Abstract
Royal forests in England were districts subject in medieval times to a special body of law, forest law, designed to maintain game for the King’s hunting. The ‘beasts of the forest’, as they were described, included the red deer, boar and wolf but most of the preservation embodied in the law related to the red deer. The areas to which the laws applied contained a variety of land with wood, heath, pasture and arable in varied proportions, but through which the deer were free to roam. Some forest land was held directly by the crown, but some was held by other feudal magnates or by their free tenants.
‘Nos saltus viridesque plages camposque patentes Scrutamur totisque citi discurrimus arvis
Et varias cupimus facili cane sumere praedas’
Nemesianus
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© 1979 Dr. W. Junk Publishers, The Hague
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Yates, E.M. (1979). The Historical Ecology of the Royal Forest of Wolmer, Hampshire. In: Schmithüsen, J. (eds) Landscape Ecology/Landschaftsforschung und Ökologie. Biogeographica, vol 16. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-9619-9_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-9619-9_8
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