Medieval rights, laws and privilegues

[elvain]

hi all

I am working on economic system for a dark ages/medieval game project and I want laws, rights and privilegues to play crucial role, but I am sure I have forgotten some important and many marginal ones.

Could anyone help me to make a list of medieval rights, duties and privilegues - economic, political, or judical - from cca 800 to 1400 - as complete as possible?
I am looking for rights and privilegues that were the essence of medieval legal world in any region of medieval Europe, including Byzantine and Russian special conditions as well as pagan customs or various laws, customs and privilegues across the world of Islam. These rights can be granted to any relevant class, nobility, craftmen and merchants or their city communes, (free) farmers, churches, monasteries or universities.

The goal is to have feudal lords (the player) have tools to encourage development of their lands without dealing with boring micromanagement such as building craft or agricultural buildings (such as mills or glass works), and instead granting rights and privilegues to local nobles, cities, churches or monasteries who will be eager to build them on their own, while the player builds things such as churches or military advances instead.

here are some examples:
- military farms/fiefs (indivisible farms that are excluded from tax duty in exchange of military duty)
- personal ownership of fiefs
- hereditary ownership of fiefs
- tax farming
- judging autonomy
- minting right
- right to attend land assembly
- right to praise own god(s) (for other than ruler's religion)
- right to build places of worship (for religious minorities)
- local fairs
- annual fairs
- communal right (right for burghers to proclaim a commune, excluded from jurisdiction of local lord)
- communal legal autonomy (the commune can elect its own judges)
- exception from hospitality (especially in early medieval period - local lord doesn't have to host his liege)

etc.

just to note, I am not very interested in family or inheritance laws, but to make the list as complete as possible, don't hesitate to mention also these

 

[ParkCungHee]

There's the Right to being Bard (with the rights that entails) in Ireland and presumably Scotland.

 

[Phrossack]

If I recall, in the Hanseatic League, a serf who could survive for a year in a city would be freed. Also, English knights only owed 40 days of military service a year, after which they had to be paid or they could go home.

 

[W|M]

If I recall, in the Hanseatic League, a serf who could survive for a year in a city would be freed.

I think that was the same in England, which also gave many trading rights to the Hansa until the 17th Century.