unenforceable until the Statute Quia Emptores (1290) when
subinfeudationSuch complex political arrangements were common at the time and the numerous enclaves, complex (and rarely obvious) political boundaries, endless issues of
subinfeudation, as well as Burgundy's expansionary hopes in regard to the Duchy of Bar, were enough to make understandable any confusion Joan, or anyone else for that matter, might have felt about her identity or native allegiance.
After the Norman Conquest all land was tenured through a feudal system by the Crown (employing a process of
subinfeudation).
Medieval statutes such as the Statute of Quia Emptores (1290) forbidding
subinfeudation, and the Statute de Donis Conditionalibus (1285), by which a donee could alienate land to bar the right of nominated issue to take, were indeed very important to the law of property and had to be fitted into the medieval law of property by judges and property lawyers.
While examining the development of specific clauses or formulae that qualify and insure benefices, Postles demonstrates how both the intentions and practice of gifting in free alms (frankalmoign) descended to a mixture of partial alms, partial payments, and concessions, especially in cases involving
subinfeudation. The religious houses, such as the Cistercians, who had an impact on the agrarian economy thus forfeited their earlier reform ideals of exclusion and mission as they became more and more involved with secular land tenure.
(125) This rule has been a constant feature of property law since the 1290 statute of Quia Emptores, which ended
subinfeudation and established a more straightforward regime for the sale of land.
Through the practice of
subinfeudation, the levy--generally substantially increased--was passed down the line from landowner to developer to builder to house agent to purchaser.