Britannica Beyond We’ve created a new place where questions are at the center of learning.ġ00 Women Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians.COVID-19 Portal While this global health crisis continues to evolve, it can be useful to look to past pandemics to better understand how to respond today.Student Portal Britannica is the ultimate student resource for key school subjects like history, government, literature, and more.Demystified Videos In Demystified, Britannica has all the answers to your burning questions.This Time in History In these videos, find out what happened this month (or any month!) in history.Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century.Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them!.SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!ĭuring the critical formative period of common law, the English economy depended largely on agriculture, and land was the most important form of wealth.A money economy was important only in commercial centres such as London, Norwich, and Bristol. Political power was rural and based on landownership. Land was held under a chain of feudal relations. Under the king came the aristocratic “ tenants in chief,” then strata of “mesne,” or intermediate tenants, and finally the tenant “in demesne,” who actually occupied the property. Each piece of land was held under a particular condition of tenure-that is, in return for a certain service or payment. An armed knight, for example, might have to be provided to serve for a certain period each year. Periodic services tended to be commuted into fixed annual payments, which, under the impact of inflation, ceased to have much value over time. The “incidents,” or contingency rights, however, were assessed at current land value and remained important. Succession to tenancies was regulated by a system of different “ estates,” or rights in land, which determined the duration of the tenant’s interest.įor example, the feudal lord had the right to take a tenant’s land if he died without heirs if he did have heirs, the lord was entitled to compensation for exercising wardship and granting permission to marry ( see wardship and marriage). Land held in “ fee simple” meant that any heir could inherit (that is, succeed to the tenancy), whereas land held in “ fee tail” could pass only to direct descendants. Life estates (tenancies lasting only for one person’s lifetime) could also be created. Title to land was transferred by a formal ritual rather than by deed this provided publicity for such transactions. Most of the rules governing the terms by which land was held were developed in local lord’s courts, which were held to manage the estates of the lord’s immediate tenants.
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