Tenure and Estates

According to the common law doctrine of tenure all land under the dominion of the English crown is held “mediately or immediately, of the king”—that is, the crown has “radical title” to all land under its political dominion. William the Conqueror declared that all land in England was literally the king’s property; everyone else had to settle for the privilege of holding it for him—the privilege of tenure (from the Norman French word “tenir”—to hold). ...