[Folwren]

Originally Posted by littlemanpoet

Hmmm...! My...! A find little pickle you've handed me. So just to summarize, Freeholder A owns the field but hasn't been using it, and Freeholder B doesn't own it but has been using it without A's leave. Right?

Correct.

How did B plant it without A noticing? Did B plant it in secret at night (that would be very strange)? Was A gone? Did A know B was planting and not try to stop him? Or did he try to stop him and was there some threatening, whether of bodily harm or legal recourse? These are the questions that Eodwine will be asking before making a decision. Folwren, I'd love it if you could provide answers to put in the mouths of A & B so I can use them in a post. Sound good?

What I had in mind while writing it was A knew B was planting and did not try to stop him. He knew the land was his, and figured that if he waited until the field was planted before interrupting the work and claiming the fruit as his, he'd have a lot of free work done for him.

Anyway, Eodwine's likely settlement is that B is going to have to pay A for the use of the land, whether in fee or in kind, and will, if having planted without permission, probably have to pay a fine to Eodwine besides for having caused the problem in the first place.

That seems somewhat harsh, though, doesn't it? If a land lies fallow for two years as B claims it has, then surely the land should go to someone else. Eodwine rightfully asked Farmer B why he didn't come to him before planting, but B gave his reasoning (not enough time). It's not a very good reason, perhaps, for if he had thought ahead at all, he could have come to him before planting started, but it's still a reason.

Eodwine had not been Eorl very long, understand, so he really doesn't know what land is being well used and what land isn't. That's another job that you should send Thornden on maybe. Eodwine could not have fixed this problem for the settlers. The Eorl who owned the land before him should have (technically) had tabs on everything and seen that the field wasn't in good use.

Eodwine might consider asking A why he never used the good land.

Originally Posted by Formendacil

In a medieval society, it seems LIKELY to me that the Lord would want as much land as possible to be cultivated. And the typical scheme of things was two years planted, one year fallow. By leaving the land fallow, Farmer Owner was not fulfilling his obligation as a vassal of the Middle Emnet.

And, if was accept Farmer Planter's statement that he had a very narrow window in which to plant, then what he did was justifiable, and not to be harshly punished.

That's just it. Not only in the midieval society was land not generally allowed to stay fallow for longer a year, but even in more recent times, early American settler times, when they cleared a piece of land, they were expected to do something on it, and if they didn't, the law would sometimes come and take it away from them to give to another man who would use it for better purposes.

But, that brings us back to the problem of - it was not in B's rights to go and plant the land without having some sort of permission from Eodwine.

Originally Posted by littlemanpoet

I'd be interested in others' opinions as to how they see this case. Kinda fun.

I'm glad you think it's fun. I myself love cases like this, but I was worried that you might not. If I were smarter and planned on getting into a long term profession, I'd be very interested in going into law.

If you've any more questions, I can try to answer them. I could also ask my dad what would happen now adays in such a case - he's a lawyer (a good one, if you'll believe me). Actually, he's just recently had a case much like this.

-- Folwren