fealty attached to this tenure, the divine service rendered being considered of a higher nature. This form of tenure exists at the present day, and is that by which the parochial clergy, and many ecclesiastical and charitable foundations, hold their lands. The original incidents of tenure by knight service New incidents of tenure by were, as we have seen, Homage and Fealty. There Knight Sersoon, however, grew up many others of a more bur- vice. densome kind, some of which appear to have been borrowed from the pre-existing Saxon tenure, but all having reference to the fact that the earlier grants had been matters of bounty. Thus, when it first became customary to allow the child of a deceased tenant to succeed him in his feud, this was a matter of favour, not of right, and the successor or heir would therefore pay to the lord a sum of money called a Relief (r), in Relief. acknowledgment of the benefit conferred. Similarly, when later on the tenant attained to the privilege of transferring his feud during his lifetime (s) (a point to which we shall advert presently), he paid to the lord a Fine in order to obtain his permission for so doing, Fine. and the name of Fine thus came to be given to any sum of money paid to the lord on a transfer of the tenant's land, whether by sale or in consequence of his death. Again, the vassal, who owed everything to the bounty of his lord, might naturally be expected to assist him in any pressing emergency. Thus if the lord were taken a prisoner, the faithful vassal would be bound to assist in procuring his ransom. If his eldest son were knighted or his daughter married (both matters involving considerable outlay), the vassal would be expected to contribute; and these payments or Aids, at first voluntary, soon grew to be regular Aids. incidents of his tenure. The favours conferred on the (r) From the Latin relevare, to lift or take up. (s) In ancient times alienation was accomplished by the tenant's surrendering his fee to the lord, who regranted to the tenant's nominee. Wardship. Marriage. Escheat and Burdens of tenure by Knight Service become very heavy. tenant benefited his family as well as himself. It was natural, therefore, that the children of a deceased tenant should seek the protection of their benefactor. If the heir was under age, and unable to render the services the performance of which had been the condition of his father's tenure, the lord would constitute himself his guardian, and take charge of his lands until the heir was fit to do so, receiving in the meantime the profits of the estate in lieu of the services to which he was entitled. This Wardship continued until the heir, if a male, had attained the age of twenty-one, or, if a female, that of fourteen years. It then came to an end, and the heir was entitled to enter into possession of the land without paying any relief. In addition to wardship there was the incident of Marriage. The feudal barons were often engaged in small private wars, and it was therefore of importance to the lord that no tenant of his should wed one of his enemies. He claimed, in consequence, a right to forbid any proposed marriage, and if he were the guardian of a female ward, he would naturally himself look out for a husband for her. Lastly, there were Escheat and Forfeiture. If the tenant died without heirs, the land "escheated" (t) to the lord who had granted it; if he neglected to perform the services due from him, or if he were convicted of cowardice, or of some grievous crime, his feud was taken from him, and became forfeited to his lord. But these incidents, not unreasonable in their origin, and so long as they were kept within due limits, came in time to assume formidable proportions, and the burdens which they imposed seemed the more grievous as the original principle on which feuds were conferred was lost sight of. For in time the transmission of a man's feud to his heir, or the alienation of it during his lifetime, originally matters of favour, grew to (t) From the French eschoir, to fall in. be looked upon as rights, whilst on the other hand the lords took every opportunity of enriching themselves at the expense of tenants who no longer recognised them as their benefactors. Thus a fine was still imposed on alienation or succession, whilst the amounts claimed were at first arbitrary, although afterwards regulated according to the value of the land. Aids too were claimed on various pretexts other than those originally contemplated. But it was chiefly in the matters of wardship and marriage that the rapacity of the lords was shown. For the lord, who formerly was the careful guardian of the heir's estate, now began to consider his charge as a mere opportunity for plunder. Timber was cut down, hedges and buildings allowed to fall into decay, and, in addition, the heir was now compelled to pay a sum equal to half a year's value of his land before