Grand Serjeanty (magna serjeantia, or magnum servitium, 'great service') was one of the most honourable of the ancient feudal tenures. According to Littleton, tenure by grand serjeanty is where a man holds his lands or tenements of our sovereign lord the king by such services as he ought to do in his proper person to the king, as to carry the banner of the king, or his lance, or to lead his army, or to be his marshal, or to carry his sword before him at his coronation, or his carver, or his butler, or to be one of his chamberlains of the receipt of his exchequer, or to do other like services. These honorary services were expressly retained when the military tenures were abolished in 1661. Strathfieldsaye is held by the Duke of Wellington in grand serjeanty, the service required being the presentation to the sovereign of a flag bearing the national colours on each anniversary of the battle of Waterloo. The service by which the Duke of Marlborough holds the manor of Woodstock is the presentation to the sovereign of a French standard on the anniversary of the battle of Blenheim.
In Scotland grand serjeanty was not known as a separate tenure—that is to say, lands held on condition of honorary services rendered to the sovereign were not attended with any privileges other than those attaching to lands held in a similar manner of a subject superior. In that country a tenure by honorary service was known as a Blanch Holding (q.v.).