[325] Relief—quia hereditas, quæ jacens fuit per antecessoris decessum, relevatur in manus heredum et propter factam relevationem facienda erit ab herede quædam præstatio, quæ dicitur relevium. (Vide Bracton 84. et Fleta l. 3. c. 17. s. 1.) Among the Laws of Edward the Confessor, there is a singular one, respecting the Relief of a Tenant who fell in battle. (LL. Edw. Conf. c. 35.) It must, however, be observed that Spelman questions that Law, and strongly contends, that Reliefs were not in use among the Saxons. (Reliq. p. 31.) The Reader will find that point controverted in the preface to Wilkins’s Anglo-Sax. LL. p. 9. The Reader, if desirous of extending his enquiries on Reliefs in general, may consult Bracton 84. et seq. Fleta L. 3. c. 17. Co. Litt. 76. a. 83. a. Black. Com. Sullivan, Craig, Spelman &c. &c. &c.
[326] “Glanville,” observes Lord Coke, “saith, that Women shall not do Homage: but Littleton saith, that a Woman shall do Homage, but she shall not say, Jeo devigne votre feme, but Jeo face à vous homage; and so is Glanville to be understood, that she shall not do complete Homage.” (Co. Litt. 65. b.) Having cited this passage, a noble Historian observes “But I should rather think, that in Glanville’s time single women did none, and that the alteration in the form, which is mentioned by Littleton, was an expedient found afterwards to obviate the objection of an indecency in their Homage: as it was also in the case of Ecclesiastics.” (3 Litt. Hist. Hen. 2. p. 339.) Skene gives a reason for the rule as laid down by Glanville: because Homage especially concerns service in war, (de verb. sign. ad voc. homagium.) He also remarks, that consecrated Bishops did no homage. The reason, says Cowell, may be all one. (Interpreter) But Craig (Jus Feud. 1. 11. 10.) and the Regiam Majestatem (L. 2. c. 60.) expressly coincide with our Author. Indeed, if any doubt could possibly exist, concerning the unconditional meaning of the passage in the text, it would be silenced by the latter part of the present chapter. Having made use of the expression liber homo, our author pointedly adds, masculus, as if solicitous to prevent any possible misconception, especially that very misconception Lord Coke seems to have fallen into, which is likewise refuted by a custom mentioned by Lord Littleton. “From the obligation laid on the Husband to do Homage for the wife, it naturally followed, that the Barony of a wife, as well as every other Fief requiring Homage, was in effect made over to the Husband; and, therefore, in those days many Barons came to Parliament in right of their wives, and by virtue of their marriage, were accounted Peers of the Realm. It has been observed, in this History, that the same notion extended to Dukedoms and Principalities in many parts of the Continent.” (Litt. Hen. 2. p. 339.)
[327] We have observed, that homage was divided into, liege and feudal: it was also divided into, liege and not liege, which division corresponds with the other. Liege is borrowed from the French, as Thaumas informs us. (Cout. de Beauvoisis p. 255.) and seems to have meant a service that was personal and inevitable. (Traités Sur Les Cout. Anglo-Norm. par Houard. p. 511. Tom. 1.)
[328] In performing Homage, the Tenant was to name and specify the particular Tenement, on account of which he did Homage, in order that the Lord might not be imposed upon. (Britton 174. Mirror c. 3. s. 36.)
[329] “In the year 1152, the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa made a Statute, that in every oath of fealty taken to any of his subjects, there should be a reserve of the faith due to him and his successors; which immediately was adopted by several other nations, where the feudal Law was in use, with regard to their sovereigns, and, the omission of that reserve was punished in England by a judicial determination under Edward the first.” (3 Litt. Hen. 3. p. 111.) This reserve was also required by the Book of Feuds L. 2. t. 55. Regiam Maj. L. 2. and Grand Cust. Norm.
[330] Vide Mirror c. 4. s. 10. and 11, and Le Grand Cust. de Norm. c. 14.
[331] As the Tenant could not injure his Lord, neither could the Lord injure his Tenant. If the violation of this obligation was punished on the Tenant’s part, by the loss of his Tenement, the Lord, when the Aggressor, lost his Dominion. (Fleta L. 3. c. 16.)
[332] Parium. Vide 2 Inst. 42. Spelm. Gloss. ad voc.—Pares enim sunt cum unus aliis non subditur Hommagio, Dominatione, vel Antenatione. Hommagio ut Homo subditur Domino suo cui fecit Hommagium Dominatione, ut Homo subditur uxoris domino et ejus primogenito filio: et omnes postnati ratione antenationis. (Grand Custum. de Norm. c. 126.)
[333] This differed from the Norman code, which, in a tone of haughty despotism, released the Lord from the necessity of adducing any testimony. Vox enim sola Domini Curiæ in iis quæ ad ipsum pertinent sufficit ad accusationem subditorum. (Grand Cust. c. 126.) Perhaps a worse principle never disgraced an Eastern code.
[334] That is, the King’s Court.