Serjeanty

Under 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 (enfeoffment) and tenure in socage. It is also used of similar forms in Continental Europe.

Origins and development

Serjeanty originated in the assignation of an estate in land on condition of the performance of a certain duty other than knight-service, usually the discharge of duties in the household of king or noble. It ranged from service in the king's host, distinguished only by equipment from that of the knight, to petty renders scarcely distinguishable from those of the rent-paying tenant or socager.

In 1895, the legal historians Pollock and Maitland described it as being a free "servantship" in the sense that the serjeant, whatever his task, was essentially a menial servant.J.H. Round objects, however, that this definition does not cover the military serjeanties and glosses over the honorific value of at least some of the services.