Legal Definitions - libertatibus allocandis

Libertatibus allocandis refers to a historical legal command, or writ, issued by the English Crown. Its primary purpose was to ensure that certain special rights or privileges, known as "liberties" or "franchises," which had previously been granted to individuals, corporations, or communities, were officially recognized and upheld by royal officials or other authorities.

Essentially, it was a directive to "allow" or "allocate" these established liberties, preventing their infringement or denial. These liberties could range from the right to hold a market, collect tolls, or operate a local court, to specific hunting or fishing rights.

Here are some examples illustrating how libertatibus allocandis would have applied:

• Example 1: A Town's Market Rights
  Imagine a medieval town that had been granted a royal charter allowing it to hold a weekly market and collect tolls from vendors. Years later, a new royal sheriff, perhaps unfamiliar with the old charter or seeking to assert more control, begins to interfere with the market, claiming the town lacks the authority to collect tolls. The town council could petition the Crown for a writ of libertatibus allocandis. This writ would then be issued to the sheriff, compelling him to recognize and respect the town's long-established right to operate its market and collect tolls, thereby upholding their granted liberty.

• Example 2: A Monastery's Judicial Authority
  Consider a powerful monastery that, through a royal grant, possessed the liberty to administer its own court for minor disputes among its tenants and within its lands, rather than having these cases heard in the King's courts. If a royal judge attempted to assert jurisdiction over a case that clearly fell within the monastery's granted judicial powers, the monastery could seek a libertatibus allocandis writ. This legal instrument would serve as a formal instruction to the royal judge, requiring him to acknowledge and defer to the monastery's established right to hold its own court for such matters.

• Example 3: A Nobleman's Hunting Privileges
  Suppose a nobleman had been granted a specific liberty by the King to hunt deer in a particular section of a royal forest, a privilege not generally extended to others. If a new royal forest warden, perhaps unaware of this specific grant or choosing to ignore it, attempted to prevent the nobleman from exercising this right, the nobleman could appeal to the Crown. A writ of libertatibus allocandis would then be issued to the warden, commanding him to recognize and permit the nobleman to exercise his legally granted hunting privilege within the designated area.