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Feudal Land Tenure
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, signifying that they were hereditable or perpetual, or non-free where the tenancy terminated on the tenant's death or at an earlier specified period. High medieval period In England's ancient past large parts of the realm were unoccupied and owned as allodial titles: the landowners simply cooperated with the king out of a mutual interest instead of legal obligation. It was not until the Norman conquest, when William the Conqueror declared himself to be the sole allodial owner of the entire realm, that land tenures changed drastically. In William's kingdom the common exchange and sale of land became restricted and all landholders were made to provide a service to their lord ("'' no land without a lord''"). Norman reforms William stripped the land from those who opposed him and redist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Feudal System
Feudalism as practiced in the Kingdoms of England during the medieval period was a state of human society that organized political and military leadership and force around a stratified formal structure based on land tenure. As a military defense and socio-economic paradigm designed to direct the wealth of the land to the king while it levied military troops to his causes, feudal society was ordered around relationships derived from the holding of land. Such landholdings are termed fiefdoms, traders, fiefs, or fees. Origins of feudalism The word, "feudalism", was not a medieval term, but an invention of sixteenth century French and English lawyers to describe certain traditional obligations between members of the warrior aristocracy. Not until 1748 did it become a popular and widely used word, thanks to Montesquieu's ''De L'Esprit des Lois'' (The Spirit of the Laws). The coined word ''feudal'' derives from an ancient Gothic source ''faihu'' signifying simply "property" which in i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scutage
Scutage is a medieval English tax levied on holders of a knight's fee under the feudal land tenure of knight-service. Under feudalism the king, through his vassals, provided land to knights for their support. The knights owed the king military service in return. The knights were allowed to "buy out" of the military service by paying scutage (a term derived from Latin ''scutum'', "shield"). As time passed the kings began to impose a scutage on holders of knight's fees, whether or not the holder was actually a knight. General information The institution existed under Henry I (reigned 1100–1135) and Stephen (reigned 1135–1154), when it occurs as ''scutagium'', ''scuagium'' or ''escuagium''. The creation of fractions of knights' fee probably hastened its introduction: the holders of such fractions could only discharge their obligation ''via'' scutage. The increasing use of mercenaries in the 12th century would also make a money payment of greater use to the crown. Separa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manorial Roll
A manorial roll or court roll is the roll or record kept of the activities of a manorial court, in particular containing entries relating to the rents and holdings, deaths, alienations, and successions of the customary tenants or copyholders."court roll, n.". ''OED Online''. November 2010. Oxford University Press The records were invariably kept in roll form in the Middle Ages, but in the post-medieval period were more usually entered into volumes. Despite this change of format, the records often continued to be known as ''court rolls'', although the term ''court books'' is also found. The rolls record the meetings of the manorial court, either court leet or court baron, or views of frankpledge. Entries usually began with the date; a list of jurors (selected from the manor); and apologies and/or fines for those manorial tenants unable to attend the court. General matters such as a failure to maintain highways or gates are followed by specific items such as the death and inherita ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lord Of The Manor
Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seignory, the right to grant or draw benefit from the estate. The title continues in modern England and Wales as a legally recognised form of property that can be held independently of its historical rights. It may belong entirely to one person or be a moiety shared with other people. A title similar to such a lordship is known in French as ''Sieur'' or , in German, (Kaleagasi) in Turkish, in Norwegian and Swedish, in Welsh, in Dutch, and or in Italian. Types Historically a lord of the manor could either be a tenant-in-chief if he held a capital manor directly from the Crown, or a mesne lord if he was the vassal of another lord. The origins of the lordship of manors arose in the Anglo-Saxon system of manorialism. Following the N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Copyhold
Copyhold was a form of customary land ownership common from the Late Middle Ages into modern times in England. The name for this type of land tenure is derived from the act of giving a copy of the relevant title deed that is recorded in the manorial court roll to the tenant; not the actual land deed itself. The legal owner of the manor land remained the mesne lord, who was legally the ''copyholder'', according to the titles and customs written down in the manorial roll. In return for being given land, a copyhold tenant was required to carry out specific manorial duties or services. The specific rights and duties of copyhold tenants varied greatly from one manor to another and many were established by custom. By the 19th century, many customary duties had been replaced with the payment of rent. Copyhold was directly descended from the feudal system of villeinage which involved giving service and produce to the local lord in return for land. Although feudalism in England had ende ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Farm (revenue Commutation)
A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used for specialized units such as arable farms, vegetable farms, fruit farms, dairy, pig and poultry farms, and land used for the production of natural fiber, biofuel and other commodities. It includes ranches, feedlots, orchards, plantations and estates, smallholdings and hobby farms, and includes the farmhouse and agricultural buildings as well as the land. In modern times the term has been extended so as to include such industrial operations as wind farms and fish farms, both of which can operate on land or sea. There are about 570 million farms in the world, most of which are small and family-operated. Small farms with a land area of fewer than 2 hectares operate about 1% of the world's agricultural land, and family farms comprise about ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frankalmoin
