Knight service

Knight service was the principal form of military tenure in medieval England. A tenant who held land by knight service owed the Crown a specified number of armed, mounted knights for a fixed period each year, usually 40 days. This obligation was the foundation of the feudal military system from the Norman Conquest until the formal abolition of military tenures in 1660.

The knight's fee

The knight's fee (feodum militis) was the unit of assessment for knight service. One knight's fee represented the amount of land considered sufficient to support one armed knight and his household. There was no fixed acreage. A knight's fee in fertile lowland might comprise as few as two hides. In poorer country, it could be five hides or more. The assessment was fiscal, not geographic.

After the Conquest, William I imposed quotas on his tenants-in-chief. Each baron, bishop, or abbot owed a fixed number of knights to the royal host. The tenant-in-chief then sub-enfeoffed knights on his own lands to meet that quota. The Cartae Baronum of 1166, a survey ordered by Henry II, recorded how many knights each tenant-in-chief had enfeoffed and how many the Crown considered to be owed. The returns revealed that many barons had created more knight's fees than their quota required.

Castle guard and serjeanty

Knight service overlapped with other military obligations. Castle serjeanty required specific manors to garrison a royal castle. Castle guard, a related duty, required knights to serve at a particular fortress for a set number of days. In the Portsdown hundred, several manors owed castle guard to Portchester Castle alongside or instead of general knight service. The distinction mattered because serjeanty was tied to the manor, while knight service was tied to the fee.

Scutage

From the twelfth century, the Crown began accepting money payments in place of personal military service. This commutation was called scutage (from the Latin scutagium, shield money). The rate varied. Henry II levied scutage at rates of one to two marks per knight's fee. By the reign of John, the rate had risen and the frequency of collection had increased, contributing to the baronial grievances addressed in Magna Carta (1215). Chapter 12 of Magna Carta required the common counsel of the realm before scutage could be levied.

Scutage was practical. By the thirteenth century, feudal armies were becoming less effective than paid professional soldiers. The Crown preferred cash to reluctant service. Tenants preferred to pay rather than serve. The result was that knight service became a financial obligation long before it was formally abolished.

Decline and abolition

The last feudal summons of the English army was in 1385. After that date, military forces were raised by contract and commission, not by feudal tenure. The obligations of knight service continued to exist in law, however, and the incidents of tenure (wardship, marriage, and relief) remained enforceable by the Crown. These fiscal incidents, not the military service itself, became the principal burden on tenants by knight service in the Tudor and Stuart periods.

The Tenures Abolition Act 1660 converted all knight service tenures into free and common socage, ending both the military obligation and the feudal incidents. The Act preserved grand serjeanties connected to coronation services as ceremonial honours, but practical military tenure was extinguished.

Value for manorial research

Knight service records are among the most informative sources for medieval manorial history. The Cartae Baronum, the Inquisitions Post Mortem (IPMs), Feudal Aids, and the Book of Fees all record the knight's fees attached to individual manors. An IPM that states a deceased tenant held a manor for one knight's fee confirms the holder, the manor, the tenure, and the date. These records, cross-referenced with the Domesday assessment, allow the descent and tenurial structure of a manor to be traced across several centuries.