THE ENGLISH LAND SYSTEM 49 



The position to which the copyholders had attained 

 Is described by one of the most eminent authorities. 

 "Whereas at one time they were so dependent on the 

 lord's will that the lords upon the least occasion, 

 sometimes without colour of reason, sometimes only 

 to make evident to the world the heigfht of their 

 power and authority, would expel out of house and 

 home their poor copyholders, leaving them helpless 

 and remediless by any course of law, and driving 

 them to sue by way of petition. But now copy- 

 holders stand on a sure ground ; now they weigh not 

 their lord's displeasure, only having a special care to 

 perform carefully what duties and services soever their 

 tenure exacts."^ On the same subject Hallam writes : 

 " So long as the copyholder did continue to discharge 

 the stipulations of tenure (inserted on the roll), the 

 lord was not entitled to divest him of his estate."^ 



But all this apparent security did not save the copy- 

 holders as a body. There remained the fines on alien- 

 ation and on succession. There remained also the 

 heriots, a tribute which the lord demanded on the 

 death of the holder, and which was usually paid in the 

 form of goods, chattels, or the best beast on the hold- 

 ing. The copyholder therefore was subject to "suit, 

 service and arbitrary fines and to heriots which add a 

 sorrow to death. "^ The amount of the fines was not, 

 as a rule, stated in the manor rolls ; as land became 

 more valuable, it was raised and raised to sums that it 

 was impossible for the farmer to pay, and so the hold- 

 ing had to be surrendered to the lord, to whom it was 



1 Sir Edward Coke, quoted in the " History of the Law of Real Pro- 

 perty," by Kenelm E. Digby (p. 248). Third Edition, 1884. 



2 "Middle Ages," Vol. Ill, p. 17. 



' " Custom and Tenant Right," by Charles Elton. 



