knight service

alternative knight-service

1. historicaluncountablelawThe military service a knight owed to his chief lord as a condition of holding title to his lands and rank.

   If they were not heiresses, a lord's daughters were sometimes married off to his knights, but the latter […] might well need an incentive such as a cash payment, land or a reduction in their knight service.

   2002, Christopher Gravett, English Medieval Knight 1200-1300, page 43

   1 more example

   Land became fully devisable with the abolition of knight-service in 1660, but magnates continued to inherit property which was tied up in strict settlements, giving the current representative of the family no more than a life-tenancy.

   1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 585

2. historicaluncountableinexactSynonym of knight's fee, the system of land tenure based on such service.

   Synonyms: knight's fee