Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 253

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Volume 2, Page 253

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[001] or another, who is to answer for the issues to the king, and such person commits
[002] destruction or waste, let the king take the wardship and amends from him and let
[003] the land be entrusted to two lawful and discreet men of that fee who shall answer
[004] for the issues to the lord king or to him to whom the king has assigned those issues.
[005] If the king has given or sold the wardship to another who commits destruction or
[006] waste, let him lose the wardship and the land be entrusted to the two,¹⁰ as was
[007] said above. ¹¹<If there is an heir, male or female, and there are several chief lords,
[008] they all cannot have the marriage of the heir, though, since¹² the heir holds of each
[009] by military service, each has a right in the marriage. One of the several is preferred
[010] to the others and has the greater right, namely, the first feoffor, the chief lord from
[011] whom the heir's ancestor had his first feoffment and to whom, above all others, he
[012] did liege homage.¹³ But the wardship of the lands which are of their fees, together
[013] with the services, shall remain to the other lords.¹⁴ But if any heir holds land of the
[014] lord king in chief, whether he has other lords or not, the lord¹⁵ king is preferred to
[015] the others in the wardship of the heir, whether the heir was first enfeoffed by the
[016] others or not, since the king has neither equal nor superior.¹⁶ [But] though the
[017] lord king is preferred to the others not only in the wardship [of the heir but in that]
[018] of the land, no matter of whose fee it is, as was said above, ¹⁷if anyone holds an
[019] inheritance of him by fee farm, socage or burgage, and holds land of another by
[020] military service, the king shall not have the wardship of the heir nor of any land
[021] he holds of the other by military service; nor shall he by reason of any petty
[022] serjeanty he holds of the lord king by the service of rendering him knives or arrows
[023] or things of that kind.>¹⁸ ¹⁹<If the lord king holds a barony or other land as his
[024] escheat, that is, where there are no heirs because of failure or felony, or if there
[025] are heirs they do not owe fealty to the lord king, as from the terrae Normannorum and
[026] those of the Flemings, and a tenant of such barony or land dies, his heir shall give
[027] no other relief to the lord king nor do him any other service than he would do to
[028] the baron or the Norman if the land were in the hand of the baron or Norman, nor
[029] shall he [the king] hold it except as the baron or the Norman held it, nor because
[030] of such²⁰ barony or escheat shall he have any escheat or wardship of the men of
[031] that barony or the tenants of that escheat unless they hold other tenements elsewhere
[032] of the lord²¹ king in chief,²² [or] unless the lord king himself has enfeoffed
[033] them, those who hold of that barony or escheat,²³ of that barony or escheat, or some
[034] part of it, to be held

Notes

11. Not in list of addiciones supra i, 383

12. ‘eo quod’

13. Supra 230, 231, 236

14. Glanvill, vii, 10: infra v

15. ‘dominus’

16. Glanvill, vii, 10: ‘Notandum tamen quod si quis in capite de domino rege tenere debet, tunc eius custodia ad dominum regem plene pertinet, sive alios dominos habere debeat ipse heres sive non. Quia dominus rex nullum potest habere parem, multo minus superiorem.’; supra 33, 157, infra 305, iv, 159, 281

17-18. Magna Carta (1215) ca. 37; (1225) ca. 27

19-22. Magna Carta (1225) ca. 31 (with additions); not in list of addiciones supra i, 383; ‘terra Flandrensium’: B.N.B., no. 1220; Powicke, Loss of Normandy (2nd ed.) 328

20. ‘talis’

21. ‘domino,’ all MSS.

23. Om: ‘tenementum’