in loosening the hold which a feudal lord had over his tenants, had also loosened the hold which a tenant had on a feudal lord. The system survived in name, but the soul had gone out of it, and it was now little more than an excuse for periodical exactions and "fines." And as it had now long been the policy of the Crown to convert as many tenures as possible into tenures in capite (held directly of the King himself), the Long Parliament soon turned its attention to this branch of the royal revenues. It chose the moment when the "Treaty of Uxbridge" came to naught—that is, the moment when the moderate party in Parliament was overborne by the more extreme party, soon to be identified with the Army. On 24th February 1645 the Commons voted the abolition of the Court of Wards. The only immediate consequence was, that the Long Parliament received from this time forth, until 1656, all the profits of wardship, fines, and other feudal prerogatives, always supposed hitherto to be inseparably connected with the Crown. These profits (from 1645 to 1656) are set down as £1,400,000.[1] On 22nd November 1656 Cromwell's Third Parliament passed, nemine contradicente, "An Act for taking away the Court of Wards and Liveries, and all wardships, liveries, primer-seizins, and Oustre le Mains, and all other charges incident and arising for or by reason of any such tenures, etc., as from 24th February 1645." The Act took away "all homage, fines, Ucences, etc., and all tenures in capite and by knight-service, and all tenures by soccage in chief; and turned all tenures into free and common soccage" (Scobell, Part II. 375). But all heriots[2] and other feudal dues payable to intermediate lords or other private persons were retained. Purveyance and compositions for purveyance were taken away by another Act of this Parliament;[3] and both these reforms were re-enacted immediately after the Restoration by 12 Charles II. c. 24.[4] But all feudal charges were not even by this swept away
- ↑ Sinclair, Stevens, etc.
- ↑ "Heriots, which I think are agreed to be a Danish custom … are a render of the best beast or other good (as the custom may be) to a lord on the death of the tenant."—Blackstone (quoted in Richardson's Dictionary).
- ↑ Scobell, Burton's "Diary." Whitelock's "Memorials."
- ↑ The reign of Charles II. is always supposed to have begun on 30th January 1649.
