Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 4, Page 45

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Volume 4, Page 45

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[001] right and whose seisin he claims, not in the person of him who holds for a term of
[002] years, as a farmer, as where he has transferred for a term to another and, the term
[003] having ended, he wishes to reclaim his term.¹ The same may be said of one who holds
[004] for a term of life in some way, as a free tenement, and demises for a term, and, the
[005] term having ended, wishes to reclaim what he demised. The same may be said of one
[006] who holds in fee only, without the mere right, that is, without use and esplees; such
[007] persons, though they have right, of some kind and to some degree, as the possessory
[008] right, may not claim the proprietary right nor bring it before the court, because they
[009] do not have it.² When, therefore, both rights belong to a person, that is, of possession
[010] and property, and he claims his own seisin or that of an ancestor as his right and inheritance,
[011] [or her maritagium] by a writ of entry, with a statement of the right or
[012] without it, and speaks thus in founding his intentio ‘I claim so much land with the
[013] appurtenances as my right etc. of which (‘I’ or) such a one, my ancestor was seised in
[014] his demesne as of fee in the time of such a king, taking esplees to the value of so much,
[015] and from him the right of that land descended to such a one, (and so on exactly as by
[016] writ of right, to the demandant, and then adds) and in which the same person has no
[017] entry except through such a one etc.,’ so that he makes mention of entry, the writ of
[018] right at once begins to be a writ of entry by virtue of the demandant's count, [that
[019] is], when the tenant chooses entry.³ Since it is in his election at the outset whether in
[020] his answer to hold himself to the denial of the right or the entry, he will have all the
[021] remedies and all the delays which could lie for him in a writ of right,⁴ at least until he
[022] chooses to deny the right or the entry. If he chooses to deny the right, let the plea remain
[023] as by writ of right; if the entry, it then ceases to be a writ of right and again returns
[024] to its own nature, as by writ of entry. When the demandant at the beginning
[025] puts both forward in his intentio, that is, right and entry, he must offer to prove both,
[026] unless the tenant wishes to acknowledge his right. It will [not] be necessary that the
[027] tenant deny both, but he will have the election as to which of them he wishes to deny,
[028] the right or the entry. He is not bound to take on both, since one suffices by itself without
[029] the other, because when the demandant puts forward his right and the entry, if he
[030] fails in the proof of one it will be as though he had failed in both, because of the copulative
[031] conjunction ‘et’ which joins both.

Notes

1. Supra 42-3

2. Supra 43

3. Supra 43

4. Supra 44