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should assemble and request of the lord that he deliver and leave him with the court. And for this they should grant a period of three and fortnight. And after the three and fortnight, if he does not do it, they must take security from him [the lord] just as it is said in the other chapter. And if, after this, he exceeds forty days that he does not deliver him and leave him with the court, the men of the court ought to go there where he [the man] is, and bring him out from there and deliver him.

XIII. The thirteenth chapter. How the lord can summon his man.

The lord can summon his man to service that he owes him by the banner, or by another man, or by his letters. And if the man does not come to the summons, and the lord complains or makes a claims to him and to his court because he has defaulted in his service, and he wants to have remedy for it by recognition of the court, if the man answers that he never received a summons, nor did he receive the order, and he is ready to do what the court recognizes that he ought to do, the law is such: that he ought to say to his lord that this summons, that the lord issued, he did not hear it nor did he receive it and as such, he is quit. And if he does not do this, the lord can take his fief, for which he is in default of service for a year and a day. And if he says that he received the summons but only on the date he was summoned, he should have faithful witnesses of the court who must [swear] in their true belief that he is telling the truth. And he leaves the summons before a reasonable term, the captain of the summons must guarantee that he has left with his knowledge, and if not, two men of the court must guarantee that he, with the knowledge of the captain, left by some necessity; and if he can not do this, he forfeits, as it is said, by default.

XIV. The fourteenth chapter. Concerning the man who is summoned to perform service.

And if any man is summoned to go to a service alone, and the lord says that he was in no way there where he was summoned, or that that he left before the term of the summons, he must say that he was there until the required date, and that he is ready to do this according to the ruling of the court. The law concerning this is as such: that he should (say) to his lord that he was under summons and as such he is quit, but if he says that he had not gone at all,or that he went and departed, and this was because of an illness, and did so with the knowledge of this lord or the one who was in his (the lord's) place, and he must say this by the faith which he owes his lord. And if he does not do this, he is liable just as is said of others.

XV. The fifteenth chapter. Those who are peers, one to the other.

Since I have spoken about peers, I wish to clarify what that is. All of those who belong to the High Court, knightly liege men of the king, are peers, whoever they may be, high or low, poor or rich, and such that they safeguard each other in their opinions and keep them in the law, equally whether they are offering counsel or judgement or precedent. And among the peers, the word of one has the same force as the others.

Notes and Questions

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akbeer-oldfordham

In "il doit à son seignor" we are assuming that "doit dire" is implied, but "dire" has been left out, because of parallel structures above and below in the same chapter.

akbeer-oldfordham

"et as recors" here as been read as a complex term that might mean someone standing in as a personal embodiment of institutional memory (the record of past law/case history), or as a witness to past actions/cases, or as someone bearing witness to the actions of a case. It makes the question of "recors" as a record or written text more complex, since it here appears to be orally transmitted information.