotland, Edward I of England forced himself upon Scotland in the role of feudal overlord, far beyond the guiding and consultative role that the Scots had asked him to play. During this time he signed a writ in 1291 that required the collection of all documents that might concern his own claims of superiority over Scotland, or the claims of others. The writ was executed, and between that and the depredations during Edward's invasion of Scotland in 1296, virtually every important Scottish legal document was lost forever.
The Scots successfully maintained their freedom in the First War of Scottish Independence, which ended de facto with the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, ending de jure in 1328 with the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton. Effective government required a legal basis and its documentation, and the Scots were forced to rebuild their legal provenance quickly.

Origin

The origin of the contents of the Regiam Majestatem is largely from Glanvill's Tractatus. About two-thirds of the work was adopted without change from it, parts of the remainder are similar to it, and the rest is unrelated to it. This last category includes most of the fourth book, which covers the treatment of crimes. Of the portions which do not originate with the Tractatus, their origins can be found in canon law, in the Summa in Titulos Decretalium of Goffredus of Trano, in the Laws of the Brets and Scots, and in earlier Scottish statutes.
The Tractatus was a work of originality intended to facilitate the implementation an effective judicial system in England, and it had proven to be a great success. The Scots were certainly aware of this, and it was likely chosen over other codifications because it best suited Scottish interests by providing a framework that had already proved itself to be successful, and one that addressed issues particular to Scottish law, but issues that mostly were common to both Scottish and English law. Where it was close to Scottish interests but not close enough, that is the likely origin of those portions of the Regiam Majestatem that appear only similar to the Tractatus. Nevertheless, the fit was not perfect, and there are artefacts from English law that do not fit well with Scottish customs.

Ancestral ancestry

When the Regiam Majestatem was discovered in the fifteenth century, it was quickly embraced as a legal authority, the Parliament authorised commissions to examine it and repair defects, and it was cited in statutes of the era. It has remained an authoritative source of Scotland's unique law into the modern era.
In 1607 the Parliament of Scotland passed an act for the publication of John Skene's compilation of the Regiam Majestatem, to be funded by the government, and Skene's version was published in 1609. The work has been criticised for its many inconsistencies with the original document, for its lack of scholarly rigour, and for other sloppiness. Nevertheless, the work was meritorious and valuable, and it brought fresh understanding to ancient Scottish law. It is Skene's version that became the legal standard from that time forward.

Contents

The Regiam Majestatem derives its name from the first two words of its first chapter, which serves as the Præfacio. It begins:
Lib.CaputContents
II – XXXICivil actions and jurisdictions – including discussion of the brieve of right, the requirement of a unanimous verdict by 12 men in disputes between pursuer and defender, regulations guaranteeing sales of land and moveables, and pactions both real and personal, profitable and unprofitable.
III – LXXIVDe Judiciis — Judgments and executions – including discussions of the role of arbiters, bondage and manumission, the terce, and inheritance.
IIII – XXXVIDe Debitis Laicorum — Contracts – including debts, buying, selling, and pledging.
IVI – XLDe Placitis Criminalibus — Crimes – including lese majeste, sedition, and felonies.

A list of assythments is also given, but Skene thought that these were not authentic.

Versions

YearDescription
1609Sir John Skene's publication, in both Latin and Scots. There were folio republications in 1613 and 1681, and a Scots language republication in 1774. It is the subsequent legal standard, but is not everywhere in agreement with the original document.
1776David Hoüard's publication, in Latin with annotation in French, and based on that of Skene.
1844Thomas Thomson's printing in Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, I, 597 – 641.
1947Lord Cooper's printing and translation, based on that of Skene.

Miscellaneous notices

Laws of the Burghs

Two of the Laws of the Burghs cite the Regiam Majestatem as their origin. These are:
Scottish legal terms found in the Regiam Majestatem include:
It is not known whether the Regiam Majestatem was immediately put into effect, or whether it had been intended to be put it into effect at a later date. Whichever the case, it did not matter because Scotland would suffer a Second War of Scottish Independence when it was invaded by Edward III of England, its king David II was captured by the English, and in the ensuing devastation the Regiam Majestatem became lost, not being rediscovered until the next century. When found, it was hailed as an ancient Scottish relic that had somehow survived the confiscations of Edward I and the depredations and devastation caused by the two invasions.
There was little documentation remaining from that tumultuous time to offer either proof or disproof of the origins of the Regiam Majestatem. Consequently, and not without chauvinism, some Scots insisted on a native origin for the Regiam Majestatem, offering it as another product of the dynamic David I. This assertion persisted until well into the nineteenth century, though scholarly research had rendered the contention untenable in the eighteenth century, such as by notice of statutes in the document that could not pre-date the thirteenth and fourteenth century.