This Edward perused the old lawes of the realme, and somewhat added to some of them: as to the law of Edgar for the wardship of the lands vntill the heire should accomplish the age of one and twentie yeeres.
He had succeeded in enforcing his claim to the wardship of all orphans born within his domain.
The Poitevin lords brought in their train a bevy of ladies in search of husbands, and three English earls who were in royal wardship were wedded by the king to foreigners.
At Balliol's homage indeed Edward had disclaimed any right to the ordinary feudal incidents of a fief, those of wardship or marriage, and in this disclaimer he was only repeating the reservations of the marriage treaty of Brigham.
And if such heir was not married at the time of the death of his ancestor, then the lord was to have the wardship and marriage of him.
Peter of Savoy, a brother of the same family, was invested in the honour of Richmond, and received the rich wardship of Earl Warrenne: Boniface of Savoy was promoted to the see of Canterbury.
When the king granted the wardship of a rich heir to any one, he had the opportunity of enriching a favourite or minister: if he sold it, he thereby levied a considerable sum of money.
The oppression of wardship and marriage was perpetuated even till the reign of Charles II.
The king shall not claim the wardship of any minor who hold lands by military tenure of a baron, on pretence that he also holds lands of the crown by soccage or any other tenure.
Steward had also made matrimonial proposals, which Mrs. Bennett deemed it not prudent to cut short at once, while the bargaining for the wardship was going on.
The widow was in treaty with Steward to buy from him the wardship of her own child, which the rogue refused to release for 1,500l.
It appears that one Steward, under the abominable system of wardships which then prevailed, had obtained a grant from the crown of the wardship of Mrs. Bennett's little boy, then four years old.
William, the son and heir, is committed to the wardship of the aforesaid Alice to be kept safely without a wife.
And if he deem it not to be expedient for him to hold the wardship of the lands and heirs in his own hand, he can demise the same, and then he shall have a heriot and relief.
But the gloss of this dictum quotes an instance of a justice upholding the claim of a chief lord to the wardship and marriage of the heir of a tenant by petty serjeanty.
The King is in seisin of the wardship of the lands and heirs of all the tenants of the same manor, and can hold them when he deems it to his advantage, and then he shall have no heriot.
Since such services are not done for the king's army or the defence of the country, no marriage or wardship is due therefrom to the chief lord, any more than from socage.
We will not by reason of any small serjeanty which any one may hold of us by the service of rendering to us knives, arrows, or the like, have wardship of his heir of the land which he holds of another lord by knight's service.
All barons who have founded abbeys, concerning which they hold charters from the kings of England, or of which they have long continued possession, shall have the wardship of them, when vacant, as they ought to have.
We will not by reason of any small serjeancy which anyone may hold of us by the service of rendering to us knives, arrows, or the like, have wardship of his heir or of the land which he holds of another lord by knight's service.
This warrant granted the wardship of Calais to John of Gloucester, so soon as he should have reached the age of twenty-one.
He was a great danger to them, as will be seen in the next chapter, while they benefited by his attainder and got the wardship of his son.
After Tewkesbury, Clarence claimed the wardship of Anne, and tried to get her into his power.
Now, when her eldest son came of age, and his wardship ceased, two-thirds of the estate would go to him, and she would be left in a position which it pleased her to regard as equivalent to destitution.
Manifestly, he was to be taken from the Earl of Arundel, and given in wardship to some other nobleman.
To Earl Rivers was given part of the estates of Clarence; and to the Marquis of Dorset the wardship of the son of the murdered duke.
I must perforce Leave him in wardship to his innocence.
Sidenote: The lord's obligation to care for the fief of his ward] The fiefs of those who are under wardship should be cared for attentively by their lords, who are entitled to receive the produce and profits.
When the heirs pass out of the condition of wardship, their lords shall not impose upon them any reliefs for their fiefs, for the profits of wardship shall be reckoned in place of the relief.
A woman cannot be freed from wardship except by marriage; and let it not be said that she is of age until she is twenty years old.
But a young woman remained under wardship until her marriage, though if she married under age she could get possession of her fief immediately, just as she would had she waited until older.
After the thirteenth century the right of wardshipgradually declined in France, though it long continued in England.
The giving of a rich wardship was a usual method of rewarding a courtier or favorite.
Wardship was the most regular and legal of all these impositions by prerogative; yet was it a great badge of slavery and oppressive to all the considerable families.
The sole wardship of minors who have other lords will not be claimed by the King, except in special cases.
Widows--in the wardshipof the Crown--are to be protected against robbery and against compulsion to a second marriage.
The most lucrative of the lord's rights were wardship and marriage, but the feudal theory of these also was non-economic.
Both wardship and marriage were, however, valuable rights which the lord could exercise himself or sell to others.
Very great men occasionally held land in free socage (per liberum socagium); they even held of the King in chief by free socage, and the tenure had many advantages, since it was free from the burdensome incidents of wardship and marriage.
The Dorsets were summoned from Bradgate to give evidence in the matter of the wardship of their daughter, and other witnesses were fetched from different parts of the kingdom to give damaging testimony.
Brother Thomas had yet a greater surprise and vexation in store for Somerset and his Duchess, and even for King Edward VI himself, than the matter of the wardship of Lady Jane Grey.
Let me see--your right to thewardship is established?
It is the personal wardshipthat is of chief importance, and dwelt most on my Lady's mind.
The house of Lynwood owns no master beneath the King of England, and the wardship of my nephew was committed to me by both his parents.
The king shall not claim the wardship of any minor who holds lands by military tenure of a baron, on pretence that he also holds lands of the crown by socage or any other tenure.
At the stroke of ten deliver in the keys To the duke himself, and then you've quit forever Your wardship of the gates, for on to-morrow The Swedes will take possession of the citadel.
He had wished to proclaim his wardship over Cicely and to immure her in a nunnery because of her great possessions, which he needed for the cause, but he had not wished her death.
Nor do I admit that now, or at any time, you had or have right of wardship over my person or the lands and goods which I hold and inherit.
