Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 249

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Volume 2, Page 249

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[001] though in some places by custom, and improperly, the contrary is observed, as in
[002] the [barony of the bishop] of Winchester and elsewhere.¹ And [that if] it is done,
[003] though improperly, that must be done with respect to wardship and relief that is
[004] done from a military fee, and that a relief is not given from socage nor does wardship
[005] or marriage belong to the lord, is proved [in the roll] of Michaelmas term in
[006] the seventh and the beginning of the eighth years of king Henry in the county of
[007] [Essex], near the end of the roll.² Though the inheritance is not raised again in the
[008] person of the heir of a sokeman by the hand of his chief lord but by that of his
[009] kinsmen, nevertheless a certain payment is made the chief lord by the heir because
[010] of the lordship, which, for the reasons aforesaid, cannot be called a relief, but which
[011] is this, namely, since a sokeman is bound to defend his tenement³ against his lord
[012] by a certain rent in money, [or by some thing which is the equivalent, reckoned
[013] in weight, number or measure, in a solid or a liquid, as in corn, wine or oil, according
[014] to the various ways that rents are taken,]⁴ in place of a relief [and] in recognition
[015] of lordship ⁵the tenant and heir⁶ shall once pay his lord his rent for one year
[016] doubled; not his rent and then a doubled rent, but his rent and then as much again.
[017] We must see whether the heir, when he is under age, ought to do this before the oath
[018] of fealty or after, as in the case of homage, where relief is not to be given before
[019] homage taken.⁷

Whether relief is payable from a fee farm and how much.

[021] What ought to be done from a tenement held in fee farm. There is no certain amount
[022] fixed as in the aforesaid cases, but nevertheless we must see that due measure is
[023] observed and that the payment and relief is reasonable, just as an aid rendered
[024] by anyone ought to be reasonable, consideration being given both to the persons
[025] of the lord and the tenant, that the payment or gift be a fitting one for the tenant
[026] to make and the lord to receive, according to the means of the tenant who gives
[027] and the need of the lord who accepts, so that the payment may not burden the
[028] tenant unduly nor leave the receiver unsatisfied.⁸ For what is paid ought to be
[029] neither very great nor very small; neither greater than the giver can manage nor
[030] less than is becoming for the receiver; neither great nor small, but intermediate.
[031] In every reasonable payment let a mean be observed, for there is moderation in all
[032] things etc.⁹ When in these matters the limits are exceeded, neither moderation
[033] nor measure will any longer prevail

Notes

1. Infra 255; C.R.R., xi, no. 1436 (Trin. 8 Hen. III), B.N.B. no. 990 (Hereford); P. and M. i, 321 n.

2. C.R.R., xi, no. 1039; not in B.N.B.

3. ‘tenementum’

4. Infra iii, 59

5. New sentence only in CE

6. ‘dabit tenens et heres domino suo’

7. Infra 258

8. Supra 116

9. Horace, Satires, i, 1, 106; infra iii, 154, 184