Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	knight_n	service_n	tenure_n	1,543	5	12.0443	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12533	De republica Anglorum The maner of gouernement or policie of the realme of England, compiled by the honorable man Thomas Smyth, Doctor of the ciuil lawes, knight, and principall secretarie vnto the two most worthie princes, King Edwarde the sixt, and Queene Elizabeth. Seene and allowed.; Common-wealth of England	Smith, Thomas, Sir, 1513-1577.	1583 (1583)	STC 22857; ESTC S117628	79,409	124

haue no externe seruice wherewith to occupie their buisie heads handes accustomed to fight and quarell must néedes séeke quarels and contentions amongest themselues and become so readie to oppresse right among their neighbours as they were woont before with praise of manhoode to be in resisting iniurie offered by their enemies So that our nation vsed hereunto vpon that more insolent at home and not easie to be gouerned by Lawe and politike order men of power beginning many fraies and the stronger by factions and parties offering too much iuiurie to the weaker were occasions of making good Lawes First of reteiners that no man should haue aboue a number in his Liuerie or retinue then of the enquirie of routs and riots at euerie Sessions and of the lawe whereby it is prouided that if any by force or by riot enter vpon any possessions the Iustices of the peace shal assemble themselues remooue the force within certain time enquire thereof And further because such things are not commonlie done by meane men but by such as be of power force be not to be dealt withal of euerie man nor of meane Gentlemen if the riot be found certified to the Kings Counsell or if otherwise it be complained of the partie is sent for and he must appeare in this starre chamber where séeing except the presence of the Prince onely as it were the maiestie of the whole Realme before him being neuer so stoute he will be abashed and being called to aunswere as he must come of what degrée soeuer he be he shall be so charged with such grauitie with such reason remonstrance and of those chiefe personages of Englande one after an other handeling him on that sort that what courage soever he hath his heart will fall to the grounde and so much the more when if he make not his aunswere the better as seldome he can in so open violence he shalbe commaunded to the Fléete where he shall be kept in prison in such sort as these Iudges shall appoint him lie there till he be wearie aswell of the restraint of his libertie as of the great expences which he must there sustaine and for a time be forgotten whiles after long suite of his friendes he will be glad to be ordered by reason Sometime as his deserts be he payeth a great fine to the Prince besides great costs and dammages to the partie and yet the matter wherefore he attempteth this riot and violence is remitted to the common lawe For that is the effect of this Court to bridle such stoute noble men or Gentlemen which would offer wrong by force to any manner men and cannot be content to demaund or defend the right by order of lawe This court began long before but tooke great augmentation and authoritie at that time that Cardinall Wolsey Archebishop of Yorke was Chauncellor of Englande who of some was thought to haue first deuised y ● Court because that he after some intermission by negligence of time augmented the authoritie of it which was at that time maruellous necessary to doe to represse the insolencie of the noble men and gentlemen of the North partes of Englande who being farre from the King and the seate of iustice made almost as it were an ordinarie warre among themselues and made their force their Lawe banding themselues with their tenaunts and seruauts to doe or reuenge iniurie one against an other as they listed This thing séemed not supportable to the noble prince King Henrie the eight and sending for them one after an other to his Court to aunswere before the persons before named after they had had remonstrance shewed them of their euill demeanor and béene well disciplined as well by words as by fléeting a while and thereby their purse and courage somwhat asswaged they began to range themselues in order and to vnderstand that they had a Prince who would rule his subiects by his lawes and obedience Sith that time this court hath béene in more estimation and is continued to this day in manner as I haue saide before Of the Courts of Wards and Liueries CHAP. 5. HE whom we call a ward in Englande is called in Latine pupillus and in Gréeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The gardian is called in Latine tutor in Gréeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A warde or infant is taken for a childe in base age whose father is dead The Romanes made two distinctions pupillum minorem the one to xiiii yere old the other was accounted from thence to xxv And as pupillus had tutorem so minor had curatorem til he came to the age of xxv These tutors or curators were accountable for the reuenues of the pupils minors lands great prouision and many lawes and orders is made for them in the bookes of the ciuil Lawe for rendering iust true accounts So that to be a gardian or tutor was accounted among them to be a charge or trouble a thing subiect to much encumbraunce and small profite so that diuerse meanes were