Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 4, Page 60

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Volume 4, Page 60

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[001] when he has sued out his pone, and when the tenant essoins himself his essoiner withdraws
[002] sine die; the demandant cannot thereafter resume his plea by another pone
[003] and transfer it again from the county to the great court, because there is no plea in the
[004] county since it was once transferred thence, [as [in the roll] of Easter term in the
[005] ninth year of king Henry in the county of Huntingdon, [the case] of William Hatecrist
[006] and Robert de Wassingely,¹ in which the same Robert, the tenant, withdrew without
[007] day from that plea, which had been transferred from the county by a second pone.]
[008] and it must therefore be begun de novo. A plea is also transferred to the great court of
[009] necessity at the petition of the demandant because of the tenant's privilege not to
[010] answer concerning any plea except before the king himself or his chief justice, a privilege
[011] the Templars and Hospitallers and many others have.² If they answer despite
[012] their privilege, they cannot repent and withdraw, as [in the roll] of the eyre of the
[013] Abbot of Reading and Martin of Pateshull in the county of Worcester in the fifth year
[014] of king Henry.³ In general any plea is transferred from the county court of necessity
[015] where it does not have power to determine the plea, as when bastardy is objected or
[016] the like. And so because of difficulty in giving judgment,⁴ and in many other ways.
[017] Similarly, pleas are transferred before the justices itinerant at the petition of either,
[018] without any payment for the pone,⁵ from barons' courts. And finally, note that in
[019] connexion with a plea by the little writ [of right] in the demesnes of the lord king no
[020] pone lies. A plea is also transferred from the county to the court because of a false or
[021] foolish judgment.

Because the duel is waged contrary to the custom of the realm.

[023] ‘The king to the sheriff, greeting. Put before our justices etc. the duel waged in your
[024] county court between A. the plaintiff and such hundreds with respect to a certain
[025] judgment given concerning the same A. as to beasts taken and detained against gage
[026] and pledges, as the same A. says, and as to which he complains that the duel was
[027] waged wrongfully and contrary to the custom of our realm. And in the meantime
[028] cause a record to be made where the aforesaid duel was waged and have it before the
[029] aforesaid justices etc. on the day aforesaid by four lawful knights of your county who
[030] were present at that record. And summon etc. four lawful knights of your county who
[031] were present at that record, and in addition four lawful knights of each of the aforesaid

Notes

1. B.N.B., no. 1079; not in C.R.R. xii, but roll extant

2. Supra ii, 302, infra 280

3. Selden Soc. vol. 53, no. 980 (sidelined); not in B.N.B.

4. Infra 129

5. Om: ‘Et eodem modo’