finding them frequently re-ſettled in a ſimilar manner to ſuit the convenience of families, had addreſs enough to procure a ſtatute[1], whereby all eſtates of inheritance (under which general words eſtates-tail were covertly included) are declared to be forfeited to the king upon any conviction of high treaſon.
The next attack which they ſuffered, in order of time, was by the ſtatute 32 Hen. VIII. c. 28. whereby certain leaſes made by tenants in tail, which do not tend to the prejudice of the iſſue, were allowed to be good in law, and to bind the iſſue in tail. But they received a more violent blow, in the ſame ſeſſion of parliament, by the conſtruction put upon the ſtatute of fines[2], by the ſtatute 32 Hen. VIII. c. 36. which declares a fine duly levied by tenant in tail to be a complete bar to him and his heirs, and all other perſons, claiming under ſuch entail. This was evidently agreeable to the intention of Henry VII, whoſe policy it was (before common recoveries had obtained their full ſtrength and authority) to lay the road as open as poſſible to the alienation of landed property in order to weaken the overgrown power of his nobles. But as they, from the oppoſite reaſons, were not eaſily brought to conſent to ſuch a proviſion, it was therefore couched, in his act, under covert and obſcure expreſſions. And the judges, though willing to conſtrue that ſtatute as favourably as poſſible for the defeating of entailed eſtates, yet heſitated at giving fines ſo extenſive a power by mere implication, when the ſtatute de donis had expreſſly declared, that they ſhould not be a bar to eſtates-tail. But the ſtatute of Henry VIII, when the doctrine of alienation was better received, and the will of the prince more implicitly obeyed than before, avowed and eſtabliſhed that intention. Yet, in order to preſerve the property of the crown from any danger of infringement, all eſtates-tail created by the crown, and of which the crown has the reverſion, are excepted out of this ſtatute. And the ſame was done with regard to common recoveries, by the ſtatute 34 & 35 Hen. VIII. c. 20. which enacts, that no ſeigned recovery had againſt tenants
