Definition
In old English law, to fortify or embattle a structure — specifically, to build a house, wall, or tower with crenellations: the notched battlements characterized by alternating raised portions (merlons) and open gaps (crenels or kernels) that allowed archers and defenders to shoot through while retaining cover. The term appears in medieval legal records principally in the phrase *kernellare domum*, meaning to build or fortify a dwelling with such defensive works.
The legal significance of the term arose from the requirement in medieval England that a subject obtain a royal license before constructing crenellated fortifications. Building crenellations without the Crown's permission was a form of unauthorized fortification, implicating royal prerogative over military installations and the control of private strongholds.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Not in standard modern use; the architectural feature survives in English as "crenellation" or "battlement."
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Webster's 1913 does not list *kernellare*, though "kernel" appears in the sense of the core or seed of something; the architectural "crenel" and "crenellate" appear as cognates in architectural vocabulary.
The gap between architectural description and legal meaning is significant. To a modern reader, crenellations are a decorative or romantic feature of castle architecture. In medieval legal practice, *kernellare* described an act requiring affirmative royal sanction — a license to crenellate — without which the construction could constitute a trespass against the Crown's authority to regulate private military capacity.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers will encounter *kernellare* almost exclusively in medieval English legal records, including royal patent rolls, close rolls, and plea records from roughly the twelfth through fifteenth centuries. The term appears in Latin legal formulae and is unlikely to surface in post-medieval materials except in historical or antiquarian legal commentary.
The key research trap is treating *kernellare* as purely architectural terminology. In corpus sources, it will appear in legal contexts tied to the license to crenellate — a formal royal grant documented in the Patent Rolls of England. If a source uses *kernellare* without reference to royal license or permission, the researcher should consider whether the passage addresses an unlicensed fortification, which would carry different legal consequences.
Burrill draws on Cowell, Blount, and Spelman — all standard antiquarian authorities on medieval English law. Researchers relying solely on Burrill should be aware that the underlying authority runs through those earlier glossators, and the chain of citation does not extend to primary record sources directly. Cross-checking against the Patent Rolls or Madox's *Formulare Anglicanum* would provide primary-source grounding that the dictionary tradition does not supply.
The term has no modern statutory or common-law survival. It is a terminus technicus of feudal administrative law and belongs to a cluster of terms governing the relationship between private landholders and the Crown's monopoly on military infrastructure.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's entry is brief but accurate in its essentials, drawing on the three principal antiquarian sources for medieval English legal vocabulary: Cowell's *Interpreter*, Blount's *Nomo-Lexikon*, and Spelman's *Glossarium*. All three treat *kernellare* in the same manner — as the act of building crenellated fortifications — and the consensus across these sources is tight. There is no meaningful divergence among them on this term.
What the historical dictionary tradition does not supply is the procedural and administrative law surrounding the act: the mechanism of the royal license, the consequences of unlicensed crenellation, or the feudal political rationale for Crown control over private fortification. Burrill's entry, like its sources, is definitional rather than doctrinal. Researchers seeking the legal framework must go beyond the dictionary tradition to record-based scholarship on the license to crenellate as an institution of medieval English governance.
Jurisdictional Note
This term is specific to medieval English law and has no recognized equivalent in Scots, continental, or American legal traditions. It carries no operative meaning in any modern jurisdiction.