System by which land was held by tenants from lords. In England and France, the king was lord paramount and master of the realm. He granted land to his lords, who granted land to their vassals and so on down to the occupying tenant. Tenures were divided into free and unfree. Free tenure included tenure in chivalry, as in the case of knight service, and socage (tenure by agricultural service fixed in amount and kind). The main type of unfree tenancy was villenage, a limited form of servitude. See also feudalism, fief, landlord and tenant, manorialism
land tenure
Hyphenation
Land ten·ure
Turkish pronunciation
länd tenyır
Pronunciation
/ˈland ˈtenyər/ /ˈlænd ˈtɛnjɜr/
Etymology
[ 'land ] (noun.) before 12th century. Middle English, from Old English; akin to Old High German lant land, Middle Irish lann.