Cape (writ)

Article summary

In archaic English law, a cape was a judicial writ concerning a plea of lands and tenements; so called, as most writs are, from the word which carried the chief intention of the writ. The writ was divided into cape magnum, or the grand cape, and cape parvum, or the petit cape. While they were alike in their effect, as to taking hold of immovable things, they differed in the following circumstances: first, in that the cape magnum lay before, and the cape parvum after; second, cape magnum summoned the defendant to answer to the default, in addition to answering to the plaintiff, while cape parvum only summoned the defendant to answer to the default. It might have been called petit cape, not because of small force, but because it was contained in few words. Cape magnum was defined in the Old Natura Brevium as follows: :"Where a Man hath brought a Precipe quod reddet of a Thing that touches Plea of Land, and the Tenant makes default at the Day to him given in the original Writ; then this Writ shall be for the King to take the Land into his Hands : and if the Tenant come not at the Day given him by the Writ, he loses his land." Cape parvum was defined was thus defined, Ibid.…

Key claims

No claims recorded.

Discussion questions

1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
2. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
3. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

Bibliography

No sources recorded.