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[001] of the husband.1 A constitution of dower in the property of others recoverable by
[002] judicial action is of no value.2 If a father has constituted dower for his wife in the
[003] third part of an inheritance, that is, in one part of three, and the son, with his
[004] father's consent and while his mother is alive, constitutes dower for his wife, he
[005] cannot endow her of more than the third part of two parts, that is, of two-thirds,
[006] for his mother is endowed of [a third] part of the whole, that is, of the third of the
[007] three portions. If the father has no wife when the son endows his, and after the
[008] son has constituted dower with the father's consent the father marries, the converse
[009] of what was said above will apply, as will be explained below [in the portion
[010] on] the action of dower.3 4We must also see whether, after dower has once been
[011] properly constituted in one's own property or in another's with his consent, it
[012] may be increased, to the prejudice or damage of the heir, by an agreement made
[013] between husband and wife during marriage. The rule is that it may not,5 as [in
[014] the roll] of the eyre of William of Ralegh in the county of Middlesex, an assise of
[015] mortdancestor [beginning] ‘If John Blund.’6 Hence, it seems, and for the same
[016] reason, that it must not be reduced to the prejudice of the wife.7 8Dower having
[017] been constituted as aforesaid, 9the wife cannot dispose of any part of her specified
[018] dower during her husband's lifetime,10 though it is certain, because she has no
[019] free tenement therein before assignment,11 nor could she gainsay her husband if he
[020] wished to sell or alienate her dower; if she did so she lost her dower de jure.12 Today
[021] if the husband aliens it, though against his wife's will, she will have it after his death
[022] against whomever holds it.13 But if he does so by judgment or agreement, as said
[023] above,14 or [loses it] because of felony, as will be explained below,15 she will have no
[024] recourse.

That a wife who is a widow ought to remain in the chief messuage for forty days after the death of her husband until her dower has been assigned her.


[026] By the death of her husband the constitution of dower is then first confirmed,16
[027] and [If dower is to be delivered17 to her let the assignment of dower be made her
[028] 18at once, without any difficulty, and let her give nothing for her dower, her maritagium,
[029] or for her inheritance which her husband and she held on the day he died.
[030] And let her remain in her husband's chief messuage for forty days after his death,
[031] within which time let her dower be assigned her, unless it is earlier assigned her, or
[032] unless the house is a castle, and if she has withdrawn from that castle let a suitable
[033] house be provided for her at once in which she may decently reside until her dower
[034] is assigned her, as



Notes

1. Supra 268, infra iii, 392

2. Supra 272

3. Infra iii, 380

4. New paragraph

5. Glanvill, vi, 2; supra 97-8

6. Not in B.N.B.; no roll extant

7. Infra iii, 377

8. New paragraph

9-10. Glanvill, vi, 3

11. Supra 265; Longrais, 397, n. 3

12. Glanvill, vi, 3: ‘si vir eius dotem suam vendere voluit et ipsa contradixerit, si ita fuerit vendita dos et empta postea mortuo viro suo non poterit mulier dotem ipsam versus emptorem petere, si confessa fuerit in curia vel super hoc convicta quod ea contradicente vendita fuerit dos ...’; reading: ‘nec potuit ... si vellet ... amitteret. Hodie (for ‘Quod’)’

13. Supra 270

14. Cf. supra 272, infra 279

15. Infra iii, 361, 395; supra 82, 99, 100

16. Supra 265, infra 279, iii, 370

17. Longrais, 395, n. 2, 400, n. 4; ‘deliberanda,’ as 280: ‘assignanda fuerit’

18-19. Magna Carta (1225) ca. 7, with changes: Longrais, 395, n. 3


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