The Statute of Marlborough (52 Hen 3) was a law passed by King Henry III of England in 1267. The full title was Provisions made at Marlborough in the presence of our lord King Henry, and Richard King of the Romans, and the Lord Edward eldest son of the said King Henry, and the Lord Ottobon, at that time legate in England. Chapters 1, 4 and 15 are generally referred to as the Distress Act, 1267.
It is so named as it was passed at Marlborough, where a Parliament was being held. The preamble dates it as "...the two and fiftieth year of the reign of King Henry, son of King John, in the utas of Saint Martin...", which would give a date of November 19; "utas" is an archaic term to denote the eighth day after an event, in this case the feast day of Saint Martin.
It is the oldest piece of British law which has not yet been repealed; Magna Carta was originally passed in 1215, but the extant version only dates to a reissue in 1297 (25 Edw. I). The chapters currently valid are c.1, c.4, & c.15, which seek to govern the recovery of damages ("distresses") and make it illegal to obtain recompense for damages other than through the courts, and c.23, which seeks to prevent tenant farmers from "making waste" to land they are in tenancy of.
