Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 363

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Volume 2, Page 363

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[001] his outlawry is manifest. For it is a just judgment that he who has refused to live
[002] by the law should perish without law and without judgment.¹

He [forfeits] the things pertaining to right.

[004] He also forfeits everything pertaining to right and possession, that is, right
[005] acquired and to be acquired and right vindicated and to be vindicated, and similarly
[006] possession in the form and manner of possession.

He is bound to no one nor anyone to him.

[008] He is bound to no one,² nor anyone to him, nor is he bound by virtue of any
[009] causa. For obligations and homages, fealties and oaths, and all other things
[010] contracted by mutual agreement are dissolved.³ Thus outlaws forfeit their inheritances
[011] and tenements.⁴ ⁵<For whom? For themselves and all their heirs, remote and
[012] near.>⁶ Nor may things so broken and dissolved ever be conjoined or reunited save
[013] by a new contract and a new mutual agreement,⁷ should he for some reason⁸ be
[014] restored.

He forfeits actions.

[016] As a result of outlawry he forfeits [any] action available to him before the outlawry,
[017] even though he has afterwards been restored by grace, because the exception of
[018] outlawry will always bar him as demandant,⁹ provided it has been promulgated
[019] according to the law of the land; it is otherwise if it is void, as was said above.¹⁰

[Outlawry] dissolves gifts, sales and all contracts and obligations.

[021] Outlawry, just as any other judgment of felony, extinguishes gifts and sales made
[022] after the felony committed, for here,¹¹ [as] after conviction for a felony, [the
[023] outlawry] relates back to the time of the felony perpetrated, as below [in the
[024] portion] on gifts.¹²

His chattels belong to the king.

[026] The chattels of an outlaw will belong to the lord king, for one cannot be outlawed
[027] elsewhere than in the king's court, as the county court or the hustings at London.¹³
[028] And so will the chattels of fugitives, before outlawry,¹⁴ and of others summoned
[029] before the justices, whether they are guilty or not, ¹⁵[as D. 48.17.5 and C. 9.40.2,
[030] where it is said that though one has returned after flight and proved his innocence,
[031] his goods will remain in the treasury nonetheless,]¹⁶ an inquest having been held,¹⁷
[032] who, though they afterwards return and surrender themselves to prison, will not
[033] recover their chattels because of their flight.

If he has free land let it be seized into the king's hand at once.

[035] If those outlawed have free land it is to be taken into the lord king's hand at once

Notes

1. Supra 354

2. Infra 374: he is bound to everyone

3. Infra 376: dissolved on other side, not on his

4. Infra 374

5. Supra i, 387

6. Infra 367

7. Infra 373, 374

8. ‘aliqua causa’

9. Infra 374, 376

10. Supra 357, 358

11. ‘ibi’

12. Infra 366

13. Supra 358; infra 375

14. Supra 352, 354, 358, 362; infra 374

15-16. Supra 362, nn. 10-12

17. Supra 355, 358