ix.] DISTRIBUTION OF LAND IN ENGLAND. 35 



to the services of knights, proportionate in number 

 to the magnitude of the grant. Some manors were 

 estimated at several knights' fees, some at one 

 knight's fee, and some at a portion of a fee. The 

 Saxon proprietor who retained his land would 

 probably not raise objections to the change of 

 tenure as regarded military service, the principal 

 difference between new and old being that he 

 now held his property on condition of yielding such 

 service to a subject, instead of directly to the state 

 as formerly. 



The burdens on landed property independent of 

 military service were also increased. If the land 

 descended to an infant heir, the lord was entitled to 

 the profits during the minority of his tenant, while 

 providing for his maintenance and education, and 

 subject to the right of the widow to one-third of the 

 land for her life. And the lord was also held entitled 

 to dispose of the hand of his ward, whether male or 

 female, in marriage, and to receive any amount which 

 the relations of the other party to the match were 

 willing to pay, in order to secure it. If the ward 

 married without the lord's consent, the lord might 

 obtain, out of the ward's property, the value of the 

 marriage the amount which it was estimated might 

 have been secured by the lord as the price of his 

 consent. 



It seems probable, that these fruits of the feudal 

 tenure were grasped with a strict and vigorous hand 



D 2 



