The Fee Tail and the Common Recovery in Medieval England

Fee tails were a basic building block for family landholding from the end of the thirteenth to the beginning of the twentieth century. The classic entail was an interest in land which was inalienable and could only pass at death by inheritance to the lineal heirs of the original grantee. Biancalana's study considers the origins, development and use of the entail in later medieval England, and the origins and early use of a reliable legal mechanism for the destruction of individual entails, the common recovery. He untangles the complex history surrounding medieval landholding in this detailed study of the fee tail, the product of extensive research in original sources. This book includes an extensive index of over three hundred common recoveries with discussions of their transactional contexts. A major work which will interest lawyers and historians.

Fee tails were a heritable interest in land which was both inalienable and could only pass at death by inheritance to descendants of the original grantee. Biancalana's study considers the origins of the entail, and the development of a reliable legal mechanism for their destruction, the common recovery.

Acknowledgments; List of abbreviations and abbreviated citations; Introduction; Part I. Fee Tails Before De Donis: 1. Grants in fee tail; 2. The transformation of maritagium; 3. Maritagium and fee tails in the King's court: the development of the formedon writs; Part II. The Growth of the 'Perpetual' Entail: 4. Reading De Donis; 5. The statutory restraint on alienation and the descender writ; 6. The duration of entails for reversions and remainders; Part III. Living with Entails: 7. The change from maritagium to jointure; 8. The frequency and use of entails; Part IV. Barring the Enforcement Entails other than by Common Recovery: 9. The doctrine of assets by descent; 10. The doctrine of collateral warranty; 11. Barring entails by judgment; Part V. The Origin and Development of the Common Recovery: 12. The origin and growth of common recoveries; 13. Development of procedure and doctrine; 14. The double voucher recovery; Part VI. The Common Recovery in Operation: 15. The uses of recoveries; 16. Social acceptance of the common recovery; Appendix to Part VI; Bibliography; Subject and selected persons index; Index to persons and places in appendix to Part VI.