However, under the Norman kings (after 1066), no hunting was allowed on Royal lands except by authority of the King. The law was designed to protect the "venison" and the "vert", the "noble" animals of the chase – notably red and fallow deer, the roe, and the wild boar – and the greenery which sustained them.
Royal forests were designed as hunting areas reserved for the monarch or (by invitation) the aristocracy. The concept was introduced by the Normans to England in the 11th century, and in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, one-third of the land area of southern England was designated as royal forest. At one stage in the 12th century, all of Essex was afforested, and on his accession Henry II declared all of Huntingdonshire to be royal forest.
Afforestation, in particular the creation of the New Forest, figured large in the folk history of the "Norman Yoke":
Forest law prescribed harsh punishment for anyone who committed any offence within the forests. Killing game was a capital offence. By the mid-17th century, enforcement of this law died out, but many English woodlands still bear the title "Royal Forest". The practice of reserving areas of land for the sole use of the aristocracy was common throughout Europe during the mediaeval period.
Royal forests usually included large areas of heath, grassland and wetland – anywhere that supported deer and other game. In addition, when an area was designated forest, any villages, towns and fields that lay within it were also subject to forest law. Local inhabitants were restricted in the use of land they had previously relied on for their livelihood. However, common rights were not extinguished, but merely restricted.
Lapiș Forest
Lapiș Forest () is a forest in northwestern Romania. It is near the village of Nușfalău, which is about 9 km from Șimleu Silvaniei. It was declared a natural protected area by the Government Decision No. 2151 in 2004 (publishied in "Romanian Official Paper" Number 152 on April 12, 2005)
Hürtgen Forest
The Hürtgen forest (also: Huertgen Forest; ) is along the border between Belgium and Germany. The forest is in the southwest corner of the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The Rur River runs along the eastern edge of the forest.
During World War II, the U.S. and German armies took part in the Battle of Hürtgen Forest. In 1998, HBO made "When Trumpets Fade", which is a movie about the battle.
Zitter Forest
The Zitter Forest () is found in the Eifel region in the German district of Euskirchen (North Rhine-Westphalia) and in the Belgian province of Liège (Wallonia). Its highest point is 692 m above sea level. It is part of the Hohes Venn – Eifel Nature Park.
The Zitter Forest is one of the last habitats of the wildcat in Germany.
New Forest
The New Forest is an area of southern England. It includes one of the largest remaining pieces of open pasture land, heathland and forest in the heavily-populated south east of England. It covers south-west Hampshire and extends into south-east Wiltshire and towards east Dorset.
The name also refers to the New Forest National Park which has similar boundaries. The New Forest local government district is a subdivision of Hampshire which covers most of the Forest. There are many villages dotted around the area, and several small towns in the Forest and around its edges.
The New Forest was created as a royal forest by William I in about 1079 for the royal hunt, mainly of deer. It was created at the expense of more than 20 small hamlets and isolated farmsteads; hence it was 'new' in his time as a single compact area.
It was first recorded as "Nova Foresta" in Domesday Book in 1086. It is the only forest that the book describes in detail. "Probably no action of the early Norman kings is more notorious than their creation of the New Forest".
Two of William's sons died in the Forest: Prince Richard in 1081 and King William II (William Rufus) in 1100. Local folklore asserted that this was punishment for the crimes committed by William when he created his New Forest; a 17th-century writer provides detail:
"William the Conqueror (for the making of the said Forest a harbour for Wild-beasts for his Game) caused 36 Parish Churches, with all the Houses thereto belonging, to be pulled down, and the poor Inhabitants left succourless of house or home. But this wicked act did not long go unpunished, for his Sons felt the smart thereof; Richard being blasted with a pestilent Air; Rufus shot through with an Arrow; and Henry his Grand-child, by Robert his eldest son, as he pursued his Game, was hanged among the boughs, and so dyed. This Forest at present affordeth great variety of Game, where his Majesty oft-times withdraws himself for his divertisement."
The common rights were confirmed by statute in 1698. The New Forest became a source of timber for the Royal Navy, and plantations were created in the 18th century for this purpose. In the Great Storm of 1703, about 4000 oak trees were lost. The naval plantations affected the rights of the Commoners, but the Forest gained new protection under an Act of Parliament in 1877.
The New Forest Act 1877 confirmed the historic rights of the Commoners and prohibited the enclosure of more than at any time. It also reconstituted the Court of Verderers as representatives of the Commoners (rather than the Crown). Felling of broadleaved trees, and their replacement by conifers, began during the First World War to meet the wartime demand for wood. Further encroachments were made during the Second World War. This process is being reversed in places, with some plantations being returned to heathland or broadleaved woodland. Rhododendron remains a problem.
As of 2005, roughly 90% of the New Forest is still owned by the Crown. The Crown lands have been managed by the Forestry Commission since 1923 and most of the Crown lands now fall inside the new National Park.
Further New Forest Acts followed in 1949, 1964 and 1970. The New Forest became an SSSI in 1971, and was made the "New Forest Heritage Area" in 1985, with more planning controls added in 1992. The New Forest was proposed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in June 1999, and it became a National Park in 2005.
The purpose of forest laws was to preserve the New Forest as a place for royal deer hunting, and interference with the King's deer and its forage was punished. The inhabitants of the area ("commoners") had pre-existing "rights of common".
The rights were to turn horses and cattle (but only rarely sheep) out into the Forest to graze ("common pasture"), to gather fuel wood, to cut peat for fuel, to dig clay ("marl"), and to turn out pigs between September and November to eat fallen acorns and beechnuts ("pannage" or "mast").
Grazing and pannage are still important to the Forest's ecology. Pigs can eat acorns without a problem, whereas to ponies and cattle large numbers of acorns can be poisonous. Pannage always lasts 60 days but the start date varies according to the weather – and when the acorns fall. The Verderers decide when pannage will start each year. At other times the pigs must be taken in and kept on the owner's land, with the exception that pregnant sows, known as "privileged sows", are always allowed out, providing they are not a nuisance and return to the Commoner's holding at night. Commoners must have backup land outside the Forest to hold these depastured animals if necessary.