Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 4, Page 121

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Volume 4, Page 121

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[001] if that is established, the tenant may lose by default, because after an essoin of bedsickness
[002] returned the essoinee may not arise without licence,¹ nor, if he seeks a
[003] licence, will one be given him except for good reason, [and within a certain time,
[004] for beyond that time it will not be given him except with the demandant's consent,]
[005] [as where]² though he has recovered from his illness he is not yet viewed because of
[006] the deceit and malice of the demandant, who suppresses the writ and prosecutes
[007] negligently, or the negligence of the sheriff, who does not send the knights as he was
[008] instructed, or because of the failure of the knights to make the view.³ If the essoinee
[009] has recovered from his illness and has not yet been viewed, he will have a
[010] licence to rise,⁴ ⁵<And that a licence to rise ought to be given to an essoinee who has
[011] been properly viewed by the four knights, whether they have awarded ‘languor’ or
[012] passing illness, until they come and attest the ‘languor,’ may be found [in the roll]
[013] of Trinity term in the [fourteenth] year of king Henry in the county of Norfolk, [the
[014] case] of the prior of Longueville,⁶ and [in the roll] of Easter term, about the middle
[015] of the roll,⁷ because it is there said that if one essoins himself of bed-sickness and
[016] the knights have viewed him, but have not come to testify, nor does the demandant
[017] sue against them, the essoinee will have licence to rise because of the demandants
[018] default,⁸ whether ‘languor’ has been adjudged or not, and elsewhere in many
[019] places.> [and so] though he has been viewed, if the demandant is negligent [or] is
[020] unwilling to sue against the knights, that they appear to testify whether they have
[021] awarded ‘languor’ or passing illness; since the plea is still untouched in court, if he
[022] seeks licence to rise because of the deceit of the demandant he will obtain it, despite
[023] what is said in the petition for licence, that he is not yet viewed, because to view
[024] is not of much effect unless the view is attested.⁹ But if, though the view has been
[025] made and attested, no day has yet been given the demandant at the Tower, before
[026] the day given licence could well be given, according to some.¹⁰ But when he has
[027] received a day the plea ceases to be in court, until at another time it is remitted to
[028] it again by the constable of the Tower, after the year and day. Thus the essoinee
[029] will obtain licence to rise until a day given at the Tower.¹¹ After that time he will
[030] never obtain it without the consent of the demandant. If he gives his consent, when
[031] the ‘languid’ person has recovered and seeks licence to rise he will obtain it, so that
[032] the demandant and tenant may appear on a day certain and the plea proceed to
[033] its final end. But what if

Notes

1. Supra 116, infra 130

2. ‘ut si’

3. Supra 116

4. Om: ‘in defectum praedictorum’

5. Supra i, 413; belongs infra n. 9

6. B.N.B., no. 420; C.R.R., xiv, no. 356 (sidelined); infra 130

7. Not in B.N.B.; no roll extant for Easter 14; cf. B.N.B., no. 404, n. 3.

8. Supra 116

9. Supra n. 5

10. Om: cum . . . receperit, redundant

11. Infra 130