In the 1250s, Richard of Glaston, a confessed thief, abjured the realm. As he left Northampton on the road southwards towards Newport Pagnell on the first leg of his journey to Dover and overseas, he was followed by some of the sheriff's men. When they were clear of the town, these men seized Richard, dragged him off the king's highway by the feet and beat him until he was near death. When questioned about this subsequently, the sheriff retorted that it was perfectly just to maltreat an abjurer who left the king's highway. What were the origins of so odd a law?

The Anglo-Saxon law of the highway presumably did not develop in isolation. Across the Channel, Roman legal ideas persisted and contributed to a shared group of legal concepts about the highway. The evidence does not reveal direct influence, but, whether through contacts of one kind or another or through the development of similar solutions to similar problems, on the subject of the highway Anglo-Saxon law developed along lines parallel to those drawn on the Continent. So, before examining the Anglo-Saxon materials, it is best to start out with a brief foray into the Continental ones.

Roman laws about roads were principally concerned with provisions for the repair of the road surface. Rules about the clearance of roads appeared in Roman law as early as the Twelve Tables.