Page:Select historical documents of the Middle Ages.djvu/125

Rh the time a knight's fee from the king—not, indeed, a crown fief, but rather one belonging to some barony which, for some reason, had lapsed into the hand of the king; such as a bishopric when the see is vacant: the heir of the dead man, if he be an adult, shall pay for a knight's fee 100 shillings; for two 10£, and so on, according to the number of knights which the heritage had owed to the lord before it had lapsed to the fisc. But if an heir is left who is a minor, what comes from his heritage shall, by reason of the wardship, fall to the fisc for the time that he is under age, as has been said; if he have been left by his father an adult already, he shall pay for each knight's fee 100 shillings, or even proportionately less; that is, 50 shillings if he possess a half of a knight's fee, and so on. Nor may it be hidden from thee that, from him whom, together with the fruit of his possession, thou dost have in custody for several years, thou wilt not be able to ask a relief when he comes to his majority.

D. In this matter the law judges for the wards, decrees as well becomes pious minds.

M. Thus it is; but let us continue concerning what we have undertaken. There is likewise also a third kind of escheats which comes to the exchequer by perpetual right. When any tenant in chief of the king, conscious to himself of a crime committed, whether he be accused of it or not, nevertheless leaving all that he has, seeks to save his life hj flight: or if, being convicted of that of which he is accused, or confessing the same, he is judged unworthy at the same time of his land and of his life: all things which were his by right are straightway confiscated; and all his revenues by a yearly, nay, also by a perpetual right, are paid into the exchequer by the sheriff, and what comes from the sale of what is movable among them goes to the king. Likewise if a man of whatsoever condition, or the slave or freeman of whatsoever lord, through fear of the more rigid law which the king has established on account of criminals, shall flee from his home, and, during the terms fixed and defined by law, shall not have presented himself or excused himself,—or also if, the neighbourhood raising a hue against him, being suspected and afterwards taken, he shall be convicted by the fixed law of the assize