Heriot facts for kids

Heriot was a special payment or duty in olden times, especially in Anglo-Saxon England. The word comes from Old English heregeat, which means "war-gear."

Originally, when a nobleman died, he had to give a set of military equipment back to his king. This often included horses, swords, shields, spears, and helmets. Later, this duty changed. It became a payment or item given by villeins (which were like farmers who worked for a lord) when they died. This was similar to a feudal relief, which was a payment made to a lord when land was inherited. In French, a similar payment was called droit du meilleur catel.

What Does Heriot Mean?

The word "Heriot" comes from the Old English words here-geatwa. Here meant "army" or "soldier," and geatwa meant "arms" or "equipment." So, it literally meant the gear of a soldier or army.

History of Heriot Payments

Heriot was a right that a lord had in feudal Europe. When a serf (a peasant who was tied to the land and worked for a lord) died, the lord could claim their best horse, clothing, or both.

Why Heriot Started

This tradition began because lords would often lend horses, armor, or weapons to their serfs so they could fight. When the serf died, the lord would simply take back what was rightfully his.

Early Mentions of Heriot

Payments of heriot are mentioned in the wills of noblemen from West-Saxon England starting in the mid-900s. For example, King Cnut included rules about heriot in his law-code between 1020 and 1023. The type of heriot depended on the nobleman's rank, like an earl or a king's thegn (a type of noble), and where they lived, such as in the Danelaw or Wessex.

Heriot Changes Over Time

As knights became a distinct group and could buy their own fighting gear, lords still claimed property when someone died. This right even spread to people who weren't fighting knights. Sometimes, serfs would plan for heriot in their wills. However, if someone died in battle, heriot was often not required. This was because the winner of the fight would usually take the horse and armor anyway.

By the 1200s, heriot was paid either with money or by giving the lord the tenant's best animal or valuable item. A wise church leader named Jacques de Vitry criticized lords who demanded heriots. He called them "vultures that prey upon death" and "worms feeding upon the corpse."

A Curious Modern Example

Heriot came in many different forms. A historian named G. G. Coulton shared an interesting story about heriot from the late 1800s:

In the later 19th century Lord Rothschild bought an estate. Part of it was under a special old law called copyhold with New College, Oxford. This meant the college's leader and teachers were like his lords. Lord Rothschild had to quickly buy the full ownership of the land. If he hadn't, when he died, these "overlords" could have claimed his best animal as a heriot. Since Lord Rothschild was famous for his racehorses, this could have been a horse worth a huge amount of money, like twenty thousand pounds or more!

Heriot is one of many unusual laws from feudal times. It started from a logical need between two groups of people. But it continued even when the original reason was gone, because a lord's traditional rights tended to stick around. This law, and others like the right for nobles not to pay taxes, had a long and often difficult history in Europe. Heriot was finally stopped by law in Britain in 1922.

See also

• Copyhold (a type of land ownership related to heriot)
• Anglo-Saxon weaponry