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[From the various combinations of these services have arisen the four kinds of lay tenure, which subsisted in England till the middle of the seventeenth century; and three of which subsist to this day. Of these Bracton (who wrote under Henry the Third) seems to give the most compendious account of any author, antient or modern. "Tenements are of two kinds, frank-tenement "and villenage. And of frank-tenements, some are held "freely, in consideration of homage, and knight-service; "others in free-socage with the service of fealty only, "or, according to some authorities, with fealty and "homage" (r). And again, "of villenages, some are pire, "others privileged. He that holds in pure villenage shall "do whatsoever is commanded of him, and always be "bound to an uncertain service. The other kind of villenage, (which is holden of the king, from the time of "the Conquest), which is called villein-socage, and which is villenage, but privileged. And so tenants of the "king's demesnes have the privilege that they cannot be "removed from the land while they will and can render "the services due; and these villein-socmen are properly "called glebæ ascriptitii. They perform villein services, "but such as are certain and determined" (s). Of which the sense seems to be as follows: First, where the service was free but uncertain, as military service with homage, that tenure was called the tenure in chivalry, per servitium militare, or by knight-service. Secondly, where the service was not only free, but also certain, as by fealty only, by rent and fealty, &c., that tenure is called liberum socagium, or free socage. These were the only free holdings or tenements; the others were villenous or servile. As, thirdly, where the service was base in its nature, and uncertain as to time and quantity, the tenure was purum villenagium, absolute or pure villenage. Lastly, where the service was base in its nature, but (s) Ibid. § 5 (fo. 209).

(r) Bract. 1. 4, ch. 28, § 1 (fo. 207).

[reduced to certainty, this was still villenage, but distinguished from the other by the name of privileged villenage, villenagium privilegiatum.

A. The first, most universal, and esteemed the most. honourable species of tenure, was that by knight-service, called in Latin servitium militare, and in law-French chivalry; and it differed very little from a pure and proper feud, being entirely military in its character. To make this holding, a determinated quantity of land was necessary, which was called a knight's fee, feodum militare (t); the value of which was stated in 1 Edw. II. at 201. per annum (u). And he who held this proportion of land (or a whole fee) by knight-service, was bound to attend his lord to the wars for forty days in every year, if called upon; which attendance was his reditus or return, his rent service for the land he claimed to hold.. If he held only half a knight's fee, he was only bound to attend twenty days; and so in proportion (x).

A feud of this tenure was granted by words of pure donation, dedi et concessi; was transferred by investiture or delivering corporal possession of the land, usually called "livery of seisin"; and was perfected by homage and feulty. It also drew after it the following consequences, as inseparably incident to the tenure in chivalry.

1. Aids were originally mere benevolences, granted by the tenant to his lord, in times of difficulty and distress; but, in process of time, they grew to be considered as a matter of right. Those aids were principally three. First, to ransom the lord's person if taken prisoner, a necessary consequence of feudal relationship (y). Second, to make the lord's eldest son a knight, a matter attended formerly with great ceremony, pomp, and expense; but

(f) Co. Litt. 69 a.

(u) Ibid. ; see the so-called Statute for Knights of 1307, in the ordinary editions of the statutes.

(x) Litt. s. 95.

(y) Libri Feudorum II. 24, s. 2. (This work will be found appended to the older editions of the Corpus Juris Civilis.)

[this second aid was not payable until the lord's heir was fifteen years old, or capable of bearing arms (2). Third, to marry the lord's eldest daughter, by giving her a suitable portion; for daughters' portions were in those days extremely slender, few lords being able to save much out of their incomes for this purpose, and all being unable, from the very nature of the tenure thereof, to charge the lands with any portions for their children. And it appears that no vassal was exempt from any of these aids, not even the monasteries (a).

But besides these antient feudal aids, the tyranny of lords by degrees exacted more and more, e.g., aids to pay the lord's debts, and aids to enable him to pay the aids due to his superior lord; to remedy which abuse King John's Magna Carta ordained that no aids be taken by the king without the consent of Parliament, nor in any wise by inferior lords, save only the three antient ones above mentioned (b). This provision was omitted in subsequent charters, but re-enacted and confirmed in the 25 Edw. I., 1297, when the statute called Confirmatio Cartarum was enacted. King John's charter also ordered, that aids taken by mesne lords should be reasonable (c); and that the aids taken by the king (other than the three antient aids) should be settled by Parliament. Eventually, by the Statute of Westminster I. (d) (as regards ordinary tenants by knight-service) and by the 25 Edw. III. (1350) st. 5, c. 11 (as regards tenants in capite of the Crown), the aid for making the lord's eldest son a knight, and the aid for marrying his eldest daughter, was fixed at twenty shillings, the supposed twentieth part of the annual value of a knight's fee. The other aid, for ransom of the lord's person, being not in its nature capable of any certainty, was account never ascertained.

