in fief

English

Prepositional phrase

in fief

1. (historical) As a heritable right, according to the prevailing feudal obligations.
   • 1819, Abraham Rees, The Cyclopædia, volume 34, page 11:

     In some cases, sovereignties have been given in fief, and sovereigns have voluntarily rendered themselves feudatories to others […].

   • 1998, Constance Brittain Bouchard, Strong of Body, Brave and Noble, page 42:

     William the Conqueror's insistence that the men who accompanied him from Normandy hold their English lands from him in fief was an innovation, not the simple importation of an established French "feudal system."

   • 2011, Norman Davies, Vanished Kingdoms, Penguin, published 2012, page 106:

     Sometimes the duchy was granted in fief, sometimes held by the king in person.