A fief (; ) 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. The fees were often lands, land revenue or revenue-producing real property like a watermill, held in feudal land tenure: these are typically known as fiefs or fiefdoms. However, not only land but anything of value could be held in fee, including governmental office, rights of exploitation such as hunting, fishing or felling trees, monopolies in trade, money rents and tax farms. There never existed a standard feudal system, nor did there exist only one type of fief. Over the ages, depending on the region, there was a broad variety of customs using the same basic legal principles in many variations.

Terminology

In ancient Rome, a "benefice" (from the Latin noun , meaning "benefit") was a gift of land () for life as a reward for services rendered, originally, to the state. In medieval Latin European documents, a land grant in exchange for service continued to be called a (Latin). Later, the term , or , replaced in the documents. that it is related to the Frankish term *fehu-ôd, in which *fehu means "cattle" and -ôd means "goods", implying "a moveable object of value".

A theory put forward by Archibald R. Lewis In that text is a passage about Louis the Pious which says , which can be translated as "(Louis forbade that) military provender which they popularly call 'fodder' (be furnished)." In English usage, the word fee is first attested in Middle English around 1250–1300, and feu remains the usual form in Scotland. The form fief entered English around 1605–1615. In French, one also finds (land and rights possessed by a or "lord", 12th century), which gives rise to the expression "seigneurial system" to describe feudalism.

Early feudal grants

Originally, vassalage did not imply the giving or receiving of landholdings (which were granted only as a reward for loyalty), but by the 8th century the giving of a landholding was becoming standard. The granting of a landholding to a vassal did not relinquish the lord's property rights, but only the use of the lands and their income; the granting lord retained ultimate ownership of the fee and could, technically, recover the lands in case of disloyalty or death.

By the middle of the 10th century, fee had largely become hereditary. The eldest son of a deceased vassal would inherit, but first he had to do homage and fealty to the lord and pay a "relief" for the land (a monetary recognition of the lord's continuing proprietary rights over the property).

Historically, the fees of the 11th and the 12th century derived from two separate sources. The first was land carved out of the estates of the upper nobility. The second source was allodial land transformed into dependent tenures. During the 10th century in northern France and the 11th century in France south of the Loire, local magnates either recruited or forced the owners of allodial holdings into dependent relationships and they were turned into fiefs. The process occurred later in Germany, and was still going on in the 13th century.

In England, Henry II transformed them into important sources of royal income and patronage. The discontent of barons with royal claims to arbitrarily assessed "reliefs" and other feudal payments under Henry's son King John resulted in Magna Carta of 1215.

Eventually, great feudal lords sought also to seize governmental and legal authority (the collection of taxes, the right of high justice, etc.) in their lands, and some passed these rights to their own vassals.

In northern France in the 12th and 13th centuries, military service for fiefs was limited for offensive campaigns to 40 days for a knight. By the 12th century, English and French kings and barons began to commute military service for cash payments (scutages), with which they could purchase the service of mercenaries.

See also

  • Appanage, part of the liege's domain granted to a junior relative
  • Book of Fees, a scholarly collection of fiefs
  • Brahmadeya, a royal fief given to a Brahmin for service to an Indian king.
  • Enfeoffment
  • Fee simple
  • Fee tail
  • Fengjian, the Chinese system often compared to European feudalism
  • Feoffee
  • Feudal land tenure in England
  • Lehen (disambiguation), the German equivalent
  • Knight-service
  • Knight's fee
  • Lord of the manor
  • Sasan (land grant), a royal fief given to the Charanas by an Indian ruler.
  • Seigneurial system of New France, a semifeudal system in France's American colonies
  • Subinfeudation
  • Urbarium, a medieval record of fees

Notes

References

  • Norman F. Cantor. The Civilization of the Middle Ages. New York: HarperPerennial, 1993.
  • Stéphane Lebecq. Les origines franques: Ve-IXe siècles. Series: Nouvelle histoire de la France médiévale. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1999.