sought for to excuse men from it With vs this is cleane contrarie for it is reckoned a profite to haue a warde For the Lorde of whom the warde doeth hold the land so soone as by the death of the father the childe falleth warde vnto him he seaseth vpon the body of the ward and his landes of which so that he doeth nourish the ward he taketh the profite without accounts and beside that offering to his ward couenable mariage without dispergement before the age of xxl. yeres if it be a man or xiiii if it be a woman If the ward refuse to take that mariage he or she must pay the value of the mariage which is commonly rated according to the profite of his landes All this while I speake of that which is called in French garde noble that is of such as holde lands of other by knight seruice for that is an other kinde of seruice which we call in Frenche gard returier we call it gard in socage that is of such as doe not holde by knight seruice but by tenure of the plough This wardship falleth to him who is next of the kinne and cannot inherite the land of the warde as the vncle by the mothers side if the land doe discend by the father and of the fathers side if the lande discend by the mother This gardian is accountable for the reuenues and profites of the land as the tutor by the ciuill Lawe to the warde or pupill so soone as he is of full age The man is not out of wardshippe by our lawe till xxj yere olde from thence he is reckoned of full age aswell as in the Romane lawes at xxv The woman at xiiij is out of warde for shée may haue an husband able to doe knightes seruice say our bookes And because our wiues be in the power as I shall tell you hereafter of their husbands it is no reason she should be in

baptisme did find so it did leaue them for it chaungeth not ciuill lawes nor compactes amongest men which be not contrarie to Gods lawes but rather maintaineth them by obedience Which séeing men of good conscience hauing that scruple whereof I wrote before haue by litle and litle found meanes to haue and obtaine the profit of seruitude and bondage which gentilitie did vse and is vsed to this day amongest Christians on the one part and Turkes and Gentils on the other part whē warre is betwixt them vpon those whō they take in battaile Turkes and Gentiles I call them which vsing not our lawe the one beléeueth in one God the other in many gods of whom they make Images For the lawe of Iewes is well ynough knowen at this day so farre as I can learne amongst all people Iewes be holden as it were in a common seruitude and haue no rule nor dominion as their own prophesies doe tell that they should not haue after that Christ was promised to them was of them refused for when they would not acknowledge him obstinatly for taking their helpe in soule for the life to come and honour in this worlde for the time present not taking the good tidinges newes and euangill brought to them for their disobedience by the great grace of God and by the promise of the Prophets ●ructified in vs which be Gentils and brought forth this humanitie gentlenes honour and godly knowledge which is seene at this present But to returne to the purpose This perswasiō I say of Christians not to make nor kéepe his brother in Christ seruile bond and vnderling for euer vnto him as a beast rather than as a man and the humanitie which the Christian religion doth teache hath engendered through Realmes not néere to Turkes and Barbarians a doubt a conscience and scruple to haue seruants and bondmen yet necessitie on both sides of the one to haue helpe on the other to haue seruice hath kept a figure or fashion thereof So that some would not haue bondmen but ascripticij glebae and villaines regardant to the ground to the intent their seruice might be furnished and that the countrie being euill vnwholsome and other wise barren should not be desolate Others afterwardes found out the wayes and meanes that not the men but the land should be bound and bring with it such bondage and seruice to him that occupieth it as to carie the Lordes dung vnto the fieldes to plough his ground at certaine daies sowe reape come to his Court sweare faith vnto him and in the ende to holde the lande but by copie of the Lords court rolle and at the will of the Lord. This tenure is called also in our lawe villaine bonde or seruile tenure yet to consider more déepely all lande euen that which is called most frée lande hath a bondage annexed vnto it not as naturally the lower ground must suffer and receiue the water and filth which falleth from the higher ground nor such as Iustinian speaketh of de seruitudinibus praediorum rusticorum vrbanorum but the lande doeth bring a certaine kind of seruitude to the prossessor For no man holdeth land simply frée in Englande but he or she that holdeth the Crowne of Englande all others holde their land in fée that is vpon a faith or trust and some seruice to be done to an other Lorde of a mannor as his superior and he againe of an higher Lorde till it come to the Prince him that holdeth the Crowne So that if a man die and it be found that he hath land which he holdeth but of whom no man can tell this is vnderstoode to be holden of the Crowne and in capitie which is much like to knights seruice and draweth vnto it thrée seruices homage ward and mariage That is he shall sweare to be his man and to be true vnto him of whom he holdeth