in chivalry, one of the incidents of tenure by knight-service. See FEODAL System, KNIGHT Service, and TENURE.

Upon the death of a tenant, if the heir was under the age of 21, being a male, or 14, being a female, the lord was entitled to the wardship of the heir, and was called the guardian in chivalry. This wardship consisted in having the custody of the body and lands of such heir, without any account of the profits, till the age of 21 in males, and 16 in females. For the law supposed the heir-male unable to perform knight-service till 21; but as for the female, she was supposed capable at 14 to marry, and then her husband might perform the service. The lord therefore had no wardship, if at the death of the ancestor the heir-male was of the full age of 21, or the heir-female of 14: yet if he was then under 14, and the lord once had her in ward, he might keep her so till 16, by virtue of the statute of Westminster, 1. 3 Edw. I. c. 22. the two additional years being given by the legislature for no other reason but merely to benefit the lord.

This wardship, so far as it related to land, though it was not nor could be part of the law of feuds, so long as they were arbitrary, temporary, or for life only; yet when they became hereditary, and did consequently often descend upon infants, who by reason of their age could neither perform nor stipulate for the services of the feud, does not seem upon feudal principles to have been unreasonable. For the wardship of the land, or custody of the feud, was retained by the lord, that he might out of the profits thereof provide a fit person to supply the infant's services till he should be of age to perform them himself. And if we consider a feud in its original import, as a stipend, fee, or reward for actual service, it could not be thought hard that the lord should withhold the stipend so long as the service was suspended. Though undoubtedly to our English ancestors, where such stipendary donation was a mere supposition or figment, it carried abundance of hardship; and accordingly it was relieved by the charter of Henry I. which took this custody from the lord, and ordained that the custody, both of the land and the children, should belong to the widow or next of kin. But this noble immunity did not continue many years.

The wardship of the body was a consequence of the wardship of the land; for he who enjoyed the infant's estate was the properest person to educate and maintain him in his infancy: and also, in a political view, the lord was most concerned to give his tenant a suitable education, in order to qualify him the better to perform those services which in his maturity he was bound to render.

When the male heir arrived at the age of 21, or the heir female at that of 16, they might sue out their livery or ousterleman; that is, the delivery of their lands WARDSHIP out of their guardian's hands. For this they were obliged to pay a fine, namely, half-a-year's profits of the land; though this seems expressly contrary to magna charta. However, in consideration of their lands having been so long in ward, they were excused all reliefs, and the king's tenants also all primer seifins. In order to ascertain the profits that awoke to the crown by these fruits of tenure, and to grant the heir his livery, the itinerant justices, or justices in eyre, had it formerly in charge to make inquisition concerning them by a jury of the county, commonly called an inquisitio post mortem; which was instituted to inquire (at the death of any man of fortune) the value of his estate, the tenure by which it was holden, and who, and of what age, his heir was; thereby to ascertain the relief and value of the primer seiffin, or the wardship and livery accruing to the king thereupon. A manner of proceeding that came in process of time to be greatly abused, and at length an intolerable grievance; it being one of the principal accusations against Empson and Dudley, the wicked engines of Henry VII., that by colour of false inquisitions they compelled many persons to sue out livery from the crown, who by no means were tenants thereto. And afterwards a court of wards and liversies was created, for conducting the same inquiries in a more solemn and legal manner.

When the heir thus came of full age, provided he held a knight's fee, he was to receive the order of knighthood, and was compelled to take it upon him, or else pay a fine to the king. 'For in those heroic times no person was qualified for deeds of arms and chivalry who had not received this order, which was conferred with much preparation and solemnity.' We may plainly discover the footsteps of a similar custom in what Tacitus relates of the Germans, who, in order to qualify their young men to bear arms, presented them in a full assembly with a shield and lance; which ceremony is supposed to have been the original of the feudal knighthood. This prerogative, of compelling the vassals to be knighted, or to pay a fine, was expressly recognized in parliament by the statute de militibus, r Edw. II.; was exerted as an expedient for raising money by many of our best princes, particularly by Edw. VI. and Queen Elizabeth; but this was the occasion of heavy murmurs when exerted by Charles I.; among whose many misfortunes it was, that neither himself nor his people seemed able to distinguish between the arbitrary stretch and the legal exertion of prerogative. However, among the other concessions made by that unhappy prince before the fatal recourse to arms, he agreed to divest himself of this undoubted flower of the crown; and it was accordingly abolished by statute 16 Car. I. c. 20.