Medieval Land Possession
During the medieval period land possession, as in all eras of history, was an important indicator of a person's wealth and stature in society. The Newburgh family held vast territories across the southwest part of Dorset. Laws changed over the centuries. A very good source for understanding these changes can be acquired by reading Joseph Biancalana, titled The Fee Tail and the Common Recovery in Medieval England 1176-1502, Cambridge University Press, 2001.
THE EARLY BASICS
In the first few pages Biancalana gives students a basic understanding of medieval law and possession of land.
"In the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries there were basic forms of grant in fee tail.
1. Land was granted by the GRANTOR to an individual and the heirs of his body. If the grantee should die without heirs of his body, then the land would refer back to the grantor.
2. If the grantee should die without heirs of his body then the land could be granted to someone else. The condition of the reversion or the remainder was almost always explicit in the grant.
These are known as conditional gifts. These gifts are conveniently referred to as FEE TAILS.
FEE TAIL GRANTS before De Donis pose at least four questions for the legal historian. When did people begin to make grants in this form? What were they hoping to accomplish? If the grantee had an heir of his body so that the condition on the reversion or the remainder was negated, what then? And what counted as having an heir of one’s body for the purpose of negating the condition on the reversion or the remainder?
HISTORY OF MARITAGIUM
If the Fee tail questions were not difficult enough, the history of fee tails before De Donis is involved in the history of maritagium. Maritagium was a grant of land made by a woman’s relative, usually her father, nominally to her husband with her upon or because of her marriage. A grant in maritagium served three social functions. As a grant made because of the woman, maritagium, in a society of male primogeniture, served as the woman’s inheritance, inheritable only by her children. As a grant on marriage, maritagium served as material support for the new conjugal unit including the children,, if any, of the marriage. As a grant to the groom maritagium served as the material basis for an alliance between families of bride and groom.
Land granted in maritagium was to go to a woman’s children. If there were no children, then the land was to revert back to the donor or his heir. Exclusion of collateral heir and reversion to the donor for default of lineal heirs were key features of a grant in fee tail.
Eventually the customary practice of making grants in maritagium underwent two types of changes. First as the customary practice came under legal rules enforce by the royal justices beginning in Henry II’s reign, the application of those legal rules to maritagium changed the customary institutions. Maritagium given free of service, or at least of intrinsic service, would remain free of homage and service for three generations and the reversion implied after the gran of maritagium would remain alive for three generations. Grantors began to add words of entail to their grants of maritagium."
For further information on land grants, consult Joseph Biancalana.
THE EARLY BASICS
In the first few pages Biancalana gives students a basic understanding of medieval law and possession of land.
"In the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries there were basic forms of grant in fee tail.
1. Land was granted by the GRANTOR to an individual and the heirs of his body. If the grantee should die without heirs of his body, then the land would refer back to the grantor.
2. If the grantee should die without heirs of his body then the land could be granted to someone else. The condition of the reversion or the remainder was almost always explicit in the grant.
These are known as conditional gifts. These gifts are conveniently referred to as FEE TAILS.
FEE TAIL GRANTS before De Donis pose at least four questions for the legal historian. When did people begin to make grants in this form? What were they hoping to accomplish? If the grantee had an heir of his body so that the condition on the reversion or the remainder was negated, what then? And what counted as having an heir of one’s body for the purpose of negating the condition on the reversion or the remainder?
HISTORY OF MARITAGIUM
If the Fee tail questions were not difficult enough, the history of fee tails before De Donis is involved in the history of maritagium. Maritagium was a grant of land made by a woman’s relative, usually her father, nominally to her husband with her upon or because of her marriage. A grant in maritagium served three social functions. As a grant made because of the woman, maritagium, in a society of male primogeniture, served as the woman’s inheritance, inheritable only by her children. As a grant on marriage, maritagium served as material support for the new conjugal unit including the children,, if any, of the marriage. As a grant to the groom maritagium served as the material basis for an alliance between families of bride and groom.
Land granted in maritagium was to go to a woman’s children. If there were no children, then the land was to revert back to the donor or his heir. Exclusion of collateral heir and reversion to the donor for default of lineal heirs were key features of a grant in fee tail.
Eventually the customary practice of making grants in maritagium underwent two types of changes. First as the customary practice came under legal rules enforce by the royal justices beginning in Henry II’s reign, the application of those legal rules to maritagium changed the customary institutions. Maritagium given free of service, or at least of intrinsic service, would remain free of homage and service for three generations and the reversion implied after the gran of maritagium would remain alive for three generations. Grantors began to add words of entail to their grants of maritagium."
For further information on land grants, consult Joseph Biancalana.