Definition
An obsolete Latin term of medieval English and Scots law carrying two distinct but related meanings:
1. Residence. The state of dwelling or abiding in a place; equivalent in usage to the modern concept of legal residence or habitual abode.
2. A severe or prolonged illness that confines a person to their dwelling — specifically defined in the sources as a morbus validus seu veteranus, meaning a grave or long-standing sickness by which a person is prevented from leaving their home. This disability was legally significant because it could excuse a party's failure to appear in court or perform an obligation requiring physical presence.
The second meaning is a specialized technical application of the first: a person confined by such illness was, in effect, fixed to their residence by incapacity rather than choice, and the law treated that confinement as a recognized excuse.
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Common Confusion
The two meanings of reseantisa should not be conflated in research. When encountered in a plea or procedural record, the term almost certainly invokes the illness-excuse sense rather than mere residence. When encountered in a land or status record, the residence sense applies. The surrounding procedural context is the only reliable guide.
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Why It Matters in Research
This term belongs to a narrow stratum of medieval Latin legal vocabulary and will appear almost exclusively in early English and Scots records — chiefly in plea rolls, procedural texts, and commentary on Glanvill and Regiam Majestatem. Researchers working in those corpora should note two things.
First, the illness-excuse function of reseantisa connects directly to the medieval law of essoins — the formal excuses a party could offer for non-appearance in court. A morbus validus was one of the recognized essoin categories, and reseantisa in that context is effectively a synonym for the condition that justified the essoin de malo lecti (essoin of bed-sickness) or related pleas. If you encounter the term in a plea roll, the procedural framework of essoins is the right context for interpretation, not residence law.
Second, Scots law retained archaic Latin terminology longer than English common law, and Skene's commentary on Regiam Majestatem is a key interpretive source for Scottish usage. Burrill's entry draws on Skene directly. Researchers working in Scottish records should treat Skene ad Reg. Maj. as a primary gloss on this term for that jurisdiction.
The term has no modern survival in either English or Scots law and will not appear in post-medieval sources. Its appearance in any document is a reliable marker of archaic pleading or antiquarian legal writing.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill is the primary English-language source for this term, and his entry is thin but accurate. He draws on three authorities: Fleta (the late-thirteenth-century English legal treatise), Spelman's glossary, and Skene's commentary on Regiam Majestatem. Glanvill is cited for the illness sense.
Burrill's entry correctly identifies the dual meaning without fully explaining the procedural significance of the illness definition. The morbus validus formulation — a grave sickness preventing a person from leaving their home — was not merely descriptive; it was a legal threshold that had to be met before the excuse was accepted. Burrill's phrasing captures this but does not elaborate on the procedural machinery behind it.
No other historical dictionary in the standard shelf provides a dedicated entry for this term. Cowell's Interpreter and Jacob's Law Dictionary do not appear to carry it. Researchers should treat Burrill as the definitive secondary source and go directly to Fleta, Glanvill, and Skene for primary authority.
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Jurisdictional Note
The term is documented in both English and Scots medieval law, but the Scottish usage, as preserved through Skene, appears to emphasize the illness meaning more explicitly. English usage in Fleta is broader. Neither jurisdiction retains any operative use of the term.
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