This open access book examines warranty obligations in western France during the central Middle Ages. Warranty refers to the commitments that an individual undertook when alienating property to protect the transfer from outside challenge, and to provide compensation if they failed to defend a transaction successfully. The subject has never received a full-length study before, meaning that scholars’ interpretation of warranty is marred by a number of untested generalisations. Warranty has generally only been viewed as a thirteenth-century development owing to the influence of Roman law and...

This open access book examines warranty obligations in western France during the central Middle Ages. Warranty refers to the commitments that an individual undertook when alienating property to protect the transfer from outside challenge, and to provide compensation if they failed to defend a transaction successfully. The subject has never received a full-length study before, meaning that scholars’ interpretation of warranty is marred by a number of untested generalisations. Warranty has generally only been viewed as a thirteenth-century development owing to the influence of Roman law and...