Paul Raffield is Tutor in Constitutional Law and a guest lecturer in legal history, law and literature, Birkbeck College, University of London.

'This revealing work offers an original interpretation of early legal culture and emphasises the historic powers of the Inns of Court.' The Times

• List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Eating, learning and revering the law: oral traditions and the religious inheritance; 2. Architecture and heraldry: bodies of law, myth and honour; 3. Revels, feasting and role-playing: dreamland, drunkenness and the Utopian state; 4. The theatre of law: dramatic symbols of crown, common law and the Ancient Constitution; 5. Reformation, regulation and the image: the English state and the subject of law; 6. Common lawyers, fundamental law and the idolatrous mask of Charles I; 7. Interregnum: lex, ius and de facto government; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

Paul Raffield is Tutor in Constitutional Law and a guest lecturer in legal history, law and literature, Birkbeck College, University of London.

'This revealing work offers an original interpretation of early legal culture and emphasises the historic powers of the Inns of Court.' The Times

• List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Eating, learning and revering the law: oral traditions and the religious inheritance; 2. Architecture and heraldry: bodies of law, myth and honour; 3. Revels, feasting and role-playing: dreamland, drunkenness and the Utopian state; 4. The theatre of law: dramatic symbols of crown, common law and the Ancient Constitution; 5. Reformation, regulation and the image: the English state and the subject of law; 6. Common lawyers, fundamental law and the idolatrous mask of Charles I; 7. Interregnum: lex, ius and de facto government; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

Paul Raffield is Tutor in Constitutional Law and a guest lecturer in legal history, law and literature, Birkbeck College, University of London.

'This revealing work offers an original interpretation of early legal culture and emphasises the historic powers of the Inns of Court.' The Times

• List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Eating, learning and revering the law: oral traditions and the religious inheritance; 2. Architecture and heraldry: bodies of law, myth and honour; 3. Revels, feasting and role-playing: dreamland, drunkenness and the Utopian state; 4. The theatre of law: dramatic symbols of crown, common law and the Ancient Constitution; 5. Reformation, regulation and the image: the English state and the subject of law; 6. Common lawyers, fundamental law and the idolatrous mask of Charles I; 7. Interregnum: lex, ius and de facto government; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.