In the evolution of English land law, mortmain described the 'dead hand' of corporate ownership, primarily exercised by ecclesiastical bodies. Under the feudal system, a lord depended on 'incidents'—financial windfalls occurring upon a tenant’s death, marriage, or the minority of an heir. Because a monastery or cathedral never died, married, or reached majority, land granted to the Church effectively 'died' in terms of its feudal utility to the superior lord, permanently depriving the Crown and nobility of lucrative revenues.
To counteract this erosion of the feudal tax base, various Statutes of Mortmain were enacted, most notably under Edward I in 1279 and 1290. These laws required a royal license for any alienation of land to a corporation. For the nobility, mortmain represented a tension between spiritual devotion—often manifested in gifting manors to religious orders for the salvation of souls—and the pragmatic preservation of the family's martial and financial power within the feudal hierarchy.