[Footnote 150: “Except he received his liberty and was made free with the Licence, good-will, and special command of the King.” (Reg. Maj. L. 2. c. 12.) Lord Littleton ascribes the rule in the text, to a jealousy of judicial proceedings. (3 Hist. Hen. 2. p. 192.) It more probably originated from the chivalric pride of the times. As the great Lords often personally engaged in the combat, their own importance was increased by keeping up the dignity of this mode of Trial.] [Footnote 151: Bracton L. 1. fol. 6. b. 7. a. But even this period would not operate as a bar to the Lord, if within the year _clameum suum qualitercunque apposuerit_.—“If he remained quietly” are the words of the Regiam Majestatem, during a year and a day in a privileged Town he became free—but out of a privileged town seven years was the period—but this latter prescription held not good against the King. (L. 2. c. 12.)] [Footnote 152: _Villa privilegiata._ _Item_, says a Law of the Conqueror, _si servi permanserint sine calumniâ per annum et diem in civitatibus nostris vel in burgis in muro vallatis, vel in castris nostris, à die illâ liberi efficiuntur, et liberi à jugo servitutis suæ sint in perpetuum._ (LL. Gul. Conq. 66. Ed. Wilkins, p. 229.) “By _privileged Town_ is meant a Town that had Franchises by prescription or charter—and this communication of liberty from thence to a Villein residing among them so short a time, shews the high regard to the Law of such corporations, and likewise a desire to favor enfranchisement, as much as the settled rules of property would admit.” (3 Hist. Hen. 2. p. 191. Litt.) This part of our Author’s text is considerably elucidated by Fleta, L. 4. c. 11. s. 11. and Co. Litt. 137. b.] [Footnote 153: _Gyldam_, from the Saxon _geldan_ and _gildan_. _Gildare_ occurs in Domesday frequently _pro solvere, reddere_. (Vide Spelman Gloss.)] CHAP. VI. Villeins-born are such from their Birth. Thus, if both the parents are Villeins-born, the Offspring is a Villein-born.[154] The same may be said where the Father is free but the Mother a Villein-born. If, however, the Mother be free, and the Father a Villein-born, the same rule prevails, as far as the purity of Condition be in question. [Footnote 154: “Those are Villeins who are begot of Villeins and Niefs in servitude, whether born in matrimony or out of matrimony; those also are Villeins who are begotten of Villeins and born of free-women in matrimony, and those are Villeins who are begotten of a freeman and a Nief and born out of matrimony.” (Mirror, c. 2. s. 28. See also Bracton fols. 4. 5. and Fleta L. 1. c. 3.)]