[f. FEUDAL a.1 + -ISM.] The feudal system, or its principles.
1839. Keightley, Hist. Eng., I. 82. Another question is, how far the peculiar usages of feudalism were in use among the Anglo-Saxons.
1851. Wright, Ess. Archæol., II. xiv. 39. A common language was, therefore, a necessary element in the system; and as feudalism had originated in France, and took its greatest development there, French became its universal language.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), I. iii. 91. There was no systematic feudalism, but the elements of feudalism were there.
1875. Stubbs, in Maine, Hist. Inst., vi. 154. Feudalism ‘had grown up from two great sources, the Benefice and the practice of Commendation.’
