Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 246

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Volume 2, Page 246

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[001] ¹[Nothing certain is stated as to what or how much heirs ought to give from
[002] serjeanties. Thus for relief they satisfy their lords according to the will of their
[003] lords, provided the lords do not exceed reason and due measure.]² ³A woman who has
[004] once been in wardship, or when of full age has once given a relief, shall be quit of
[005] relief forever, not only she but her husband, if she marries after the wardship had
[006] or the relief given, [not even if she marries several times,]⁴ nor shall the husband
[007] give another relief if his wife predeceases him,⁵ for the homage previously done
[008] holds throughout his life and he will hold a tenement once relieved which does not
[009] fall in his person, nor does he succeed as heir. But when the husband dies the
[010] inheritance then falls and homage is extinguished in his person; and because the
[011] obligation of homage continues in the person of the heir, let the heir do homage and
[012] relieve the tenement, to neither of which was he bound in the lifetime of the
[013] husband because the homage continued during his entire life, nor ought a chief
[014] lord to take two homages at one and the same time from two persons because of a
[015] single and undivided inheritance.⁶ And thus one is no more bound to give several
[016] reliefs from one tenement than to do several homages. Nor ought anyone to receive⁷
[017] several reliefs from one and the same tenant, though he may receive several from
[018] several heirs who are tenants in succession. On this there is matter [in the roll] of
[019] Michaelmas term in the ninth and the beginning of the tenth years of king Henry
[020] in the county of Stafford, [the case] of Hervey Bagot and Roger de la Suche and
[021] Margery Bagot⁸ who held her fee of the aforesaid Roger who thus was mesne
[022] between them. Margery was distrained because the said Roger owed⁹ a relief to
[023] the said Hervey. To which Roger replied that he owed no relief because¹⁰ his
[024] brother, whose heir he was, did homage therefrom and gave a relief ¹¹to the father
[025] of the said Hervey, [and that Roger himself, after his brother's death, did homage
[026] and gave relief to him,]¹² and afterwards did homage to the mother of the said
[027] Hervey, of whose fee he held what he held, and after that to the said Hervey, by
[028] reason of which homage the said Hervey claimed the relief, and sought judgment
[029] whether he was bound to more than one relief from one tenement, since he had once
[030] relieved it. It was decided that Margery and Roger be quit and Hervey in mercy and
[031] that he recompense Margery for her damages. ¹³No one who acquires by any means
[032] of acquisition, or who changes his lord,¹⁴

Notes

1-2. This portion belongs after ‘militaribus,’ supra 245, line 2; Glanvill, ix, 4

3-5. Glanvill, ix, 4: ‘Verum si infra aetatem fuerit quando dominus suus in custodiam illam receperit, tunc ipsa maritata quieta erit hereditas illa a relevio, quantum ad se et quantum ad virum suum. Sin autem habuerit aetatem eo tempore, licet aliquamdiu in custodia domini sui remaneat antequam maritetur, relevium tamen dabit maritus suus qui illam in uxorem duxerit. Semel autem praestitum relevium a marito alicuius mulieris, utrumque scilicet tam maritum quam uxorem tota vita sua de relevio ipsius hereditatis acquietabit, quia nec mulier ipsa nec secundus maritus suus si secundo nupserit praemortuo primo viro suo, nec primus maritus suus praemortua uxore sua, terram illam iterum releviabit.’

4. ‘pluries’

6. Infra 259

7. ‘recipere’, OA, LA, OC

8. C.R.R. xii, nos. 174, 987; not in B.N.B.

9. ‘debuit,’ as roll

10. ‘quia,’ so on roll

11. Om: ‘eidem,’ as roll

12. Not on roll; Br. has altered the facts of the case

13. New paragraph

14. Supra 230, 245