Definition
Real chymin (also spelled real chemin or real chemin) is an Anglo-French term from old English law meaning the royal way or king's highway — a public road over which the sovereign's subjects had a right of passage. The phrase derives from the Law French, combining a term for "royal" or "real" (in the sense of belonging to the king) with chemin, the French word for road or way.
The term is occasionally encountered in early English legal records and year books in the context of rights of passage, obstruction of public ways, and disputes over whether a given road bore the status of a king's highway — carrying with it protections and obligations distinct from private ways or lesser public paths.
Why It Matters in Research
This term appears almost exclusively in medieval and early modern English legal sources. Researchers working in year books, plea rolls, or early common law treatises may encounter it when tracing the historical foundations of highway law, public easements, or the law of nuisance as applied to obstructions of public roads.
The key navigational point: real chymin is a descriptive label for a legal status, not a distinct cause of action. Its significance in historical sources lies in distinguishing a king's highway — which carried royal protection and gave rise to public remedies for obstruction — from lesser ways such as a footpath, bridleway, or private right of passage. Courts in early English law treated obstruction of the real chymin as an offense against the crown's interest in free passage, not merely a private wrong.
Researchers should also be alert to variant spellings across manuscripts and printed year books. The term appears as real chemin, real chymyn, and related forms. Burrill cites Yearbook P. 6 Edw. III. 48 as an illustrative source; researchers tracing the doctrine should work from year book editions and associated commentaries rather than expecting consistent terminology across sources.
There is no direct American legal equivalent using this term. The concept survives in modern law through the doctrine of public highways and the distinct body of law governing obstruction or encroachment upon public roads, but the Law French label was abandoned entirely as English legal vocabulary modernized.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the cleaner and more useful entry, identifying real chymin as the royal way or king's highway and citing a specific year book source (Yearb. P. 6 Edw. III. 48). This is the authoritative historical reference for this term. Black's Law Dictionary, in the fragment available here, addresses related real property vocabulary — chattel interests in real estate — but does not speak directly to real chymin as a term of highway law. Researchers should treat Burrill as the primary dictionary source for this entry.
Neither dictionary elaborates on the procedural context in which real chymin was invoked, leaving researchers to consult the year books directly for doctrinal content. Historical dictionaries uniformly treat this as a term of historical curiosity rather than living law, reflecting its complete disappearance from modern legal vocabulary.
Jurisdictional Note
Real chymin is a term of historical English common law and has no operative meaning in any modern jurisdiction. Its relevance is confined to research into medieval English law, early common law highway doctrine, and the Anglo-French vocabulary of the English legal system prior to the gradual displacement of Law French in the seventeenth century.