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ing her a portion. The amount of the last two was fixed by act of parliament in time of Edward III, at twenty shillings each, but these aids were wholly abolished in the reign of Charles II.

§ 340. Domesday Book.-King William, when he felt secure in his possession of the English throne, held a council to inquire into the state of the nation and by his order the Domesday Book was compiled. This book contains minute and accurate surveys of the lands of the kingdom. The work was committed to five justices in each county, in the year 1081, and it was finished in five years. This book, or books, for it consists of two volumes, is preserved in the chapter house at Westminster. It gave the king full information as to the military resources of the kingdom, and has been invaluable to the English people in settling disputed boundary lines.

§ 341. Escuage. As the hereditary character. of fiefs became established, the tenant ceased to be dependent and subject to his lord. In course of time, a pecuniary payment became the sole method by which the tenant discharged his obligations. Henry II found it inconvenient to keep the military force of the kingdom in a state of efficiency, and he dispensed with the personal military services of the vassals, and substituted in lieu thereof the payment of a fixed sum called "escuage," which is simply another name for taxes, as we now know them.

§ 342. Changes in feudal system. The practice of subdivision and sale of feuds worked great changes in the rules of tenure and succession. This practice became so common that it caused alarm, and by a

provision of the charter of Henry III, subinfeudation was restricted, and in the time of Edward I it was forbidden. As a substitute, lands were allowed to be sold, but the purchaser took and held title just as his grantor did. This applied to sales of a man's entire interest in land, and was held not to prohibit the voluntary alienation of land by persons during their lifetime. Under the feudal system, lands could not be sold for debt. By degrees, however, the power of the creditor over the debtor's land was increased, until by the modern statutes of bankruptcy in England the whole of a bankrupt debtor's lands have become absolutely salable for the payment of his debts. So by

a statute (3 and 4 Wm. IV, ch. 104), all a deceased person's interest in land of whatever kind, not charged by his will with payment of debts, whether he was a trader within the bankrupt laws or not, constitutes assets to be administered in equity for the payment of debts.

§ 343. Abolition of the system.-In spite of these changes in some parts of the ancient feudalism, many of its substantial provisions remained in force, and it was not until after the civil war, which began in 1641, that the profits of wardship and marriage, and other feudal prerogatives, were swept away. The court of wards was discontinued in 1645, and it was further enacted that all wardships, liveries, primer seizins, values, forfeitures of marriage, etc., by reason of any tenure of the king or others, should be totally taken away, and that all fines for alienation, tenures by homage, knight-service and escuage, etc., were abolished. Of which statute Blackstone says: "It was a greater acquisition to the civil property of this kingdom than even Magna Charta itself; since that

only pruned the luxuriances that had grown out of the military tenures, and thereby preserved them in vigor; but the statute of King Charles extirpated the whole, and demolished both root and branches." (12 Charles II, ch. 24.)

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§ 344. Tenure.-Before quitting this branch of the subject, and proceeding to a consideration of modern English tenures, and the law of tenures as it prevails in the United States, let us by way of summary or recapitulation give the nature and definitions of the ancient English tenures, as they existed under the laws of feudalism.

§ 345. Property holden of superior.-All real property was holden of some superior, in consideration of certain services to be rendered to the lord by the tenant or possessor of the property. The thing holden was a tenement. The possessor was a tenant. manner of possession was tenure.

The

§ 346. Lord paramount.-The king, because all land was holden mediately or immediately of him, was lord paramount.

§ 347. Middle lords and tenant paravaile.-Persons who held immediately of the king, and granted por

tions of their lands to others, were called middle lords. The grantee of the middle lord was called tenant paravaile, or the lowest tenant.

§ 348. Free and base tenure.-These tenures were held by four different kinds of service. As to quality they were free or base, as to quantity certain or uncertain. Free services were such as were not unbecoming to a soldier, such as fighting for his lord, or paying a sum of money. Base services were servile, plowing, making hedges and the like. Certain services were fixed in quantity, as to days of military service or payment of a fixed sum. Uncertain services depended on unknown contingencies.

§ 349. Frank-tenement and villenage.-From these services arose four kinds of tenure. Tenements were of two kinds, frank-tenement and villenage. Some frank-tenements were held in consideration of homage and knight service; others in free socage, with the service of fealty only. Of villenage, there was pure villenage and privileged villenage. A tenant by pure villenage was bound to do whatever was commanded him, and he was bound to an uncertain service.

A tenant by villein socage was bound to do villein service, but it was certain.

§ 350. Knight service. Of these, knight service was the most honorable. For a knight's fee, estimated at twelve plowlands (about one hundred and twenty acres) each tenant must attend his lord to the wars for forty days in every year, if called upon; if he held less than a knight's fee, his service was to be in proportion. These were the original services, and the other incidents grew up by a series of fraudulent impositions.

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