Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 100

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Volume 2, Page 100

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[001] for the term before the felony was committed, when the owner had both the will and
[002] the power to make a gift, or after it, when he had the will but not the power. ¹If after,
[003] the term will be good in perpetuity, until he is convicted.² If before, when he had the
[004] intention and capacity, the term is good, as are all other things rightly done before
[005] the felony at a suitable and proper time.³ Since a feoffment then made is good and
[006] binding, a fortiori a term ought to be so, for if one may do a greater thing he obviously
[007] may do a lesser. Hence if the chief lord puts himself in seisin and ejects the termor,
[008] let him claim by the ordinary writ,⁴ just as anyone may, notwithstanding what is
[009] said of wardship,⁵ for there the lord puts himself in seisin not as lord but as guardian
[010] [nor does the wardship destroy the term, though it defers it, nor the term the wardship,
[011] though it does not defer it,] and here not as guardian but as lord and in place
[012] of the heir,⁶ and if he enters in that way he must do all that an heir must do, and all
[013] that he whom he succeeds (though he succeeds in the name of escheat) would be
[014] bound to do had he not committed felony, that is, warrant, acquit and defend. Nor
[015] does the chief lord succeed by way of escheat to anything less than the entire
[016] property of him he succeeds,⁷ and thus, since he who demised, had he not committed
[017] the felony, could not rightfully have ejected the termor, for the same reason neither
[018] can he who has no greater right than the person who demised. And notwithstanding
[019] what is said of the wife of a felon claiming dower [that the exception that she has no
[020] warrantor bars her] after conviction, because though her dower was properly
[021] constituted before the commission of the felony and the conviction, if she
[022] claims after conviction the exception that she has no warrantor will bar her.⁸
[023] Everything properly done before the felony committed is good and binding,
[024] whether condemnation follows or not. Everything done after the felony is always
[025] good and binding unless condemnation follows, if it does it is invalid. Everything
[026] [incomplete, whether] begun⁹ before the felony or after it, can never be carried into
[027] effect after condemnation. ¹⁰It can never achieve completion, the exception of
[028] felony acting as a bar, and hence in this case we must only distinguish between
[029] things completed and to be completed, and whether condemnation has followed or
[030] not. Enough has been said of things demised for a term. If given in fee, whether
[031] before the felony or after it, all are valid and binding until condemnation; then those
[032] completed before the felony are valid in perpetuity, those made after it always
[033] remain in suspense until condemnation occurs,

Notes

1-2. ‘Si post feloniam ... convincatur,’ from lines 19-21

3. Supra 82, 99

4. Quare intrusit, infra 101

5. Supra 82, 99

6. Infra 195

7. D. 50.16.24; 50.17.128.1: ‘Hi qui in universum ius succedunt, heredis loco habentur.’; infra 184

8. Supra 82, 99, infra 275, iii, 360-61

9. Reading: ‘quae [imperfecta sunt, sive] incepta fuerint,’ as infra 101

10. ‘Nunquam’ for ‘nec’