Note 731 — MAGNA CARTA. (continued 4)

The writs, thus restricted so that only tenants in capite could obtain them, were thereafter known as writs praecipe in capite. Under that name the writ appears in Coke’s version of the charter of Henry III. (Second Institute, p. 38), and in the translation given in the Statutes at Large of the reissue of 1225. There is no authority in any text of Magna Carta for the addition of the words in capite, and the explanation of their presence in these versions must be sought in the tendency of lawyers in an age long subsequent to 1215 to re-edit Magna Carta in the technical language of their own day. Coke emphasised the restriction of this remedy to Crown tenants. “No man ought to have this writ out of the Chancery upon a suggestion, but oath must be made, before the granting thereof, that the land is holden of the king in capite,” (p. 38), and he illustrates what he says by reference to two cases drawn from the reign of Edward I.