54 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE [xm. 



XIII. 



RELAXATION OF STRICT ENTAILS COMMON 

 RECOVERIES. 



I HAVE already stated that the statute De Donis 

 remained in nearly unimpaired force during the 

 fourteenth century. Even if the owner of entailed 

 land sold it, with a warranty that he held in fee 

 simple, his heir in tail might claim the land by 

 force of the entail, notwithstanding that the obliga- 

 tion of the warranty would, according to the ordinary 

 rules of law, by descending upon him, preclude him 

 from asserting his right. This was the case of a lineal 

 warranty ; but if the warranty were collateral, if the 

 warranty did not, and could not, descend from or 

 through the ancestor from whom the entailed land 

 descended, then the heir in tail was barred. 



The cases in which a collateral warranty existed 

 must, however, have been rare, and owners of entail ml 

 lands, with the view of obtaining complete control 

 over them, had recourse to this expedient. The owner 



