Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 353

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Volume 2, Page 353

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[001] or was imprisoned or the like during the course of that slaying.¹ Also one under
[002] age as well as one of full age, provided the age of the minor is awaited.² And when
[003] he has come of age, the exception of suit improperly brought will not lie against
[004] him so as to prevent the appeal from proceeding. And so, apparently, with respect
[005] to others who would have no appeal had the appellee been present and excepted
[006] against the person of the appellor, though it may seem otherwise, because³ a suit
[007] is valid no matter by whom brought, and for an indefinite time, when there is no
[008] one to except against him who sues. A woman has no appeal by which anyone
[009] ought to be put to the duel or the grand assise⁴ except for the death of her husband,
[010] slain within her arms, or for an injury done to her person.⁵ And note that no one may
[011] sue against another for felony by attorney,⁶ provided that he who complains and
[012] ought to sue is able to do so himself; if he is temporarily incapacitated a kinsman or
[013] friend may sue for him, because of his infirmity, but once he has recovered the
[014] arrangement will cease;⁷ nor, it is clear, ought one to prosecute to outlawry for
[015] another unless he was so connected with the slain man, by kinship or homage, that
[016] if the appellee were present an appeal would lie between them.] [for] if the county
[017] court exacts someone without suit⁸ [or] ⁹without an order from the justices,¹⁰ it
[018] will be amerced. If those in the county court act with circumspection they ought to
[019] examine the deed for which the man is to be exacted, for though felony may be
[020] alleged in the appeal not every deed amounts to felony, though it sometimes amounts
[021] to an injuria and a trespass.¹¹

Who may and ought to be outlawed.

[023] We must also see who may and ought to be outlawed at the suit of another and
[024] who ought not. It is clear that any male may be outlawed [provided he is twelve
[025] years of age or more, for all of that age are or ought to be in a tithing or the
[026] equivalent, as in mainpast and the like, as above.]¹²

A minor cannot be outlawed.

[028] A minor, however, one who is under twelve years of age, cannot be outlawed or
[029] put outside the law because until he reaches that age he is not under any law, [nor
[030] in a tithing,] any more than a woman, who cannot be outlawed because she is
[031] not under the law (in English, ‘in law’) that is, in frankpledge or tithing, as is a
[032] male of twelve years and upwards; thus she cannot be outlawed, but when she has
[033] taken to flight for a felony she may well be waived and regarded as one abandoned,

Notes

1. Infra 413

2. Infra 399

3. ‘quia’; infra 354-5

4. ‘lex apparens,’ Glanvill xiv, 1, 2; P. and M., i, 175, n. 7, ii, 619. Reading: ‘iudicari’ or ‘adiudicari’ for ‘iudici,’ as infra 419

5. Glanvill xiv, 3, 6: ‘de morte viri sui, de injuria corpori suo inflicta’; infra 419. But see Wiltshire Crown Pleas, 88-90

6. Supra 324

7. Infra 407

8. Infra 358

9. Om: ‘in comitatu ad utlagandum’

10. Infra 356, 358

11. Infra 356, 359, 369, 372, 378

12. Supra 351