What is "precontract"

Precontract \Pre`con*tract"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Precontracted; p. pr. & vb. n. Precontracting.] To contract, engage, or stipulate previously.

Precontract \Pre`con*tract"\, v. i. To make a previous contract or agreement.
--Ayliffe.

Precontract \Pre*con"tract\, n. A contract preceding another; especially (Law), a contract of marriage which, according to the ancient law, rendered void a subsequent marriage solemnized in violation of it.
--Abbott.

n. (context legal English) A contract preceding another, especially a contract of marriage which, according to the ancient law, rendered void a subsequent marriage solemnized in violation of it. vb. 1 To contract prior to another process. 2 To make a previous contract.

A precontract is a legal contract that precedes another; in particular it refers to an existing promise of marriage with another. Such a precontract would legally nullify any later marriages into which either party entered. The practice was common in the Middle Ages, and the allegation of a precontract was the most common means of dissolving a marriage by the medieval ecclesiastical courts.

Richard III of England claimed his brother Edward IV had entered into a marriage precontract with Lady Eleanor Talbot prior to Edward's later marriage to Elizabeth Woodville. The claim is now largely, though not universally, regarded to be false; if true, it would have meant that Edward's sons by Elizabeth, the ' Princes in the Tower', would have been illegitimate and Richard, rather than they, would have inherited the throne upon Edward's death.