| 释义 |
knight's fee
Under the Feudal System: The amount of land for which the services of an armed knight were due to the sovereign.
Historical writers now agree that the different knight's fees were not equal in extent (see quots. 1876, 1893); whether they were approximately equal in value is still doubtful.
1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VII. 309 How meny knyȝtene fees, how meny teme lond [etc.]. 1427Rolls of Parlt. IV. 318/2 Ye subsidees of ye saide Knyghtes Fees with ye rate yrof. 1494Fabyan Chron. vii. ccxxii. 246 marg., viij. hydes make a knyghtes fee, by the whiche reason, a knyghts fee shuld welde. c. lx. acres. 1602Carew Cornwall 36 Commonly thirtie Acres make a farthing land, nine farthings a Cornish Acre, and foure Cornish Acres a Knight's fee. 1761Hume Hist. Eng. I. App. ii. 251 note, The relief of a barony was twelve times greater than that of a knight's-fee. 1876Digby Real Prop. i. 36 Where land is held by military service every portion amounting to twenty pounds in annual value constitutes a ‘knight's fee’, for which the service of a knight fully armed and equipped must be rendered. 1895Pollock & Maitland Hist. Eng. Law I. 235 The term ‘knight's fee’ does not imply any particular acreage of land. The knight's fee is no unvarying areal unit; some fees are much larger than others. |