Breaking of the Ale and Bread Assize in Medieval English Manor

The article is based on the research of insufficiently studied problem, linked with the Ale and Bread Assize’s breaking in everyday life of medieval English Manor. Assize of Bread and Ale (1266) was the first trade law, establishing production and trade rules, connected with ale and bread. Manorial court rolls testify that prescribed norms and rules weren’t upheld and were often broken by residents of а manor, including so-called ale-tasters. The latter were grass-roots representatives of manorial administration; they were responsible for compliance with certain norms and rules in a specified sphere. The article reveals the reasons, encouraging these persons to act in this way. It’s noted that manorial lords were rather loyal to this practice; so, ale-tasters were not strictly punished for violating the regulations; most often they were fined. It is linked in the article with the internal opposition of the lords, who had relied on manorial custom, to the legal regulations of the central government in the period of seigniorial jurisdiction’s infringement (Henry II’s, Henry III’s and Edward I’s legislation) – that is in the period of development and gradual prevalence of the Common Law of England.

medieval England, Assize of bread and ale (1266), manorial custom, ale-tasters, everyday life