Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 234

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Volume 2, Page 234

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[001] extinguished in the person of the chief lord, because of the lord's failure of heirs
[002] or his felony: [But it is raised again and revived in the person of another, the
[003] superior lord.] failure of heirs, as where a chief lord who has taken the homage of
[004] his tenant dies without an heir of any kind, or if he has heirs they have failed;
[005] [or¹ though he has heirs he has attorned his [tenant's] homage and service to
[006] another, where that is permitted and allowed, or [has done so] in another way,
[007] [that is], with the consent of the tenant; homage is then extinguished with respect
[008] to the lord and comes to life again in the person of the other;² it always continues
[009] in the person of the tenant.] because of felony, as where the chief lord [B] has
[010] committed felony or done something to the disherison of his tenant because of
[011] which he ought to be disinherited by just judgment.³ He is thereby totally removed
[012] as mesne and what the superior lord [A] previously had in services and customs
[013] through a mesne he now has directly because of the delict of his tenant, just as he
[014] has on the failure of heirs, and thus the obligation of homage begins to exist between
[015] the tenant [C] and [A] the superior chief lord, [which] he is obliged to take whether
[016] he wishes to or not,⁴ for if he could refuse it and waive his fee and the homage and
[017] service of the tenant, this mischief would result, that there would be no warranty
[018] to any tenant.⁵ For no one, if he could waive his fee at will and refuse the homage
[019] and service of his tenant, would ever warrant and provide escambium for a hundred
[020] librates of land for the service of a penny.⁶ A chief lord might object against such
[021] tenant offering his homage that he ought not to receive it, that since the tenant
[022] was not enfeoffed by him but by another he therefore claims nothing in his homage
[023] and service; but that this ought not to avail him is evident, ⁷because,⁸ though there
[024] may be several chief lords and feoffors in an ascending line, as where⁹ there are
[025] several enfeoffed tenants in a descending line, the superior lord of all has the lowest
[026] bound to him because of his fee, which he [the tenant] holds,¹⁰ though through a
[027] mesne, and the mesne being removed, the tenant will be his without mesne and he his
[028] chief lord [and] so to speak principal feoffor, [and thus the obligation of homage
[029] will continue between them, through a mesne or without one,] as where I have
[030] enfeoffed A., and A. B., and B. C., and so ad infinitum, all the tenants, from tenant
[031] to tenant, descending from the first to the last, will be my tenants, and from the last
[032] feoffee and tenant, ascending step by step from chief lord to chief lord, [each feoffor]
[033] will be the chief lord of the last feoffee,¹¹ from the last feoffor to the first, but through
[034] a mesne, as was said, and he or they being removed the last feoffee will begin to be
[035] the first, without mesne. ¹²In the same way, homage may hold in the person

Notes

1. ‘vel’

2. So with respect to the tenant if he aliens: infra 235

3. Supra 233

4. Supra 82

5. Ibid.

6. Supra 83, infra 237, iv, 196

7. A new sentence only in CE, MB

8. ‘quia’

9. ‘ut si’

10. Infra 236

11. Supra 83

12. New paragraph