Land tenure is the name given, particularly in common law systems, to the legal regime in which land is owned by an individual, who is said to "hold" the land. The sovereign monarch, known as The Crown, held land in its own right. All private owners are either its tenants or sub-tenants.

Historically in the system of feudalism, the lords who received land directly from the Crown were called tenants in chief. They doled out portions of their land to lesser tenants in exchange for services, who in turn divided it among even lesser tenants. This process, of granting subordinate tenancies, is known as subinfeudation. In this way, all individuals except the monarch were said to hold the land "of" someone else.

Historically, it was usual for there to be reciprocal duties between lord and tenant. There were different kinds of tenure to fit various kinds of duties that a tenant might owe to a lord. For instance, a military tenure might require the tenant to supply the lord with a number of armed knights.

The concept of tenure has evolved. The concepts of (land)lord and tenant have been recycled to refer to the relationship of the parties to land which is held under a lease.

Land tenure in England

At the Norman Conquest in 1066, William the Conqueror asserted sovereignty over England. Over the next dozen years, he granted land to his lords, or affirmed their existing land holdings, in exchange for fealty and promises of military and other services. At the time of the Domesday Book, all land in England was held by someone, and from that time there has been no allodial land in England.

Most of these tenants-in-chief had considerable land holdings and proceeded to grant parts of their land to their subordinates.

The land was granted in return for various services:

• Military service (Knight tenure)
• Spiritual service (Frankalmoigne tenure)
• Personal/Official service (Serjeanty tenure)
• Agricultural service (Socage tenure)

At the bottom of the feudal pyramid were the tenants who lived on and worked the land (called the tenants in demesne). In the middle were the lords who had no direct relationship with the King, or with the land in question - referred to as mesne lords.

The statue of Quia Emptores (1290) replaced subinfeudation with substitution, so the subordinate tenant transferred their tenure rather than creating a new subordinate tenure. As tenancies came to an end, the number of layers in the feudal pyramid was reduced.

Quia Emptores and its equivalents do not apply to leases and life estates. In essence, lease of land to a tenant is a form of subinfeudation (unless the lease is granted by the Crown).

References

• J. H. Baker. An Introduction to English Legal History (3rd edition) 1990 Butterworths. ISBN 0-406-53101-3

See Also

• Feudalism
• Fiefdom
• Manorialism
• Allodial