the lande His sonne who holdeth the land after the death of his father shall be maried where it pleaseth the Lorde He that holdeth the lande most freely of a temporall man for franke almose and franke mariage hath an other cause and nature holdeth by fealtie onely which is he shal sweare to be true to the Lorde and doe such seruice as appertaineth for the land which he holdeth of the Lord. So that all frée lande in Englande is holden in fée or feodo which is asmuch to say as in fide or fiducia That is in trust and confidence that he shall be true to the Lorde of whom he holdeth it pay such rents doe such seruice and obserue such conditions as was annexed to the first donation Thus all sauing the Prince be not viri domini but rather fiduciary domini possessores This is a more likely interpretation than that which Litleton doeth put in his booke who saith that feodum idem est quod haereditas which it doeth betoken in no language This hapneth many times to them who be of great witte and learning yet not séene in many tongues or marketh not the deduction of wordes which time doth alter Fides in Latine the Gothes comming into Italie and corrupting the language was turned first into fede and at this day in Italie they will say in fide en fede or ala fe And some vncunning Law●ers that would make a newe barbarous latine worde to betoken lande giuen in fidem or as the Italian saith in fede or fe made it in feudum or feodum The nature of the worde appeareth more euident in those which we call to fef feof or feoffees the one be fiduciary possessores or fidei commissarij the other is dare in fiduciam or fidei commissum or more latinely fidei committere The same Litleton was as much deceiued in withernam diuerse other olde wordes This withernam he interpreteth vetitum nauium in what language I knowe not whereas in trueth it is in plaine Dutche and in our olde Saxon language wyther nempt alterum accipere iterum rapere a worde that betokeneth that which in barbarous Latine is called represalia when one taking of me a distresse which in Latine is called pignus or any other thing and carying it away out of the iurisdiction wherein I dwell I take by order of him that hath iurisdiction an other of him againe or of some other of that iurisdiction and doe bring it into the iurisdiction wherein I dwell that by equal wrong I may come to haue equall right The manner of represalia and that we call withernam is not altogether one But the nature of them both is as I haue described and the proper signification of the words doe not much differ But to returne thither where we did digresse ye see that where the persons be frée and the bodies at full libertie and maximè ingenui yet by annexing a condition to the lande there is meanes to bring the owners and possessors thereof into a certaine seruitude or rather libertinitie That the tenaunts beside

two diuerse gards Many men doe estéeme this wardship by knightes seruice very vnreasonable and vniust and contrarie to nature that a Fréeman and Gentleman should be bought and solde like an horse or an oxe and so change gardians as masters and lordes at whose gouernement not onely his bodie but his landes and his houses should be to be wasted and spent without accounts and then to marie at the will of him who is his naturall Lorde or his will who hath bought him to such as he like not peraduenture or else to pay so great a ransom This is the occasion they say why many gentlemen be so euil brought vp touching vertue and learning and but onely in deintinesse and pleasure and why they be maried very young and before they bee wife and many times do not greatly loue their wiues For when the father is dead who hath the natural care of his childe not the mother nor the vnckle nor the next of kinne who by all reason would haue most naturall care to the bringing vp of the infant and minor but the Lorde of whom he holdeth his land in knights seruice be it the King or Quéene Duke Marquesse or any other hath the gouernement of his bodie and mariage or else who that bought him at the first second or thirde hande The Prince as hauing so many must néedes giue or sell his wardes away to other and so he doeth Other doe but séeke which way they may make most aduauntage of him as of an oxe or other beast These all say they haue no naturall care of the infant but of their owne gaine and especially the buyer will not suffer his warde to take any great paines either in studie or any other hardenesse least he should be sicke and die before he hath maried his daughter sister or cousin for whose sake he bought him and then all his money which he paide for him should be lost So he who had a father which kept a good house and had all things in order to maintaine it shall come to his owne after he is out of wardshippe woods decayed houses fallen downe stocke wasted and gone land let foorth and plowed to the baren and to make amends shall pay yet one yeres rent for reliefe and sue ouster le maind beside other charges so that not of manie yeres and peraduenture neuer he shall be able to recouer and come to the estate where his father left it This as it is thought was first graunted vpon a great extremitie to King Henrie the 3. for a time vpon the warre which he had with his Barons and afterward increased and multiplied to more and more persons and grieuances and will be the decay of the