Fief / Fief de Soudée

Also known as Money fief, Land fief

A unit of land or income held from a lord in return for military service — the basic building block of the kingdom's feudal organisation.

A fief in the Kingdom of Jerusalem could take two forms. A landed fief (fief de terre) was an estate — a village, a valley, a tower and its dependent fields — granted by a lord in return for the holder's military service, typically the obligation to bring a specified number of mounted knights to the army each year. The lordships of Sidon, Caesarea, Galilee and the rest were the great landed fiefs of the realm.

A money fief (fief de soudée or fief en besants) was an annual cash income paid from royal or seigniorial revenues, again in return for military service. Money fiefs proliferated in the 13th century when the kingdom was poor in land but still needed to retain knights, and they let landless newcomers, younger sons, and exiled barons hold a place in the feudal levy without an estate. John of Ibelin's Livre lists them in detail.

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