The Coroner System

Though the cause of death was undoubtedly investigated in ancient times,

it was likely an ancillary duty of tribal elders, magistrates, priests, or other

authorities. The first instance of an official office charged with the investigation of death, as we know it today, was probably the English coroner.

Though officials with this responsibility are reported as far back as 871 A.D.,

in the time of Alfred the Great, the beginning of the coroner system in

England is generally taken to have been in 1194, with the publication of

the Articles of Eyre, the Eyre being a system of roving “circuit” justices in

England in the twelfth century. These itenerant judges traversed the land to

hear cases and dispense justice, but due to the long intervals between their

visits (an average of seven years), it was necessary to have local officials

perform careful investigations and keep records of offenses so that the cases

could effectively be brought before the justices when they finally did arrive.

Without proper records, many cases were never tried. This would not do, as

many of them involved production of revenues for the monarch, at that time

Richard the Lionhearted. Richard, a Norman king, was an absentee ruler

with a penchant for expensive foreign wars that placed a heavy strain on the

royal coffers. In addition to his travels and the need to equip large numbers

of troops, he also managed to become captured and imprisoned in Germany

during his return from the Holy Land in 1192. A huge ransom was required

to secure his release and return to England in 1194. These expenses created

an acute need for revenues, so no stone was left unturned in a desire to collect

all taxes and other dues to which the Crown was entitled under the law. There

were many such assessments, creatively applied in the name of law and order,

to enrich the king at the expense of his subjects.

It was customary at that time to seize the property of felons, and because

suicide was considered a crime against God, the property of those taking

their own lives was also forfeited to the Crown. Furthermore, villages were

penalized with a fine, or amercement, whenever a murder or other legal

infraction occurred in their jurisdictions, a punishment for allowing civil

disturbances to occur or for not properly following the complex system of

laws in the realm. Sometimes the victims of these murders were members of

the conquering Norman class who were unfortunate enough to find themselves

in the midst of local Saxons bent on revenge. To prevent having large

numbers of its Norman noblemen dispatched by the indigenous population,

the Crown levied a fine known as the lex murdrorum on the lord of any village

or territory in which a Norman was killed. And naturally this fine was passed

on to the populace in the form of a tax. Even the object actually causing a

death (referred to as a deodand) was subject to presentation to the Eyre, and

it could be confiscated in the name of the Crown because of its culpability in

the death or injury of a person. So if a person were injured or killed by a cart,

animal, or farm implement, this item would likely be appropriated by the

court, possibly depriving a farmer of the means of his livelihood.