20. Every person holding by knight service, besides homage and fealty, was obliged to attend his lord to the wars, if called upon, on horseback, armed as a knight, for forty days, in every year, at his own expence. This attendance was his redditus or return for the land he held. If he had only half a knight's fee, he was bound to attend for twenty days, and so in proportion.

21. The personal attendance in knight service growing troublesome and inconvenient, the tenants found means of compounding for it; first by sending others in their stead, afterwards by making a pecuniary satisfaction to their lords in lieu of it. At last this pecuniary satisfaction was levied by assessment, at so much for every knight's fee, from whence it acquired the name of scutagium or servitium scuti; scutum being then a well-known name for money, In our Norman French it was known by the name of escuage.

22. As escuage differed from knight service in nothing but as a compensation differs from actual service, it is frequently confounded with knight service. Thus Littleton must be understood when he says that tenant by homage, fealty, and escuage, was tenant by knight service.

to it.

23. The tenure by knight service being the most Incidents honourable, was also the most favourable to the lord, for it drew after it these five fruits or consequences, as inseparably incident to it; namely, aids, relief, primer seisin, wardship, and marriage.

24. With respect to aids, they were the same as Aids, those established on the continent, namely, to make the lord's eldest son a knight; to marry the lord's eldest daughter; and to ransom the lord's person, when taken prisoner.

3 Ed. 1. c. 36.

2 Inst. 231. 13 Rep. 26.

Reliefs.

25. These aids were introduced into England from Normandy, where they appear to have been established before the conquest, and are thus described in the Grand Coustumier, c. 35.-Tria autem sunt capitalia auxilia Normaniæ. Primum videlicet ad primogenitum filium domini sui in ordinem militiæ promovendum. Secundum videlicet ad primogenitam filiam domini maritandam. Tertium videlicet ad corpus domini sui de prisona redimendum, cum captus fuerit.

26. Aids of this kind were originally uncertain; besides which the tyranny of the feudal lords induced them to demand other aids, such as to pay their debts, and to enable them to pay their reliefs to their superior lords. To prevent this, it was provided by King John's Magna Charta, c. 12. that no aid should be taken by the king without consent of parliament; nor in any case by inferior lords, except the three above mentioned.

27. By the statute of Westm. 1. the aids of inferior lords were fixed at twenty shillings for every knight's fee, for making the lord's eldest son a knight, or marrying his eldest daughter. The same was done with regard to the king's tenants in capite, by the statute 25 Edw. III. c. 11. As to the aid for ransom of the lord's person, not being capable of any certainty, it was never ascertained.

28. Upon the death of every tenant, the lord claimed a sum of money from his heir, as a fine for taking up the estate, that lapsed by the death of the ancestor. This was called a relief.

29. The doctrine of reliefs was also adopted from the laws of Normandy, where they were reduced to a certainty at the time when the customs of that Grand Coust. province were collected; the relief of a fief d'haubert being fifteen livres, and that of a barony a hundred.

c. 34.

30. It is said that reliefs were originally uncertain Wright, 98. in England, for in the laws of King Henry I. a decla- 2 Inst. 7. ration is made that the king would be satisfied with a fair and just relief. When Glanville wrote, the Lib. 9. c. 4. Lit. $112. relief for a knight's fee was fixed at a hundred shillings, which was supposed to be a fourth part of the annual value of the land. But the reliefs of barons and earls fees were uncertain.

Vide Tit. 26.

31. Where the king's tenant died seised, the crown Primer was entitled to receive of the heir, if he were of full Seisin, age, an additional sum of money, called primer seisin.

32. It does not appear when this right was first established. But in the statute of Marlbridge 2 Inst. 134. 52 Hen. III. c. 16. it is thus mentioned-De hæredibus autem qui de domino rege tenent in capite, sic observandum est; quod dominus primam inde habeat seisinam, sicut prius inde habere consuevit. The king's right to primer seisin is also declared in the statute de prerogativa regis. It was settled that the king should 17Ed. 2. c. 3. receive one whole year's profit of the lands on this

account.

2 Inst. 77,

33. Primer seisin was only incident to the king's tenants in capite, not to those who held of inferior or mesne lords. "It seems," says Sir W. Blackstone, 2 Comm. 66. "to have been little more than an additional relief, founded on this principle, that by the antient law of feuds, immediately upon the death of a vassal, the lord 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 the profits."

34. These payments were only due where the heir Wardship, was of full age; if the heir was under the age of 21 being a male, or 14 being a female, the lord was

Grand Coust. c. 33.

Basnage, V. 1.326.

Marriage. Grand Coust. c. 33.

entitled to wardship, which consisted in having the custody of the body and lands of the heir, without being accountable for the profits; till the male heir attained 21, and the female 16.

35. The doctrine of wardships was taken from the customs of Normandy, in which it was called Garde Noble: it is however observable that this right was peculiar to that province; and did not prevail in any other part of France; or in any other country where the feudal law was established.

36. Of the various hardships which arose from the adoption of the feudal law, wardship was the greatest, and the most complained of; for the object of some of the first chapters of Magna Charta was to regulate -the conduct of the lords in this respect; and to restrain them from wasting or destroying the estates of their wards.

37. By the customs of Normandy, female wards were directed to be married with the advice and consent of the lord, and of their relations. In imitation of this practice, it appears to have been established in England that the consent of the lord was necessary to the marriage of his female wards; for which the lords usually required a sum of money. In the charter of King Henry I. he engages to take nothing for his consent. This being disregarded, it was provided by the first draught of the Magna Charta of King John that heirs should be married without disparagement, by the advice of their relations; in the charter of Hen. III. the clause is merely, that heirs shall be married without disparagement.

38. Soon after, the king and the great lords established a right to consent to the marriage, not only of their female, but of their male wards. As nothing but disparagement was restrained, they

thought themselves at liberty to make all other advantages they could. Afterwards this right of selling the ward in marriage, or else receiving the price or value of it, was expressly declared by the statute of 20 Hen. 3. Merton.

c. 6.

Alienation.

39. All lands held by a feudal tenure were origi- Fines for nully unalienable without the licence of the lord; from whence arose fines for alienation, of which an account will be given hereafter.

Tit. 32. c. 1.

40. Where the tenant died without heirs, by which Escheat. there was no person to perform the services, the land returned to the lord as an escheat.

Tit. 30.

Grand

41. There was a species of tenure called grand Tenure by serjeanty, which was considered as superior to knight Serjeanty. service; whereby the tenant was bound, instead of Fleta, lib. 1. serving the king generally in his wars, to do him some special honorary service in person.

42. Thus where the king gave lands to a man, to hold of him, to be marshal of his host, or marshal of England, or high steward of England, or the like; these were grand serjeanties. So if lands were given to a man to hold by the service of carrying the king's sword at his coronation, or being his carver butler, these were called offices of honour, held by grand serjeanty.

c. 10.

107.a.

Inst. 106. a. Dyer, 285.b.

43. Lord Coke says, this tenure has seven special 1 Inst. 105. b. properties. 1. To be holden of the king only.

2. The service to be done, when the tenant was able, in proper person. 3. The service was certain and particular. 4. The relief due in respect of this tenure was different from that due for knight service. 5. The service was in general to be done within the realm. 6. It was not subject to aid for making the eldest son a knight, or for marrying the eldest daughter. 7. It paid no escuage.