Legal Definitions - forjurer royalme

The term forjurer royalme is a historical legal concept that refers to the act of formally and legally renouncing one's kingdom under oath. Essentially, it meant to swear an oath to leave the realm permanently, thereby giving up all rights, allegiances, and claims associated with being a subject of that kingdom.

This practice was particularly relevant in medieval legal systems, often serving as a form of punishment or a means to avoid a harsher penalty like execution or imprisonment.

Here are some examples illustrating this historical legal term:

• Imagine a commoner in 14th-century England who committed a serious felony, such as theft or assault, and managed to seek sanctuary in a church. After a period of 40 days, rather than face trial and likely execution, the individual could choose to forjurer royalme. This would involve confessing their crime before a coroner and swearing a solemn oath to leave the kingdom forever, often by a specific route and port, never to return. By doing so, they formally renounced their right to live in England and accepted permanent exile.

  This example illustrates how forjurer royalme served as a legal mechanism for criminals to avoid capital punishment by voluntarily exiling themselves and formally severing their ties to the kingdom.

• Consider a powerful noble in a medieval European kingdom who was involved in a failed rebellion against the monarch. Instead of being executed for treason, the king might offer them the option to forjurer royalme. The noble would be compelled to publicly swear an oath to abandon all their lands, titles, and allegiance to the crown, and to depart the kingdom permanently. This act would strip them of their status and ensure they could not pose a future threat from within the realm.

  Here, forjurer royalme demonstrates a political application, where a high-ranking individual is forced to renounce their allegiance and rights to the kingdom as a consequence of political defeat, often as a more lenient alternative to execution.

• In a scenario involving dynastic marriages, a princess from one kingdom, marrying into the royal family of a rival or allied kingdom, might be required to formally forjurer royalme from her birth kingdom. This oath would ensure that she renounced any future claims to her original throne or any allegiance to her birth family's realm, thereby solidifying her loyalty to her new kingdom and preventing potential conflicts of interest or future succession disputes.

  This example shows a more strategic and diplomatic use of forjurer royalme, where the formal renunciation of allegiance and claims to one's birth kingdom is a condition for a political alliance or marriage, ensuring undivided loyalty to a new realm.