Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol II).djvu/72

 60 of A, and A of the king; or, in other words, B held his lands immediately of A, but mediately of the king. The king therefore was tiled lord paramount; A was both tenant and lord, or was a mene lord; and B was called tenant paravail, or the lowet tenant; being he who is uppoed to make avail, or profit, of the land. In this manner are all the lands of the kingdom holden, which are in the hands of ubjects: for, according to ir Edward Coke, in the law of England we have not properly allodium; which, we have een , is the name by which the feudits abroad ditinguih uch etates of the ubject, as are not holden of any uperior. So that at the firt glance we may oberve, that our lands are either plainly feuds, or partake very trongly of the feodal nature.

tenures being thus derived, or uppoed to be derived, from the king, thoe that held immediately under him, in right of his crown and dignity, were called his tenants in capite, or in chief; which was the mot honourable pecies of tenure, but at the ame time ubjected the tenants to greater and more burthenome ervices, than inferior tenures did. This ditinction ran through all the different orts of tenure; of which I now proceed to give an account.

1. eem to have ubited among our ancetors four principal pecies of lay tenures, to which all others may be reduced: the grand criteria of which were the natures of the everal ervices or renders, that were due to the lords from their tenants. The ervices, in repect of their quality, were either free or bae ervices; in repect of their quantity and the time of exacting them, were either certain or uncertain. Free ervices uch as were not unbecoming the charadler of a oldier, or a free- Rh