Arrentation ( Lat. ''arrendare''), in the forest laws of

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, is the licensing an owner of land in a forest, to enclose it with a small ditch and low hedge, in consideration of an annual rent. By extension it came to mean the conversion of

serjeanty Under feudalism in France and England during the Middle Ages, tenure by serjeanty () was a form of tenure in return for a specified duty other than standard knight-service. Etymology The word comes from the French noun , itself from the Latin ...

tenures into tenures by

socage Socage () was one of the feudal duties and land tenure forms in the English feudal system. It eventually evolved into the freehold tenure called "free and common socage", which did not involve feudal duties. Farmers held land in exchange for ...

knight-service Knight-service was a form of feudal land tenure under which a knight held a fief or estate of land termed a knight's fee (''fee'' being synonymous with ''fief'') from an overlord conditional on him as a tenant performing military service for his ...

, which were easily made to yield a rental income to the Crown. The logic of the extended usage is reinforced by a much stronger personal link, as it was Robert Passelewe, a royal justice of the forest, who was deputed by Henry III to carry out a thorough reform of serjeanties held of the king in 1250. An example noted by Pollock and Maitland is that of Walter Devenish, whose serjeanty demanded that he provide three arrows if the king should decide to hunt on

Dartmoor Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, South West England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite that forms the uplands dates from the Carb ...

. His new terms required he pay a rent of three shillings, of which one shilling was to come from subtenants. Generally the lever used to transform the tenure was the doctrine of the inalienability and impartibility of serjeanties.For inalienability, cf. Pollock and Maitland
The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I, volume 1, p. 290.
/ref> Many serjeanties had been wholly or partly

subinfeudated In English law, subinfeudation is the practice by which tenants, holding land under the king or other superior lord, carved out new and distinct tenures in their turn by sub-letting or alienating a part of their lands. The tenants were termed ...

without royal approval, allowing the royal agents to threaten complete dispossession if the tenant did not accept the new terms.

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

had carried out a similar purge of serjeanties in 1205, but this applied only to the honour of Lancaster, which was then in his hands: Henry III's reforms extended his father's changes to the much larger number of serjeanties held of the king. The inquiry of 1250 makes up the greater part of volume 2 of the most recently published volume of the

Book of Fees The ''Book of Fees'' is the colloquial title of a modern edition, transcript, rearrangement and enhancement of the medieval (Latin: 'Book of Fiefs') which is a listing of feudal landholdings or fief (Middle English ), compiled in about 1302, bu ...

References

Sources

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* Forests and woodlands of England English legal terminology English property law English forest law {{England-law-stub