[1041] Crawford Charters (ed. Napier and Stevenson), pp. 23, 126. Early in cent. xi. a bishop in his testament declares how he gives ‘to each retainer his steed which he had lent him.’
[1042] See the wills collected by Thorpe; p. 501: Gift to the queen for her mediation that the will may stand. Ibid. p. 505: ‘And bishop Theodred and ealdorman Eadric informed me, when I gave my lord the sword that king Edmund gave me ... that I might be worthy of my testament (mine quides wirde). And I never ... have done any wrong to my lord that it may not so be.’ Ibid. p. 519: ‘And I pray my dear lord for the love of God that my testament may stand.’ See also pp. 528, 539, 543, 552, 576.
[1043] Thus ealdorman Alfred disposes (but with the consent of the king and all his witan) of his ‘heritage’ as well as of his book-land; Thorpe, 480. Lodge, Essays on A.-S. Law, p. 108, supposes a certain power of regulating the descent of ‘family land’ within the family.
[1044] K. 414 (ii. 273): ‘Ego Wulfricus annuente et sentiente et praesente domino meo rege ... concessi ... terram iuris mei ... quam praefatus rex Eadredus mihi dedit in perpetuam hereditatem cum libro eiusdem terrae.’—K. 1130 (v. 254): ‘Ego Eadulfus dux per concessionem domini mei regis ... concedo ... has terras de propria possessione mea quas idem ... rex dedit in perpetuam hereditatem.’—K. 1226 (vi. 25): ‘Ego Ælfwordus minister Regis Eadgari concedo ... annuente domino meo rege ... villam unam de patrimonio meo.’
[1045] Except in the cases, comparatively rare before the statute Quia Emptores, in which the feoffee is to hold of the feoffor’s lord.
[1046] Fustel de Coulanges, Les origines du système féodal; Brunner, D. R. G. i. 209–12.
[1047] K. 1058 (v. 115); B. ii. 89: ‘et nullus iam licentiam ulterius habeat Christi neque sancti Petri ... neque ausus sit ulterius illam terram praedictam rogandi in beneficium.’
[1048] K. 1089 (v. 166); B. ii. 281. See also K. 262 (ii. 33); B. ii. 40; Birhtwulf of Mercia takes a lease for five lives from the church of Worcester and assigns it to a thegn. The consideration for this lease is a promise that for the future he will not make gifts out of the goods of the church.
[1049] K. 1287 (vi. 124). The verb praestare was the regular term for describing the action of one who was constituting a precarium or beneficium. In K. 1071 (v. 138) Bp Werferth of Worcester obtains a lease for three lives having petitioned for it; ‘terram ... humili prece deprecatus fui.’
[1050] For commodare see K. v. pp. 166, 169, 171; for lǽnan, ibid. 162; for lǽtan, ibid. 164.