Note 727 — MAGNA CARTA. (continued 4)

The normal procedure seems to have included the following steps: (a) a claimant in the court of the lord of the fief offers to prove by battle a better title than the tenant in possession; (b) the tenant applies to the king to have the issue decided by grand assize; (c) a writ praecipe quod reddat is then issued in the form given by Glanvill, I. c. 6, (already cited) virtually forbidding the claimant to proceed elsewhere than before the king; (d) a second writ follows in the form given by Glanvill, II. c. 8, forbidding the lord “to hold in his court the plea between the litigants M. and R. because M. the tenant has put himself upon my assize.” Cf. supra, c. 18.