IV. Tenant in dower is where the huſband of a woman is ſeiſed of an eſtate of inheritance, and dies; in this caſe, the wife ſhall have the third part of all the lands and tenements whereof he was ſeiſed during the coverture, to hold to herſelf for the term of her natural life[1].
Dower is called in Latin by the foreign juriſts doarium, but by Bracton and our Engliſh writers dos; which among the Romans ſignified the marriage portion, which the wife brought to her huſband; but with us is applied to ſignify this kind of eſtate, to which the civil law, in it's original ſtate, had nothing that bore a reſemblance: nor indeed is there any thing in general more different, than the regulation of landed property according to the Engliſh, and Roman laws. Dower out of lands ſeems alſo to have been unknown in the early part of our Saxon conſtitution; for, in the laws of king Edmond[2], the wife is directed to be ſupported wholly out of the perſonal eſtate. Afterwards, as may be ſeen in gavelkind tenure, the widow became entitled to a conditional eſtate in one half of the lands, with a proviſo that ſhe remained chaſte and unmarried[3]; as is uſual alſo in copyhold dowers, or free bench. Yet ſome[4] have aſcribed the introduction of dower to the Normans, as a branch of their local tenures; though we cannot expect any feodal reaſon for it's invention, ſince it was not a part of the pure, primitive, ſimple law of feuds, but was firſt of all introduced into that ſyſtem (wherein it was called triens, tertia[5], and dotalitium) by the emperor Frederick the ſecond[6]; who was cotemporary with our king Henry III. It is poſſible therefore that it might be with us the relic of a Daniſh cuſtom: ſince, according to the hiſtorians of that country, dower was introduced into Denmark by Swein, the father of our Canute the great, out of gratitude to the Daniſh ladies, who ſold all their
