by the same services by which he held over. This doctrine, having been found to be attended with several inconveniences, was altered in the reign of Edward I. by the statute Quia emptores terrarum, 18 Ed. 1. c.1. which directs that upon all sales or feoffments of lands, the feoffee shall hold the same, not of his immediate feoffor, but of the chief lord of the fee, of whom such feoffor himself held it.* These pro visions not extending to the king's own tenants in capite, the like law concerning them is declared 1 Inst. 98. b. by the statutes of Prerogativa Regis, and 34 Ed. III. 17 Ed. 2. c. 6. c. 15., by which last all subinfeudations previous to the reign of Edward I. were confirmed; but all subsequent to that period were left open to the Vide Tit. 32. king's prerogative. c. 1. St. 17 Ed. 2. 15. Every tenant was bound to do homage to Homage. his lord, for which purpose he was to kneel down Lit. § 85. before him and say "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 that I claim to hold of you; saving the faith that I owe unto our sovereign lord the king." And the lord, being seated, kissed him. 16. Homage must have been done in person, not by attorney; the performance of it, where it was due, materially concerned both the lord and the tenant, in point of interest and advantage. To the lord it was of consequence, because, till he had received 1 Inst. 66. b. homage of the heir, he was not entitled to the wardship of his person or estate. To the tenant the * The idea of this law was probably taken from the ordonnance of Philip Augustus, which has been mentioned in the preceding chapter, § 61. 67. b. n.l. 2 Inst. 10. Fealty. 1 Inst. 68. a. Wright, 55. n. Tenure by homage was equally important; for antiently every kind of homage, when received, bound the lord to acquittal and warranty; that is, to keep the tenant free from distress, entry, or other molestation for services due to the lord paramount; and to defend his title to the land against all strangers. 17. Another duty to which every person who held lands was subject, was fealty; which is thus described by Littleton, § 91." And when a freeholder doth fealty, he shall hold his right hand upon a book, and shall say thus: Know you this, my lord, that I shall be faithful and true unto you, and faith to you shall bear, for the lands which I claim to hold of you; and that I shall lawfully do to you the customs and services which I ought to do, at the time assigned; so help me God and his saints;' and he shall kiss the book." 18. Fealty and homage were perfectly distinct from each other; for though fealty was an incident to homage, and ought always to have accompanied it, yet fealty might be by itself; being something done when homage would have been improper. So that homage was inseparable from fealty; but fealty was not so from homage. 19. The first and most honourable kind of tenure was by knight service, servitium militare. To make a tenure of this kind, a determinate quantity of land was necessary, which was called a knight's fee, 1 Inst. 69.a. feodum militare, the measure of which is by some antient writers estimated at 800 acres of land, and by others at 680. Lord Coke was of opinion that a knight's fee was to be esteemed according to the quality, and not the quantity of the land; and that £20 a year was the qualification of a knight. Mad. Exch. 4° V. 1.321. 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. VOL. I. D 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 capitaliaauxilia 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. Lib. 9. c. 4. 80. It is said that reliefs were originally uncertain Wright, 98. 2 Inst. 7. F in England, for in the laws of King Henry I. a declaration is made that the king would be satisfied with a fair and just relief. When Glanville wrote, the 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. Lit. § 112. 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 17 Ed. 2. c.3. 2 Inst. 77. receive one whole year's profit of the lands on this account. 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 |