knight's fee
Preserved but no longer current.
The amount of land for which, under the feudal system, the services of a knight were due to the Crown. There was no fixed unit, some were larger than others; William the Conqueror created 60,000 such fees when he came to England, and in his time all who had £20 a year in lands or in- come were compelled to be knights.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “knight's fee” mean?
The amount of land for which, under the feudal system, the services of a knight were due to the Crown. There was no fixed unit, some were larger than others; William the Conqueror created 60,000 such fees when he came to England, and in his time all who had £20 a year in lands or in- come were compelled to be knights.
Is “knight's fee” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.