Definition
An archaic Law French term meaning "aid," "relief," or "judicial relief." Used in medieval English legal proceedings and the Year Books to denote assistance or remedy sought from a court, as well as financial aid owed in feudal contexts. The term is a variant form of the more commonly encountered "aide" in Law French legal texts.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering EIDE will find it almost exclusively in Year Book materials and early medieval English legal records. It does not appear in modern practice or statutory drafting. The term signals a pre-modern context: if you are seeing it in a source, you are working in the Year Books or very early common law materials, and the surrounding terminology will be similarly archaic. Burrill notes the Year Books as the primary source, so researchers should treat EIDE as an index to that corpus rather than a freestanding substantive concept. Do not conflate this term with the separately defined EIENT (also Burrill), a related Law French form meaning "they have" or "they shall have," appearing in the Statute of Westminster I and Articuli super Cartas. The two terms appear in proximity in Burrill's entries and could be confused when reading dense period text.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the sole historical dictionary treatment of EIDE in the Law Mind corpus. The entry is brief: Burrill glosses the term as "aid; relief; judicial relief," cites Kelham's glossary of Law French as authority, and directs readers to the Year Books generally. No substantive legal doctrine is built around the term in Burrill; it functions as a vocabulary bridge between Law French usage and English legal meaning. Burrill's companion entry for EIENT (immediately following) suggests these entries were grouped as part of a cluster of Law French "e-" forms, reflecting the lexicographic practice of the period rather than any doctrinal connection between the terms. No other historical dictionary in the current Law Mind corpus indexes EIDE. The absence of the term from later dictionaries—including Black's tradition—confirms it fell out of use well before modern legal practice.