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[001] and remitted to him the entire right and claim he had or could have in him and in his
[002] sequela, and let him produce a chirograph made in the court of the lord king if he has
[003] such, or if not, and the acknowledgement has been enrolled, let him vouch the rolls to
[004] warranty, that is, where the lord harassed him in court and claimed him as his villein.
[005] And so if the lord once produced him in the king's court as his free man to make
[006] [some] deraignment, or to wage his law,1 or purge him, which may easily be ascertained
[007] by the rolls. And so if he did this in the county court, which may be proved by
[008] the record of the county court. And so if the lord manumitted him and enfeoffed him
[009] of a free tenement: the manumitted villein will recover seisin, despite the exception
[010] of villeinage, against him who manumitted and his heirs2 and those succeeding him by
[011] virtue of a causa of some kind, since they can exact no more than could he to whom
[012] they succeed.3 And so if he is manumitted without free land. And so if what is done
[013] amounts to manumission, as where the lord enfeoffs his villein, without an express
[014] grant of freedom, to hold to himself and his heirs by free service,4 for since he makes
[015] mention of heirs it is strongly presumed that he wished his villein to be free, which
[016] would not be so if he made no mention of heirs. And so if the lord once sought him as
[017] his villein and he, by kindred or in some other way, proved that he was free, and there
[018] may be an infinite number of other answers and replications against the lord, 5<as the
[019] exception of res judicata.> If the lord excepts [villeinage] against one claiming restitution
[020] by the assise, and adds that he is a villein and6 the son of a villein or of a neif, [or
[021] of a villein and a neif],7 to the allegation that he is the son of a villein he may replicate
[022] that though his father was a villein his mother was free and unmarried, and that he
[023] therefore ought to follow the condition of his mother, not his father. To the allegation
[024] that his mother was a neif he may replicate that though a neif she was married to a
[025] free man in a free tenement, and that he was born in a free bed, because of which he
[026] ought to follow the condition of his father, not his mother.8 [To the allegation that he
[027] is the son of a villein and a neif], he may replicate that though he has both a villein
[028] father and a villein mother, and they were married, and though he was born in a
[029] villeinage, that the exception does not lie for the lord, as where the villein of A. entered
[030] into the villeinage of B. [to a neif], or conversely, the neif of B. into the villeinage
[031] of A. to a villein. No one has the exception of villeinage against such, if enfeoffed to
[032] hold freely, except the lord in whose villeinage he was engendered and born,9 especially
[033] if he is established within his potestas.



Notes

1. Cf. Glanvill, v. 5: ‘ad aliquam disrationationem faciendam produceretur in curia, vel ad aliquam legem terrae faciendam’

2. ‘ut inter Thomam veteris pontis et Richardum’: supra i, xii, 324, 369, 396

3. Supra 89

4. Supra ii, 85, iii, 39, 90

5. Not in list of addiciones, supra i

6. ‘et’

7. Supra 92

8. Supra ii, 30, iii, 92

9. Ibid.


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