The Fee Tail and the Common Recovery in Medieval England: 1176–1502 (Cambridge Studies in English Legal History)

Fee tails were a basic building block for family landholding from the end of the thirteenth to the beginning of the twentieth century. The classic entail was an interest in land which was inalienable and could only pass at death by inheritance to the lineal heirs of the original grantee. Biancalana's study considers the origins, development and use of the entail in later medieval England, and the origins and early use of a reliable legal mechanism for the destruction of individual entails, the common recovery. He untangles the complex history surrounding medieval landholding in this first detailed study of the fee tail, the product of extensive research in original sources. This book includes an extensive index of over three hundred common recoveries with discussions of their transactional contexts. A major work which will interest lawyers and historians Cover......Page 1 Half-title......Page 3 Series-title......Page 5 Title......Page 7 Copyright......Page 8 Dedication......Page 9 CONTENTS......Page 11 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 13 ABBREVIATIONS AND ABBREVIATED CITATIONS......Page 15 INTRODUCTION......Page 23 1 FEE TAILS BEFORE DE DONIS......Page 28 (a) Origins and early history......Page 31 (b) The duration of fee tails before De Donis......Page 42 (i) Alienation......Page 43 (ii) Succession......Page 55 2. THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF MARITAGIUM......Page 59 (i) Maritagium becomes a fee tail......Page 61 (ii) Maritagium for three generations......Page 65 (i) Maritagium and inheritance......Page 73 (ii) Maritagium, marriage alliances, and curtesy......Page 85 3. MARITAGIUM AND FEE TAILS IN THE KING'S COURT: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FORMEDON WRITS......Page 91 (a) Formedon in the reverter......Page 92 (b) Formedon in the descender......Page 98 (c) Formedon in the remainder......Page 102 2 THE GROWTH OF THE "PERPETUAL'' ENTAIL......Page 105 1. READING DE DONIS......Page 107 2. THE STATUTORY RESTRAINT ON ALIENATION AND THE DESCENDER WRIT......Page 111 (a) Interaction of Chancery and the courts......Page 114 (b) Development of the descender writ and the last ancestor rule......Page 120 (i) 1285–1309......Page 128 (ii) 1310–1329......Page 132 (iii) 1330–circa 1420......Page 133 (iv) 1420 and after......Page 141 (a) Reversions......Page 144 (b) Remainders......Page 150 3 LIVING WITH ENTAILS......Page 163 1. THE CHANGE FROM MARITAGIUM TO JOINTURE......Page 164 (a) The monetization of marriage settlements......Page 167 (b) From old to new marriage settlement......Page 175 2. THE FREQUENCY AND USE OF ENTAILS......Page 182 (a) The frequency of fee tails......Page 183 (i) Grants outside the family......Page 199 (ii) Grants within the family......Page 202 APPENDIX......Page 209 4 BARRING THE ENFORCEMENT ENTAILS OTHER THAN BY COMMON RECOVERY......Page 217 (a) Background......Page 218 (b) Inventing the doctrine of assets by descent for De Donis......Page 221 (c) Applying the doctrine......Page 230 2. THE DOCTRINE OF COLLATERAL WARRANTY......Page 234 (a) Releases and warranty......Page 238 (b) Gloucester and collateral warranty......Page 246 (c) Collateral warranties to bar remainders and reversions......Page 249 (d) Collateral warranties to bar the issue......Page 255 (e) Using collateral warranties as a bar......Page 261 3. BARRING ENTAILS BY JUDGMENT......Page 264 5 THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE COMMON RECOVERY......Page 272 1. THE ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF COMMON RECOVERIES......Page 273 2. DEVELOPMENT OF PROCEDURE AND DOCTRINE......Page 283 (a) From writ of right to writ of entry......Page 284 (i) The writ of right......Page 285 (ii) The recompense theory and Taltarum's Case......Page 290 (iii) The writ of entry......Page 298 (b) The choice of warrantor: enter the common vouchee......Page 306 (c) Executing the judgment......Page 313 3. THE DOUBLE VOUCHER RECOVERY......Page 321 1. THE USES OF RECOVERIES......Page 335 (a) Dispute resolution......Page 342 (b) Sales......Page 345 (c) Resettlements and transfers into uses......Page 356 2. SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE COMMON RECOVERY......Page 359 SUMMARY......Page 374 A. Simple sales – a manor or a fraction of a manor......Page 375 B. Simple sales – less than a manor......Page 398 C. Complicated sales......Page 404 E. Life estates......Page 405 F. Purchases for settlements......Page 406 G. Purchases and resettlements......Page 407 H. Royal purchases and political transfers......Page 409 I. Mortgages and debt transactions......Page 410 II. TRANSFERS INTO MORTMAIN......Page 411 A. Dispute settlements......Page 413 B. Extinguishing old claims......Page 417 C. Resettlements that also extinguish old claims......Page 419 D. Making partitions......Page 420 A. Unidentified resettlements......Page 422 B. Transfers to feoffees to uses......Page 440 C. Transfers out of uses......Page 448 D. Marriage and spousal settlements......Page 449 E. Intra-family sales and transfers......Page 455 F. Regrants......Page 458 Cambridge University Library......Page 462 II. PUBLISHED SOURCES......Page 463 III. SECONDARY WORKS......Page 468 SUBJECT AND SELECTED PERSONS INDEX......Page 476 Persons......Page 483 Places......Page 502 A major study of landholding in medieval England based on original sources with an extensive index