FORINSEC SERVICE

forinsec service (f<<schwa>>-rin-sik).Hist. The feudal services owed by a mesne (i.e.,

intermediate) lord, esp. those of a military nature. — Also termed foreign service; forinsecum

servitium. Cf. INTRINSEC SERVICE.

“The terminology of Bracton’s day and of yet earlier times neatly expresses the distinction

between the service which the tenant owes to his immediate lord by reason of the bargain which

exists between them, and the service which was incumbent on the tenement whilst it was in the

lord’s hand. The former is intrinsec service, the latter forinsec service; the former is the service

which is created by, which (as it were) arises within, the bargain between the two persons, A and B,

whose rights and duties we are discussing; the latter arises outside that bargain, is ‘foreign’ to that

bargain …. [T]he term is a relative one; what is ‘intrinsec’ between A and B is ‘forinsec’ as regards

C.” 1 Frederick Pollock & Frederic W. Maitland, The History of English Law Before the Time of

Edward I 238, 239 n.2 (2d ed. 1898). [Blacks Law 8th]