Statute of Mortmain
E51854
The Statute of Mortmain was a medieval English law aimed at restricting the transfer of land into the perpetual ownership of the Church and other religious corporations, thereby protecting feudal lords’ rights and revenues.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Statute of Mortmain canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T403621 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Statute of Mortmain Context triple: [Edward I of England, notableWork, Statute of Mortmain]
-
A.
Statute of Quia Emptores
The Statute of Quia Emptores is a 1290 English law that reformed feudal landholding by allowing free alienation of land and effectively halting the creation of new feudal tenures.
-
B.
The Statutes of the Realm
The Statutes of the Realm is an authoritative multi-volume collection of English and later British parliamentary statutes, covering legislation from the medieval period through the early modern era.
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C.
Trial of the Pyx
The Trial of the Pyx is a centuries-old ceremonial and legal procedure in the United Kingdom in which newly minted coins are rigorously tested for quality and accuracy to ensure they meet required standards.
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D.
Habeas Corpus Act 1679
The Habeas Corpus Act 1679 is a landmark English statute that strengthened legal protections against unlawful imprisonment by ensuring prompt judicial review of detentions.
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E.
Triennial Act 1641
The Triennial Act 1641 was an English law passed during the early Stuart period that sought to limit royal authority by requiring that Parliament be summoned at least once every three years.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Statute of Mortmain Target entity description: The Statute of Mortmain was a medieval English law aimed at restricting the transfer of land into the perpetual ownership of the Church and other religious corporations, thereby protecting feudal lords’ rights and revenues.
-
A.
Statute of Quia Emptores
The Statute of Quia Emptores is a 1290 English law that reformed feudal landholding by allowing free alienation of land and effectively halting the creation of new feudal tenures.
-
B.
The Statutes of the Realm
The Statutes of the Realm is an authoritative multi-volume collection of English and later British parliamentary statutes, covering legislation from the medieval period through the early modern era.
-
C.
Trial of the Pyx
The Trial of the Pyx is a centuries-old ceremonial and legal procedure in the United Kingdom in which newly minted coins are rigorously tested for quality and accuracy to ensure they meet required standards.
-
D.
Habeas Corpus Act 1679
The Habeas Corpus Act 1679 is a landmark English statute that strengthened legal protections against unlawful imprisonment by ensuring prompt judicial review of detentions.
-
E.
Triennial Act 1641
The Triennial Act 1641 was an English law passed during the early Stuart period that sought to limit royal authority by requiring that Parliament be summoned at least once every three years.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
English statute
ⓘ
feudal law measure ⓘ medieval law ⓘ |
| aimedAtPreventing |
loss of feudal incidents to lords
ⓘ
permanent withdrawal of land from feudal circulation ⓘ |
| appliesTo |
freehold land
ⓘ
land grants to corporations ⓘ land grants to ecclesiastical institutions ⓘ land grants to religious houses ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
ecclesiastical law
ⓘ
feudal law ⓘ property law ⓘ |
| consequenceOfViolation | forfeiture of land to the lord or the Crown ⓘ |
| effectOnChurch |
limited expansion of ecclesiastical landholdings
ⓘ
restricted perpetual corporate ownership of land ⓘ |
| effectOnFeudalLords |
preserved rights to feudal incidents
ⓘ
protected feudal revenues ⓘ |
| historicalContext |
feudal land tenure system
ⓘ
medieval England ⓘ |
| influenced | later English statutory controls on corporate land ownership ⓘ |
| jurisdiction | Kingdom of England ⓘ |
| languageOfDocument | Latin ⓘ |
| legalConcept |
alienation of land
ⓘ
feudal incidents ⓘ mortmain ⓘ |
| legalStatus | historical statute ⓘ |
| legalSystem | English law ⓘ |
| longTermImpact |
contributed to development of restrictions on corporate landholding
ⓘ
influenced later English property law ⓘ |
| motivatedBy |
royal interest in maintaining feudal revenues
ⓘ
secular concern over growing Church wealth ⓘ |
| primaryPurpose |
to prevent land from passing into perpetual ownership of ecclesiastical corporations
ⓘ
to protect feudal lords’ rights and revenues ⓘ to restrict alienation of land into mortmain ⓘ |
| protects |
interests of feudal lords
ⓘ
royal fiscal interests ⓘ |
| regulates |
acquisition of land by the Church
ⓘ
alienation of land in mortmain ⓘ conveyance of land to religious corporations ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Church–state relations in medieval England
ⓘ
feudal incidents such as reliefs and wardships ⓘ mortmain legislation ⓘ |
| restricts |
perpetual tenure of land by ecclesiastical corporations
ⓘ
transfer of land into corporate dead hand ownership ⓘ |
| targets |
Church landholding
ⓘ
ecclesiastical bodies ⓘ religious corporations ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Statute of Mortmain Description of subject: The Statute of Mortmain was a medieval English law aimed at restricting the transfer of land into the perpetual ownership of the Church and other religious corporations, thereby protecting feudal lords’ rights and revenues.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.