Feudal System in United Kingdom

Definition of Feudal System

In accordance with the work A Dictionary of Law, this is a description 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.