TENURE. The general nature of tenure and its origin and history in England are explained in the article FEUDAL Law.
All land was and is held of the crown either mediately or imme diately, the tenure being either free or base ; Frank-tenement or free holding, and Villeinage. The act 12 Car. II. e. 24 abolished military tenures, which were one kind of free services, and changed them into the other species of free services, namely free and common socage ; socage tenure being thus established for all lands held by a free tenure, which comprehended all lands held of the king or others, and all tenures except tenures in frankalmoigne, copyhold, and the honorary services of grand-serjeanty.
Tenure is still therefore a fundamental principle of the law relating to land in England; for the owner of land in fee simple, which is the largest estate that a man can have in land, is not absolute owner : he owes services in respect of his fee (or fief), and the seignory of the lord always subsists. This seignory is now of less value than it was, but still it subsists. The nature of the old feud was this : the tenant had the use of the land, but the ownership remained in the lord ; and this is still the case. The owner of a fee has in fact a more profitable estate than he once had ; but he still owes services, fealty at least, and the ownership of the land is really in the lord and ultimately in the crown. For all practical purposes the owner's power of enjoyment is as complete as if his land were allodial ; but the circumstance of its not being allodial has several important practical consequences.
No land in England can be without an owner. If the last owner of the fee has died without heirs, and without disposing of his fee by will, the lord takes the land by virtue of his seignory. If land is aliened to a person who has a capacity to acquire but not to hold land in England, the crown takes the land; this happens in tho case of lands being sold to an alien. If a man commits treason, his freehold lands are liable to be forfeited to the crown, and his copyhold estates to the lord of the manor. And if a man commits a felony, his freehold and copyhold lands are also subject to certain forfeitures, these forfeitures being all consequences of tenure.
Church lands are held by tenure though no temporal services are due. This is the tenure in frankalmoigne, which is now exactly what it was before the 12th of Charles II. was passed. Church lands, how ever, owe spiritual services, and the lord of whom they are held must be considered the owner ; but the beneficial ownership can never revert to the lord, for all spiritual persons are of the nature of corporations, and when a parson dies, tho corporation sole (as he is termed by an odd contradiction in terms) is not extinct, and it is the duty and right of some definite person to name a successor. When,then the parson dies,
the freehold may be considered to be in abeyance till the appointment of his successor, one of the few instances in the English law in which it is said that a freehold estate can be in abeyance.
No seignory aan now be created except by the crown ; for it was enacted by the statute Quia Emptores (18 Edw. I. c. 1), that all feoffments of land in fee simple should be so made that the feoffeo held of the chief, that is, the immediate lord of the aliening tenant, by the same services by which the tenant held. But tenure of an imperfect kind may be created. Thus wherever a particular estate is created, it is held of the reversioner by an imperfect tenure : as in the common case of landlord and tenant. If no rent or other services are reserved from the tenant of the particular estate for life or years, the tenure is by fealty only, and he may be required to take the oath of fealty. But the right of the reversioner to whom services are due is solely incident to the reversion, and is created at the same tune with it. The perfect tenure originated in the pure feudal system, in which the aeignory of the lord was the legal ownership of the laud, and the tenant owed his services for the enjoyment of it. The only perfect tenure now existing is Socago tenure, the services of which are certain, and consist, besides fealty, of some certain annual rent. And if tho services due in respect of it are not rendered, the lord may distrain, that is, take any chattels that are on tho land in respect of which the services are duo. An imperfect tenure so far resembles a perfect one, that a reversioner can distrain for the services due from the tenant of the particular estate.
A right still incident to a seignory such as a subject may have is that of escheat, which happens when the tenant in fee simple dies without leaving any heir to the land, and without having incurred any forfeiture to the crown, as for treason. Forfeiture is another right incident to a seignory, and it may happen in consequence of any act by which the tenant breaks his fidelity (fealty) to his lord of whom ho holds. It therefore extends to other cases than treason and felony. CoPYIIOLD ; ESCIIEAT ; FEUDAL SYSTEM; FORFEITURE; MANOlt ; RENT.