The tourn (tour, turn) was the bi-annual inspection of the hundreds of his shire made by the sheriff in medieval England.
[1] Anglo-Saxon precedents for the tourn, in the form of exceptional shrieval holdings of the hundred court,[2] are however already apparent by the early 11th century.
[4] Fines for non-attendance, the frankpledge penny, and penalties from criminals presented, all added up to sources of profit from the tourn,[5] which sheriffs were naturally inclined to capitalise on.
- Magna Carta insisting on no more than a bi-annual tourn, with fees for view of frankpledge restricted to those of Henry II's time.
[8] The Baronial Opposition reiterated the earlier points, and added to the classes of people exempt from attendance at the tourn – matters so popular that the victorious royalists took them up unchanged in the Statute of Marlborough.