Fiefdom

A Fiefdom is a jurisdictional "See" or appointment of responsibility (usually associated with an Imperial member world) that is separate from but otherwise entailed with an associated Imperial Patent of Landed Nobility.

Description / Specifications

A Fiefdom is a jurisdictional "See" or appointment of responsibility (usually associated with an Imperial member world) that is entailed with an Imperial Patent of Landed Nobility, including a bestowal of title to various other associated Imperial Lands & Territories on Imperial member worlds or client states by the Emperor, and includes the rights, duties, and responsibilities of the active office holder, as well as any additional entailed Land Grants and appurtenances of the office. Such land grants entailed with the fief are granted to a Landed Imperial Noble as a means of financial support and maintenance in order to maintain the dignity of the Noble position to which he or she has been appointed. The fief is technically separate from, but related to the bestowal of title, and is not to be confused or comingled with any additional appointments of position, responsibility, or authority to which a noble might or might not otherwise be assigned above and beyond the enfeoffment.

The Land Grants associated with a fief are granted in a Letter of Enfeoffment separate from the patent of nobility. Fief Land Grants are granted to the individual at the discretion of the Emperor and remain the Emperor's possessions. However, the fief conveys the right to use the land, to rent or lease it out and collect income from it. The size of the land grant depends upon how great an income the Emperor wishes to award a noble and the location of the grant within the fief itself. A knight with a grant consisting of several hundred square kilometers of sparsely settled wilderness and one with a single hectare of the business district of a city can be considered to hold equal grants. Hereditary nobles have often had the fief and associated land grant in their family for generations, and have built it up in value and income potential. Some sites at the capital generate considerable income each year. Other land grants have been administered with great care to ensure that the territory is not only valuable but also tastefully used. Still, others have been exploited ruthlessly in mining or industrial pursuits. Completely separate from fiefs and land grants, a noble may own land obtained from other sources (inheritance, purchase, and so forth). These lands remain the property of their owner even if his title is revoked, and can be disposed of separately from the land grants of fiefs. Under most circumstances, each terrain-hex of a land grant also includes one local-hex of property gifted to the noble outright as personal property.

The noble who is responsible for a given fief is known as the "active noble"; other members of the noble family are known as "courtesy nobles". Each world under the oversight of a noble is considered a fief. A Landed Noble who oversees a fief is uniquely legally entitled to use the Noble Style: "The "RANK-TITLE" of "FIEFWORLD-NAME". No other noble on or associated with the world in any way (whether inactive, honour, ceremonial, courtesy, etc.) may use this specially reserved Noble style. Each world has a limit of one active noble of each noble rank (although there may be any number of inactive nobles on a world, whether they be Courtesy Nobles or other Honor and Ceremonial Nobles.

An interesting note is that the fiefdoms of higher-ranking landed nobles often include orbital or systemic "property" within a system.

Note that inactive Honour and Ceremonial nobles (and in some cases courtesy nobles as well) may also receive land grants as part of their noble patents (or equivalent revenues or remuneration in the form of stock option dividends, investment revenues, stipends, and other rents), but as these patents are not associated with appointed and entailed landed fiefs they are not considered "landed nobles" in the proper sense of the term, and their "lands" do not constitute a "fief" in the proper sense of the term in and of themselves, though they are sometimes (erroneously) called such in colloquial speech.

History & Background / Dossier

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References & Contributors / Sources

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• Contributor: User:WHULorigan

The land grant is a convenient method for the Emperor to reward certain nobles. The size of the land grant depends upon how great an income the Emperor wishes to award a noble and the location of the grant within the fief itself.