Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 245

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Volume 2, Page 245

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[001] a military tenement of greater or lesser extent, according to the ancient custom of
[002] fees.¹⁵ Such will be the reasonable relief for military fees.

Who is bound to relief.

[004] Who ought to give a relief. It is he who succeeds another by hereditary right,
[005] in whose person the inheritance, which lies vacant by his ancestor's death, is again
[006] raised; he and no other. For he who enters into seisin through some causa of
[007] acquisition, as by purchase or gift, shall not give a relief; only if he enters by way
[008] of succession.

To whom is he bound.

[010] To whom must it be given. To no one except chief lords and immediate feoffors.
[011] If there are several chief lords, ascending step by step, each heir shall give a relief
[012] to his own feoffor, or to the lord king if he happens to hold of him in chief by
[013] military service, not to the others.

How often.

[015] How often. It is clear that it is to be paid once only, that is, as long as the heir who
[016] once relieved [the tenement] remains alive. It is not to be paid because of a change of
[017] lords, if several chief lords die from heir to heir, [for] though because of that several
[018] homages must be taken, and they are several in the reckoning of the lords, there will
[019] be but a single homage from the tenant's standpoint, though several times renewed,
[020] and therefore there will be but one relief.¹⁶ And so when the tenant has once given a
[021] relief and a change of lords occurs through gift or purchase, judgment or agreement,
[022] or in any other way whatever, though the tenant is bound to do homage to the
[023] several lords who have acquired, or if the lord of whom he first held is removed as
[024] mesne because of felony or the failure of heirs,¹⁷ to the [next] superior lord,¹⁸ he shall
[025] not on that account pay a relief, since the inheritance he once relieved does not fall
[026] in his person though it falls in the person of his chief lord by death or transfer, failure
[027] of heirs or felony.

When.

[029] When must relief be given from a military fee. It must be given after homage done
[030] and when his inheritance has been restored to him by his chief lord, or when,
[031] having come to full age, he has put himself into vacant possession without hindrance
[032] or contradiction.

Notes

16. Supra 230

17. Supra 234

18. Om: ‘cum tenens,’ obligatus ... homagium’