Feudal land tenure in England

Military tenure

• by barony. Such tenure constituted the holder a feudal baron, and was the highest degree of tenure. It imposed duties of military service and required attendance at parliament. All such holders were necessarily tenants-in-chief.
• by knight-service. This was a tenure ranking below barony, and was likewise for military service, of a lesser extent. It could be held in capite from the king or as a mesne tenancy from a tenant-in-chief.
• by castle-guard. This was a form of military service which involved guarding a nearby castle for a specified number of days per year.
• by scutage where the military service obligations had been commuted, or replaced, by money payments.

  Non-military tenure

• by frankalmoinage, 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 copyhold, where the duties and obligations were tailored to the requirements of the lord of the manor and a copy of the terms agreed was entered on the roll of the manorial court as a record.
• by socage. A form of tenure, involving payment in produce or in money.
• Quit-rent. The payment of an annual fee in exchange for freedom from all other feudal obligations.

  Uncategorised

• by serjeanty. Such tenure ranged from non-standard service in the king's army, to petty renders scarcely distinguishable from those of the rent-paying tenant or socager. Service in a ceremonial form is termed "grand serjeanty" whilst that of a more functional or menial nature is termed "petty serjeanty".
• . A joint tenancy where the estate is not partitioned, but the senior tenant alone is responsible for estate obligations; it appears frequently in Domesday Book..
• Free burgage, 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 Bigod 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.
• Gavelkind. Frequently found in mediaeval Kent, "held according to the custom of gavelkind". It withdrew a dower from a widow if she remarried.
• Fee simple, a tenure with no service obligations attached which could be a free-holding or non-free. On the abolition of feudal tenure in 1660, all existing tenures were converted to this tenure.