ALLO'DIUM, or ALLODIAL TENURE (in law), is the free and absolute right of property in land, independent of any burden of homage or fidelity to a superior. When the principal land-holders of England submitted to the yoke of military tenure, and surrendered their lands into the hands of the conqueror at the council of Sarum, feudality, the previous existence or non-existence of which has been a subject of much discussion, was formally recognized, and it henceforth became a fundamental maxim in the law of real property, that " the king is the universal lord and original proprietor of all the lands in his kingdom, and that no man (loth or can possess any part of it, but what has mediately or immediately been derived as a gift from him, to be held upon feudal services" (Blackstone, vol. ii. p. 51, Rerr's edition). This maxim, though, as Blackstone remarks, it was even at first little more than a fiction, was not peculiar to England, but prevailed wherever the feudal system obtained, and still forms what may be called the starting-point in all feudal tenures of land. Even where subinfeudations have prevailed to the greatest extent, every title is traceable, in the last instance, to the paramount and universal superiority of the crown. See FEUDAL SYSTEM. The sur render of lands in England being the result of political measures, was one universal national act, and, consequently, allodial tenures at once ceased to exist ; but in many other countries it was accomplished by private arrangements between the allodial pro prietors and the prince, the former being anxious to exchange their normal independence for the greater security enjoyed by the vassals of the sovereign, the latter being willing to receive them as dependents, for the sake either of their personal services in war, or latterly, for the equivalents of these services in money or the produce of the lauds. In such countries, feudality, though general, was not universal ; and allodial tenures con sequently continued to subsist alongside of those originating with the crown. In this
position was Denmark, and it is curious that the only examples of allodial tenures to be met with in Great Britain are the Udal rights in the islands of Orkney and Shetland, which formerly belonged to that country. " When these islands," says Mr. Erskine, "were first transferred from the crown of Denmark to that of Scotland, the right of their lands was held by natural possession, and might be proved by witnesses, without any title in writing, which had probably been their law formerly while they were sub ject to Denmark ; and to this day, the lands, the proprietors of which have never applied to the sovereign, or those deriving right from him, for charters, are enjoyed in this manner." By the law of Scotland, all property and superiorities belonging to the crown itself, and all churches, churchyards, manses, and the right to which does not flow from the crown, are regarded as allodial ; and the term in a wider sense, as opposed to feudal generally, is sometimes used with reference to movable property.
The etymology of the word A. has been much discussed, and both Celtic and Teutonic origins have been assigned to it. The latter seem the more probable conjectures, as the word, in senses closely resembling that which we attach to it, is to be found in all Scan dinavian and Germanic languages. On this supposition, its derivation from all (all, or wholly) and od (property), seems probable. Another conjecture assigns it to all and nede (waste). That adopted by Mr. Erskine, of its having been composed of a privative, and leude or leute, people (taken from the people), seems wholly inadmissible, as being incon sistent with the forms of Teutonic speech.