FREE, in a general sense, is used in opposition to whatever is constrained or necessitated. When applied to things endowed with understanding, it relates in a particular manner to the liberty of the will.
FREE Bench signifies that estate in copyhold which the wife, being espoused a virgin, has, after the decease of her husband, for her dower, according to the custom of the manor.
FREE or Imperial Cities, in Germany, are those not subject to any particular prince, but governed, like republics, by their own magistrates.
There were free cities (liberæ civitates) even under the ancient Roman empire; such were those to which the emperor, by the advice or consent of the senate, gave the privilege of appointing their own magistrates, and governing themselves by their own laws.