KNIGHT, KNIGHTHOOD. During the prevalence of tho feudal system, when the military strength of the nation was measured by the number and efficiency of the knights whom the sovereign was able to summon to the field, a regular supply of persons qualified to perform in an effectual manner the services annexed to their tenures was a matter in which the public as well as the crown were deeply interested; and the common law adopted that part of the feudal system which enabled the king, by process of distress [Darnzas], to compel those who held knight's fees [Kruanr'a FEES] to take upon themselves the order of knighthood, or, in other words, to prove, by their reception into that order, that they had received the training and possessed the arms and accoutrements, and were, as to other requisites, qualified to take the field as knights. The statute, or rather the grant of 1 Edward IL, enrolled in parliament, called " Statutwp de Militibua," appears to have been made, partly as an indulgence upon the com mencement of a new reign, and partly for the purpose of removing sonat: doubts which existed as to the persons liable to be called upon to receive knighthood. Tho king thereby, in the first place, granted a respite until the following Christmas to all those who ought to have become, but were not, knights, and were then &strained ad arma mililunia auscipienda. Further, it directed that if any complained in Chancery that he was distrained and had not Land to the value of 40/. in fee, or for term of his life, and was ready to verify that by the country (that is, by the decision of a jury), then some discreet and lawful knights of the county should be written to, in order to make inquisition of the matter; and if they found it to be so, he was to have redress, and the distress was to cease. Again, where a person was Impleaded for the whole of his land, or for so much of it that the remainder was not of the value of 401., and he could verify the fact, then also the distresss was to cease till that plea was determined. Again, where a person was bound in certain debts atterminated in the exchequer at a certain sum to be received thereof annually (that is, respited, subject to payment by instalments), and the remainder of his land was not worth 40/. per annum, the distress was to cease till the
debt was paid. No one was to be distrained ad arma viilitaria susci pienda till the age of twenty-one, or on account of land which he held• in manors of the ancient demesne of the crown as a sokeman, inasmuch as those lands were liable to pay a tallage when the king's lands were tallaged. With respect to those who held land in socage of other manors, and who performed no servitium forinsecum, or service due. upon the tenure, though not expressed in the grant, the rolls of chancery in the times of the king's predecessors weie to be searched, and it was to be ordered according to the former custom ; the same of clerks in holy orders holding any lay fee, who would, if laymen, have been liable to become knights. No one was to be distrained in respect of property of burgage tenure. Persons under obligations to become knights, who had held their land only a short time, were extremely old, or had in their limbs, or had some incurable disease, or the impediment of children, or law-suits, or other necessary excuses, were to appear and make fine before two commissioners named in the act, who were to take discretionary fines from such disabled persons by way of composition. Under this regulation, those who were distrained upon as holding land of the value of 40/. per annum either received knighthood or made fine to the king. The alteration in the nominal value of money occasioned by the increased quantity of the precious metals, and still more by successive fraudulent degradations of the standard, gradually widened the circle within which estates were sub jected to this burden; in tho 16th and 17th centuries lands which m the reign of Edward f I. were not perhaps worth 4/. per annum, had risen in nominal value to 40/., and were often held by persons belong ing to a totally different class from those who were designated by 1 Edward II., stet. 1, as persons having 40 libratas terrce.