Tenant by the curtesy of England is where a man survives a wife who was seised in fee simple or fee-tail of lands or tenements, and has had issue male or female by her born alive and capable of inheriting the wife’s estate as heir to her; in which case he will, on the decease of his wife, hold the estate during his life as tenant by the curtesy of England. 2 Crabb, Real Prop, f 1074.