Definition
An old Anglo-French legal term meaning to forswear or to abjure. In medieval English law, to forjurer was to renounce something under oath — most commonly one's right to remain in the realm. The phrase forjurer royalme (to abjure the realm) describes the formal act by which a person, typically a fugitive who had taken sanctuary in a church, swore an oath to leave England permanently and never return as a condition of avoiding prosecution or punishment. The act of abjuration was a recognized legal procedure in medieval English criminal practice, distinct from a simple pardon or exile imposed by a court.
Common Confusion
Forjurer is sometimes loosely equated with banishment or outlawry, but the three procedures were distinct. Banishment was a punishment imposed by authority; outlawry was a legal status declared against a fugitive who refused to answer a charge; abjuration (forjurer royalme) was a voluntary oath taken by the accused, typically from the sanctuary of a church, in exchange for safe passage out of the realm. The voluntary and oath-bound character of forjurer sets it apart from both.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering this term in medieval English legal records, Year Books, or early treatises should understand that it belongs to a cluster of sanctuary-and-abjuration procedures that were abolished in England by statute in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. By the time Blackstone wrote, the practice was already historical curiosity rather than living law, and later dictionaries treat it as a relic term. A researcher working in early plea rolls or ecclesiastical records may encounter forjurer royalme as part of a formal procedural record documenting sanctuary, the coroner's role in receiving the oath, and the designated port of departure assigned to the abjurer.
The term appears in Law French, the specialized legal dialect used in English courts from the Norman Conquest through the early modern period. Researchers unfamiliar with Law French vocabulary may confuse forjurer with related forswearing terms; the root (Old French forjurer, forswear) connects it to perjury concepts, but the legal procedure it names is procedurally specific to abjuration of the realm.
The Burrill citation to Stat. Westm. 1, c. 15, 20 (the First Statute of Westminster, 1275) anchors the term in positive medieval legislation. Britt. cc. 1, 16 refers to Britton, the late thirteenth-century legal treatise written in Law French under the authority of Edward I, which is a primary source for the abjuration procedure.
Because the term is obsolete in practice, it will appear almost exclusively in historical legal sources — manuscript records, early printed Year Books, Britton, Bracton, and similar treatises — rather than in modern case law or statutes. Researchers should not expect to find it in post-seventeenth-century legal materials except as antiquarian reference.
Historical Dictionary Support
All three source dictionaries — Black's (1st ed.), Black's (2nd ed.), and Burrill — give substantially identical definitions: Law French, old English law, to forswear or abjure, with the specific phrase forjurer royalme. The agreement across sources reflects that this is a stable, single-meaning term with no disputed interpretation. The dictionaries offer no conflicting glosses.
Burrill adds the citation to Stat. Westm. 1, c. 15 and c. 20, which Black's omits, making Burrill marginally more useful for tracing the statutory context. Both Black's editions cite Britton cc. 1 and 16, consistent with each other.
What none of the source dictionaries explain is the procedural context: the role of the coroner in administering the oath, the requirement that the abjurer proceed directly to the assigned port, the legal consequences of returning after abjuration (treated as a capital offense), or the eventual abolition of sanctuary and abjuration under Henry VIII and subsequent Tudor legislation. Researchers relying solely on these dictionary entries will have the definition but will miss the procedural architecture around the term.
Jurisdictional Note
This term is specific to the historical law of England and has no application in American law. It does not appear in any U.S. legal context. Researchers in Scottish, Irish, or continental legal history should not assume an identical procedure, as sanctuary and abjuration practices varied across jurisdictions.