Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 37

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Volume 2, Page 37

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[001] seignorial potestas is extinguished. Bondsmen are said to be in a free status until
[002] the lord has aided himself against them by the law of the land, nor will he have
[003] any power over them or their children, their lands or other goods, until he has
[004] deraigned their bodies, the principal matter, as will be explained below.¹ When
[005] the lord, through negligence or weakness, has lost seisin of the fugitive,² if, having
[006] regained his strength, he brings him back in spite of his privilege, or retains him
[007] when he returns, he will not evade due punishment, for such action is against the
[008] peace. ³<There is more of this matter below [in the portions] on the plea ‘de nativis’
[009] and on fugitive villeins, how those who are beyond the potestas of their lords and in
[010] flight are recalled to bondage.>⁴ ⁵<If when the lord has been negligent in prosecuting
[011] his claim the villein is found outside the villeinage he cannot be taken or
[012] detained, any more than may a free man; if he is, he will have the plaint of
[013] imprisonment.>

Of the demesne of the lord king and the condition of persons who are tenants of the demesne; I say nothing of the manor.

[015] ⁶In the demesne of the lord king there are divers sorts of men. There were⁷ there
[016] before the Conquest, at the Conquest and after the Conquest, bondsmen or villeins,
[017] who held⁸ villeinages by villein and uncertain services, and to this day do villein
[018] and uncertain customs and whatever they are bid,⁹ provided it is lawful and right.
[019] There were also there at the Conquest free men, who held their tenements freely
[020] by free services or free customs, who, after they had been ejected by the more
[021] powerful and had returned, took their same tenements up again to hold in villeinage,
[022] by doing thence servile, but certain and specified, works.¹⁰ These men are called
[023] glebae ascripticii, and, none the less, free men, for though they do servile works they
[024] do them not by reason of their persons but of their tenements.¹¹ For that reason
[025] they will not have the assise of novel disseisin,¹² because the tenement is a villeinage
[026] though privileged,¹³ nor the assise of mortdancestor, but¹⁴ only the little writ of
[027] right according to the custom of the manor.¹⁵ They are called glebae ascripticii
[028] because they enjoy the privilege of not being removable from the soil as long as
[029] they are able to make the payments they owe,¹⁶ no matter into whose hand the
[030] king's demesne may come. ¹⁷<Nor can they be compelled to hold such tenement
[031] against their will.>¹⁸ There is also another sort of men in the manor of the lord
[032] king, who hold of the demesne and by the same villein customs and services

Notes

1. Infra 89, iii, 86, 102 ff.

2. Ibid.

3. Supra i, 372

4. Infra 84 ff., iii, 84 ff; ‘in titulo de servis fugitivis’: iii, 102; cf. Br. and Azo, 63

5. Supra i, 372

6. Br. and Azo, 80-83

7. ‘Fuerunt,’ as line 20

8. ‘tenuerunt,’ as line 21

9. Infra 89, 90, iii, 35, 131

10. Infra iii, 132

11. Ibid.

12. Infra 90, iii, 34, 39, 108

13. Infra iii, 132

14. Om: first ‘sed’

15. Infra iii, 39

16. Infra iii, 107, 132

17. Supra i, 373

18. Infra 89, iii, 132