_Eli._ What now, my son! have I not ever said, How that ambitious Constance would not cease, Till she had kindled France, and all the world, Upon the right and party of her son? This might have been prevented, and made whole, With very easy arguments of love; Which now the manage of two kingdoms must With fearful bloody issue arbitrate. _K. John._ Our strong possession, and our right for us. _Eli._ Your strong possession, much more than your right, Or else it might go wrong with you and me: So much my conscience whispers in your ear, Which none but heaven, and you, and I, shall hear. _King John_, Act i. Scene 1. In æquali jure melior est conditio possidentis (Plowd. 296). Where the right is equal, the claim of the party in possession shall prevail. The lowest and most imperfect degree of title consists in the mere naked possession, or actual occupation of the estate, without any apparent right, or any shadow or pretence of right, to hold and continue such possession. This may happen when one man invades the possession of another, and by force or surprise turns him out of the occupation of his lands; which is termed a desseisin, being a deprivation of that actual seisin, or corporal freehold of the lands, which the tenant before enjoyed (2 Bla. Com. 195; 1 Institute, 345). Or it may happen that after the death of the ancestor and before the entry of the heir, or after the death of the particular tenant and before the entry of him in remainder or reversion, a stranger may contrive to get possession of the vacant land, and hold out him that had a right to enter. In such cases the wrong-doer has only a mere naked possession, which the rightful owner may put an end to by a variety of legal remedies. But until some act be done by the rightful owner to divest this possession and assert his title, such actual possession is prima facie evidence of a legal title in the possessor; and it may by length of time, and negligence of him who hath the right, by degrees ripen into a perfect and indefeasible title (Bla. Com. 196). King John seems to refer to this maxim when he says— Our strong possession and our right for us. but Elinor says— Your strong possession much more than your right, because John was not in æquali jure with Arthur, but he was a wrong-doer, having merely a naked possession; for after the death of Richard I., John occupied the throne in defiance of the right of his nephew Arthur, who was the son of John’s elder brother Geoffry. _Hamlet._ Farewell, dear mother. _King._ Thy loving father, Hamlet. _Hamlet._ My mother: father and mother is man and wife; Man and wife is one flesh; and so, my mother. _Hamlet_, Act iv. Scene 3. Vir et uxor sunt quasi unica persona, quia caro una, et sanguis unus. (Bracton, lib. 5, Tract. 5, cap. 25).