Feudal land tenure
Encyclopedia
Under the English feudal system
several different forms of land tenure
existed, each effectively a contract with differing rights and duties attached thereto. Such tenures could be either free-hold, signifying that they were hereditable or perpetual, or non-free where the tenancy terminated on the tenant's death or at an earlier specified period. The main varieties are as follows:
Feudalism in England
Feudalism as practiced in the Kingdom of England, in the traditional sense, is a state of human society which is formally structured and stratified on the basis of land tenure and the varieties thereof...
several different forms of land tenure
Land tenure
Land tenure is the name given, particularly in common law systems, to the legal regime in which land is owned by an individual, who is said to "hold" the land . The sovereign monarch, known as The Crown, held land in its own right. All private owners are either its tenants or sub-tenants...
existed, each effectively a contract with differing rights and duties attached thereto. Such tenures could be either free-hold, signifying that they were hereditable or perpetual, or non-free where the tenancy terminated on the tenant's death or at an earlier specified period. The main varieties are as follows:
Military tenure
(Generally freehold)- by baronyEnglish feudal baronyIn England, a feudal barony or barony by tenure was a form of Feudal land tenure, namely per baroniam under which the land-holder owed the service of being one of the king's barons. It must be distinguished from a barony, also feudal, but which existed within a county palatine, such as the Barony...
(per baroniam). Such tenure constituted the holder a feudal baronEnglish feudal baronyIn England, a feudal barony or barony by tenure was a form of Feudal land tenure, namely per baroniam under which the land-holder owed the service of being one of the king's barons. It must be distinguished from a barony, also feudal, but which existed within a county palatine, such as the Barony...
, and was the highest degree of tenure. It imposed duties of military service and allowed the right of attendance at parliamentParliamentA parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
. All such holders were necessarily tenants-in-chief. - by knight-serviceKnight-serviceKnight-service was a form of Feudal land tenure under which a knight held a fief or estate of land termed a knight's fee from an overlord conditional on him as tenant performing military service for his overlord....
. This was a tenure ranking below barony, and was likewise for military service, of a lesser extent. It could be held in capiteTenant-in-chiefIn medieval and early modern European society the term tenant-in-chief, sometimes vassal-in-chief, denoted the nobles who held their lands as tenants directly from king or territorial prince to whom they did homage, as opposed to holding them from another nobleman or senior member of the clergy....
from the king or as a mesneMesneMesne , middle or intermediate, an adjective used in several legal phrases....
tenancy from a tenant-in-chief. - by castle-guardCastle-guardCastle-guard was an arrangement under the feudal system, by which the duty of finding knights to guard royal castles was imposed on certain manors, knight's fees or baronies. The greater barons provided for the guard of their castles by exacting a similar duty from their sub-enfeoffedknights...
. This was a form of military service which involved guarding a nearby castle for a specified number of days per year. - by scutageScutageThe form of taxation known as scutage, in the law of England under the feudal system, allowed a knight to "buy out" of the military service due to the Crown as a holder of a knight's fee held under the feudal land tenure of knight-service. Its name derived from shield...
where the military service obligations had been commuted, or replaced, by money payments.
Non-military tenure
- by serjeantySerjeantyUnder the feudal system in late and high medieval England, tenure by serjeanty was a form of land-holding in return for some specified service, ranking between tenure by knight-service and tenure in socage...
. Such tenure was in return for acting as a servant to the king, in a non-military capacity. Service in a ceremonial form is termed “grand serjeanty” whilst that of a more functional or menial nature is termed “petty sergeanty”. - by frankalmoinageFrankalmoinFrankalmoin or frankalmoigne was one of the feudal land tenures in feudal England. Its literal meaning is "free pity/mercy", from Norman French fraunch aumoyne, “free alms”, from Late Latin eleemosyna, from Greek ἐλεημοσύνη , "pity, alms", from ἐλεήμων "merciful", from ἔλεος , "pity"...
