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Fief

May 08, 2023

For the French commune, see Fiefs, Pas-de-Calais.

A fief (/fiːf/; 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, and/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.[1] 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.[1] 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.[2][3]

Terminology

Main article: Feudalism
 
Look up fief in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

In ancient Rome, a "benefice" (from the Latin noun beneficium, meaning "benefit") was a gift of land (precaria) 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 beneficium (Latin).[4] Later, the term feudum, or feodum, began to replace beneficium in the documents.[4] The first attested instance of this is from 984, although more primitive forms were seen up to one hundred years earlier.[4] The origin of the feudum and why it replaced beneficium has not been well established, but there are multiple theories, described below.[4]

The most widely held theory is put forth by Marc Bloch[4][5][6] 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".[5][6] When land replaced currency as the primary store of value, the Germanic word *fehu-ôd replaced the Latin word beneficium.[5][6] This Germanic origin theory was also shared by William Stubbs in the 19th century.[4][7]

A theory put forward by Archibald R. Lewis[4] is that the origin of 'fief' is not feudum (or feodum), but rather foderum, the earliest attested use being in Astronomus's Vita Hludovici (840).[8] In that text is a passage about Louis the Pious which says "annona militaris quas vulgo foderum vocant", which can be translated as "(Louis forbade that) military provender which they popularly call 'fodder' (be furnished)."[4]

A theory by Alauddin Samarrai[9] suggests an Arabic origin, from fuyū (the plural of fay, which literally means "the returned", and was used especially for 'land that has been conquered from enemies that did not fight').[4][10] Samarrai's theory is that early forms of 'fief' include feo, feu, feuz, feuum and others, the plurality of forms strongly suggesting origins from a loanword. The first use of these terms was in Languedoc, one of the least-Germanized areas of Europe, and bordering Muslim Spain, where the earliest use of feuum as a replacement for beneficium can be dated to 899, the same year a Muslim base at Fraxinetum (La Garde-Freinet) in Provence was established. It is possible, Samarrai says, that French scribes, writing in Latin, attempted to transliterate the Arabic word fuyū (the plural of fay), which was being used by the Muslims at the time, resulting in a plurality of forms (feo, feu, feuz, feuum and others), from which eventually feudum derived. Samarrai, however, also advises that medieval and early modern Muslim scribes often used etymologically "fanciful roots" in order to claim the most outlandish things to be of Arabian or Muslim origin.[10]

In the 10th and 11th centuries the Latin terms for 'fee' could be used either to describe dependent tenure held by a man from his lord, as the term is used now by historians, or it could mean simply "property" (the manor was, in effect, a small fief). It lacked a precise meaning until the middle of the 12th century, when it received formal definition from land lawyers.

In English usage, the word "fee" is first attested around 1250–1300 (Middle English); the word "fief" from around 1605–1615. In French, the term fief is found from the middle of the 13th century (Old French), derived from the 11th-century terms feu, fie. The odd appearance of the second f in the form fief may be due to influence from the verb fiever 'to grant in fee'.[11] In French, one also finds seigneurie (land and rights possessed by a seigneur 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.[12] 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.[12] In Francia, Charles Martel was the first to make large-scale and systematic use (the practice had remained sporadic until then) of the remuneration of vassals by the concession of the usufruct of lands (a beneficatium or "benefice" in the documents) for the life of the vassal, or, sometimes extending to the second or third generation.[13]

By the middle of the 10th century, fee had largely become hereditary.[14] 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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]

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.[citation needed]

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.[14]

The privilege of minting official coins developed into the concept of seigniorage.[citation needed]

Later feudal grants and knightly service

In 13th-century Germany, Italy, England, France, and Spain the term "feodum" was used to describe a dependent tenure held from a lord by a vassal in return for a specified amount of knight service and occasional financial payments (feudal incidents).

However, knight service in war was far less common than:

  • castle-guard (called Burghut in the Holy Roman Empire), the obligation of a vassal to serve in a castle garrison of the lord;
  • suit in court, the vassal's obligation to attend the lord's court, to give him counsel, and to help him judge disputes;
  • attendance in the lord's entourage, accompanying the lord when he travelled or attended the court of his lord so as to increase the social status of the lord;
  • hospitality to the lord or to his servants (accommodation).
 
Sigismund fees the Margraviate of Brandenburg to Frederick, April 30, 1415

A lord in late 12th-century England and France could also claim the right of:

  • wardship and marriage – right to control descent of fee by choosing a husband for a female heir and a guardian for minors (preferably in consultation with the heir's closest male adult kinsmen);
  • "aids" – payments to aid the lord in times of need (customarily given to the lord to cover the cost of knighting the eldest son, marriage of the eldest daughter, and for ransoming the lord if required);
  • escheat – the reversion of the fief to the lord in default of an heir.[15]

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.[15]

Feudal registers

A list of several hundred such fees held in chief between 1198 and 1292, along with their holders' names and form of tenure, was published in three volumes between 1920 and 1931 and is known as The Book of Fees; it was developed from the 1302 Testa de Nevill.

The fiefs of Guernsey

Guernsey or the Bailiwick of Guernsey is one of the Channel Islands that is a Crown Dependency. Guernsey still has feudal law and legal fiefs in existence today. Each fief has a Seigneur and/or Dame that owns the fief. The Guernsey fiefs and seigneurs have long existed before baronies and are part of Normandy. While nobility has been outlawed in France and Germany, noble fiefs still exist by law in Guernsey. The owners of the fiefs actually convene each year at the Court of Chief Pleas under the supervision of His Majesty's Government. There are approximately 24 private fiefs in Guernsey that are registered directly with the Crown.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b "fief | Definition, Size, & Examples". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2021-04-03.
  2. ^ Elizabeth A.R. Brown. "Feudalism". Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
  3. ^ Reynolds, Susan (Wikipedia article Susan Reynolds) (1994). Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Meir Lubetski (ed.). Boundaries of the ancient Near Eastern world: a tribute to Cyrus H. Gordon. "Notices on Pe'ah, Fay' and Feudum" by Alauddin Samarrai. Pg. 248-250 2015-10-29 at the Wayback Machine, Continuum International Publishing Group, 1998.
  5. ^ a b c Marc Bloch. Feudal Society, Vol. 1, 1964. pp. 165–166.
  6. ^ a b c Marc Bloch. Feudalism, 1961, p. 106.
  7. ^ William Stubbs. The Constitutional History of England (3 volumes), 2nd edition 1875–1878, Vol. 1, p. 251, n. 1
  8. ^ Archibald R. Lewis. The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society 718–1050, 1965, pp. 76–77.
  9. ^ Samarrai, Dr. Alauddin I., Madison Obituaries https://madison.com/news/local/obituaries/samarrai-dr-alauddin-i/article_14d318df-a909-571d-b046-cfca5c4483df.html
  10. ^ a b Alauddin Samarrai. "The term 'fief': A possible Arabic origin", Studies in Medieval Culture, 4.1 (1973), pp. 78–82.
  11. ^ "fee, n.2." OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2017. Web. 18 August 2017.
  12. ^ a b Cantor (1993), pp. 198-199.
  13. ^ Lebecq, pp.196-197.
  14. ^ a b Cantor (1993), p. 200.
  15. ^ a b Abels, Richard. "Feudalism". United States Naval Academy. from the original on 2010-03-27. Retrieved 2010-08-27.

References

 
Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Fief".
  • Norman F. Cantor. The Civilization of the Middle Ages. New York: HarperPerennial, 1993. ISBN 0-06-092553-1
  • Stéphane Lebecq. Les origines franques: Ve-IXe siècles. Series: Nouvelle histoire de la France médiévale. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1999. ISBN 2-02-011552-2
  • Brown, Elizabeth A. R. (October 1974). "The Tyranny of a Construct: Feudalism and Historians of Medieval Europe". American Journal of Ophthalmology. 79 (4): 1063-1088.
  • Susan Reynolds (1996). Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted. Clarendon Press. ISBN 9780198206484. Retrieved 12 September 2016.

