Definition
Tothul is a Law French term from English legal history referring to Tothill Fields, a location in Westminster where trials by battle (judicial combat) were conducted. The term appears in medieval legal records as a place-name designation, used to identify the site at which this particular form of proof or judgment was carried out.
Why It Matters in Research
This term will appear only in medieval English legal records, particularly Year Books and plea rolls from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Researchers encountering "tothul" in primary source transcriptions should recognize it immediately as a place reference rather than a term of legal art — it describes where a proceeding occurred, not the nature or outcome of that proceeding.
The critical navigational point: "tothul" is not a legal concept but a locative marker. Its presence in a record signals that a trial by battle was either ordered, held, or referenced in connection with that case. Researchers tracing the procedural history of wager of battle in English common law will find such place-name references useful for confirming that combat was actually carried out (as opposed to merely pledged or subsequently settled), since the naming of a specific venue suggests execution of the proceeding rather than an abandoned challenge.
Tothill Fields as a physical site has its own documentary history independent of legal proceedings. Researchers working across the Law Mind corpus should be alert to the fact that records mentioning Tothul may be calendared or indexed under place-name headings rather than under procedural or legal-concept headings, making them easy to miss in subject-based searches.
Because trial by battle was formally abolished in England in 1819 (59 Geo. III c. 46), and had fallen into near-complete disuse centuries before abolition, this term is effectively confined to Year Book-era materials and early plea roll transcriptions. Do not expect to find it in post-medieval legal dictionaries or practice manuals.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the only substantive entry among the shelf sources, identifying tothul as Law French for Tothill Fields and citing Yearb. M. 4 Edw. III. 12 — a Year Book entry from the Michaelmas term of the fourth year of Edward III's reign (circa 1330). Burrill's treatment is spare but accurate in what it conveys: the word is a phonetic or orthographic rendering of the place-name in the Law French that dominated English legal record-keeping of the period.
No other historical shelf dictionaries appear to have given the term independent treatment, which is consistent with its narrow function as a locative reference rather than a term carrying independent legal meaning. Burrill's entry is the principal authority, and researchers should treat it as such while recognizing that the cited Year Book passage itself provides the primary evidence.