Note 67 — Chapter IX

A relic of the time when fiefs were just becoming hereditary was preserved in the exaction by the lord of a certain due, called the relief. This payment was demanded from the vassal when one lord died and a new one succeeded him, and from a new vassal upon the death of his predecessor. It was originally the payment for a new grant of the land at a time when fiefs were not generally held hereditarily. The right did not exist in the case of all fiefs and it varied greatly in amount. It was customarily much heavier when the one succeeding to the fief was not the son of the former holder but a nephew or more distant relative.