May 08, 2023
fief, french, commune, calais, fief, latin, feudum, central, element, medieval, contracts, based, feudal, consisted, form, property, holding, other, rights, granted, overlord, vassal, held, fealty, return, form, feudal, allegiance, services, payments, fees, we. For the French commune see Fiefs Pas de Calais 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 and 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 1 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 1 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 2 3 Contents 1 Terminology 2 Early feudal grants 3 Later feudal grants and knightly service 4 Feudal registers 5 The fiefs of Guernsey 6 See also 7 Notes 8 ReferencesTerminology EditMain article Feudalism Look up fief in Wiktionary the free dictionary In ancient Rome a benefice from the Latin noun beneficium meaning benefit was a gift of land precaria 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 beneficium Latin 4 Later the term feudum or feodum began to replace beneficium in the documents 4 The first attested instance of this is from 984 although more primitive forms were seen up to one hundred years earlier 4 The origin of the feudum and why it replaced beneficium has not been well established but there are multiple theories described below 4 The most widely held theory is put forth by Marc Bloch 4 5 6 that it is related to the Frankish term fehu od in which fehu means cattle and od means goods implying a moveable object of value 5 6 When land replaced currency as the primary store of value the Germanic word fehu od replaced the Latin word beneficium 5 6 This Germanic origin theory was also shared by William Stubbs in the 19th century 4 7 A theory put forward by Archibald R Lewis 4 is that the origin of fief is not feudum or feodum but rather foderum the earliest attested use being in Astronomus s Vita Hludovici 840 8 In that text is a passage about Louis the Pious which says annona militaris quas vulgo foderum vocant which can be translated as Louis forbade that military provender which they popularly call fodder be furnished 4 A theory by Alauddin Samarrai 9 suggests an Arabic origin from fuyu the plural of fay which literally means the returned and was used especially for land that has been conquered from enemies that did not fight 4 10 Samarrai s theory is that early forms of fief include feo feu feuz feuum and others the plurality of forms strongly suggesting origins from a loanword The first use of these terms was in Languedoc one of the least Germanized areas of Europe and bordering Muslim Spain where the earliest use of feuum as a replacement for beneficium can be dated to 899 the same year a Muslim base at Fraxinetum La Garde Freinet in Provence was established It is possible Samarrai says that French scribes writing in Latin attempted to transliterate the Arabic word fuyu the plural of fay which was being used by the Muslims at the time resulting in a plurality of forms feo feu feuz feuum and others from which eventually feudum derived Samarrai however also advises that medieval and early modern Muslim scribes often used etymologically fanciful roots in order to claim the most outlandish things to be of Arabian or Muslim origin 10 In the 10th and 11th centuries the Latin terms for fee could be used either to describe dependent tenure held by a man from his lord as the term is used now by historians or it could mean simply property the manor was in effect a small fief It lacked a precise meaning until the middle of the 12th century when it received formal definition from land lawyers In English usage the word fee is first attested around 1250 1300 Middle English the word fief from around 1605 1615 In French the term fief is found from the middle of the 13th century Old French derived from the 11th century terms feu fie The odd appearance of the second f in the form fief may be due to influence from the verb fiever to grant in fee 11 In French one also finds seigneurie land and rights possessed by a seigneur or lord 12th century which gives rise to the expression seigneurial system to describe feudalism Early feudal grants EditOriginally 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 12 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 12 In Francia Charles Martel was the first to make large scale and systematic use the practice had remained sporadic until then of the remuneration of vassals by the concession of the usufruct of lands a beneficatium or benefice in the documents for the life of the vassal or sometimes extending to the second or third generation 13 By the middle of the 10th century fee had largely become hereditary 14 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 citation needed 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 citation needed 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 citation needed 