Medieval
In the early 1320s, England was far from peaceful. King Edward II sat on the throne, but his rule was contested by many of the great barons of the realm, who quarrelled with him over the way the kingdom was being governed. That quarrel, played out at the highest levels of national politics, would eventually reach as far as the fields and woods of Leigh.
The confrontation came to a head at the Battle of Boroughbridge in 1324, where the King defeated the rebellious barons. Victory in battle was followed by punishment: Edward ordered that the lands of those who had risen against him be seized by the Crown. One of the men caught up in this purge was Thomas Colpeper, who held a considerable amount of property in Leigh. His land was taken as part of this official royal action against the defeated rebels.
But the story does not end there. A woman named Emma de Tappenese came forward with a petition. She claimed that Colpeper had taken her property unlawfully in the first place, and she asked the official in charge of the seizure to look into her case. The disputed holding, all of it in Leigh, was substantial: 80 acres of land, 5.5 acres of meadow, 100 acres of wood, wood worth 6s 8d, and rents paid in kind — a cock, three hens and 40 eggs.
Royal officials examined the relevant documents and declared that the property rightly belonged to Emma de Tappenese. It was restored to her.
This small local episode shows how national upheaval could echo in a Surrey village. While barons and kings fought their battles, local people like Emma found ways to gain an advantage from the chaos, using the machinery of royal justice to right a wrong done to them.