164 FORMS OF LAND TENITRE. 



lord incident thereto, there was the payment called the '' Relief " 

 which the lord claimed upon the admission of every new tenant 

 to the possession of the fief. Moreover, in the event of the 

 tenant dying without heirs, the land escheated to the lord ; and 

 it became forfeited in the event of the tenant being guilty of 

 felony or breach of fealty. Besides all these advantages, there 

 were the casual ^' Aids " which accrued to the lord from time to 

 time, and which are of no small importance to us in this enquiry^ 

 inasmuch as their assessment forms one of the best clues to our 

 knowledge of the Fees. 



These aids, in later times, as regulated by Magna Carta, 

 were levied for three purposes only, viz. : — to make the lord's 

 eldest son a knight ; — to marry his eldest daughter; — and to pay 

 his ransom, if captured in war. In early times the king levied 

 these aids by his own authority, but by statute of 24th Edward I 

 it was ordained that the king should not levy any aid without 

 the sanction of parliament. 



The process of admission to fees was by homage, and 

 fealty, and investiture. The first of these, Littleton says in his 

 " Treatise on Tenure," is the most honourable service and 

 the most humble service of reverence that a frank tenant may 

 do to his lord, for when the tenant shall make homage to his 

 lord he shall be ungirt and his head uncovered, and his lord 

 shall sit and the tenant shall kneel before him on both his 

 knees and hold his hands jointly together between the hands of 

 his lord, and shall say thus : "I become your man from this 

 day forward, of life and limb, and of earthly worship, and unto 

 you shall be true and faithful and bear you faith for the 

 tenements which I claim to hold of you, saving the faith which 

 I owe to our sovereign lord the King," and then the lord so 

 sitting shall kiss him. The reservation of faith to the king 

 was an innovation known only in this country. But the 

 leading principles of feuds and oath of fealty were due from 

 the vassal to the lord of whom he immediately held his 

 land, and to no other. Religious persons and women in making 

 homage, instead of saying " I am your man," said " I do 

 homage unto you." It will be observed that the act of homage 

 did not enjoin any oath, but the service of fealty consisted 



