TENURE (from Lat. tenere, to hold). The mode by which a man holds an estate in lands.
Such a holding as is coupled with some service, which the holder is bound to perform ,so long as he continues to hold.
2. The thing held is called a tenement ; the oc eu,pant, a tenant; and the manner of his holding eon etitutes the tenure. Upon common-law principles, all lande within the etate are held directly or indi rectly from the king, ae lord paramount er supreme proprietor. To him every occupant of land owes fidelity and eervice of eome kind, as the necessary cendition of hie occupation, If he fails in either reepect, or dies without heirs upon whom this duty may devolve, hie land reverts to the sovereign as ultimate proprietor.. In this country, the people in their corporate capacity represent the state sovereignty ; and every man must bear true alle giance to the state, and pay his share of the taxes required for her support, as the condition upon which alone he may hold land within her bounda ries. Coke, Litt. 65 a; 2 Blackstone, Comm. 105; 3 Kent, Comm. 487.
3. In the earlier ages of the world the condition of land was probably alladial, that is, without sub jection to any superior,—every man occupying 96 much land as his necessities required and which he found unappropriated. Over this he exercised an unqualified dominion; and when he parted with his ownership the posaession of his successor was equally free and absolute. An estate of thie cha racter necessarily excludes the idea of any ten ure, since the occupant nwes no service or alle giance to any superior as the condition of hie oc cupation. But when the existence of an organized society hecaine desirable, to secure certain bless ings only by its means to be acquired, there fol lowed the establiehment of governments, and a new relation aroee between each government and its eitizens,—that of protection on the one hand and dependence en the other,—necessarily involving the idea of service te the. state as a condition to the use and enjoyment of land within its bound aries. This relation was of course modified accord ing to the circumstances of particular states ; but throughout Europe it early took the form of the feudal system. See ALLOD1UM.
4. Some writers euggest that the image of a feudal policy :nay be discovered in almost every age and quarter of the glebe; but, if so, its traces are very indistinct, and, in fact, we have nothing reliable on the subject until we come tc the history of the Gothic conquerors of the Roman empire. The military occupation of the country was their established policy, and enabled them more effectually to secure their conquests. The commander-in-chief, as head of the conquering nation, parcelled out the con quered lands among his principal followers, and they in turn granted pertione of it to their vassals; hut all grants were upon the same condition of fealty and service. The essential element of a feudal grant was that it did net create an estate of absolute ownership, hut the grantee was merely a tenant or holder of the land, on condition of cer tain services to be rendered by him, the neglect of which caused a forfieiture to the grantor. Har grave's note to Coke, Litt. 64 a; Wright, Ton. 7; Spelman, Feuds, c. 2; l Hallam, Mid. Agee, 83; 6 Cranch, 87; 12 Johns. N. Y. 365.
5. The introduction of feudal tenures into Eng land ie usually attributed to the Normans, but it evi dently existed there before their arrival. It appears from the laws of the Saxons that a considerable portion of land was held under their lords by per sons of a greater or less degree of bondage, who owed services of either a civil, military, or agricul Viral character. A large quantity of the lands which were entered in the Conqueror's celebrated Domes day book were then held by the same tenn re and sub jected to the same services as they had been in the time of Edward the Confessor. The Normans pro bably introduced some new proviaions, and at tempted to re-establish more, which had become obsolete, and we know there were many severe contests between the Normans and the English with respect to their restoration ; but the general system of their laws remained much the ssme under the new dynasty of the Normans as it was under that of the Saxons. Hale, Hist. Com. Law, 120; Stevens, Const. Eng. 22.