Definition
A Latin phrase drawn from Magna Carta (1215), translating as "we have granted to our barons who." The phrase is an incomplete clause opener, functioning as the introductory formula to provisions in which the Crown formally acknowledged and conceded specific rights, liberties, or protections to the barons. In context, the full operative language runs through clauses in which the king declares that he has granted to his barons that neither they nor their men shall be seized, disseised, or otherwise proceeded against except by lawful judgment of peers or by the law of the land.
The phrase is inseparable from the constitutional structure of Magna Carta and is not a standalone term of art but rather a formulaic preamble identifying the grantor (the Crown), the act (a grant), and the grantees (the barons). It signals that what follows is a royal concession of right, not a grant of new privilege, but a formal acknowledgment of pre-existing custom or liberty.
Common Confusion
This phrase is sometimes encountered in fragmented form in secondary sources and historical digests, leading researchers to confuse it with nearby Magna Carta clauses that share similar Latin openings. The related formula preserved in Burrill — CONTRA NOS SUNT, QUOD NEC EOS, NEC HOMINES SUOS, CAPIEMUS NEC DISSEISIEMUS — represents the substantive content that follows the introductory concession language. The two phrases belong to the same passage and should not be read as independent provisions. Treating the opening formula as a distinct legal rule, rather than as connective preamble, is a frequent error in non-specialist historical commentary.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in the Law Mind corpus will encounter this phrase almost exclusively in one of three contexts: transcriptions or translations of Magna Carta text, treatises on feudal constitutional history, and dictionary entries that preserve fragmentary Latin without their surrounding clause structure.
The key navigational challenge is that historical legal dictionaries, including Burrill, often index Magna Carta phrases by their opening words rather than by their substantive subject matter. This means a researcher looking for the law-of-the-land clause or the disseisure prohibition may find it filed under NOS CONCESSISSE rather than under the more topically recognizable terms. Conversely, a researcher who locates this phrase may not immediately recognize it as the gateway to one of the foundational guarantees of English constitutional law.
The phrase also marks a significant formal distinction in medieval royal instruments: language of concession (nos concessisse) differs from language of command or declaration, and that distinction carries weight in historical arguments about whether Magna Carta created new law or confirmed existing custom. This debate runs throughout the treatise literature and resurfaces in constitutional history discussions.
For corpus researchers, the incomplete fragment form preserved in Burrill is a signal that the entry is pointing outward — toward the full Magna Carta text — rather than defining a self-contained legal concept. Cross-reading with the CONTRA NOS SUNT entry in Burrill is essential to recover the complete operative provision.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary preserves this phrase not as a definition of a legal concept but as a Latin text fragment, consistent with its practice of indexing important charter language alphabetically for reference. The entry in Burrill leads directly into the substance of the disseisure and seizure prohibition — CONTRA NOS SUNT, QUOD NEC EOS, NEC HOMINES SUOS, CAPIEMUS NEC DISSEISIEMUS — making clear that the two entries together reconstruct a single passage from Magna Carta.
Historical dictionaries of the Burrill era frequently handled Magna Carta in this fragmented way, treating it as a sourcebook of Latin formulae rather than as an integrated constitutional text. This approach is useful for locating specific language but can obscure the relationship between the grant clause and the substantive right it introduces. Researchers should note that later constitutional commentators — working from Coke's Institutes forward — typically quote the full passage rather than the opening formula in isolation, so the phrase NOS CONCESSISSE BARONIBUS NOSTRIS QUI appears more commonly in Latin text compilations and medieval charter collections than in common law treatise discussion.
No other surveyed historical dictionary indexes this specific phrase independently. Its appearance in Burrill is the primary reference point for the Law Mind corpus.
Jurisdictional Note
Magna Carta's protections, as expressed through clauses introduced by this formula, were received into English common law and remain formally in force in portions of English law today. In American constitutional law, the due process and law-of-the-land guarantees that descend from the relevant Magna Carta provisions have been absorbed into the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. The original Latin phrasing has no operative force in American courts but retains significant interpretive and historical authority.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Magna Carta
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Feudal Tenures
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Due Process (Historical Foundations)