Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 230

Harvard Law School Library

Bracton Online -- English

Volume 2, Page 230

Next

Go to Volume: Page:

[001] by several successive heirs they will be several by reason of the several heirs, and
[002] thus there will be several reliefs, [but] by reason of the one lord who takes homage
[003] several times they will not be several but one, though several times renewed.
[004] Conversely, when the tenant survives and the chief lord dies, the homage falls on
[005] his side, [but the obligation¹ of homage continues in his heir and the homage will
[006] be raised again in his person] so that it must be taken afresh by the heir and done
[007] anew by the tenant. And so it may be done [several times] with respect to several
[008] chief lords who die and their heirs, in which event there will be several homages
[009] from the standpoint of the lords but only one from that of the tenant who survives
[010] throughout, though several times renewed because of the several lords and their
[011] heirs; thus only a single relief will be given.² ³From one and the same tenement⁴
[012] several homages cannot be done to several chief lords at one and the same time,
[013] whether the tenant ought to hold it of the several lords in common or only of one,
[014] for if of several in common and there is one tenant, let the eldest of the several take
[015] the homage from the one. If several tenants ought to hold in common of one lord,
[016] or several, the eldest will do the homage for all.⁵ ⁶If one, or several who hold in
[017] common, hold of one lord and through ignorance or wrongful coercion do homage
[018] to another, to whom they are not bound, they must be aided.⁷ But if they do so
[019] through malice and fraud to the disherison of their lord it will be otherwise, for they
[020] ought then of right to lose their tenements, the obligation of homage being completely
[021] extinguished because of the fraud. And so if after they have once done
[022] homage to the true lord they wrongfully withdraw from him.⁸ If they do homage
[023] from the first to a non-lord and the true lord recovers the homage and service by
[024] judgment, or by reason of a fine, or attornment in the cases in which that is possible,⁹
[025] and the tenant is unwilling to do homage to him to whom he is bound de jure, holding
[026] himself to a homage to which he is bound only by his own will, ¹⁰he will not be freed
[027] from him to whom he voluntarily adhered, but let him make the best he can of the
[028] matter. ¹¹From several tenements one may do several homages to one lord (at one
[029] time or successively) or to several different lords, and thus several lords may take
[030] several homages [from one] by reason of several tenements, provided one of the
[031] several is his principal and liege lord,¹² because he is his first feoffor, because of the
[032] first and chief feoffment,¹³ He will always have the marriage of heirs, because of
[033] his first feoffment, unless the tenant holds in chief of

Notes

1. ‘obligatio’

2. Infra 245

3. New paragraph

4. ‘tenemento’: infra 246

5. Supra 226

6. New paragraph

7. Infra 240-1

8. Infra 235

9. Infra 237

10. Om: ‘cum verus ... de iure,’ redundant

11-13. Glanvill, ix, 1: ‘Potest autem quis plura homagia diversis dominis facere de feodis diversorum dominorum. Sed unum eorum oportet esse praecipuum et cum ligeantia factum, illi scilicet domino faciendum a quo tenet suum capitale tenementum’

12. Infra 231, 236, 253