During the reign of King Edward I (1272–1307), Serjeanty`s tenure was in retreat, as Kimball observes (1936): Serjeanty`s varieties were later augmented by lawyers who, for the sake of simplicity, classified tasks such as escort service for the Abbess of Barking or military service on the Welsh border by Archenfield`s men under this heading. Serjeants (servientes) already appear in the Domesday Book of 1086 as a separate class, although not in all cases distinct from the barons who were in the service of chivalry. Some of Serjeanty`s medieval mandates date back to Domesday in the case of three Hampshire Serjeanties: that of the King`s Marshal, the search for an archer for his service, and the management of Winchester Castle Prison. However, it is likely that many of the alleged possessions were not really such, although this has been described in statements, post-mortem inquisitions, and other documents. The simplest legal criterion of tenure was that Serjeants, though subject to feudal requirements of guardianship, etc., were not inclined to scuting; Instead of this request, they made a special composition with the crown. He further tells us that he held it by Serjeanty – “et est venator leporum, et facit servitium”. “As soon as it yielded, Serjeanty disintegrated faster and more easily than other terms, since the feudal conception of society lost its footing. Its various services had. many destinies. Many of them quickly became obsolete; others were converted into monetary payments or put into the service of the knight; A few that were honorable or decorative were preserved in their original form as part of the coronation ceremony. Some that were still useful were carried out by deputy ministers or incorporated into the regular management system. [9] (They) were neither always military nor always agricultural, but could get very close to the service of the knights or the service of the peasants. The wisdom of holding the king`s head as he crossed the English Channel, pulling a rope when his ship landed, counting his chess pieces on Christmas Day, bringing fuel to his castle, doing his carpentry, finding his potted herbs, forging his irons for his ploughs, tending to his garden, the care of dogs tortured and injured during hunting, service as a veterinarian for his sick falcons, such and many others could be the ceremonial or menial services due by a particular Serjeanty.

Under feudalism in France and England in the Middle Ages, the Serjeanty mandate (/ˈsɑːrdʒənti/) was a form of tenure in exchange for a certain duty outside normal chivalric service. Legal historians Frederick Pollock and Frederic William Maitland (1895) described it as free “service” in the sense that the serjeant, whatever his task, was essentially an inferior servant. However, feudal historian John Horace Round objected that their definition did not cover military serjeans and glossed over the honorability of at least some of the services. [4] In the Regis servientes, which were subservient in various counties, we can see the predecessors of the tenants by Serjeanty. Sergeanty, from the Latin Servians, was also written Sergeantry, Serjeanty or Serjeantry in European feudal society, a form of land ownership granted in exchange for performing some service to the Lord, whether the king or another. Non-commissioned officers included craftsmen, bailiffs of the Lord`s kingdom, servants, and sometimes those who rendered some form of military service to the Lord. When there was no land available, sergeants were kept in the house of the Lord. Those who were tenants were subject to many feudal fees, but were exempt from paying taxes and carrying out certain works. The Grand Serjeanty is, of course, included equally in military service.

The germ of the later distinction between “large” (French: grand, “grand”) and “small” (French petit, “petit”) Serjeanty is found in the Magna Carta of 1215, in which the king renounced the privilege for those who possessed it by handing over small objects. The legal doctrine that developed that Serjeanties were inalienable (i.e. non-transferable) and indivisible was adopted during the reign of King Henry III. (1216-1272) for the arrest of the Serjeanties whose lands had been partially alienated, which were thus converted into possessions of socage (i.e. payment of monetary rents) or, in some cases, into possessions by chivalric service. Little by little, the gap widened and the “small” serjeanties, composed of renderings, as well as serjeanties of mesne lords, sank into the socage, while the “large” serjeanties, whose holders performed their service personally, were subject only to the burden of guardianship and marriage. In the Tenures of Littleton (15th century), this distinction seems to be just as well defined, but the development was one of legal theory. When the military tenure of the chivalric service to the restoration of the monarchy by King Charles II. (1660-1685) [10] was suppressed, the Grand Serjeanty was retained, probably because of its honorary character, and was then limited in practice to the exercise of certain functions at coronations, the fulfillment of which was always desired as a right, and the first mention is the coronation of Queen Eleanor of Provence in 1236. The most striking are those of Queen`s Champion, which belongs to Scrivelsby Manor, long held by the Dymoke family, and the support of the King`s right-hand man, which belongs to the Worksop Manor. A kind of mandate by knightly service, which belonged only to the king, and was divided into Grand and Petit Serjeanty.

The tenant, held by the Grand Serjeanty, was obliged, instead of generally assisting the king in his wars, to render a service of personal honor to the king, such as carrying his banner or sword, or to be his butler, champion or other officer at his coronation. Petit Serjeanty differed from Grand Serjeanty in that service to the king was not personal, but consisted of giving him annually a small piece of military equipment such as a bow, sword, arrow, spear or other. Cowell; Chestnut. Although today all surviving remains of the Grand Sergeant are considered roles of great honour, it must be remembered that the Grand Sergeant was originally a duty, not a right. Obviously, even in the Middle Ages, a large part of the sergeant-major had in practice become only a sign of great honor of a monarch, where the duty was obviously absurd and completely discharged, apart from the requirement of the physical presence of the tenant in question. The task of supporting the king`s right-hand man was accomplished at the coronation of King Edward VII in 1902. Although the first holder of these great hereditary sergeants was clearly a very popular and respected man by the monarch who appointed and adapted to the role, the character of the heir in duty of the tenant, which often involved close personal closeness, might be less pleasant for future monarchs. Serjeant`s importance as a servant is still preserved in the monarch`s Serjeants-at-Arms, Serjeant surgeons, and Serjeant trumpeters. The serjeants on horseback and on foot (servientes) of the royal army in the 12th century. In the nineteenth century, which ranked after knights and were lightly armed, had nothing to do with land ownership.