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ALLODIUM

Volume 2 · 82 words · 1860 Edition

or **ALLEUD**, denotes lands which are the absolute property of their owner, without being obliged to pay any service or acknowledgment whatever to a superior lord. This tenure of land was common in the north of Europe, is the *udal* tenure of the Scandinavians, and still exists, in a few instances, in the county of Orkney. What existed of it in England was destroyed by William I., who introduced the stringent *feudal* tenure, by which all lands are held of the crown.