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The legal concept of land tenure in the Middle Ages has become known as the feudal system that has been widely used throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia Minor.The lords who received land directly from the Crown, or another landowner, in exchange for certain rights and obligations were called tenants-in-chief.
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.
The word is a compound of *all "whole, full" and *ōd "estate, property" (cf. Old Saxon ōd, Old English ead, Old Norse auðr). [4] Allodial tenure seems to have been common throughout northern Europe, [2] but is now unknown in common law jurisdictions apart from Scotland and the Isle of Man.
Under the English feudal system several different forms of land tenure existed, each effectively a contract with differing rights and duties attached thereto. Such tenures could be either free-hold if they were hereditable or perpetual or non-free if they terminated on the tenant's death or at an earlier specified period.
A fief (/ f iː f /; Latin: feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of feudal allegiance, services or payments.
In the Middle Ages, especially under the European feudal system, feoffment / ˈ f ɛ f m ən t / or enfeoffment was the deed by which a person was given land in exchange for a pledge of service. This mechanism was later used to avoid restrictions on the passage of title in land by a system in which a landowner would give land to one person for ...
These forms are still preserved in law, even though feudalism itself is extinct, because all real estate law has developed from them over centuries. Feudal land tenure existed in many varieties. The sole surviving form in the United States is that species of freehold known as free socage. Here the service to be performed is known and fixed, and ...
The feudal system in England gradually became more and more complex until eventually the process became cumbrous and services difficult to enforce. As a result, the statute of Quia Emptores was passed in 1290 to replace subinfeudation with substitution, so the subordinate tenant transferred their tenure rather than creating a new subordinate ...