II. _The Widow’s Share of Personal Estate._ The chapter of the Charter at present under discussion says nothing as to the widow’s right to any portion of her deceased husband’s goods and chattels. Chapter 26, however, confirms the existing law which secured to her, in the normal case, one third of her husband’s personal estate, as will be more fully explained hereafter. III. _Provision for the Widow’s immediate Needs._ Many intricate questions might arise before it was possible to divide the land into aliquot portions and so “assign” the exact one-third due to her. Meanwhile, temporary provision must be made for her support. This was of two kinds: (1) _Quarantine._ Magna Carta confirmed her right to remain in the family home for a space of forty days. This was known to later lawyers as the widow’s quarantine.[425] The Charter of 1216 notes an exception to the general rule, on which John’s Charter is silent: if the deceased husband’s chief place of residence had been a castle, the widow could not stay there; feudal strongholds were not for women. In such cases, however, so the reissue of 1216 carefully provided, another residence must be immediately substituted. In later days, widows unlawfully deprived of their quarantine were provided with a remedy by means of a writ, known as “_de quarentina habenda_,” directing the sheriff to take summary procedure to do her right.[426] ----- Footnote 425: The “unknown charter” (see Appendix) specified sixty days, but Magna Carta fixed the period at forty. Footnote 426: See Coke, _Second Institute_, p. 16. ----- (2) _Estovers of Common._ The widow required something more than the protection of a roof; for, until her dower lands had been delivered to her, no portion of the produce of her late husband’s manors could be strictly called her own. The estate was held “in common” between her and her husband’s heir (or between her and the “guardian” of that heir’s estates). It was only fair that, until her rights were ascertained, she should be allowed a reasonable share of the produce. Neither John’s Charter nor the first issue of Henry III. said anything on this head. The reissue of 1217 supplied the omission, expressly confirming the widow of a Crown tenant in the right to _rationabile estoverium suum interim de communi_. Many explanations of the word _estovers_ (generally used in the plural) might be cited: from Dr. Johnson, who defines it broadly as “necessaries allowed by law,” to Dr. Stubbs, who narrows it to “firewood.”[427] It was the right to use certain parts of the natural produce of land or other property for the supply of one’s personal or domestic wants. Such rights varied in extent, however; from the general right to a full supply of all things necessary for the maintenance of life, down to the restricted right to take one kind of produce for one specific purpose only.[428] ----- Footnote 427: