Legal Definition and Related Resources of Feudal System

The system of political organisation of States in the Middle Ages, based on land tenure. The King was the ultimate lord of all land. He granted land to his lords in return for military services, and they in their turn made further similar grants, the process known as subinfeudation. The unit of land in the system was the manor, each under its lord, who had a right to services in labour and in kind from the villeins, the servile tenants of the manor, over whom he exercised full jurisdiction. The lord in return owed them a duty of protection. The King had an overriding authority and claimed allegiance both from lords and their tenants

Browse or run a search for Feudal System in the American Encyclopedia of Law, the Asian Encyclopedia of Law, the European Encyclopedia of Law, the UK Encyclopedia of Law or the Latin American and Spanish Encyclopedia of Law.

Feudal System in Historical Law

You might be interested in the historical meaning of this term. Browse or search for Feudal System in Historical Law in the Encyclopedia of Law.

For more information about Historical Law definitions, see Historical Definitions in the Encyclopedia of Law. For more information about Historical Law Books and Legal Documents, see Legal Encyclopedia of Historical Books and Documents and Legal Encyclopedia of Books and Documents of the 20th Century.

Search for legal acronyms and/or abbreviations containing Feudal System in the Legal Abbreviations and Acronyms Dictionary.

You might be also interested in these legal terms:

English Legal System: Feudal System

In the context of the English law, A Dictionary of Law provides the following legal concept of Feudal System : A political, economic, and social system in which the main social bond was the relationship between the Lord and others and in which this personal relationship was inseparable from a proprietary relationship that existed between them. It was introduced into England as a result of the Norman Conquest (1066). At its centre was the doctrine of tenures. All the land in the country was regarded as being owned by William I as the result of his conquest, and thereafter only the Crown could own land. The subject could merely hold it on a tenure, either directly from the Crown or indirectly through an intermediate superior. Such lands as William did not retain in his own possession he parcelled out to his barons. Holding directly from him, they were known as tenants-in-chief, and the tenures on which they held were knight service (which involved a duty to render military service for a specified number of days in each year), sergeanty (the performance of personal services), or frankalmoign (services of a religious character). Tenants-in-chief subgranted portions of their lands to lesser men to hold by tenure from them, the lesser men did likewise, and so on. The process of subgranting was called subinfeudation, and a man’s immediate superior was known as his mesne lord. The principal tenures by which land was held through subinfeudation were knight service, frankalmoign, and socage (the rendering of agricultural or other services of a fixed nature, including the payment of money). All these tenures were free tenures. Much land was, however, held by unfree tenure, known as *copyhold: its tenant (a villein) was required to give any type of labour demanded of him.

The system of tenures did not continue as an active force for more than a few centuries. The services to be performed were gradually commuted to money payments (quit rents), tenures were virtually reduced to socage and copyhold by the Statute of Military Tenures (or Tenures Abolition Act) 1660, and copyhold was converted into socage by the Law of Property Act 1922. However, the theory that the subject cannot own the land itself remains at the roots of land law; what he can own is an *estate in land, which entitles him to enjoy the land as much as if he did own it.