Leges Edwardi Confessoris

[clarification needed] The issue of continuity and change in post conquest England is a topic of significant debate in scholarship.

Most of these preconquest law codes, including Instituta Cnuti, have only survived in postconquest Church compilations the earliest of which is the Textus Roffensis, dated to around 1123.

William's purported acceptance of the laga Edwardi symbolized the continuity from Edward the Confessor's reign to his own, perhaps seeking to minimize the disruption caused by the conquest in 1066.

The most recent editor, Bruce O'Brien, has speculated that the popularity of the treatise may have been due to its portrayal of "a Norman king interested in preserving and maintaining" the native laws of the English nobility.

[10] The Leges Edwardi argues that what the work offers instead are "apparently original observations of and comments on the English law of the author's day.

A version of the Leges Edwardi Confessoris was known to Henry de Bracton and to the barons and jurists responsible for Magna Carta.

In 17th century, during the controversy about the ancient constitution of England, Leges Edwardi Confessoris was frequently used as support for the antiquity of the House of Commons.