Statute of Mortmain; November 15, 1279

[Destry]

(Stubbs"'Charters," p. 457.)

The king to his Justices of the Bench, greeting. Where as of late it was provided that religious men should not enter into the fees of any without the will and licence of the lords in chief of whom these fees are held immediately; and such religious men have, notwithstanding, later entered as well into their own fees as into those of others, appropriating them to themselves, and buying them, and sometimes receiving them from the gift of others, whereby the services which are due of such fees, and which at the beginning, were provided for the defence of the realm, are unduly withdrawn, and the lords in chief do lose their escheats of the same; we, therefore, to the profit of our realm, wishing to provide a fit remedy in this matter, by advice of our prelates, counts and other subjects of our realm who are of our council, have provided, established, and ordained, that no person, religious or other, whatsoever he be, shall presume to buy or sell any lands or tenements, or under colour of gift or lease, or of any other term or title whatever to receive them from any one, or in any other way, by craft or by wile to appropriate them to himself, whereby such lands and tenements may come into mortmain; under pain of forfeiture of the same. We have provided also that if any person, religious or other, do presume either by craft or wile to offend against this statute, it shall be lawful for us and for other immediate lords in chief of the fee so alienated, to enter it within a year from the time of such alienation and to hold it in fee as an inheritance. And if the immediate lord in chief shall be negligent and be not willing to enter into such fee within the year, then it shall be lawful for the next mediate lord in chief, within the half year following, to enter that fee and to hold it, as has been said; and thus each mediate lord may do if the next lord be negligent in entering such fee, as has been said. And if all such chief lords of such fee, who shall be of full age and within the four seas and out of prison, shall be for one year negligent or remiss in this matter, we, straightway after the year is completed from the time when such purchases, gifts, or appropriations of another kind happen to have been made, shall take such lands and tenements into our hand, and shall enfief others therein by certain services to be rendered thence to us for the defence of our kingdom; saving to the lords in chief of the same fees their wards, escheats and other things which pertain to them, and the services therefrom due and accustomed. And therefore we command you to cause the aforesaid statute to be read before you, and from henceforth to be firmly kept and observed. Witness myself at Westminster, the 15th day of November, the 7th year of our reign.
Henderson's Note

The Statute of Mortmain, was intended, as Stubbs tells us, to put an end to "the fraudulent bestowal of estates on religious foundations, on the understanding that the donor should hold them as fiefs of the church, and as so exonerated from public burdens.

The Statute of Mortmain bears a close relation to the statute Quia Emptores, enacted eleven years later, in which the feudal dues of the superior lords, the king the chief of them, are secured by the abolition of subinfeudation; as, in this act, they are secured by the limitation of ecclesiastical endowments."
Source:
Henderson, Ernest F.
Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages
London : George Bell and Sons, 1896.