Page:Select historical documents of the Middle Ages.djvu/123

Rh names of the separate items are expressed in order. But when the father of the family, be he knight or serjeant, who holds from the king in chief, shall have paid his debt to fate, leaving children, however, of which the eldest is a minor, his revenues, indeed, revert to the fisc; but in this case it is not simply called escheat but escheat with heir. And thiis neither is the heir taken from the inheritance nor the inheritance from him; but, being placed, together with his inheritance, under the guardianship of the king for the time of his pupillary age, both he and the other children shall receive from that inheritance, through the officials of the king, what is necessary. The remaining sums, however, which come from it, go to the royal uses. The accounts for them, moreover, are made separately; for not by perpetual, but by a certain temporary right, ars they due to the fisc. For when the heir who is now a minor, having attained the benefits of a lawful age, shall know how to make disposition for himself and those belonging to him, he shall receive from the royal munificence what is due to him by paternal right; some, free, as it were by the sole favour of the prince; some, on promising a certain sum; concerning which, when the account shall be made, it shall read in the yearly roll: " that or that person renders account for 100£ for the relief of the land of his father; in the treasury so much, and he owes so much."

Concerning this, moreover, no further account shall be made in the yearly roll; for henceforth it does not revert any more to the fisc. But so long as it is in the hand of the king, it shall be written of thus in the yearly roll:

"such a sheriff renders account for the farm of such an honour "—if it is a barony;—" in the treasury so much, and, for the care of the children of such a one, so much by writ of the king";—and this shall be made out there at the exchequer by custom—" and he owes so much," or " and he is quit." But if this be a minor holding, so that there are one or two or three estates, it shall read thus: "that sheriff" or "that person N." — he to whom the king chanced to have deputed the care of that matter—" renders account for the farm of that land N., which belonged to that man N., which the king holds in his hand," or, " which is in the hand of the king with the