knight's feen.
/ˌnʌɪts ˈfiː/, /ˈnʌɪts fiː/, U.S. /ˌnaɪts ˈfi/, /ˈnaɪts ˌfi/ Under the Feudal System: The amount of land for which the services of an armed knight were due to the sovereign. Historical writers now agree that the different knight's fees were not equal in extent (see quots. 1876, 1895); whether they were approximately equal in value is still doubtful.
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society > law > legal right > right of possession or ownership > tenure of property > a legal holding > [noun] > a feudal holding or fief > held by military service > held by knight
knight's fee1387
knightly feea1640
1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Rolls) VII. 309 How meny knyȝtene fees, how meny teme lond [etc.].
1427 Rolls of Parl. IV. 318/2 Ye subsidees of ye saide Knyghtes Fees with ye rate yrof.
a1513 R. Fabyan New Cronycles Eng. & Fraunce (1516) I. ccxxii. f. cxliii. (margin) viij. hydes make a Knyghtes Fee, by the whiche reason a knyghtes fee shuld welde. c. lx. acres.
1602 R. Carew Surv. Cornwall i. f. 36 Commonly thirtie Acres make a farthing land, nine farthings a Cornish Acre, and foure Cornish Acres, a Knights fee.
1761 D. Hume Hist. Eng. I. App. ii. 251 (note) The relief of a barony was twelve times greater than that of a knight's-fee.
1876 K. E. Digby Introd. Hist. Law Real Prop. (ed. 2) i. 36 Where land is held by military service every portion amounting to twenty pounds in annual value constitutes a ‘knight's fee’, for which the service of a knight fully armed and equipped must be rendered.
1895 F. Pollock & F. W. Maitland Hist. Eng. Law I. 235 The term ‘knight's fee’ does not imply any particular acreage of land. The knight's fee is no unvarying areal unit; some fees are much larger than others.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1901; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1387