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[001] pertains to ‘cove and keye,’ which cannot be before her fourteenth or fifteenth year
[002] since such things require discretion and understanding. Full age with respect to
[003] socage also demands strength, as well as discretion and understanding, that the
[004] heir of a sokeman may do and know how to do the things belonging to husbandry.
[005] Those that pertain to military service require greater strength, and greater understanding
[006] and discretion, that the heir in military service be of sufficient vigour to
[007] bear the arms appropriate to his military duty. 1Depending upon the kind of
[008] tenement and the services due,2 there is a full age for pleading and claiming restitution
[009] of one's own seisin or that of an ancestor, and there is a full age for pleading
[010] and claiming the proprietas and for answering upon it, for no matter how possession
[011] may be acquired within age, before he reaches his full age of twenty-one years he
[012] shall not answer for it,3 nor even plead4 on the proprietas, [by answering, though he
[013] may sometimes do so by claiming, [though] a military fee is involved, when he is
[014] of full age as of socage.] 5<In socage he can and must answer as well as claim.>
[015] This is true unless he is impleaded [in a possessory action] because of his own act,6
[016] as where he has committed a disseisin, [or in a proprietary] if he has been enfeoffed
[017] under age.7 When a minor may sue while under age, and what and when he may
[018] answer, will be explained more fully below [in the portion on] exceptions arising
[019] out of minority in pleas and assises.8 A female and a male heir, [according to some,]
[020] are on the same footing with respect to their ages in the several kinds of tenements,
[021] that is, that she reaches full age in burgage when a male does, and in socage
[022] when he does, that is, at the age of fifteen, and so with respect to a military fee, that
[023] is, at twenty-one years, and that her wardship then first ends. According to others,
[024] a woman is said to reach full age with respect to a military fee when she reaches
[025] the age of fifteen,9 for then, as they say, she can order her house and marry a
[026] husband, who, by himself or by another, can perform the military obligations, [She
[027] comes to full age first because she is held legally responsible for her actions earlier
[028] than a man, and because she is ready for marriage earlier than a man. But if
[029] that were the test she would be of full age at twelve, for she would then be mature
[030] enough to have and take a husband.]10 which is false. 11<If it were so this inappropriate
[031] result would follow, that below the lawful age of twenty-one years



Notes

1. Reading: ‘Secundum’

2. Infra iii, 301-2

3. Infra iii, 301-2, iv, 312

4. ‘placitabit’

5. Not in list of addiciones supra i, 383

6. Infra iv, 313

7. Infra 252, iv, 312

8. Infra iii, 301, iv, 311

9. Note n. 36 opposite

10. Om: ‘per quod ... et feminam’

11. Supra i, 383; om: ‘Sed’


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