, generally a tenure restricted to clerics. - by fee-farm, a grant of the right to collect and retain revenues in return for a fixed rent. Usually a royal grant.
- by copyholdCopyholdAt its origin in medieval England, copyhold tenure was tenure of land according to the custom of the manor, the "title deeds" being a copy of the record of the manorial court....
, where the duties and obligations were tailored to the requirements of the lord of the manorLord of the ManorThe Lordship of a Manor is recognised today in England and Wales as a form of property and one of three elements of a manor that may exist separately or be combined and may be held in moieties...
and a copy of the terms agreed was entered on the roll of the manorial court as a record. - by socageSocageSocage was one of the feudal duties and hence land tenure forms in the feudal system. A farmer, for example, held the land in exchange for a clearly defined, fixed payment to be made at specified intervals to his feudal lord, who in turn had his own feudal obligations, to the farmer and to the Crown...
. A form of tenure, involving payment in produce or in money. - Pimp tenurePimp tenurePimp tenure was a form of feudal land tenure which required the land-holder to keep and maintain whores for the king or his army. It was thus a variety of serjeanty. It was described in Bouvier's Law Dictionary, volume 5, as: "A very singular and odious kind of tenure mentioned by old writers". The...
. Required the holder to keep whores for the king or his army. A named variety of serjeanty.
Uncategorised
- In paragio, a form of tenure frequently appearing in Domesday BookDomesday BookDomesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
. (Coolf tenuit in paragio de rege, manor of Welige, IoW). - In alodiuAllodial titleAllodial title constitutes ownership of real property that is independent of any superior landlord, but it should not be confused with anarchy as the owner of allodial land is not independent of his sovereign...
, Domesday BookDomesday BookDomesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
tenure of Chiverton Manor, Isle of Wight. (Godric tenuit in alodiu de rege, manor of Chiverton, IoW). This is surely not an allodial title proper, which only the king himself owned, but probably signifies a category of holding from the royal demesneDemesneIn the feudal system the demesne was all the land, not necessarily all contiguous to the manor house, which was retained by a lord of the manor for his own use and support, under his own management, as distinguished from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants...
. - Free burgageBurgageBurgage is a medieval land term used in England and Scotland, well established by the 13th century. A burgage was a town rental property , owned by a king or lord. The property usually, and distinctly, consisted of a house on a long and narrow plot of land, with the narrow end facing the street...
, tenure within a town or city. - Curtesy tenure. A tenant "by the curtesy of England", being a widower of a wife by whom he has issue by her born alive, in respect of her enseized right in land, generally originating in a paternal inheritance. Roger BigodRoger BigodRoger Bigod may refer to:*Roger Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk , Norman knight who came to England with William the Conqueror*Roger Bigod, 2nd Earl of Norfolk *Roger Bigod, 4th Earl of Norfolk , Marshal of England...
claimed it unsuccessfully on the death of his wife Aliva. - Tenant-at-will. Such tenant had no security of tenure whatsoever. It developed into the more secure "copyhold tenure", where the terms were set out in an entry on the manorial roll.
- GavelkindGavelkindGavelkind was a system of land tenure associated chiefly with the county of Kent, but found also in other parts of England. Its inheritance pattern bears resemblance to Salic patrimony and as such might testify in favour of a wider, probably ancient Germanic tradition.It was legally abolished in...
. Frequently found in mediaeval Kent, "held according to the custom of gavelkind". It withdrew a dower from a widow if she remarried. - Fee simpleFee simpleIn English law, a fee simple is an estate in land, a form of freehold ownership. It is the most common way that real estate is owned in common law countries, and is ordinarily the most complete ownership interest that can be had in real property short of allodial title, which is often reserved...
, a tenure with no service obligations attached which could be a free-holding (i.e. hereditable) or non-free (expiring on the tenant's death). On the abolition of feudal tenure in 1660, all existing tenures were converted to this tenure.