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 14 The privilege of minting official coins developed into the concept of seigniorage citation needed Later feudal grants and knightly service EditIn 13th century Germany Italy England France and Spain the term feodum was used to describe a dependent tenure held from a lord by a vassal in return for a specified amount of knight service and occasional financial payments feudal incidents However knight service in war was far less common than castle guard called Burghut in the Holy Roman Empire the obligation of a vassal to serve in a castle garrison of the lord suit in court the vassal s obligation to attend the lord s court to give him counsel and to help him judge disputes attendance in the lord s entourage accompanying the lord when he travelled or attended the court of his lord so as to increase the social status of the lord hospitality to the lord or to his servants accommodation Sigismund fees the Margraviate of Brandenburg to Frederick April 30 1415 A lord in late 12th century England and France could also claim the right of wardship and marriage right to control descent of fee by choosing a husband for a female heir and a guardian for minors preferably in consultation with the heir s closest male adult kinsmen aids payments to aid the lord in times of need customarily given to the lord to cover the cost of knighting the eldest son marriage of the eldest daughter and for ransoming the lord if required escheat the reversion of the fief to the lord in default of an heir 15 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 15 Feudal registers EditA list of several hundred such fees held in chief between 1198 and 1292 along with their holders names and form of tenure was published in three volumes between 1920 and 1931 and is known as The Book of Fees it was developed from the 1302 Testa de Nevill The fiefs of Guernsey EditGuernsey or the Bailiwick of Guernsey is one of the Channel Islands that is a Crown Dependency Guernsey still has feudal law and legal fiefs in existence today Each fief has a Seigneur and or Dame that owns the fief The Guernsey fiefs and seigneurs have long existed before baronies and are part of Normandy While nobility has been outlawed in France and Germany noble fiefs still exist by law in Guernsey The owners of the fiefs actually convene each year at the Court of Chief Pleas under the supervision of His Majesty s Government There are approximately 24 private fiefs in Guernsey that are registered directly with the Crown See also EditAppanage 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 feesNotes Edit a b fief Definition Size amp Examples Encyclopedia Britannica Retrieved 2021 04 03 Elizabeth A R Brown Feudalism Encyclopedia Britannica Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc Retrieved 2022 11 10 Reynolds Susan Wikipedia article Susan Reynolds 1994 Fiefs and Vassals The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted Oxford UK Oxford University Press a b c d e f g h i Meir Lubetski ed Boundaries of the ancient Near Eastern world a tribute to Cyrus H Gordon Notices on Pe ah Fay and Feudum by Alauddin Samarrai Pg 248 250 Archived 2015 10 29 at the Wayback Machine Continuum International Publishing Group 1998 a b c Marc Bloch Feudal Society Vol 1 1964 pp 165 166 a b c Marc Bloch Feudalism 1961 p 106 William Stubbs The Constitutional History of England 3 volumes 2nd edition 1875 1878 Vol 1 p 251 n 1 Archibald R Lewis The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society 718 1050 1965 pp 76 77 Samarrai Dr Alauddin I Madison Obituaries https madison com news local obituaries samarrai dr alauddin i article 14d318df a909 571d b046 cfca5c4483df html a b Alauddin Samarrai The term fief A possible Arabic origin Studies in Medieval Culture 4 1 1973 pp 78 82 fee n 2 OED Online Oxford University Press June 2017 Web 18 August 2017 a b Cantor 1993 pp 198 199 Lebecq pp 196 197 a b Cantor 1993 p 200 a b Abels Richard Feudalism United States Naval Academy Archived from the original on 2010 03 27 Retrieved 2010 08 27 References Edit Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica article Fief Norman F Cantor The Civilization of the Middle Ages New York HarperPerennial 1993 ISBN 0 06 092553 1 Stephane Lebecq Les origines franques Ve IXe siecles Series Nouvelle histoire de la France medievale Paris Editions du Seuil 1999 ISBN 2 02 011552 2 Brown Elizabeth A R October 1974 The Tyranny of a Construct Feudalism and Historians of Medieval Europe American Journal of Ophthalmology 79 4 1063 1088 Susan Reynolds 1996 Fiefs and Vassals The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted Clarendon Press ISBN 9780198206484 Retrieved 12 September 2016 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Fief amp oldid 1151075112, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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