The chief incidents of the tenure by military service were: Aids,—a pecuniary tribute required by the lord in an emergency, e. g. a ransom for his person if taken prisoner, or money to make his eon a knight or to marry his daughter. Reliefs, the consideration which the lord demanded upon the death of S. vassal for allowing the vassal'i heir to succeed to the possession ; and connected with this may be mentioned primer seisin, which was the compensation that the lord demanded for having entered upon the land and protected the possession until the heir appeared to claim it. Fines upon alienation,—a consideration exacted by the lord for giving his consent that the vassal should transfer the estate to another, who should stand in his place in respect to the services owed. Escheat—Where on the death of the vassal there was no heir, the land reverted to the lord; also, where the vassal was guilty of treason; for the guilt of the vassal was deemed to taint the blood, and the lord would no longer recognize him or his heirs. Wardship and Maritage.—Where the heir was a minor, the lord, as a condition of permitting the estate to de scend to one who could not render military service, assumed the guardianship of the heir, and, as such, exercised custody both of his person and of the property, without accounting for the profits, until the heir, if a male, was twenty-one and could un dertake the military services, or, if a female, until she was of a marriageable age, when on her mar riage her husband might render the services. The lord claimed, in virtue of his guardianship, to make a suitable match for his ward, and if wards refused to comply they were mulcted in damages. As a system of government, feudalism was doom ed from the day of the Great Assize of Henry II., and only dragged out a lingering existence till the legislation of Edward I. dealt' it a final blow. Green, I Sel. Essays In Anglo-Amer. L. 11. 131. Feudal tenures were abolished In England by the statute 12 Car. II. c. 24; but the principles of the system still remain at the foundation of the English and American law of real property. Although In
many of the states all lands are held to be al- , lochs' (see Axon), it Is the theory of the law that the ultimate right of property is in the state; and in most of the states escheat is regulated by stat ute. "The principles of the feudal system are so interwoven with every part of our jurisprudence," says Ch. J. Tilghman, "that to attempt to eradicate them would be to destroy the whole." Dunwoodie v. Reed, S S. & R. (Pa.) 447; Lyle v. Richards, 9 S. & R. (Pa.) 333. "Though our property is al lethal," says Ch. 'J. Gibson, "yet feudal tenures may be said to exist among us in their consequences and the qualities which they orginally imparted to estates; as, for instance, in precluding every lim itation founded on an abeyance of the fee." Mc Call v. Neely, 3 Watts (Pa.) 71;.• Ingersoll v. Ser geant, 1 Whart. (Pa.) 337; Hubley v. Vanhorne, 7 S. & R. (Pa.) 188.
Many of these incidents are rapidly disappear ing, however, by legislative changes of the law. The principles of the feudal law will be found in Littleton's Ten.; Wright's Tenures; 2 Bla. Com. c. 5 ; Dalrymple's Hist. of Feudal Property; Sullivan's Lectures; Book of Fiefs; Spelman's Treatise of Feuds and Tenures; Cruise's Digest; Le Grand Coutumier; the Salic Laws; the Capitulariee; Les Etab/issements de St. Louis; Assize de Jerusalem; Pothier, des Fiefs; Merlin, Rep. Feoda/ite; Dalloz, Mot. Feodalite; Guizot, Essays stir l'Histaire de France, Basal 5eme; Introduction to Robertson's Charles V.; Poll. & maim Hist. Eng. Law; Stubbs, Conet. Hiet.; Round, Feudal England; Encycl. Br.; Hoidsworth, History of English Law ; VILLEXAGB. The principal original collection of the feudal law of continental Europe is a digest compiled at Milan in the twelfth century, Feudorum Gonsuetudines, which is the foundation of many of the subsequent compilations, The American student will perhaps find no more convenient source of information than Blacketone's Commentaries, Sharewood'e ed., vol. 2, 43, and Greenleaf's Cruise, Dig. Introd.