Legal Definitions - frank-chase

A frank-chase refers to a historical legal right, typically granted by a sovereign or powerful lord, that allowed a specific individual or entity the exclusive privilege to hunt game or harvest timber within a designated geographical area. This right meant that even if other individuals owned land within the boundaries of the frank-chase, they were legally prohibited from engaging in hunting or logging activities themselves within that same area. It essentially created a private preserve for the benefit of the frank-chase holder, restricting the activities of all others within its bounds.

• Example 1 (Exclusive Hunting Rights): In medieval England, a king might grant a favored baron a frank-chase over a vast royal forest. This meant the baron, and anyone he authorized, had the sole right to hunt deer, boar, and other game throughout that forest. Even if local villagers owned small plots of land bordering or within the forest, they were legally forbidden from hunting any animals there, ensuring the baron's exclusive access to the game.

  Explanation: This illustrates the core concept of a frank-chase by showing an exclusive "right to hunt" granted to one party (the baron) within a "certain area" (the royal forest), and how "others holding land within the frank-chase area were forbidden from hunting."

• Example 2 (Exclusive Logging Rights): Imagine a 17th-century noblewoman who received a royal decree establishing a frank-chase over a specific woodland in her estate. This grant gave her the sole authority to fell trees for construction, fuel, or sale within that designated woodland. Local tenant farmers who lived on her estate and traditionally gathered firewood from the woodland, though they resided within its general vicinity, were legally barred from cutting down trees, as that right belonged exclusively to the noblewoman as the frank-chase holder.

  Explanation: This example demonstrates the exclusive "right to... log" or harvest timber within a "certain area" (the woodland), and how "others holding land within the frank-chase area were forbidden from... logging in it."

• Example 3 (Combined Hunting and Logging): Consider a historical charter that established a frank-chase for a monastery over a particular valley. This grant allowed the monks and their designated staff to both hunt for sustenance and gather wood for fuel and construction throughout the valley. Local commoners who lived in small hamlets within the valley, despite their long-standing traditions of foraging and hunting small game, were legally compelled to cease these activities within the frank-chase boundaries, as the exclusive rights now belonged to the monastery.

  Explanation: This scenario combines both hunting and logging rights ("liberty or right to hunt or log") within a "certain area" (the valley), and clearly shows how "others holding land within the frank-chase area were forbidden from hunting or logging in it," even if they resided there.