Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol II).djvu/139

 Ch. 8. heir apparent of a tenant by the curtey could not be in ward to the lord of the fee, during the life of uch tenant. As oon therefore as any child was born, the father began to have a permanent interet in the lands, he became one of the pares curtis, and was called tenant by the curtey initiate; and this etate being once veted in him by the birth of the child, was not liable to be determined by the ubequent death and coming of age of the infant.

are four requiites neceary to make a tenancy by the curtey; marriage, eiin of the wife, iue, and death of the wife. 1. The marriage mut be canonical, and legal. 2. The eiin of the wife mut be an actual eiin, or poeion of the lands; not a bare right to poes, which is a eiin in law, but an actual poeion, which is a eiin in deed. And therefore a man hall not be tenant by the curtey of a remainder or reverion. But of ome incorporeal hereditaments a man may be tenant by the curtey, though there have been no actual eiin of the wife; as in cae of an advowon, where the church has not become void in the life time of the wife, which a man may hold by the curtey, becaue it is impoible to have had actual eiin of it; and impotentia excuat legem. If the wife be an idiot, the huband hall not be tenant by the curtey of her lands; for the king by prerogative is entitled to them, the intant he herelf has any title: and ince he could never be rightfully eied of thee lands, and the huband's title depends entirely upon her eiin, the huband can have no title as tenant by the curtey. 3. The iue mut be born alive. Some have had a notion that it mut be heard to cry; but that is a mitake. Crying indeed is the tronget evidence of it's being born alive; but it is not the only evidence. The iue alo mut be born during the life of the mother; for, if the mother dies in labour, and the Caearean operation is performed, the huband in this cae hall not be tenant by the cur- Rh