knight service

• knight-service

From Middle English knyght service.

knight service (uncountable)

1. (historical, law) The military service a knight owed to his chief lord as a condition of holding title to his lands and rank.
   • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 585:

     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.

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

     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.

2. (historical, inexact) Synonym of knight's fee, the system of land tenure based on such service.

• military service

• serjeanty