knight service
knight service noun: the military service a knight owed to his chief lord as a condition of holding title to his lands and rank.
Noun
knight service (uncountable)
- The military service a knight owed to his chief lord as a condition of holding title to his lands and rank.
- Land became fully devisable with the abolition of knight-service in 1660, but magnates continued to inherit property which was tied up in strict settlements, giving the current representative of the family no more than a life-tenancy.1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 585
- If they were not heiresses, a lord's daughters were sometimes married off to his knights, but the latter […] might well need an incentive such as a cash payment, land or a reduction in their knight service.2002, Christopher Gravett, English Medieval Knight 1200-1300, page 43
- Synonym of knight's fee, the system of land tenure based on such service.
- Synonyms:
- knight's fee
Synonyms of knight service
Forms of knight service
| alternative form | knight-service |
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Origin of knight service
From Middle English knyght service.
Questions about knight service
- What does knight service mean?
- Knight service means the military service a knight owed to his chief lord as a condition of holding title to his lands and rank.
- What part of speech is knight service?
- Knight service is a noun.
Words near knight service in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: knight service (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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