Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 199

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Volume 2, Page 199

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Of those who ought to succeed others and the order of succession.

[002] ¹Having discussed the degrees, it is well to consider the persons of the successors,
[003] who are preferred to others in the succession, from the first degree to the last. In
[004] the first degree sit the father and mother who constitute the common origin. In
[005] the second degree in the descending line are the son and daughter; in the third,
[006] grandson and granddaughter, and so on ad infinitum, as was said briefly above.²
[007] When, [because] all nearer heirs are preferred to the more remote, these fail completely,
[008] then in the second degree in the transverse line are the brother and sister
[009] [of the father or mother,] and their heirs descending ad infinitum. In the right line
[010] ascending are the grandfather and greatgrandfather (and so on up, as was said
[011] above) and their heirs issuing collaterally ad infinitum, as was said above.³ [In the
[012] transverse line ascending are] the brother and sister of the father, [who] are called
[013] patruus and amita, ⁴and thence their sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters
[014] descending ad infinitum.⁵ [The son or daughter of the amita may be called
[015] (with respect to the nephew) the nearer amitinus or amitina;⁶ those stemming from
[016] the patruus, whether son or daughter, patrueles. In the right line descending and the
[017] transverse, with respect to a daughter, her sister⁷ born of the same father but a
[018] different mother may be called her consobrina, and her brother born of such parents,
[019] her consobrinus, and [then] the son and daughter of these, grandson and granddaughter,
[020] and so in succession, as above. Her sister⁸ born of the same mother but a
[021] different father may be termed her uterine sister and her brother her uterine brother,
[022] and thence the son and daughter of such persons and so on, as above.] The⁹ brother of
[023] the mother is called avunculus,¹⁰ the sister of the mother matertera, and their son
[024] and daughter and so on ad infinitum. And these all having failed, ascent¹¹ will be
[025] made to those higher up, to the brother or sister of the grandfather or grandmother
[026] in the transverse line, as to the patruus magnus or the amita magna and their heirs,
[027] son and daughter, and so on. And if these all fail, then to the brother of the greatgrandfather
[028] on the paternal side, the propatruus magnus, or the sister, the proamita
[029] magna, and then to their sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters.
[030] Failing these, on the paternal side there then are called the brother [or sister] of
[031] the great-greatgrandfather or great-greatgrandmother, who are termed the
[032] abpatruus magnus and abamita magna, and their heirs ad infinitum. And if these
[033] fail, on the paternal side the brother [or sister] of the great-great-greatgrandfather
[034] or great-great-greatgrandmother, called the atpatruus magnus or atamita magna,
[035] and their heirs ad infinitum. And these failing, there are called on the paternal side
[036] the brother or sister of the great-great-great-greatgrandfather or great-great-great-greatgrandmother:
[037] the tri-

Notes

1. Fleta vi, 2; Britton, ii, 320

2. Supra 196

3. Ibid.

4-5. ‘et sic eorum ... in infinitum,’ from lines 15-16

6. ‘amitinus,’ ‘amitina’

7. Om: ‘et frater,’ as Fleta

8. Om: ‘et frater,’ as Fleta

9-10. ‘Frater matris dicitur avunculus,’ as below

11. ‘fiat ascensus,’ as Fleta