Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 4, Page 131

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Volume 4, Page 131

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[001] county’). Therefore we order you, as soon as you have seen these letters, every
[002] occasion etc., to go in your own person to such a place, taking with you the aforesaid
[003] four knights, or two of them if you cannot have all, and see if the same B. is
[004] there in bed and in his languor, as it was adjudged him or not. If you find him there,
[005] make that known to our justices at Westminster by your sealed letters; if not then
[006] cause the aforesaid knights, who were present with you, to appear before our aforesaid
[007] justices on such a day to certify that to our same justices. And meanwhile, by
[008] lawful and discreet men, your bailiffs as well as others, cause watch to be made for
[009] the same B. to see if he returns from such parts or not. If he returns and is found
[010] outside the place where languor was adjudged him, then cause him to be arrested,
[011] so that you may have his body before our aforesaid justices at such a term to answer
[012] as to why etc. ¹(or ‘to hear the record and² his judgment on [his default, why
[013] in]³ the plea which was before our same justices between the aforesaid A. and B.
[014] with respect to so much land with the appurtenances in such a vill, as to which the
[015] same B. essoined himself of bed-sickness against the aforesaid A. so that languor
[016] was adjudged him, he rose without licence from the languor, as the same A. says’).
[017] And have there etc. Witness etc.’ Thus these last clauses may either be added to
[018] the writ or taken by themselves.⁴

How and when an essoinee ought to come to the Tower of London or send a responsalis.

[020] At the end of the year after ‘languor,’ when the essoinee has recovered from ‘languor,’
[021] we must see how he ought to come to the Tower, and when, or send a
[022] responsalis because ‘languor’ has now turned into a dangerous and incurable
[023] disease so that he cannot come in person.⁵ Also when he ought to rise from his sick
[024] bed, and how, and by what daily journeys, he ought to come to the Tower. It is
[025] clear that when the essoinee has recovered from ‘languor’ and can come in his own
[026] person, he ought first to calculate reasonable daily journeys, according as he is fully
[027] recovered or has been weakened and debilitated by ‘languor,’ so that he may come
[028] conveniently [But after he has risen from his bed let him not delay in his own
[029] dwelling beyond one night, [nor] more than one night anywhere on the way.]⁶ by
[030] reasonable daily journeys to the Tower and be present at the Tower on the last day
[031] of the natural year, which is called the lawful day for appearing at the Tower in any
[032] year, in a leap year as in the other three years preceding.⁷

Notes

1. Supra 130, n. 2

2. ‘et’

3. ‘de defalta, quare in loquela,’ as supra 130

4. Om: ‘de inquisitione’

5. Supra 91, 116

6. ‘nec per viam moram . . . noctem’; om: ‘Et sic . . . proficiscatur,’ a connective

7. ‘qui dicitur . . . praecedentibus,’ from 132, lines 9-11; om: ‘qui dicitur . . . placitandi’; F. Schulz has written a learned commentary (Traditio, iii, 265-305) on the pages following to which I am much indebted.