148 The Period of Constitution Making
likely to be a long process, and, in the meantime, the
church must neither be kept vacant nor he who possessed
the advowson, in virtue of his having made the last pre-
sentment, be turned out of his possession. The new ac-
tion in the king's court by which the possession of the
advowson was determined was known as the assize of
darrein (last) presentment.*
Acting on this same principle of protecting possession
and very likely at about the same time that the novel
disseisin was instituted, Henry began to interfere in ac-
tions determining best right. He declared that no man
could call in question a tenant's right to his free tenement
without beginning his proceedings by obtaining a royal
writ. This writ was known as the writ of right, and, al-
though it did not necessarily bring the trial of the case
into the king's court, it gave the tenant decided advant-
ages and extended a royal procedure. The writ of right
was irregularly in existence before this.2 The new thing
that Henry did was to give the tenant his choice between
accepting the demandant's offer of the wager of battle, or,
as it was termed, putting himself upon the grand assize.3
By this latter mode of proof, the question at issue was de-
termined by the sworn statements of knights of the neigh-
bourhood taken before the king's justices. The writ
pr&cipe,4 which came into use in the same reign, marks a
still further royal interference in proprietary actions. In
it, the king ordered the tenant to restore the land which
the demandant claimed or, if not, to appear in the king's
court "to show cause wherefore he has not done it."5
1 For illustrations of the three possessory assizes, see A. and S., document
24, and W. and N., pp. 60-64.
2 See above, p. 142.
^ 3 The word assize, originally denoting a sitting or session, was at this
time assuming restricted and somewhat technical meanings. From a ses-
sion of the king's court, it passed to the set of decrees issued at that ses-
sion, then to certain actions instituted by those decrees, and finally to the
procedure by sworn inquest which was the distinguishing feature of those
actions.
4 A. and S., document 20, and W. and N., pp. 58, 59.
s The origin of this writ is to be found in the early royal rights, the
cases reserved for the king's own justice. Well known lists are in the