WARDSHIP AND MARRIAGE. In Eng lish Law. The right of the lord over the per son and estate of the tenant when the latter was under a certain age.
Wardship was incident to a tenure by knight's service (see FEUDAL LAW), and to a tenure in socage; by the latter the near est relation to whom the inheritance could not descend was entitled to the custody of the person and estate of the heir till he at tained the age of fourteen years; at which period the wardship ceased, and the guardian was bound to account. Wardship in copy hold estates partook of that in chivalry and that in socage. Like the former, the lord was the guardian ; like the latter, he was re quired to account. 2 Bla. Com. 67, 87, 97; Glanville, lib. 7, c. 9; Grand Cont. c. 33 ; Reg. Maj. c. 42.
In the feudal law, after the Conquest, the rights of wardship and marriage became def inite rights of great pecuniary value both to the king and the mesne lords. The king ar ranged the marriage of a female heiress. Until majority he had the custody of the sons and heirs of his tenants who had died and of their estates, as also of the estates of his fe male wards. These were rights which could be bought and sold. Magna Carta recogniz ed them and provided that the guardian must not waste his ward's lands nor compel a mar riage to one of lower rank. If the ward mar
ried without a license, double the value of the marriage could be exacted and the land held till it was paid. Though the lord could not compel a marriage, he could, upon the ward's refusal, exact the value of the marriage. By the 16th century these rights were almost ex clusively vested in the king.
They were confined to tenures by military service and grand serjeanty and did not (or did not ordinarily; Jenks, Mod. Land L. 18) extend to socage tenures. By Statute of Marlborough (1267), the heir, on reaching his majority, became entitled to an account, and the marriage of the heir could not be given or sold "but to the advantage of the fore said heir" ; 3 Holdsw. Hist. E. L. 55.
The infancy of an heir in socage ceased at 14 years; of an heir in chivalry, at 21. The guardian in socage was strictly accountable for the profits of the land ; the guardian in chivalry might, subject to certain restric tions on waste, make his profit out of it. The guardianship in socage went .to the next of kin who could not inherit ; Jenks Mod. Land L. 18.
See RAVISHMENT OF WARD.