King's Peace (legal history)

The king's peace , also king's ban , protected the body, life and belongings of subjects in the Middle Ages by virtue of a special royal power of ban (punitive power). The beneficiaries bought the protection through taxes and fines if they were violated.

Originally, the king's peace only extended to real possessions of the king , for example manors of the crown estate , and to facilities that were connected with fiscal sovereignty ( regalia ) (roads, bridges). In a broader sense, markets ( pax forensis ) or entire settlements could also fall under the royal peace, which was usually connected with payments or feudal floss and resulted in independence from local princes. It was the same with entire sections of the population, for example with the Jews , who were under the king's Jewish shelves . In the late Middle Ages, the peace commandment towards travelers and traders was passed on to the sovereigns as the right of escort .

In contrast to English parliamentarism, where the monarch's ban on peace was transferred to parliament, the parliament building in Germany has not developed an asylum function for criminals, defaulting debtors or individuals otherwise threatened by government coercive measures.

Individual evidence

↑ Peter CA Schels: King's Peace ( Memento from February 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Small encyclopedia of the German Middle Ages
^ Georg Landau: Contributions to the history of the old military and trade routes , in: Contributions to the history of the old military and trade routes in Germany, 1856. Bärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel and Basel 1958
↑ Historical route descriptions pilger-weg.de
↑ Wolf Stegemann: The market place - a place of citizens, of peace and also of violence as well as current disagreements October 8, 2012
↑ Peter CA Schels: Jewish Laws ( Memento from December 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Small encyclopedia of the German Middle Ages
↑ Hatschek: The Asylum Law of the English Parliament , in: Annals of the German Reich for Legislation, Administration and Economics, 1906, p. 801 ff.
↑ Gerd Michael Köhler: The police force of the President of Parliament in German constitutional law , DVBl 1992, p. 1577

[1] Peter CA Schels: King's Peace ( Memento from February 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Small encyclopedia of the German Middle Ages

[2] Georg Landau: Contributions to the history of the old military and trade routes , in: Contributions to the history of the old military and trade routes in Germany, 1856. Bärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel and Basel 1958

[3] Historical route descriptions pilger-weg.de

[4] Wolf Stegemann: The market place - a place of citizens, of peace and also of violence as well as current disagreements October 8, 2012

[5] Peter CA Schels: Jewish Laws ( Memento from December 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Small encyclopedia of the German Middle Ages

[6] Hatschek: The Asylum Law of the English Parliament , in: Annals of the German Reich for Legislation, Administration and Economics, 1906, p. 801 ff.

[7] Gerd Michael Köhler: The police force of the President of Parliament in German constitutional law , DVBl 1992, p. 1577