A demesne (/dɪˈmeɪn, -ˈmiːn/ di-MAYN, -MEEN) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a
Fief, fee, or feud - Land or revenue-producing property granted by a lord in return for a vassal's service.
Manors: The Economic Side of Feudalism. The manor was the lord's estate. During the Middle Ages, the manor system was the basic economic arrangement. The manor system rested on a set of rights and obligations between a lord and his serfs. The lord provided the serfs with housing, farmland, and protection from bandits.
In European feudalism, a fief was a source of income granted to a person (called a vassal) by his lord in exchange for his services. The fief usually consisted of land and the labor of peasants who were bound to cultivate it.
The estate that a feudal lord lived upon was his manor. This is somewhat different from the lands given the lord by the king, which were known as fiefs. Much of the fief given to a lord would be parceled out to the lord's own vassals. But the actual estate that the lord lived upon and managed personally was his manor.
Knight-service was a form of feudal land tenure under which a knight held a fief or estate of land termed a knight's fee (fee being synonymous with fief) from an overlord conditional on him as a tenant performing military service for his overlord.
Barons and Nobles- The Barons and high ranking nobles ruled large areas of land called fiefs.
A fief was a plot of land that was granted to a knight by a lord. In exchange for this land, the knight owed the lord certain obligations, such as military service, loyalty, and protection.
However, the king would give some of the land to the lords or nobles who fought for him, called vassals. These gifts of land were called fiefs.
Under the feudal system, a fief was a piece of land. This is short for fiefdom. Words that go along with fief are vassal and feudal lord; the lord (kind of like our landlords) owned the fief and the vassal was subject to all of his rules.
A serf is a worker bound to a certain piece of land (called a fief) who is loyal to a vassal (lord or noble) above him, usually called a lord. Serfs are tied to the land they work, perform the same menial tasks each day, and receive little or no benefit for their labors.
fief, in European feudal society, a vassal's source of income, held from his lord in exchange for services. The fief constituted the central institution of feudal society.
Answer and Explanation: Although it is a large range, the average size of a fief was 1200 to 1800 acres. In Medieval Europe, a fiefdom was a piece of land granted to a vassal in exchange for previous service or obligations from his lord.
Nobles, Knights, and peasants depended on the land for everything they needed. The land was divided into farming communities. Manors were on fiefs and owned by nobles. Management The noble chose officials to run the manor.
Classic feudalism
In broad terms a lord was a noble who held land, a vassal was a person who was granted possession of the land by the lord, and the land was known as a fief. In exchange for the use of the fief and protection by the lord, the vassal would provide some sort of service to the lord.
This greater lord might hold his land and castles from a still more powerful noble or from the king. In return for this gift of land (or 'fief' as it was called) the less powerful lord had to provide the more powerful one with armed knights to fight in his wars.
The Barons kept as much of their land as they wished for their own use, then divided the rest among their Knights. Barons were very rich. Knights were given land by a Baron in return for military service and also had to protect the Baron, his family, and the Manor from attack.
If a knight's fee is deemed co-terminous with a manor, an average size would be between 1,000 and 5,000 acres, of which much in early times was still "waste", forest and uncultivated moorland.
While nobility has been outlawed in France and Germany, noble fiefs still exist by law in Guernsey. The owners of the fiefs actually convene each year at the Court of Chief Pleas under the supervision of His Majesty's Government.
Fiefs were mainly rewarded to lords, but in some circumstances, a peasant could earn a fief. Serfs were never eligible for their own land because of their low social status. However, those granted fiefs were not the actual owners of the land.
By the ninth century, many knights and nobles held estates (fiefs) granted by greater lords in return for military and other service. This feudal system (from the medieval Latin feodum or feudum, fee or fief) enabled a cash-poor but land-rich lord to support a military force.
The manor, the smallest unit of feudal society, served key political and economic roles by providing justice, protection, administration, and a primitive form of insurance. The church and the military, bound to the feudal system as well, had their own forms of hierarchy between superiors and dependents.
Although serfs could technically own property, what were some restrictions on this rule? Tenant farmers—that is, people who didn't own the land they worked—owed some kind of payment to their landlords. This could be a portion of the harvest, days of labor in the lord's own fields—called the demesne—or money.
Serfs were the poorest of the peasant class, and were a type of slave. Lords owned the serfs who lived on their lands. In exchange for a place to live, serfs worked the land to grow crops for themselves and their lord. In addition, serfs were expected to work the farms for the lord and pay rent.