They held an estate from the king consisting of house, garden, field, stock and a salary, on condition of personal service on the king's errand.
The Ahoms retained the form of government in Assam peculiar to the Shan tribes, which may be briefly described as an organized system of personal service in lieu of taxation.
In the modern states of western Europe the existing nobility seems to have for the most part had its origin in personal service to the prince.
And this nobility by personal service seems commonly to have supplanted an older nobility, in early the origirrof which was, in some cases at least, strictly immemorial.
The notion of holding land of the king became more prominent than the notion of personal service done to the king; but, as the land was held by the tenure of personal service, the actual relation hardly changed.
