Bricstan was a 12th-century trainee monk , miracle witness and Chatteris 's first known parishioner. His story is chronicled by Bishop Hervey , the Bishop of Ely when Chatteris Abbey (which was dated around the year 980) was placed under the patronage of the Bishop of Ely by King Henry I in 1131.
7-623: Bricstan was a free tenant living in Chatteris round about the year 1115. He wanted to become a monk, so he walked to the abbey at Ely, where the Chief Abbot accepted him for training as a monk. However, he was accused of theft, by a rogue who had a grievance against him. The accusations were accepted by the Chief Abbot, and Bricstan was sent to prison in London where he was kept in chains at all times. The legend recounts that one night he had
14-472: A free man. The legal case was brought before the court in London is recorded in legal texts of that time The history of the county of Cambridge reports that "There is some support for this possibility in the tale of a miracle performed by St. Etheldreda in the reign of Henry I. She released from prison a certain Bricstan who, being accused of stealing the king's money, had been condemned” Bricstan's name
21-470: A vision of Saint Etheldreda coming towards him, and as if by a miracle, his chains fell from him and he was shackled no longer. When he awoke from his dream, he discovered that this was indeed true and he was free, of his chains at any rate. Queen Adeliza (the second wife of Henry the First) heard of the miracle, and she assured herself that he was no rogue or thief and issued a writ of pardon and declared him
28-595: Is currently used as the name of the new Parish Church hall in Chatteris. The new "Bricstan Hall", part funded by SureStart is now a well used resource for many groups in the town. Free tenant Free tenants , also known as free peasants , were tenant farmer peasants in medieval England who occupied a unique place in the medieval hierarchy . They were characterized by the low rents which they paid to their manorial lord . They were subject to fewer laws and ties than villeins . The term may also refer to
35-472: The free peasants of the Kingdom of France , part of an ordering of classes with legal privileges who constituted the third estate , a land-owning non-political peasantry, mostly different from other countries with estates. One of the major challenges in examining the free peasants of this era is that no one single definition can be attached to them. The disparate nature of manorial holdings and local laws mean
42-576: The free tenant in Kent , for example, may well bear little resemblance to the Free Tenant in the Danelaw . Attempts were made by some contemporary scholars to set out a legal definition of freedom, one of the most notable being the treatise by Ranulf de Glanvill written between 1187 and 1189. This stated that: He who claims to be free shall produce in court several near blood relatives descended from
49-592: The same stock as himself, and if they are admitted or proved in court to be free, then the claimant himself will be freed from the yoke of servitude Another way to identify a freeman in the Middle Ages , was to determine what kind of taxes or laws he had to obey. For example, having to pay merchet , a tax paid upon the marriage of a servile woman, was a key sign of being unfree. They could get married without permission and they could not be moved between estates against their will. This labor -related article
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