Lib. 2. Tit.6. dorum.-Qui domino suo fidelitatem jurat, ista sex memoria semper habere debet. nestum, utile, facile, possibile. Feudal aids. Du Cange Estate of the Incolume, tutum, hoThese were however all reduced to the two heads of counsel and aid. Under counsel was included not only giving faithful advice to the lord, but also keeping his secrets, and attending his courts; in order to enable him to distribute justice to the rest of his tenants. 54. Aid might either be in supporting the lord's reputation and dignity, or in defending his property. By aid to his person, the vassal was not only obliged to defend his lord against his private enemies, but also to assist him in his wars and feuds were in general originally granted on condition of military service, which was to be done in the vassal's proper person, and at his own expence. 55. The feudal law did not originally oblige the tenant to contribute to the lord's private necessities; the first feudal aid being purely military. But in course of time the lords claimed and established a right to several other aids; the principal of which were-1. To make the lord's eldest son a knight. 2. To marry the lord's eldest daughter. 3. To ransom the lord's person when taken prisoner. 56. Having stated the obligations of the lord and tenant to each other; I shall now proceed to enquire into the nature of the estate or interest which each of them had in the land. With respect to the estate of the vassal, we must recollect that as the original donations made by the French kings to their fideles and leudes were of a temporary nature; and as nothing more than the usufruct was given to them, so in the feudal law the proprietas was allowed to remain in the lord, and the vassal had only the ususfructus, or dominium atile; that is, a right to take and enjoy the profits of the land, as long as he performed the services due to the lord. Tit. 1. 57. As to the duration of feuds, they were Lib. Feud. 1. originally precarious, and might be resumed at the lord's pleasure. They were next granted for one year; afterwards for life. In course of time it became unusual to reject the heir of the last tenant, if he was able to perform the services; at length feuds became hereditary, and descended to the posterity of the vassal. able. 58. In the first ages of the feudal law, the Was unalienvassal could not alien the feud, without the consent of the lord; neither could he mortgage, or otherwise subject it to the payment of his debts. It appears however from the Liber Feudorum that Lib.2.Tit.55. feuds were frequently aliened. By a constitution of the Emperor Lotharius, reciting that the alienation of feuds had proved extremely detrimental to the military services, which were due from the vassals, they were absolutely prohibited from alienating their feuds without the consent of their lords. This was confirmed by a law of the Emperor Frederick II. 59. The consent of the lord was seldom given without his receiving a present; from whence arose á general practice of paying the lord a sum of money for permission to alien a feud. tion. 60. There was however a mode of disposing Subinfeuda of part of a feud which does not appear to have been comprehended in the constitutions of Lotharius and Frederick. This was by a grant from the vassal, of a portion of his feud to a stranger, to be held of himself, by the same services which he owed to his Lib. Feud. 2. Tit. 34. § 2. which was 61. This practice, which called subin feudation, became extremely common in France, during the eleventh and twelfth centuries; but was Hervé, V. 1. prevented by an ordonnance of Philip Augustus in 1210, which directed that in future, where any estate was dismembered from a feud, it should be held of the chief lord.. 101. Estate of the 62. With respect to the estate or interest which the lord had in the lands, after he had granted them as a feud, it consisted of the dominium verum, with a Wright, 30. right to the services reserved upon the grant; and in case of failure in any of these, the lord might enter and take possession of the feud. 63. Although the lord had the dominium verum of the lands, yet he could not alien or transfer his seignory to another, without the consent of the Lib. Feud. 2. vassal. Ex eadem lege descendit quod dominus, sine Tit. 34. § 1. voluntate vassalli, feudum alienare non potest. For His obligation on Eviction. the obligations of the lord and vassal being mutual, the vassal was as much interested in the personal qualities of his lord, as the lord was in those of his vassal. 64. There was another obligation on the part of the lord of very considerable importance; namely, Lib. Feud. 2. that in case the vassal was evicted out of the feud, the lord was obliged to give him another feud of equal extent, or else to pay him the value of that which he had lost. Tit. 25. 30. Ten. 38. 65. Sir Martin Wright doubts whether the obligation of the lord to protect and defend his vassal made him antiently liable on eviction, without any fraud or defect in him, to make a compensation for the loss of the feud; inasmuch as it could hardly be imagined that while feuds were precarious, and ΙΟ held at the will of the lord, by whom they were granted, without any consideration, the lord should be subject to such a loss. He was of opinion that the lord's obligation to compensate the vassal, in case of eviction, only prevailed as to improper feuds, for which a price had been paid, or an equivalent stipulated. 66. Craig agreed with Sir M. Wright. They however both acknowledge that none of the antient feudal writers make any such distinction; but that all admit the lord's obligation to compensate the vassal on eviction, to have been general. Feuds. 67. We have seen that although feuds were Descent of originally granted at will only, yet in course of time they became descendible. It will therefore be necessary to enquire what rules of descent were established by the feudal law, where no particular mode of descent was directed by the original grant, for in such case the maxim was, tenor investituræ est inspiciendus. 68. The first rule was, that the descendants of the person to whom the feud was originally granted, and none others, should inherit. Because, as the personal ability of the first acquirer, to perform the duties and services reserved, was the motive of the donation, it could only be transmitted by him to his lineal descendants. Craig, Lib. 1. 69. In consequence of this rule the ascending line was in all cases excluded. Hence it is laid down in the Liber Feudorum-Successionis feudi talis Lib.2.Tit.10. est natura, quod ascendentes non succedunt; and a modern feudist has said-Jus tamen feudale, adscen- Corvinus, dentium ordine neglecto, solos descendentes et collaterales, admittit. Quoniam qui feudum accipit, sibi C 2 Lib. 2. Tit. 4. 321. Balus, V. 1. et liberis suis, non parentibus, prospicit. Whereas in allodial property the ascending line was capable of inheriting. 70. All the sons succeeded equally, as was the case in France, even respecting the succession to the crown; during the first and part of the second race. But the frequent wars occasioned by these partitions caused a regulation that kingdoms should be considered as impartible inheritances, and descend to the eldest son. 71. In imitation of the sovereignty, the same alteration was made in the descent of the great feuds. By a constitution of the Emperor Frederick, honorary feuds became indivisible; and they, as also the military feuds, began to descend to the eldest son, because he was sooner capable of performing the military services than any of his brothers. 72. Females were originally excluded, not only on account of their incapacity to perform the mili tary services, but also lest they should carry the feud to strangers or enemies. . 73. The rule that none but the descendants of the first feudatory could inherit, was so strictly adhered to, that in case of a feudum novum, the brother of the first acquirer could not succeed to his brother; because he was not descended from the person who first acquired the feud. But in the case of a feudum antiquum, a brother or other collateral relation, who was descended from the first acquirer, might inherit. 74. A mode was afterwards adopted of letting in the collateral relations of the first acquirer of a fead, by granting him a feudum novum to be held ut antiquum, that is, with all the qualities of an antient |