Legal Definitions - reseiser

Reseiser is a historical legal term referring to the act by which a monarch would reclaim possession of lands. This occurred specifically when the formal legal process through which an heir or tenant had previously taken possession of those lands from the Crown – such as a general grant of possession (known as "livery") or the formal release of lands from royal control upon an heir coming of age (known as "ouster le main") – was found to have been improperly executed or misused. Essentially, if the initial transfer of land from the Crown was legally flawed due to procedural errors or abuse, the monarch had the right to take it back.

Here are some examples to illustrate this concept:

• Example 1: Misrepresentation in Gaining Livery

  Imagine a situation in medieval England where a young nobleman, Lord Alaric, was due to inherit a significant estate from his deceased father. To formally take possession of these lands from the Crown, he needed to undergo a process called "general livery," which involved proving his age and eligibility to the King's officials. If Lord Alaric, eager to gain control of the lands sooner, secretly bribed a royal clerk to falsify his age or misrepresented his feudal obligations, and this deception was later discovered by the King's court, the King could then exercise reseiser. The monarch would reclaim the lands because the initial grant of possession was based on a misuse and fraudulent execution of the livery process.

• Example 2: Failure to Meet Conditions for Ouster le Main

  Consider Lady Beatrice, whose inherited lands were held under royal wardship while she was a minor. Upon reaching adulthood, she applied for "ouster le main" – a formal petition to the Crown to release her lands from royal control. This process typically required her to demonstrate that all feudal dues and services associated with the land had been properly accounted for or settled. If Lady Beatrice, through negligence or deliberate omission, failed to meet these stipulated conditions but still managed to have her lands released due to a procedural oversight by the royal administration, the King, upon discovering this failure to comply with the proper conditions of "ouster le main," could invoke reseiser. The lands would be taken back into royal possession until the correct procedures were followed and all obligations genuinely met.

• Example 3: Procedural Error in a General Grant

  Suppose a powerful Duke was granted a vast forest by the King through a royal charter, which constituted a form of "general livery." Years later, a meticulous review by the Crown's legal advisors uncovers that the original royal charter contained a significant procedural error – perhaps it was not properly sealed, or it was issued based on fundamentally incorrect geographical surveys provided by the Duke's agents at the time. This flaw meant the initial transfer of possession was legally unsound. In such a scenario, the King could perform a reseiser, reclaiming the forest because the fundamental legal process by which the Duke originally took possession was flawed and misused, rendering his claim to the land invalid from the outset.