Wilhs: Anglo-American Law 
75 
tenures. Fealty was an incident of all forms of tenure. There 
were a number of substantial incidents or privileges known as 
wardship, marriage, reliefs, fines, gifts, and escheat. The 
privilege of wardship gave the lord the legal capacity to man- 
age the property of minors, under twenty-one years in the 
case of men and under fourteen years in the case of women, 
and to take all of the profits arising from the land, except 
enough to pay for the expense of keeping the wards. The 
privilege, or right, of marriage gave the lord the legal capac- 
ity to choose the person whom a minor should marry, and 
in case of refusal to marry the person so selected there was 
a forfeiture of the value of the marriage. Reliefs were in 
the nature of succession taxes, and were comparable with the 
modern inheritance taxes. The amount of the tax was gen- 
erally one-fourth of the annual value of the property in the 
case of knight-service (in the case of tenants in capite, one 
year’s profits), and in the case of socage tenure, one year’s 
rent. By custom the lord was sometimes entitled to the best 
beast, called a heriot. Fines were taxes on sales. The modern 
mortgage tax is somewhat analogous. The privilege, or right, 
to aids, or compulsory gifts, was the legal capacity of the lord 
to compel his tenants to ransom him in case of capture, to 
make his eldest son a knight, and to provide the money to 
marry his eldest daughter. The right of escheat was the legal 
capacity to have land come back to the lord on the termination 
of tenure. All of the incidents named above attached to mili- 
tary tenure ; reliefs, fines, probably aids, and escheats attached 
to socage tenure (with the exception of gavelkind) ; wardship, 
relief, fines, and escheat attached to copyhold tenure ; but noth- 
ing is known of any substantial incidents which attached to 
the other forms of tenure. 
Tenure. The highest form of tenure was tenure in chiv- 
alry, or military tenure. It was free but uncertain. The next 
highest tenure was socage. It was free and certain. The ten- 
ants under both of these forms of tenure were freeholders. 
Pure villeinage tenure was base and uncertain. The interests 
were below freeholds. This tenure later developed into copy- 
hold tenure. Privileged villeinage was base and certain. The 
interests were like freeholds. 
Estates. Under the feudal system, no one except the king 
could own land allodially, as people had in Anglo-Saxon times ; 
