Definition
An archaic term of old English law denoting a fortified place, castle, or bulwark. The word appears in historical English legal texts to describe a defensible structure or stronghold, typically in the context of royal authority over such fortifications, the right to erect or maintain them, or offenses related to their unlawful construction or destruction.
Why It Matters in Research
Fortility is a term a researcher is unlikely to encounter outside of medieval and early modern English legal sources. Its practical significance lies almost entirely in statutory and treatise contexts dealing with crown prerogatives over fortifications, the licensing of castles, or the regulation of private military architecture. The sole statutory reference in the historical dictionaries — 11 Hen. VII. c. 18 — dates to 1495 and sits within a body of legislation concerned with controlling private power through restrictions on retaining, armament, and fortification. A researcher working with that statute or its surrounding period should treat fortility as a term of art for any structure designed or used for defense, distinct from ordinary buildings.
The term has no meaningful modern legal survival. It will not appear in contemporary codes, regulations, or case law. Researchers encountering it in transcribed manuscript sources, year books, or early printed statutes should not assume it carries any technical distinction from the plain meaning of "fortified place" — the historical dictionaries treat it as straightforwardly descriptive rather than as a term with developed doctrinal content.
Cross-reference caution: Cowell's Interpreter, cited by all three source dictionaries, is the primary historical glossary supporting this definition. Researchers using Cowell should note that his work reflects early seventeenth-century usage and may not perfectly track the term's meaning as it appeared two centuries earlier in the Henrician statute.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (1st and 2nd editions) and Bouvier's Law Dictionary are in complete agreement on this term, all three defining it identically as "a fortified place; a castle; a bulwark" and citing the same two authorities: Cowell and 11 Hen. VII. c. 18. The uniformity is unsurprising — this is a narrow, obsolete term with a single attested legal meaning and no recorded doctrinal development. None of the source dictionaries attempt to distinguish between the three words used (fortified place, castle, bulwark), and there is no basis in the sources to impose such a distinction.
The absence of any elaboration in these dictionaries reflects the term's limited footprint even in historical legal literature. It is a vocabulary entry, not a doctrine entry. Researchers should not expect to find treatise discussion, judicial interpretation, or secondary commentary unpacking any legal test or rule associated with the word itself.
Jurisdictional Note
Fortility is a term of old English law with no recorded counterpart in American, Scottish, or continental legal systems. It is relevant only to research in English legal history, particularly the late medieval and early Tudor periods.