!!!Lehenswesen

Vassalage: the system of real and personal rights and duties based on 
land tenure and personal relationships, which developed in the 
Frankish kingdom was introduced to Austria in the Middle Ages and 
governed the relationships between the peasantry and their landlords 
and between the landlords and their king; it was gradually given more 
concrete form and extended to crown offices, customs duties and 
domains. Fief was no longer held by vassals from their lords as a 
result of their duties to the latter, but the vassals served their 
lords because of the transformation of benefice into a hereditary 
fief, which gave their descendants the right to inherit the fief. 
Originally knighthood was a prerequisite for a fief but eligibility 
was later extended to citizens of towns. Collective fief to several 
vassals was possible (a common practice during the Habsburg reign in 
the 14%%sup th/%  century). The importance of fief declined in the 
Modern Age and gave way to property held by individual persons or a 
family and the appointment of individuals to a post or office by the 
Emperor, the local sovereign or the state. Formally, the Holy Roman 
Empire remained a feudal state until 1806. The last remains of 
feudalism in Austria were abolished in the course of the revolution of 
1848 and the  Peasants, Emancipation of.

!Literature
H. Mitteis, Lehensrecht und Staatsgewalt, 1933 (reprint 
1974).


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