nobilitie and libertie of England Other againe say the ward hath no wrong For eyther his father purchased the lande or it did discend vnto him from his auncesters with this charge And because he holdeth by knightes seruice which is in armes and defence séeing that by age he cannot doe that whereto hee is bound by his lande it is reason he aunswere that profite to the Lorde whereby he may haue as able a man to doe the seruice The first knights in Rome those that were chosen equites Romani had equum publicum on which they serued and that was at the charge of widowes and wards as appeareth by Titus Liuius because that those persons could not doe bodilie seruice to the common wealth Wherfore this is no newe thing but thought reasonable in that most wise common wealth and to the prudent King Seruius Tullius As for the education of our common wealth it was at the first militaire and almost in all things the scope and deseigne thereof is militaire Yet was it thought most like that noble men good knights and great captaines would bring up their wards in their owne feates and vertues and then mary them into like rase and stocke where they may finde and make friendes who can better looke to the education or better skill of of the bringing vp of a gentleman than he who for his higher nobilitie hath such a one to holde of him by knights seruice or would doe it better than he that looketh or may claime such seruice of his ward when age and yeres will make him able to doe it That which is saide that this maner of wardship began in the time of King Henrie the 3. cannot séeme true For in Normandie and other places of Fraunce the same order is And that statute made in King Henrie the thirds time touching wards to him that will wey it wel may séeme rather a qualification of that matter and an argument that the fashion of wardship was long before but of this matter an other time shall be more conuenient to dispute This may suffice to declare the maner of it Of VViues and mariages CHAP. 6. THe wiues in Englande be as I saide in potestate maritorum not that the husbande hath vitae ac necis potestatem as the Romans had in the olde time of their children for that is onely in the power of the Prince and his lawes as I haue saide before but that whatsoever they haue before mariage as soone as mariage is solemnished is their husbandes I meane of money plate iuelles cattaile and generally all moueables For as for lande and heritage followeth the succession and is ordered by the lawe as I shall say héereafter and what soever they gette after mariage they get to their husbands They neither can giue nor sell anie thing either of their husbandes or their owne Theirs no moueable thing is by the law of England constanti matrimonio but as peculium serui aut filijfamilias and yet in moueables at the death of her husbande she can claime nothing but according as hee shall will by his Testament no more than his sonne can all the rest is in the disposition of the executors if he die testate Yet in London and other great cities they haue that lawe and custome that when a man dieth his goods be diuided into thrée partes One thirde is imployed vppon the buriall and the bequestes which the testator maketh in his testament An other thirde part the wife hath as her right and the thirde third part is the dewe and right of his children equally to be diuided among them So that a man there can make testament but of one thirde of his goods if he die interstate the funerals deducted the goods be equally diuided betwéene the wife and the children By the common lawe of Englande if a man die intestate the Ordinarie which is the Bishoppe by common intendment sometime the Archdeacon Dean or Prebendarie by preuiledge and prescription doeth commit the administration of the goods to the widowe or the child or next kinsman of the dead appointing out portions to such as naturally it belongeth vnto and the Ordinarie by cōmon vnderstanding hath such grauitie and discretion as shalbe méete for so absolute an authoritie

also we do reiect women as those whom nature hath made to keepe home and to nourish their familie and children and not to medle with matters abroade nor to beare office in a citie or common wealth no more than children and infantes except it be in such cases as the authoritie is annexed to the blood and progenie as the crowne a dutchie or an erledome for there the blood is respected not the age nor y e sexe Whereby an absolute Quéene an absolute Dutches or Countesse those I call absolute which haue the name not by being maried to a king duke or erle but by being the true right next successors in the dignitie and vpon whom by right of the blood that title is descended These I say haue the same authoritie although they be women or children in that kingdome dutchie or earledome as they shoulde haue had if they had bin men of full age For the right and honour of the blood and the quietnes and suertie of the realme is more to be considered than either the tender age as yet impotent to rule or the sexe not accustomed otherwise to intermeddle with publicke affaires being by common intendment vnderstood that such personages neuer do lacke the counsell of such graue and discreete men as be able to supplie all other defectes This as I sayde is not enough But the diuision of these which be participant of the common wealth is one way