Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John / With an Historical Introduction

by William Sharp McKechnie

[66]. See Statute 12 Charles II. c. 24.

[67]. See Pollock and Maitland, I. 274, n.

[68]. Pollock and Maitland, I. 218.

[69]. Littleton, II. viii. s. 133.

[70]. Littleton, II. viii. s. 153.

[71]. Littleton, II. viii. s. 158.

[72]. History of Exchequer, I. 650, citing Pipe Roll of 18 Henry III.

[73]. See Littleton, II. ix. s. 159. With this may be compared the definition given in chapter 37 of Magna Carta, where John speaks of land thus held by a vassal as “quam tenet de nobis per servitium reddendi nobis cultellos, vel sagittas vel hujusmodi.”

[74]. Mediaeval England, pp. 249-250. A similar tenure still exists in Scotland under the name of "blench"—a tenure wherein the reddendo is elusory, viz., the annual rendering of such small things as an arrow or a penny or a peppercorn, “if asked only” (si petatur tantum).

[75]. Littleton, II. viii. s. 158.