THE OFFICE OF ALIENATIONS. 367 



to speak severally, first of the fines for alienation of lands could never 

 held in chief, and then of the fines upon the suing forth of alien with ut 

 writs original. That the king s tenant in chief could not 

 in ancient time alien his tenancy without the king s license 

 it appeareth by the statute, 1 E. III. cap. 12, where it is 

 thus written: &quot; Whereas divers do complain that the lands i E. in. 

 holden of the king in chief, and aliened without license, c - 12 - 

 have been seized into the king s hands for such alienation, 

 and holden as forfeit : the king shall not hold them as for 

 feit in such a case, but granteth that, upon such alienations, 

 there shall be reasonable fines taken in the chancery by 

 due process.&quot; 



So that it is hereby proved, that before this statute, the 

 offence of such alienation, without license, was taken to be 

 so great, that the tenant did forfeit the land thereby ; and 

 consequently, that he found great favour there by this 

 statute, to be reasonably fined for his trespass. 



And although we read an opinion 20 lib. Assis, parl. 17, 

 et 26, Assis. parl. 37, which also is repeated by Hankf. 

 14 H. IV. fol. 3, in which year Magna Charta was con 

 firmed by him, the king s tenant in chief might as freely 

 alien his lands without license, as might the tenant of any 

 other lord ; yet forasmuch as it appeareth not by what sta 

 tute the law was then changed, I had rather believe, with 

 old judge Thorpe and late justice Stanford, that even at 

 the common law, which is as much as to say, as from the 

 beginning of our tenures, or from the beginning of the 

 English monarchy, it was accounted an offence in the 

 king s tenant in chief, to alien without the royal and ex 

 press license. 



And I am sure, that not only upon the entering, or re 

 cording, of such a fine for alienation, it is wont to be said 

 pro transgressione in hac parte facta ; but that you may 

 also read amongst the records in the Tower, Fines 6 Hen. 

 Reg. 3, Memb. 4, a precedent of a capias in manum regis 

 terras alienatas sine licentia regis, and that, namely, of the 

 manor of Coselescombe in Kent, whereof Robert Cesterton 

 was then the king s tenant in chief. But were it that, as 

 they say, this began first 20 H. III. yet it is above three 

 hundred and sixty years old, and of equal, if not more an 

 tiquity than Magna Charta itself, and the rest of our most 

 ancient laws; the which never found assurance by par 

 liament until the time of King Edward I. who may 

 be therefore worthily called, our English Solon or Ly- 

 curgus. 