of them that beare office the other of them that beare none the first are called magistrates the second priuate men Another the like was among the Romanes of Partricij plebei thone striuing with thother a long time the patricij many yeares excluding the plebes from bearing rule vntill at last all magistrates were made cōmon betweene thē yet was there another diuision of the Romanes into senatores equites and plebs the Greekes had also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Frēch haue also at this day les nobles la populare or gentils homes villaines we in England diuide our men commonly into foure fortes gentlemen citizens and yeomen artificers and laborers Of gentlemen the first and chiefe are the king the prince dukes marquises earles vicountes barrons and these are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the nobility and all these are called Lords and noblemen next to these be knights esquiers and simple gentlemen Of the first part of gentlemen of englande called Nobilitas maior CHAP. 17. DUkes marquises erles vicountes and barrons either be created by the prince or come to that honor by being the eldest sonnes as highest next in succession to their parentes For the eldest of dukes sonnes during his fathers lyfe is called an earle an earles sonne is called by the name of a vicount or baron or else according as the creation is The creation I cal the first donation and condition of the honour giuen by the prince for good seruice done by him and aduauncement that the prince will bestowe vpon him which with the title of that honour is commonly but not alwayes giuen to him and to his heires males only the rest of the sonnes of the nobilitie by the rigor of the lawe be but esquiers yet in common speeche all dukes and marquises sonnes and the eldest sonne of an earle be called Lordes The which name commonly doth agree to none of lower degree than barrons excepting such onely as be thereunto by some speciall office called The barrony or degree of Lordes doth answere to the dignitie of the Senators of Rome and the title of our nobilitie to their patricij when patricij did betoken senatores aut senatorum filios Census senatorius was in Rome at diuerse times diuerse and in Englande no man is created barron excepte he may dispend of yearly reuenue one thousand poundes or one thousand markes at the least Vicountes earles marquises and dukes more according to the proportion of the degree and honour but though by chaunce he or his sonne haue lesse he keepeth his degree but if they decay by excesse and be not able to maintaine the honour as senatores Romani were amoti senatu so sometimes they are not admitted to the vpper house in the parliament although they keepe the name of Lorde still Of the second sort of gentlemē which may be called Nobilitas minor first of knightes CHAP. 18. NO man is a knight by succession not the king or prince And the name of prince in england 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 betokeneth the kinges eldest sonne or prince of wales although the king himselfe his eldest sonne and all dukes be called by generall name princes But as in Fraunce the kinges eldest sonne hath the title of the daulphine and he or the next heire apparant to the crowne is monsire so in Englande the kinges eldest sonne is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the prince Knightes therefore be not borne but made either before the battle to encourage them the more to aduenture their liues or after the conflict as aduauncement for their hardinesse and manhood alreadie shewed or out of the warre for some great seruice done or some good hope through the vertues which do appeare in them And they are made either by the king himselfe or by his commission and royall authoritie giuen for the same purpose or by his liuetenaunt in the warres who hath his royall and absolute power committed to him for that time And that order seemeth to aunswere in part to that which the Romanes called Equites Romanos differing in some pointes and agreeing in other as their commō wealth and ours do differ and agree for neuer in all pointes one common wealth doth agree with an other no nor long time any one common wealth with it selfe For al chaungeth continually to more or lesse and still to diuerse diuerse orders as the diuersity of times do present occasion and the mutabilitie of mens wittes doth inuent and assay new wayes to reforme and amende that werein they do finde fault Equites Romani were chosen ex censu y e is according to their substance and riches So be knightes in England most commonly according to the yearely reuenew of their landes being able to maintaine that estate yet all they that had Equestrem censum non legebantur equites No more are all made knightes in Englande that may dispende a knightes land or fee but they onely whom the king wil so honour The number of Equites was vncertaine and so it is of knightes at the pleasure of the prince Equites Romani had equum publicum The knightes of England haue not so but finde their own horse themselues in peace time and most vsually in warres Census equester was among the Romanes at dinerse times of diuerse valew but in England whosoeuer may dispende of his free landes 40. l. sterling of yearely reuenue by an olde law of Englande either at the coronatiō of the king or mariage of his daughter or at the