land which had been in the possession of religious communities,
instead of being retained by the state for educational or religious
purposes, had been given to favorites. A new class of ownership had
been created--the lay impropriators of tithes. The suppression of
retainers converted land into a quasi property. The extension to
land of the powers of bequest gave the possessors greater
facilities for disposing thereof. It was relieved from the
principal feudal burden, military service, but remained essentially
feudal as far as tenure was concerned. Men were no longer furnished
to the state as payment of the knight's fee; they were cleared off
the land, to make room for sheep and oxen, England being in that
respect about two hundred years in advance of Ireland, though
without the outlet of emigration. Vagrancy and its attendant evils
led to the Poor Law.

James I. and his ministers tried to grapple with the altered
circumstances, and strove to substitute and equitable Crown rent or
money payment for the existing and variable claims which were
collected by the Court of Ward and Livery. The knight's fee then
consisted of twelve plough-lands, a more modern name for "a hide of
land." The class burdened with knight's service, or payments in
lieu thereof, comprised 160 temporal and 26 spiritual lords, 800
barons, 600 knights, and 3000 esquires. The knight's fee was
subject to aids, which were paid to the Crown upon the marriage of
the king's son or daughter. Upon the death of the possessor, the
Crown received primer-seizen a year's rent. If the successor was an
infant, the Crown under the name of Wardship, took the rents of the
estates. If the ward was a female, a fine was levied if she did not
accept the husband chosen by the Crown. Fines on alienation were
also levied, and the estates, though sold, became escheated, and