The Principal Laws of England, Title page – Table of contents
THE PRINcipal lawes customes and estatutes of England which be at this present day in vre, compendiously gathered togither for ye weale and benefit of the kinges Maiesties most louing subiectꝭ, newely recognised and augmented. ❧
LONDINI. M.D.XL. ❧
Cum priuilegio ad imprimendum solum.
¶The prologe of Richarde Tauerner to the reader.
DEmosthenes the renowmed Orator defyneth law in this wise. The law (sayth he) is y• thing that all men ought to obey for many skylles, but in especial bicause law is ye inuē tion & also the gifte of god, the decree of prudēt men, ye chastisement of wilful & vnwilfull offenses, & finally the common suretie of a realme wherby it becommeth al men to liue which be conuersant in ye same. Chrysippus also an excellēt philosopher thus beginneth his boke of lawes. The lawe is kinge of all aswel diuine as humane affaires, the presidēt and comptroller of thinges honest and dishonest, the prince, captaine and ruler of the iuste and iniust, & it is of ciuile-creatures aswell the commaunder, what they ought to do, as the forbydder, what they ought not to do. These auntike sayenges of wise mē assuredly ought moch to inflame vsus to the knowledge of those thinges, wtout which we shal be estemed no men but as brute and sauage beastes. Let vsus not commyt, that it be sayd of vsus English men, as it was ones said of ye men of Athens, that is, that we make very goodly & profytable lawes, but we vse thē not. Certainly there can be no greater reproche to a common weale then thys. One lesson I wolde we lerned of the auncient lawyer Romain named Celsus, and that is this. The knowledge of lawes is not to beare awey ye wordꝭ but the pyth & power of them. This he wrote bicause there be many which when good & holsom lawes be made, seke not to se them executed, & obserued, but rather how to defraude them and to hauehave them vnexecuted, whiche kinde of people after the sentence of most ancient lawmakers be no lesse worthy of reprehensiō thā they which do expresly against ye law. Now, they do (say they) against the law which do the thing that ye law forbyddeth. And they defraude a law or statute, which the wordes of the law saued, do circū uent the meaning and sentence of it. Let vsus thā so read the lawes, that we may beare awey the sentence & mynd of them, and so fulfyl and obserue the lawes, that it maye appeare that they were not made in vayn. Thus doing, we shal please god, we shal be obedient subiectes to oure prince, and finally we shall seke our own weale and sauetye.
THE TABLE OF THIS ❧ BOKE. ❧
WHat is law, iustice, and the prudence of lawes. fol. i.
¶ A diuision of estates in landes or tenementes. fol. i.
¶ Of tenāt for terme of yeres. fol. i.
¶ Tenant at wyl. fol. iii.
¶ Tenāt by copy of court rol. fo. iiii
¶ A diuisiō of freholdes fol. vii.
¶ Tenāt for terme of life. fol. viii.
¶ Tenāt by the curtesy. fol. ix.
¶ Of tenant in dower. fol. x.
¶ A diuisiō of inheritāces. fol. xiiii.
¶ Fe simple. fol. xv
¶ Fe tayle fol. xx.
¶ Tenante after possibilitie of issue extincte. fol. xxiii.
¶ Of parceners. fol. xxiiii.
¶ Of condicions. fol. xxvi.
¶ Of liuery of seisin and of atturnement, fol. xxix.
¶ Of seruices. fol. xxxii.
¶ Knightes seruice. fol. xxxiii.
❧ Of warde mariage and reliefe. fol. xxxvii.
¶ Seruice of castel garder fol. xl.
❧ Of grande sergeantie fol. xli.
¶ Of petite sergeantie. fol. xliii.
☞ Of homage ancestrel fol. xliii.
¶ Of socage. fol. xlv.
¶ Of frank almoyne. fol. xlvi.
❧ Of burgage. fol. xlviii.
¶ Of villenage or bonde seruice. fol. xlix.
❧ Of rentes & of the diuers kindes of them. fol. liiii.
¶ what remedye a man hath to recouer his rent whā it is behynd. fol. lx.
¶ How auowries ought to be made of rentes and seruices. fol. xliii.
☞ An act for assignes or grantees of reuersions to take auantage of cō dicions vponupon fermers. fol. xlv.
¶ A newe arte how tithes and other profites ecclesiastical shalbe recouered. fol. xl.vi.
❧ Of mortuaries. fol. xl.ix.
¶ An newe arte made for thassurāce of fermers to holde their fermes against tenātes in tayl &c. fol. lxxi.
❧ That fermers shal take auantage of condiciōs & couenātes againste grantees of reuersions. fol. lxxiii.
❧ That fermers or tenātꝭ for terme of yeares shal falsefye recoueries for their terme. fol. lxxiiij.
¶ An acte for thaduoydinge of recoueries by collusion against tenantes for terme of life. fol. lxxv.
☞ Of discontinuance and of a newe acte cōcerning y• same. fol. lxxvi.
¶ That wrongful disseisin is no discent in the lawe. fol. lxxviii.
❧ The limitatiō of prescription newly inacted fol. lxxix.
¶ Of times and how they shall conclude the issue in taile. fol. lxxxiii.
¶ Of testamentes or laste willes. fol. lxxxv.
❧ An acte for probate of testamētes. fol. lxxxvii.
¶ Of disposing of landes by testament or otherwise, newly inacted. fol. lxxxxi.
❧ Of mariagies and towching the degrees of consāguinitie. fol. xcvi.
❧ An ende of the table of this present volume.
What is lawe.
THe law is the direction & ministratiō of iustice, & iustice is as Iustinian sayth in hys institutions a constante & permanent minde and will to render vntounto eueryevery persone his right and duty. The prudencye of lawe is a knowledge of diuine and of humane thynges, a science and perfyte notice of equite and iniquitie, of rightuousnes and vnrightuousnes. And forasmoche as a great porcion of the prudencie or science of the lawes of this realme consisteth in the perfyte knowlege of estates that men hauehave in landes and tenementes: we shal first as compendiously, and as simply and playnlye as we can, treate of estates.
❧ A diuision of estates.
YE shal therfore vndersand, that who so euer hath anye estate in landes or tenements, either he hath in the same onelye a chatell, or a free holde, or an inheritaunce. Yf he hath an estate in any landes or tenementꝭ but for terme of certayne yeares, or at his landlordes wyll: so is it called a chatell, if for terme of his life or of an other mans lyfe, it is called a free holde, or franke tenement. And if he hath it to hym and to hys heyres in fee simple, or in tayle: then we saye he hathe an estate of inheritaunce.