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Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John: With an Historical IntroductionMcKechnie, William Sharp

History

Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John: With an Historical Introduction

Name: Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John: With an Historical Introduction
Author: McKechnie, William Sharp

McKechnie, William Sharp

Constitutional history -- England -- Sources; Law -- England -- History; Law -- England -- Sources; Magna Carta

The precise relations of the Norman Conquest to the growth of feudalism
in England are complicated, and have formed the subject of much
controversy. The view now generally accepted, and with reason, is that
the policy of William the Conqueror accelerated the process in one
direction, but retarded it in another. Feudalism, regarded as a system
of government, had its worst tendencies checked, if not eradicated, by
the great upheaval that followed the coming of Duke William; feudalism,
considered as a system of land tenure, and as a social system, was, on
the contrary, formulated and developed. It is mainly as a system of land
tenure that it falls here to be considered. Originally, the relationship
between lord and tenant, dependent upon the double ownership of land (of
which each was, in a different sense, the proprietor), implied
obligations on both sides. The lord gave protection, while the tenant
owed services of various sorts. It so happened, however, that, with the
changes wrought by time, the legal obligations of the lord ceased to be
of much importance, while those of the vassal became more and more
burdensome. The tenant’s obligations varied in kind and in extent with
the nature of the tenure. It is difficult to frame an exact list of the
various tenures formerly recognized as distinct in English law: partly
because the classical authors of different epochs, from Bracton to
Blackstone, contradict each other; and partly because of the obscurity
of the process by which these tenures were gradually differentiated. The
word “tenure” originally meant “a holding” of any sort. Sir William
Blackstone,[64] after explaining the dependent nature of all real
property in England, thus proceeds: “The thing holden is therefore
styled a _tenement_, the possessors thereof _tenants_, and the manner of
their possession a _tenure_.” Tenure thus comes to mean the conditions
on which a tenant holds real estate under his lord, and the number of
tenures varies with the number of accepted types.

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Footnote 64:

  _Commentaries_, II. 59.

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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John: With an Historical IntroductionMcKechnie, William Sharp

History

Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John: With an Historical Introduction

McKechnie, William Sharp

Constitutional history -- England -- Sources; Law -- England -- History; Law -- England -- Sources; Magna Carta

The precise relations of the Norman Conquest to the growth of feudalism
in England are complicated, and have formed the subject of much
controversy. The view now generally accepted, and with reason, is that
the policy of William the Conqueror accelerated the process in one
direction, but retarded it in another. Feudalism, regarded as a system
of government, had its worst tendencies checked, if not eradicated, by
the great upheaval that followed the coming of Duke William; feudalism,
considered as a system of land tenure, and as a social system, was, on
the contrary, formulated and developed. It is mainly as a system of land
tenure that it falls here to be considered. Originally, the relationship
between lord and tenant, dependent upon the double ownership of land (of
which each was, in a different sense, the proprietor), implied
obligations on both sides. The lord gave protection, while the tenant
owed services of various sorts. It so happened, however, that, with the
changes wrought by time, the legal obligations of the lord ceased to be
of much importance, while those of the vassal became more and more
burdensome. The tenant’s obligations varied in kind and in extent with
the nature of the tenure. It is difficult to frame an exact list of the
various tenures formerly recognized as distinct in English law: partly
because the classical authors of different epochs, from Bracton to
Blackstone, contradict each other; and partly because of the obscurity
of the process by which these tenures were gradually differentiated. The
word “tenure” originally meant “a holding” of any sort. Sir William
Blackstone,[64] after explaining the dependent nature of all real
property in England, thus proceeds: “The thing holden is therefore
styled a _tenement_, the possessors thereof _tenants_, and the manner of
their possession a _tenure_.” Tenure thus comes to mean the conditions
on which a tenant holds real estate under his lord, and the number of
tenures varies with the number of accepted types.

-----

Footnote 64:

  _Commentaries_, II. 59.

-----

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John: With an Historical Introduction

Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John: With an Historical Introduction

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