A sample from half a century’s worth of Acts of Parliaments gives a glimpse of the concerns of these times.
1427, The Whelps of Wolves
It is statute and ordained by the King, with consent of his whole council, that each baron within his barony at the proper time of the year shall cause his servants to seek the whelps of the wolves and cause them to slay them. And the baron shall give to the man that slays one in his barony and brings the baron his head ii shillings. And when the baron ordains to hunt and chase the wolves, the tenants shall rise with the baron under the pain of a wether [fine] to each man not rising with the baron. And that the barons hunt in these baronies and chase the wolves four times in the year and as often as any wolf is seen within the barony. And that no man seek the wolves with shooting except only in the times of hunting them.
1427, Lepers
(It is ordained) that no leper folk, neither man nor woman, from henceforth enter or come into any burgh of the realm except thrice in the week – that is to say, each Monday, each Wednesday, each Friday, from ten o’clock to two afternoon; and where fairs and markets fall on these days that they delay their entering the burghs and go on the morrow to get their living. Also that no leprous folk sit to beg neither in kirk nor in kirkyard, nor in any other place within the burghs except at their own hospital and at the port of the town and other places without the burghs.
1436, Drinking in Taverns
The King and the three estates have ordained that no man in burghs be found in taverns at wine, ale, or beer after the stroke of nine o’clock, and the bell that shall be rung in the said burgh – the which being sounded, the aldermen and baillies shall put them in the King’s prison, the which, if they do not, they shall pay for each time that they be found culpable before the chamberlain one shilling.
1447
James II was fearful that the art of archery was being neglected for the craze for golf and football.
Wapinschawings [muster of men under arms]
It is decreed and ordained that wapinschawings be held by the lords and barons, spiritual and temporal, four times in the year, and that football and golf be utterly cried down and disused, and that the bowmarks be made at each parish kirk, a pair of butts, and shooting be made each Sunday. And that each man shoot six shots at the least under the pain to be raised upon them that come not; at the least 2d. to be given to them that come to the bowmark to drink. And this to be used from Christmas to Allhallowmass after … And as touching the football and the golf we ordain it to be punished by the baron’s fine.
1471, The Preservation of Wild Birds
Anent the preservation of birds and wild fowls that are fit to eat for the sustenation of man, such as partridge, plovers, wild ducks, and such like fowls, it is ordained that no man destroy their nests nor their eggs, nor yet slay wild birds in moulting time when they may not fly; and that all men according to their power destroy nests, eggs, and young birds of prey.
Rooks’ Nests
Anent rooks, crows, and other birds of prey, as herons, buzzards, and myttals [type of hawk], the which destroy both corn and wild birds, such as partridges, plovers, and others, and as to the rooks and crows building in orchards, kirkyards, or other places, it is seen speedful that they to whom such trees pertain prevent them from building, and destroy them with all their power, and in no wise let the birds fly away. And where it is proved that they build and that the birds are flown and the nests found in the trees, at Beltane the trees shall be forfeit to the king, except they be redeemed again, and they that own the said trees [shall be mulcted] in v shillings fine to the king. And that the said birds of prey be utterly destroyed by all manner of means, by all ingenuity and manner of way that may be found thereto, for the slaughter of them shall cause great multitude of divers kinds of wild birds for man’s sustenance.