564 



TENURES. 



not only free, but also certain, as by fealty only, 

 by rent and fealty, Kc., that tenure was called 

 ti'x rum xtiriii/imn, or free socage. These were the 

 only free holdings or tenements; the others were 

 villenous or servile: as, thirdly, where the serviee 

 was base in its nature, and uncertain as to time and 

 quantity, the tenure was purum villenagium (abso- 

 lute or pure villenage). Lastly, where the service 

 was base in its nature, but reduced to a certainty, 

 this was still villenage, but distinguished from the 

 other by the name of privileged villenage (villena- 

 iiiitni jiririli-yidtHin') ; or it might be still called 

 socage, from the certainty of its services, but de- 

 graded by their baseness into the inferior title of 

 rillanum socayium (villein-socage). The first, most 

 universal, and esteemed the most honourable species 

 of tenure, was that by knight service. To make a 

 tenure by knight-service, a determinate quantity of 

 land was necessary, which was called a knight's fee 

 (feodum mt'/ifore); the measure of whicb, in 3 Edw. 

 I., was estimated at twelve ploughlands; and its 

 value, though it varied with the times, in the 

 reigns of Edward I. and Edward II., was stated at 

 twenty pounds per annum. And he who held this 

 proportion of land, or a whole fee, by knight-serrice, 

 was bound to attend his lord to the wars for forty 

 days in every year, if called upon. If he held only 

 half a knight's fee, he was only bound to attend 

 twenty days; and so in proportion. And there is 

 reason to apprehend, that this service was the whole 

 that the landholders meant to subject themselves 

 to ; the other fruits and consequences of this tenure 

 being fraudulently superinduced, as the regular, 

 though unforeseen, appendages of the feudal system. 

 These fruits and consequences were aids, relief, 

 primer seisin, wardship, marriage, fines for aliena- 

 tion, and escheat. 



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, and not of discre- 

 tion. These aids were principally three: first, to 

 ransom the lord's person, if taken prisoner a 

 necessary consequence of the feudal attachment 

 and fidelity ; insomuch that the neglect of doing it, 

 whenever it was in the vassal's power, was, by the 

 strict rigour of the feudal law, an absolute forfeiture 

 of his estate. Secondly, to make the lord's eldest 

 son a knight a matter that was formerly attended 

 with great ceremony, pomp, and expense. This 

 aid could not be demanded till the heir was fifteen 

 years old, or capable of bearing arms; the intention 

 of it being to breed up the eldest son and heir ap- 

 parent of the seigniory to deeds of arms and chivalry, 

 for the better defence of the nation. Thirdly, to 

 marry the lord's eldest daughter, by giving her a 

 suitable portion. In this particular, the lord and 

 vassal of the feudal law bore a great resemblance 

 to the patron and client of the Roman republic, be- 

 tween whom, also, there subsisted a mutual fealty, 

 or engagement of defence and protection ; and there 

 were three aids, which were usually raised by the 

 client : viz. to marry the patron's daughter, to pay 

 his debts, and to redeem his person from captivity. 

 But, besides these ancient feudal aids, the tyranny 

 of lords, by degrees, exacted more and more ; as 

 aids to pay the lord's debts (probably in imitation 

 of the Romans), and aids to enable him to pay aids 

 or reliefs to his superior lord. In the 25 Edw. I., 

 the statute called confirmatio chartarum was enacted, 

 which ordained that none but the ancient aids should 

 be taken. But though the species of aids was thus 



restrained, yet the quantity of each aid remained 

 arbitrary and uncertain. They were never com- 

 pletely ascertained and adjusted till the statute 

 Westm. 1. 8 Edw. I., c. 36, which fixed the aids ot 

 interior lords at twenty shillings, or the supposed 

 twentieth part of the annual value of every knight's 

 fee, for making the eldest son a knight, or marrying 

 the eldest daughter; and the same was done with 

 regard to the king's tenants in cnpite, by statute 

 25 Edw. III., c. 11. The other aid, for ransom of 

 the lord's person, being not, in its nature, capable 

 of any certainty, was, therefore, never ascertained. 



2. Relief (relevium') was inc'dent to 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. But, though 

 reliefs had their original while feuds were only lite- 

 estates, yet they continued after feuds became he- 

 reditary, and were, therefore, looked upon, very 

 justly, as one of the greatest grievances of tenure ; 

 especially when, at the first, they were merely 

 arbitrary, and at the will of the lord ; so that, if 

 he pleased to demand an exorbitant relief, it was, 

 in effect, to disinherit the heir. William the Con- 

 queror ascertained the relief, by directing, in imita- 

 tion of the Danish heriots, that a certain quantity 

 of arms, and habiliments of war, should be paid by 

 the earls, barons and vavasours respectively ; and 

 if the latter had no arms, they should pay a hundred 

 shillings. Afterwards, the composition was uni- 

 versally accepted of one hundred shillings for every 

 knight's fee ; as we find it ever after established. 

 But it must be remembered, that this relief was 

 only then payable, if the heir, at the death of his 

 ancestor, had attained his full age of one and twenty 

 years. 



3. Primer seisin was a feudal burden, only inci- 

 dent to the king's tenants I'M capite, and not to 

 those who held of inferior or mesne lords. It was 

 a right which the king had, when any of his tenants 

 in capite died, seized of a knight's fee, to receive 

 of the heir, provided he were of full age, one whole 

 year's profits of the lands, if they were in immedi- 

 ate possession, and half a year's profits, if the lands 

 were in reversion expectant on an estate for life. 

 This seems to be little more than an additional re- 

 lief, but grounded upon this feudal reason ; that, 

 by the ancient law of feuds, immediately upon the 

 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 which 

 interval the lord was entitled to take the profits ; 

 and, unless the heir claimed within a year and day, 

 it was, by the strict law, a forfeiture. This prac- 

 tice, however, seems not to have long obtained in 

 England, if ever, with regard to tenure under in- 

 ferior lords; but, as to the king's tenures in capite, 

 the prima seisina was expressly declared, under 

 Henry III. and Edward II., to belong to the king 

 by prerogative, in contradistinction to other lords. 

 The king was entitled to enter and receive the 

 whole profits of the land, till livery was sued , 

 which suit being commonly made within a year and 

 day next after the death of the tenant, in pursuance 

 of the strict feudal rule, therefore the king used to 

 take, as an average, the first fruits, that is to say, 

 one year's profits of the land. And this 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 profit* 

 of his benefice, by way of primitia:, or first fruits. 



