Editing De donis conditionalibus (section)

== The statute ==
In 1285 the statute {{lang|la|De donis conditionalibus}} enacted that in grants to a man and his heirs, the will of the donor as expressed in the grant should be followed. The donee should have no power to dispose of the land in any other way. After the donee's death, the land would be inherited by his heirs – or if he had no heirs, then by the donor or the donor's heirs.

Since the passing of the statute, an estate given to a man and the heirs of his body has been known as an ''estate tail'', or an estate in [[fee tail]] ({{lang|la|feudum talliatum}}). The word ''tail'' is derived from the French {{lang|fr|tailler}}, to cut, the inheritance being by the statute cut down and confined to the heirs of the body.