Statute of Quia Emptores

Statute of Quia Emptores, English law of 1290 that forbade subinfeudation, the process whereby one tenant granted land to another who then considered the grantor his lord. Thus, after passage of the Quia Emptores, if A granted land to B in fee simple, B’s lord would not be A but A’s lord. The statute prevented the growth of the feudal pyramid, and in the course of time most land came to be held from the crown and not from intermediate lords. Quia Emptores was critical to the development of the English law of real property, especially the establishment of the right of free alienation.