12.—Feudal Sub-Tenancies and Copyholds.

It is important here to remark, that in the feudal system, from the top to the bottom, all was shaped after the same model. Thus, those who held lands of the king's tenants in capite, held them in the same manner as the king's tenants held of him. As the latter were the peers of the king's court, so the lord's tenants or vassals were the peers of the lord's court. As the king's steward presided in the king's court, and was the leader of his vassals in war, so the lord's steward presided as register of the lord's court, and was the leader of his vassals in war. And, as we shall see, when the king's tenants performed services, or made payments to their lord the king, they demanded similar services or payments from their tenants. The same system, or at least its similitude, communicated itself, as Blackstone observes, to copyhold. But what is rather more curious, as we shall also see, when the military tenants voted the abolition of all services and all payments due from them to the king, they quite forgot to remit the services and payments due to them from their copyhold tenants ^a.