Definition
Dower de la plus beale (Law French: "dower of the fairest part") is an archaic species of common law dower applicable under the old English feudal tenure system. Where a widow held lands of an heir as guardian in socage, and simultaneously a guardian in chivalry also had an interest, the widow was entitled to claim dower of the fairest — that is, the best or most valuable — portion of the lands held. It operated as a form of preferential selection, allowing the doweress to take her third from the choicest parcel rather than accepting an average or assigned portion.
This form of dower was incident to the old tenures and had no application outside the feudal tenure framework it presupposed. With the abolition of military tenures in England by the Tenures Abolition Act 1660, the conditions giving rise to dower de la plus beale ceased to exist in practice, and the doctrine became purely historical.
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Common Confusion
The term is frequently rendered in corrupted or variant spellings across historical sources. Burrill records it as "de la pluis beale," a phonetic or scribal variant of the more standard "de la plus beale." Researchers encountering either spelling in manuscript or early printed sources should treat them as the same term. This form of dower should not be confused with common law dower generally, which survived the Tenures Abolition Act and persisted in English and American law in modified form for centuries afterward. The "fairest part" privilege was unique to the chivalry-tenure context and does not carry over to ordinary dower doctrine.
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Why It Matters in Research
This term is a navigational hazard for researchers working in medieval English land law, early Year Books, or Bracton-era treatises. It appears in sources discussing the old tenure distinctions — chivalry, socage, serjeanty — and will be unintelligible without that background. Researchers encountering it in context should understand they are reading about a pre-1660 English tenure artifact, not a general dower principle.
The spelling instability is a practical research problem. Burrill's rendering ("pluis beale") differs from the more standard Law French ("plus beale"), and manuscript sources may offer further variants. Keyword searching in digitized historical corpora will miss hits if only one spelling is queried. Cast a wide net.
The Rapalje & Lawrence entry directs readers to "DOWER, § 9," signaling that this subspecies was treated as a numbered subdivision of the broader dower doctrine in nineteenth-century American legal dictionaries — useful for locating it in period reference works organized by section number.
Because dower doctrine varied substantially between English and American jurisdictions, and because American law never incorporated the full feudal tenure framework, dower de la plus beale has no recognized American legal life. It appears in American legal dictionaries solely as a historical and comparative reference. Researchers working in American property law sources can safely treat it as a dead letter.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill is the primary source of substance here. His entry identifies dower de la plus beale as one of twelve species of ancient English dower — a taxonomy of dower forms tied to the old tenure distinctions — and situates it specifically in the guardian-in-chivalry and guardian-in-socage context. The entry references Britton (c. 27), a late thirteenth-century English legal treatise, as authority. Britton's treatment confirms this doctrine's deep antiquity and its dependence on the feudal system Britton was written to describe.
Rapalje & Lawrence add no independent substance, cross-referencing only to their main DOWER entry. This is typical of late nineteenth-century American dictionaries treating archaic English forms: they acknowledge the term for completeness but provide no American application.
Neither source engages with the precise mechanics of how the "fairest part" was identified or valued, nor do they address what happened when the guardian in chivalry contested the widow's selection. Researchers needing that level of detail must go to Britton directly, or to Bracton's De Legibus, which addresses dower in feudal context at length.
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Jurisdictional Note
This doctrine is exclusively English in origin and has no independent existence in American, Scottish, or other common law jurisdictions. American dower law, where it survived into the modern era, derived from common law dower but without the feudal tenure substructure that gave dower de la plus beale its meaning.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Law Mind Encyclopedia — DOWER
Law Mind Encyclopedia — FEUDAL TENURES
Law Mind Encyclopedia — GUARDIAN IN CHIVALRY
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