estate in land

Their estates were often well distributed, consisting of manors scattered through a number of shires. In vulnerable regions, however, compact blocks of land were formed, clustered around castles. The tenants in chief owed homage and fealty to the king and held their land in return for…

…a system of different “estates,” or rights in land, which determined the duration of the tenant’s interest. Land held in “fee simple” meant that any heir could inherit (that is, succeed to the tenancy), whereas land held in “fee tail” could pass only to direct descendants. Life estates (tenancies…

…granted clear (and thus heritable) title to land. In contrast, other countries generally reserved legal title to overseas real estate to the monarch, a situation that encouraged entrepreneurs to limit their capital investments in the colonies. In such cases it made much more financial sense to build ships than to…