Frank almoin, frankalmoign or frankalmoigne () was one of the feudal land tenures in feudal England. Its literal meaning is 'free pity/mercy', from Norman French , 'free alms', from Late Latin , from Greek (), 'pity, alms', from () 'merciful', from (), 'pity'. By it an ecclesiastical body held land free of military service such as knight service or other secular or religious service, but sometimes in return for the religious service of saying prayers and masses for the soul of the grantor. Not only was secular service not due but in the 12th and 13th centuries jurisdiction over land so held belonged to the ecclesiastical courts, and was thus immune from royal jurisdiction. In English law, frankalmoign(e) was also known as "tenure in free alms". Gifts to religious institutions in free alms were defined first as gifts to God, then to the patron saint of the religious house, and finally to those religious serving God in the specific house. The following example is from a charter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Castle-guard
Castle-guard was an arrangement under the feudal system, by which the duty of finding knights to guard royal castles was imposed on certain manors, knight's fees or baronies. The greater barons provided for the guard of their castles by exacting a similar duty from their sub-enfeoffed knights. The obligation was commuted very early for a fixed money payment, a form of scutage known as "castle-guard rent", which lasted into modern times.AL Poole, ''Domesday Book to Magna Carta'' (OUP, 2nd edition, 1955) Castle-guard was a common form of feudal tenure, almost ubiquitous, on the Isle of Wight where all manors were held from the Lord of the Isle of Wight, seated at Carisbrook Castle Carisbrooke Castle is a historic motte-and-bailey castle located in the village of Carisbrooke (near Newport), Isle of Wight, England. Charles I was imprisoned at the castle in the months prior to his trial. Early history The site of Carisbro .... References {{DEFAULTSORT:Castle-Guard Castle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesne Lord
A mesne lord () was a lord in the feudal system who had vassals who held land from him, but who was himself the vassal of a higher lord. Owing to ''Quia Emptores'', the concept of a mesne lordship technically still exists today: the partitioning of the lord of the manor's estate among co-heirs creating the mesne lordships. In an English court of law in 1863 it was claimed that "the lord of the mesne manor pays a rent to a superior lord and that rent empowers him to receive chief rents from certain farms". A mesne lord did not hold land directly of the king, that is to say he was not a tenant-in-chief. His subinfeudated estate was called a "mesne estate" or ''Afterlehen'' in the Holy Roman Empire. Traditionally, he is a lord of the manor who holds land from a superior lord and who usually lets some of the land to a tenant. He was thus an intermediate or "middle" tenant, which status is reflected in the Old French word ''mesne'', in the modern French language ''moyen''. The mes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Knight-service
Knight-service was a form of feudal land tenure under which a knight held a fief or estate of land termed a knight's fee (''fee'' being synonymous with ''fief'') from an overlord conditional on him as tenant performing military service for his overlord. History It is associated in its origin with that development in warfare which made the mailed horseman, armed with lance and sword, the most important factor in battle. It was long believed that knight-service was developed out of the liability, under the English system, of every five hides of land to provide one soldier in war. It is now held that, on the contrary, it was a novel system in England when it was introduced after the Conquest by the Normans, who relied essentially on their mounted knights, while the English fought on foot. It existed in Normandy where a knight held a fief termed a ''fief de haubert'', from the hauberk or coat of mail (Latin: ''lorica'') worn by knights. Allusion is made to this in the coronation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tenants-in-chief
In medieval and early modern Europe, the term ''tenant-in-chief'' (or ''vassal-in-chief'') denoted a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as opposed to holding them from another nobleman or senior member of the clergy.Bloch ''Feudal Society Volume 2'' p. 333Coredon ''Dictionary of Medieval Terms & Phrases'' p. 272 The tenure was one which denoted great honour, but also carried heavy responsibilities. The tenants-in-chief were originally responsible for providing knights and soldiers for the king's feudal army.Bracton, who indiscriminately called tenants-in-chief "barons" stated: "sunt et alii potentes sub rege qui barones dicuntur, hoc est robur belli" ("there are other magnates under the king, who are called barons, that is the hardwood of war"), quoted in Sanders, I.J., ''Feudal Military Service in England'', Oxford, 1956, p.3; "Bracton's definition of the ''baro''" (plur ''barones ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parliament Of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the great council of bishops and peers that advised the English monarch. Great councils were first called Parliaments during the reign of Henry III (). By this time, the king required Parliament's consent to levy taxation. Originally a unicameral body, a bicameral Parliament emerged when its membership was divided into the House of Lords and House of Commons, which included knights of the shire and burgesses. During Henry IV's time on the throne, the role of Parliament expanded beyond the determination of taxation policy to include the "redress of grievances," which essentially enabled English citizens to petition the body to address complaints in their local towns and counties. By this time, citizens were given the power to vote to elect their representatives—the burgesses—to the H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
