serjeanty

Tenure by serjeanty was a form of land-holding in Medieval England (and is also used of similar forms in Continental Europe) under the feudal system, intermediate between tenure by knight-service and tenure in socage.It originated in the assignation of an estate in land on condition of the performance of a certain duty, which can hardly be described more exactly than as not being that of knight-service. Its essence, according to Pollock and Maitland , might be described as "servantship," the discharge of duties in the household of king or noble; but it ranged from service in the king's host, distinguished only by equipment from that of the knight, to petty renders scarcely distinguishable from those of the rent-paying tenant or socager.
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