Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The sublease of a portion of a feudal estate by a vassal to a subtenant who pays fealty to the vassal.
- noun The lands so leased.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The process, in feudal tenure, where the stipendiary or feudatory, considering himself as substantially the owner, began to imitate the example of his sovereign by carving out portions of the benefice or feud, to be held of himself by some other person, on terms and conditions similar to those of the original grant: a continued chain of successive dependencies was thus established, connecting each stipendiary, or vassal as he was termed, with his immediate superior or lord. See
Statute of Quia Emptores , under statute. - noun The fief or tenancy thus established.
- noun Also
subfeudation .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The granting of lands by inferior lords to their dependents, to be held by themselves by feudal tenure.
- noun Subordinate tenancy; undertenancy.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun UK, law, obsolete The practice by which
tenants , holding land under theking or othersuperior lord , carved out new and distincttenures in their turn bysubletting oralienating a part of their lands.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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But there was also a striking difference: there was no subinfeudation.
superversive: Gondor, Byzantium, and Feudalism superversive 2010
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The job of legate comes with all sorts of rights to subinfeudation and plunder of the treasury.
Shadow Games Cook, Glen 1989
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The reason for the system preserving for so long its specifically distinct form in Scottish conveyancing was because burgage-holding was an exception to the system of subinfeudation which remained prevalent in Scotland when it was suppressed in England.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" Various
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Emptores, shows the extreme lengths to which this subinfeudation was carried (Stubbs, Select Charters, 478).
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 6: Fathers of the Church-Gregory XI 1840-1916 1913
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It may however be surmised that the subdivision and subinfeudation of a holding in the occupation of such a group of kinsmen would be carried out by the formation of further similar groups.
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But as generations proceeded, and the relationships within the family diverged beyond the degree of second cousin, a natural breaking up seems to have taken place, though in the direction of subinfeudation under the feudal enforcement of the rule of primogeniture, instead of the practice, more in accordance with tribal instincts, of equal division and enfranchisement.
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This prohibition of further subinfeudation stopped the creation of new manors and prevented the rivetting of new links in the feudal chain, which were the necessary condition of its strength.
The History of England From the Accession of Henry III. to the Death of Edward III. (1216-1377) Reginald Lane Poole 1892
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The terms which were granted her, as they are made known in a letter from Lanfranc to William, are especially interesting as giving us one of the earliest glimpses we have of that extensive dividing out of land to under-vassals, the process of subinfeudation, which must already have taken place on the estates granted to the king's tenants in chief.
The History of England from the Norman Conquest to the Death of John (1066-1216) George Burton Adams 1888
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I., a tenant in fee simple might grant lands to be holden by the grantee and his heirs _of the grantor and his heirs_, subject to feudal services and to escheat; and by such subinfeudation manors were created.
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The case which he puts was, I suppose, the common case {310} of subinfeudation before the statute of _Quia Emptores_, 18 Edw.
reesetee commented on the word subinfeudation
In feudal law, the granting of a portion of an estate by a feudal tenant to a subtenant, held from the tenant on terms similar to those of the grant to the tenant. Also, the tenure established or the estate or fief so created.
October 8, 2009