THK LAW AND CUSTOM ()F PRIMOGENITURE 357 



It is impossible to fix the precise year, or even the precise 



, in which primogeniture was substituted for gavelkind in 

 the common law of Kngland. Blackstone, who regards this 

 feature of mature feudalism as introduced by the Conqueror, 

 points out that, under the so-called laws of Henry I, the eldest 

 son had no pre-eminence beyond the right of appropriating the 

 " capital fee " held by military tenure ; and that so late as the 

 reign of Henry II socage fees continued to be partible among 

 the male children. At all events, the present rule of succession 

 had become almost universal, except in Kent, before the end 

 of the thirteenth century, by which time, also, the custom of 

 entailing, in its most ancient form, was already established. 

 Kntails created in this form conferred no indefeasible right 

 of inheritance. When a fee was granted to a man "and the 

 heirs male of his body," it was held that, upon the birth of a 

 son, the grantee might sell the land, or charge it with incum- 

 brances, or forfeit it by treason, so as to bar the interest of his 

 own issue, though, if he did none of these acts, it would descend 



ling to the express terms of the grant. This full liberty 

 of alienation is described by Mr. Neate, in his treatise on the 

 Law of Lntail, as characteristic of true feudalism, which denied 



n any vested right in the estate so acquired by the father. 



The famous statute /V Honis (\$ Kdward 1, cap. I), by which 



the succes.sion of the issue and the ultimate reversion of the 



donor on failure of issue were secured against the risk of 



defeated by alienation, is viewed by the same author as 



islative encroachment on feudal principles. The entails 

 under this statute for nearly two hundred years ci< 



perpetual ! life-estates, and are stigmatised 



in a well-known passage of l'.l;u ksto; mmcnt..- 



Children grew disobedient when they knew they could not be sr .irmers 



were ousted of their leases made 1>\ tenant e defrauded 



. . innumerable latent < : ' t" deprive pur- 



raged, 

 as estates-tail were not liable to forfeiture Ion 



Though it m In- doubted whether the greater part of 



i : i ails under , 



