Definition of "land tenure" []

• The right to hold property; part of an ancient hierarchical system of holding lands (noun)

WordNet. Princeton University. 2010.

• "To enable feudal land tenure to be perfect, as it was in Durham in its palmiest days,1"
• "We have just used the words villeins and serfs, and at this point in our examination of European land tenure in Christian times, the position of the mass of the people deserves our attention."
• "The darkness of the ninth century, with its violent Barbarian assault, throws society into a crucible; when the chaotic mass recrystallizes, we find established and henceforward dominating all the Middle Ages, from the later tenth century to modern times, that conception of land tenure to which is roughly, though somewhat inaccurately, given the title Feudalism."