the lord would grant him that livery of seisin necessary to perfect his title. As to marriage, the lord now claimed the right to dispose of his ward in matrimony, and to suggest a match which he considered suitable, having previously bargained to receive a sum of money from the relatives of the proposed husband or wife. The ward who refused to come into this arrangement was liable, if a male, to forfeit double the sum which the lord was to have received; or, if a female, could not sue out her livery until she attained the age of twenty-one: whilst even if the lord had not proposed any marriage, he was entitled, on the ward's coming of age, to such a sum as he might be expected to have received had he negotiated an alliance. It must not be imagined that the lords themselves received any better treatment at the hands of the king. On the contrary, the burdens imposed on them were still more grievous, and formed some excuse for the pressure which they put on their own tenants. For in addition to those already mentioned, the tenants in capite were liable to that of Primer Seisin, or B Advantages of Knight Service. right which the king had to take the profits of an estate for a year and a half after the heir had attained full age; and besides this, every heir was bound to be made a knight, an occasion which served as a pretext for fresh extortions (u). Another and more recent burden pressed heavily upon all tenants by Knight Service, whether from the king or from a mesne lord. The obligation of military service had been at first personal, but after a short time it became usual for the army to be made up of hired soldiery, the tenants by Knight Service paying a tax called Escuage in lieu of personal service (v). From the time of Henry the Third escuage became almost universal (so that the name of Tenure by Escuage replaced that of Tenure by Knight Service); and although knights and gentlemen might be found serving in the army, they did so for pay, and not by virtue of their birth or the tenure of their land (w). From many of these burdens Socage tenure was Socage tenure free, whilst those which it did sustain pressed less heavily. Thus Relief was due from the heir of a tenant in Socage; but it consisted simply in the payment of a sum equivalent to one year's rental of the land. Fines were payable on alienation, and lands held in Socage were liable to Escheat and Forfeiture. The tenants were also bound to furnish Aids for knighting the lord's son and marrying his eldest daughter. And tenants in Socage became further liable to payment of Escuage, but the amount was always certain (x). But it was principally in respect of Wardship and Marriage that Socage tenure and that by Knight Service differed: for in the former (u) For an illustration of the height to which these abuses had risen, see Christie's Memoirs of Shaftesbury, pp. 7-12. (v) This tax still remained uncertain, being assessed by Parliament after the termination of a war. Litt. Ten. s. 98. (w) 2 Hallam's Middle Ages, 479. (x) Litt. Ten. s. 98. the wardship of an infant heir did not belong to the lord (inasmuch as he was not entitled to claim military service), but to the infant's nearest relation, not being one capable of succeeding him by descent, who, on the infant's coming of age, was bound to account to him for all rents and profits of the land received during minority; and in like manner the guardian could gain no benefit by his ward's marriage. of Villein Whilst the free tenures thus put on new burdens, Improvement the position of the tenants by base tenure gradually Tenure. improved. The clergy of that day lost no opportunity of impressing upon the lords the sinfulness of keeping their Christian brethren in bondage, whilst the courts were quick to construe any dealings between the lord and his villein as the manumission of the latter (y). The consequence was that by the time of Edward the Sixth nearly all the villeins had become freemen, except a few belonging to the clergy (z). At the same time that the personal status of the villeins was thus changed for the better, their tenure also improved. For when it became usual to allow them and their children to enjoy their possessions without interruption, the courts began to decide that they had acquired, by their long-continued enjoyment, a right to hold their lands without reference to their lord's will, so long as they performed their accustomed services, which now included fealty. From this the next step was, as in the case of feuds, to make to them grants of land so worded as to entitle their issue, if they had any, to succeed them. Their lands were still granted to them to be held at the will of their lord, and their tenure was still conditional on the performance of their due services, and had as its incidents Relief (here called Heriots), Fines, Escheat, (y) Thus taking homage from a villein made him a freeman. |