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Knight's service   /naɪts sˈərvəs/   Listen
noun
Knight's service, Knight service  n.  
1.
(Feud. Law) The military service by rendering which a knight held his lands.
2.
(Eng. Feud. Law) A tenure of lands held by knights on condition of performing military service. See Chivalry, n., 4. "By far the greater part of England (in the 13th century) is held of the king by knight's service.... In order to understand this tenure we must form the conception of a unit of military service. That unit seems to be the service of one knight or fully armed horseman (servitium unius militis) to be done to the king in his army for forty days in the year, if it be called for.... The limit of forty days seems to have existed rather in theory than practice."
3.
Service such as a knight can or should render; hence, good or valuable service.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Knight's service" Quotes from Famous Books



... wound given to the feudal system was the Act of the 12th of Charles II, which abolished the tenure of knight's service in capite, and which Blackstone compares, for its salutary influence upon property, to the boasted provisions of Magna Charta itself. Yet even in this act we see the effects of that counteracting spirit which ...
— The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore • Thomas Moore et al

... my heart," said the knight; "I have got little by a knight's service in the Court; and the last time I was at the ordinary, ...
— The Fortunes of Nigel • Sir Walter Scott

... to us. To-morrow shall we be with our uncle Hal. I only wish his lord was not of the ghostly sort, but perhaps he may prefer me to some great knight's service. But oh! Ambrose, come and look. See! The fellow they call Smallbones is come out to the fountain in the middle of the court with a bucket in each hand. Look! Didst ever see such a giant? He is as big and brawny as Ascapart at the bar-gate at Southampton. See! ...
— The Armourer's Prentices • Charlotte M. Yonge

... which is at least possible, that one half of the absentees should be friends to the cause of the people; what would become of us then? There remains indeed the obvious method of purchasing votes, and it might be supposed that your lordship's talent of insinuation might do you knight's service in this business. But no, my lord, many of these country gentlemen are at bottom no better than boors. A mechlin cravat and a smirking countenance, upon which your lordship builds so much, would be absolutely unnoticed by them. I am afraid ...
— Four Early Pamphlets • William Godwin

... seizin[Law], seisin[Law]; ownership &c. 780; occupancy; hold, holding; tenure, tenancy, feodality[obs3], dependency; villenage, villeinage[obs3]; socage[obs3], chivalry, knight service. exclusive possession, impropriation[obs3], monopoly, retention &c.781; prepossession, preoccupancy[obs3]; nine points of the law; corner, usucaption[obs3]. future possession, heritage, inheritance, heirship, reversion, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus



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