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[001] in our court etc. claims the homage and service of the aforesaid tenant from the
[002] same fee.’ When the superior lord or the non-lord stranger appears, the true lord
[003] may show that the homage and service belong to him in many ways. He may say
[004] that they belong to him for this reason, because such a one, the father or mother,
[005] uncle or aunt or other ancestor of the tenant, was the man of such a one, the
[006] father or mother, uncle or aunt or other ancestor of the said lord who claims,
[007] and that after such ancestor, who was so seised, another ancestor, such a one, was
[008] in seisin of the homage and service of the aforesaid ancestor of the tenant (or of his
[009] heir) and so on of the others. To which he who was summoned may reply and except
[010] in many ways as to why homage and service does not belong to the demandant,
[011] as where transfers or gifts have been made, as where [the demandant's] ancestors
[012] or their heirs, of whom mention was made, after they were thus in seisin, as aforesaid,
[013] had made a gift or exchange, or an acknowledgment or remission by final
[014] concord, or by judgment after the grand assise or the duel, 1[or that another,
[015] such a one, claims that he is the heir of the chief lord and that he who claims is
[016] not heir, and that he [the former] has already impleaded him by another writ of
[017] services and customs, and he may ask judgment whether with respect to one and
[018] the same thing he ought to answer two persons at the same time.]2 and when he
[019] has recovered by judgment the tenant may withdraw from such homage by the
[020] judgment. On this there is matter [in the roll] of Hilary term in the sixth year of
[021] king Henry in the county of Dorset, [the case] of Alan of St. George,3 [the reason
[022] for claiming4 [the homage], but that the non-lord ought to be summoned, as was
[023] said above at the beginning, is set out [in the roll] of Michaelmas term in the ninth
[024] and the beginning of the tenth years of king Henry in the county of Kent, [the
[025] case] of Isabella of Hotot.]5 6When the tenant disavows his true lord in court, as
[026] was said above, and has done homage and service to the spurious lord, since he
[027] has completely disavowed his lord the plea will become one between the true
[028] lord and his tenant. We first must see whether the lord sues by the writ ‘of services
[029] and customs’ or by the writ ‘that such a one do him homage and service.’ If by
[030] the writ of services and customs, then whether he sues on the right or on seisin of
[031] the homage and service, that is, whether the writ contains the words ‘that [the
[032] tenant] do him the customs and right services which he ought to and is accustomed
[033] to render,’ or only ‘which he is accustomed to render.’7 If on the right, no matter by
[034] what writ, and whether the lord



Notes

1-2. Belongs supra 240, at n. 9

3. B.N.B. no. 168; no roll extant

4. ‘petendo’

5. C.R.R., xii, no. 748; not in B.N.B.

6. New paragraph

7. Om: ‘vel tantum ... facere debet,’ appears in MG only


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