Fief
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A fief (
Terminology
In ancient Rome, a "
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
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,
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 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).
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 (
Feudal registers
A list of several hundred such fees held
The fiefs of Guernsey
Guernsey or the
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
- ^ a b "fief | Definition, Size, & Examples". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2021-04-03.
- ^ Elizabeth A.R. Brown. "Feudalism". Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopædia 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
- 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.
- ISBN 9780198206484. Retrieved 12 September 2016.