Tenure in Europe

Definition of Tenure

The mode of holding or occupying land, or an office, etc. The rule is that no person except the King can be the absolute owner of land in England ; all lands in the hands of subjects are held of some superior, and mediately or immediately of the Crown. The possessor is merely a tenant. The manner of his possession is called tenure, and the extent of his interest is called an estate (q.v.). The rule is a relic of the feudal system. Varieties of tenure : (1) Temporal or lay tenures are those by which land is held by secular persons. They are of two kinds according as their services were originally free or base. The frank or freehold tenures were (a) knight’s service with its varieties of grand serjeanty, escuage, castle ward and cornage, all of which have been converted into common socage ; and (b) free socage with its varieties of petty serjeanty, burgage tenure, borough-English and gavelkind. The base, villein or customary tenures are (a) pure villenage, which existed in the form of copyhold and customary freehold tenures; and (b) the obsolete privileged villenage or villein socage, from which is derived tenure in ancient demesne. (2) Ecclesiastical or spiritual tenures : tenure in frankalmoign and tenure by divine service (q.v.)

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Definition of Tenure is, temporally, from A Concise Law Dictionary (1927). This page needs to be proofread.

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