(=) 2 Inst. 233.

(a) Phillips, Life of Pole, I. 223. (b) Caps. 12, 15 (ed. Stubbs).

(c) Ibid. 15.

on that

(d) 3 Edw. 1. (1275) c. 36.

[2. Relief was another incident in every feudal tenure, by way of fine or composition with the lord for taking up the estate, which was lapsed or fallen in by the death of the last tenant. The amount was at first probably uncertain, being in fact arbitrary at the will of the lord (e); but William the Conqueror by his laws ascertained it at 100s. (f). William Rufus, however, broke through this composition, and again demanded arbitrary, uncer tain reliefs; thereby in effect obliging every heir to newpurchase or redeem his land. But his brother, Henry the First, restored the composition, and ordained that the relief to be paid should not be an arbitrary redemption (g). And eventually the composition of 100s. for every knight's fee was universally established (h).

3. Primer seisin was a feudal burden, only incident to the King's tenants in capite, and not to those who held of inferior or mesne lords (i). It was a right which the king had, when any of his tenants in capite died seised of a knight's fee, to receive of the heir, (provided he were of full age), one whole year's profit of the lands, if they were in immediate possession; and half a year's profits, if the lands were in reversion expectant on an estate for life (k). This seems to be little more than an additional relief, but grounded upon this feudal reason; that, by the antient law of feuds, immediately upon a death of a vassal, the superior was entitled to enter and take seisin or possession of the land, by way of protection against intruders, till the heir appeared to claim it and receive investiture. During this interval, the lord was entitled to the profits; and, unless the heir claimed within a

(e) Wright, Tenures, 99.

(f) Wilkins, Leges Anglo-Sax. LL. Guil. Con. cc. 22, 23, 24 (p. 223).

(g) "Hares non redimet terram suam sicut faciebat tempore fratris mei, sed legitimâ et justá relevatione relevabit eam."—(Charter of Henry

I. ed. Stubbs, c. 2.)

(h) Glanv. ix. 4; Litt. s. 112. (7) Stat. Marlb. (52 Hen. 3 (1267)), c. 16; Prerogativa Regis (17 Edw. 2), c. 3 (alleged statute of 1324).

(k) Co. Litt. 77 a.

[year and a day, it was by the strict law a forfeiture (1). This practice, however, seems not to have long obtained in England, if ever, with regard to tenures under inferior lords; but, as to the king's tenures in capite, this primer seisin was expressly declared to belong to the king by prerogative. And the king was entitled to enter and receive the whole profits of the land, till livery was sued, which suit being commonly within a year and a day next after the death of the tenant; and therefore the king used. to take the first fruits at an average, that is to say, one year's profits of the land (m). Which right of the Crown afterwards gave a handle to the popes, who claimed to be feudal lords of the Church, to claim, in like manner, from every clergyman in England the first year's profits of his benefice, by way of primitia or first fruits.

4. These payments were only due if the heir was of full age; but if he was under the age of twenty-one, being a male, or fourteen, being a female, the lord was entitled to the wardship of the heir, and was called the guardian in chivalry. This wardship consisted in having the custody of the body and lands of the heir, without any account of the profits, till the age of twenty-one in males, and sixteen in females. For the law supposed the heir male unable to perform knight-service till twenty-one; but as for the female, she was supposed capable at fourteen to marry, and then her husband might perform the service. The lord therefore had no wardship, if at the death of the ancestor the heir-male was of the full age of twenty-one, or the heir-female of fourteen; yet, if she was then under fourteen, and the lord once had her in ward, he might keep her so till sixteen, by virtue of the Statute of Westm. I., 3 Edw. I. (1295) c. 22 (n).

When the male heir arrived to the age of twenty-one, or the heir female to that of sixteen, they might sue out their livery or ousterlemain; that is, the delivery of their (n) Litt. s. 103; 2 Inst. 204.

(1) Lib. Feud. II. 24.

(m) Staundf. Prerog. fo. 12.