> even today there is something called a 'dying declaration' which can be
> admissible as evidence in a court of law. One of the key criteria for its
> admissibility is that the person making the statement must be aware that
> they have no hope of even short-term survival. Unfortunately I have no idea
> how far this goes back. Time to revisit the stacks. That's what I like
> about this discussion group. It makes me question things I would otherwise
> take for granted. (It even got me going through the Domesday Book indexes
> once). I have known for ages that deathbed statements were taken seriously,
> but had never really thought about where that attitude came from.
It was by a deathbed declaration that King Louis VIII apparently
handed the regency of France to his wife Blanche of Castile in 1226,
during the minority of the young St Louis. This was witnessed by the
archbishop of Sens, the bishop of Chartes, and one or two others, but
I seem to recall that the document that supposedly made this official
was a forgery made quite quickly after the event.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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