Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 367

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Volume 2, Page 367

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[001] the inheritance of his father or mother, whichever is innocent of the felony.¹ ² [And
[002] to what has been said, that a gift is good if [the donor] dies before he has been convicted,
[003] ³because he who is guilty of the crime having died, punishment is extinguished.]⁴

He forfeits nothing before he has been convicted.

[005] [But he forfeits nothing until he has been convicted or condemned, ⁵because a lex⁶
[006] states that gifts made after the commission of a capital crime are valid unless
[007] condemnation follows. And what was properly done before the crime committed
[008] ought not to be invalidated, [for] as another lex⁷ states, what has been properly done
[009] cannot be destroyed or altered by a supervening offence.]⁸ If a son and nearer heir
[010] commits a felony during his father's lifetime and survives him and is convicted, ⁹he
[011] forfeits [for himself and] his heirs, near and remote, his own property, that is, whatever
[012] he held when the felony was committed, no matter how he held it and as he held
[013] it.¹⁰ [And], whether he has seisin of the inheritance or not, since the mere right has
[014] descended to him, he forfeits [that] for himself and the succession for his heirs, so
[015] that, since the right cannot descend to heirs, it reverts of necessity to the chief lord,
[016] the feoffor.

That the land of a felon may revert to the chief lords for lack of heirs because it came from them.

[018] And [thus], though he does not have seisin, the seisin of the felon's ancestor will not
[019] descend to heirs, because it must follow the chief lord to whom the right reverts.¹¹
[020] But if, whether he has been convicted or not, he dies in his father's lifetime, his
[021] younger brother at once begins to be nearer heir to the common father, as though
[022] the older brother had not committed felony, because [since] no right descended to
[023] him during his father's lifetime it will be as though he had never been born.¹²
[024] ¹³<So it seems to some, but to others the contrary seems true, who say that when he
[025] commits felony during the lifetime of his ancestor and is convicted of it, he forfeits
[026] not only what he holds, for himself and his heirs, but whatever could for any
[027] reason fall to him from any of his ancestors, and not only does he forfeit it for the
[028] heirs of his body but for those more remote, brothers and others, because the count
[029] of the descent must always be made through him if the right is sought by writ.¹⁴
[030] This was the opinion of William of York, and it is sound.>¹⁵

But what shall be said of a wife's inheritance when her husband has been outlawed; is it to be restored at once?

[032] But what shall be said of a wife who has an inheritance, when her husband

Notes

1. Leg. Edw. Confess., 19.2: Liebermann, i, 645: ‘pro malefacto post generationem eorum peracto, nec perdant hereditatem’

2. For the preceding sentence, infra nn. 9-10

3-4. D. 48.1.6: ‘Defuncto eo qui reus fuit criminis, et poena extincta.’ Belongs supra 366 at nn. 9-10, where I have repeated it; om: ‘Et ad ea . . . moriatur,’ redactor's introductory phrase

6. D. 39.5.15: ‘Post contractum capitale crimen donationes factae non valent . . . [si] condemnatio secuta sit.’; supra 101, infra iv, 178

5-8. Belongs supra 366 at n. 11; om: ‘Sed nihil . . . condemnatus,’ redactor's introductory phrase

7. D. 43.19.2: ‘nec enim corrumpi aut mutari quod recte transactum est superveniente delicto potest.’

9-10. ‘propriis autem . . . quod tenuit,’ from lines 1-4

11. Supra 188, 195, infra iii, 306-7, iv, 178

12. Supra 198, infra 377, iii, 303, iv, 174

13. Supra i, 387; transposed from above, as V.

14. Supra 198, infra 377, iii 297, 306

15. Infra iv, 173