The Constitutional History of England

Constitutional Historythat this particular territory owes the service of one knight,that it is feodum militis, while another has not been split intosingle knight's fees but owes altogether the service of five orof ten knights.The service due from a single knight's fee is that of onefully armed horseman to serve in the king's army for 40 daysin the year in time of war. We notice however that there hasbeen constant quarrelling between king and barons as to thedefinition of this service. Can the tenant be forced to servein foreign parts ? As a matter of fact they have done so: butin 1213 they refused to follow John to France and so forcedon the grant of the Charter, and very lately, in 1297, they haverefused to follow Edward to France and so forced on theconfirmation of the Charter. That they are obliged to serveagainst the Scots and the Welsh is not doubted.The tenant by knight's service, whether he holds of theking or of some mesne lord must do homage to his lord andmust swear fealty. The act of homage is this-the tenantkneels before his lord and holds his hands between the handsof his lord, and says, ' I become your man from this day forwardof life and limb and of earthly worship, and unto you shall betrue and faithful and bear to you faith for the tenements thatI hold of you '-then, if the lord be not the king, he adds thesenoteworthy words, 'saving the faith that I owe to the king.'Then the lord kisses his man. Fealty is sworn thus, withhand on book, ' Hear this my lord that I shall be faithful andtrue unto you and faith to you shall bear fcr the lands thatI hold of you, and that I shall lawfully do to you the customsand services which I ought to do, so help me God and hissaints.' The act of homage constitutes an extremely sacredbond between lord and man-the bond of fealty is not soclose-and an oath of fealty must be sworn in many cases inwhich homage need not be done. The nature of these bondswe shall consider at large by and by-happily for England theybecame rather moral than legal bonds.As a consequence of holding by knight's service the tenantis subject to many burdens which we know as the incidents ofmilitary tenure : it is usual to reckon seven ; each of them hasits own history.Aids and Reliefs(a) Aids. There has been a doctrine of vague extentthat the lord can legitimately demand aid (nz~xiliz~~z) from histenant when he is in need of money. The aid has been consideredas a free-will offering, but one which ought not to berefused when the demand is reasonable. Gradually the demandhas been limited by law. In the charter of I215 John wascompelled to promise that he would exact no aid without thecommon counsel of the realm save in three cases, namely inorder to make his eldest son a knight, in order to marry hiseldest daughter, and in order to redeem his body from captivityand then only a reasonable aid. The same restriction wasplaced upon the mesne lords. These clauses however wereomitted from a charter of I 2 I 6. In I 297 however Edward Iwas obliged to promise that he would take no aids save bythe common consent of the realm, saving the ancient aids.In I275 (St. West. I. c. 36) the amount of aid for knightingthe lord's son or marrying his daughter was fixed at20 shillings for the knight's fee, and the same sum for everyestate in socage of £20 annual value.(b) If the tenant in knight service having an inheritableestate died leaving an heir of full age, that heir owed a relieffor his land-releviz~m-a sum due on his taking up the falleninheritance-relevat hereditatem. This has been a sore pointof contention between the king and his barons, between themand their vassals ;-the lord has been in the habit of gettingwhat he can on such an occasion, even of forcing the heir tobuy the land at nearly its full price. Gradually the law hasbecome more definite The relief for the knight's fee isloo shillings, but the holder of a barony (a term to beexplained hereafter) pays £100; the socager pays one year'srent. This was already the law of Glanvill's time; it wasconfirmed by the charter (1 215, C. 2).But (c) the lords have contended for a certain or uncertainright of holding the land of the dead tenant until the heirshall offer homage and pay relief :-this right is that of takingthe first seisin after the tenant's death, the right of primerseisin. In this case law has gone against the lords, it \isestablished by the Statute of Marlborough (1267, c 16) thatthe lord may not seize the land, he may but make a formal