Definition
In Saxon and early English law, *flo* (also rendered *flō*) denotes the privilege or right by which a lord was entitled to the goods and fines of fugitives — specifically, the chattels and forfeitures belonging to those who fled from justice or from their lord's jurisdiction. The term appears in the context of seigniorial franchises and royal grants, describing a bundle of rights over fleeing persons (particularly fugitive bondmen or villeins, known as *flema* or *flyma*) and the property they left behind or forfeited upon flight.
The right comprehended under *flo* is closely associated with the franchise of *infangentheof* and related Saxon jurisdictional grants: it authorized the lord holding the privilege to claim and retain what would otherwise escheat or be forfeited to the Crown.
---
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A diminutive of the female given names Florence or Flora. In informal and colloquial use, a proper name with no legal or juridical sense.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "An arrow. [Obs.] Chaucer." An archaic English noun entirely unrelated to legal usage.
The legal term *flo* bears no connection to either common usage. It is a term of art drawn from Saxon legal vocabulary, surviving primarily in medieval franchise documents and their Latin transcriptions. Researchers encountering *flo* in a post-medieval context should treat it as a franchise term of art, not a common English word.
---
Common Confusion
*Flo* is easily confused with *flema* (or *flyma*, *fleman*), the term for the fugitive person whose goods are subject to the *flo* privilege. The distinction matters: *flema* describes the legal status of the fleeing bondman or villein; *flo* describes the lord's right over that person's goods and forfeitures. The two terms appear together in franchise records and in Spelman's glossaries, and careless reading can collapse the distinction between the personal status and the property right.
*Flo* should also not be confused with *fuga* (flight, as in flight from justice generally) or with *utfangtheof*, which concerns jurisdiction over thieves caught outside the lord's territory. These are related but distinct franchise rights.
---
Why It Matters in Research
*Flo* appears almost exclusively in two documentary contexts: (1) Saxon and early Norman franchise grants, charters, and their Latin translations; and (2) secondary glossarial literature, particularly Spelman's *Glossarium Archaiologicum* and Burrill's derivative entries. Researchers working in primary sources will rarely encounter *flo* as a standalone term — it tends to cluster with neighboring franchise words (*sac*, *soc*, *toll*, *team*, *infangentheof*) in formulaic enumerations of seigniorial rights.
**Traps in historical sources:** Burrill's entry on *flo* is brief and contextually embedded alongside *flem*/*flyma*, which means that dictionary users scanning for *flo* alone may miss the fuller jurisdictional picture. Spelman is the foundational authority here, and Burrill effectively condenses him. Because Glanville is identified as largely copying Bracton's framework (though Reeves characterizes Glanville as a mere imitator and Bracton's work as the more authoritative source), researchers tracing doctrinal development should consult Bracton directly rather than relying on secondary restatements.
**Corpus connections:** The term is most productively researched alongside the law of villeinage, fugitive bondmen, and the broader system of frankpledge. Any corpus search on Saxon franchise rights should run *flo* alongside *flema*, *flyma*, *infangentheof*, and *utfangtheof* to capture the full cluster of related terms as they appear in medieval records.
**Jurisdictional and temporal scope:** *Flo* as a live legal term belongs to pre-Conquest and immediately post-Conquest English law. By the high medieval period, the specific franchise vocabulary had largely been absorbed into or superseded by common law doctrines of forfeiture and escheat. Its research significance is primarily historical and antiquarian rather than operational.
---
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the only direct entry in the available corpus, defining *flo* as "the privilege of having the goods and fines of fugitives" and cross-referencing it immediately to *flem*/*flyma*/*fleman* — the Saxon and Old English term for a fugitive bondman or villein. Burrill cites Spelman as the authority, a reference consistent with the scholarly practice of the period, as Spelman's *Glossarium* remains the principal repository of Saxon legal vocabulary in the English secondary literature.
Burrill's entry also flags an important historiographical note: in the adjacent discussion of *flema* and *flyma*, the compiler identifies Glanville as largely copying Bracton, while Reeves characterizes Glanville as a mere imitator and Bracton's work as a compendium with "considerable additions." This passing remark reflects a genuine historiographical debate about the relationship between these foundational texts. For researchers, the implication is that tracing the franchise rights encompassed by *flo* through Glanville alone is insufficient — Bracton provides the more developed and authoritative doctrinal treatment.
No other historical dictionaries in the available corpus provide independent entries for *flo*. The Latin root (*flo*, *flāvi*, *flātum* — to blow, to breathe) is unrelated to the legal franchise term, which derives from Saxon vocabulary rather than classical Latin, notwithstanding its appearance in Latinized legal documents of the Bracton school.
---
Jurisdictional Note
*Flo* as a legal term is specific to English law of the Saxon and early Norman periods. It has no cognate in Scots law, civil law traditions, or post-medieval English common law. Researchers in comparative medieval legal history may find analogous but terminologically distinct franchise concepts in continental sources.
---