FIEF/FEUDUM
. Revenue-producing property granted to a vassal in return for military service. The term
feudum became common in the 11th century as it displaced “benefice.” Although most
fiefs consisted primarily of land, they could be entirely nonlanded (e.g., mills, tolls) or
consist simply of a right to collect certain revenues (e.g., rents, taxes). The money fief
(fief-rente, or feudum de bursa) was a cash pension paid from a prince’s treasury; the
counts of Champagne, for instance, assigned many such fiefs on the taxes they collected
at the fairs of Champagne. Whatever the source of revenue, a fief was supposed to
produce a regular, fixed income.
In most of France, the large-scale feudalization of land occurred from the late 11th
century, as lords at all levels created fiefs from their domainal lands and imposed homage
on allodial proprietors. At first, fiefs were considered personal grants, but they quickly
became heritable and alienable and consequently evoked an increasingly complex set of
customs to govern their circulation. Lords with many vassals often conducted inquests in
order to determine the current standing of their vassals and fiefs; they also sought to
check the abridgment of fiefs by vassals who subinfeudated (subdivided into rear-fiefs)
and alienated their fiefs to nonnobles (churches and townsmen) who could not perform
military service. In fact, by the 13th century military service was largely detached from
feudal tenure, and fiefs became essentially aristocratic (rent-free and tax-exempt) tenures.
Theodore Evergates
[See also: ABRÈGEMENT DU FIEF; BENEFICE (NONECCLESIASTICAL);
FEUDALISM; FIEF HOLDING; FIEF-RENTE; INVESTITURE (FEUDAL)]
Fourquin, Guy. Lordship and Feudalism in the Middle Ages, trans. Iris and A.L.Lytton Sells. New
York: Pica, 1976.
Ganshof, François L. Feudalism, trans. Philip Grierson. London: Longman, 1952.
Guilhiermoz, Paul. Essai sur l’origine de la noblesse en France au moyen âge. Paris: Picard, 1902.
Poly, Jean-Pierre, and Eric Bournazel. La mutation féodale, XIe– XIIe siècles. 2nd ed. Paris:
Presses Universitaires de France, 1991.
FIEF HOLDING
. A new institution emerged in many parts of France during the first half of the 11th
century, that of fief holding. This was a personal relationship between two men (or in rare
cases a man and a woman) of knightly or noble status. One became the other’s “man”
(homo), promising allegiance in an act of homage, and received a fief in return. The fief
was a piece of property, usually land, that the vassal, the man who performed homage,
held for his lifetime. It could not be taken from him unless he failed to be faithful to his
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