Forms: 7 feif, 7–9 feof(f, 7– fief. [First in 17th c.; a F. fief: see FEE sb.2]
1. = FEE sb.2 1. Male fief, fief masculine: one that could be held by males only.
1611. Cotgr., Fief, a Fief; a (Knights) fee; a Mannor, or inheritance held by homage.
a. 1613. Overbury, Observ. France, Wks. (1856), 238. They pawned all their Feifs to the church.
1671. F. Philipps, Reg. Necess., 419. An Estate in Tayl or Fief Masculine.
1756. Nugent, Gr. Tour, II. 27. ’Tis he only that can give away the great fiefs of the empire.
1820. Scott, Monast., iv. Avenel, being a male fief, descended to the brother, instead of the daughter, of the last possessor.
1838. Arnold, Hist. Rome (1846), I. xiv. 267. Even in the last years of the Egyptian monarchy, the class of landed proprietors who received their land as an hereditary fief, on the tenure of military service, enjoyed each man an equal portion.
1868. Milman, Annals of S. Paul’s Cathedral, 43. The same legate, in the same Cathedral, before the altar of S. Paul, received the cession of the kingdom as a fief of the Holy See.
transf. and fig. 1686. Dryden, Ode to Mrs. Killigrew, 92.
| To the next Realm she stretcht her Sway, | |
| For Painture near adjoyning lay, | |
| A plenteous Province, and alluring Prey. | |
| A Chamber of Dependences was fram’d, | |
| (As Conquerors will never want Pretence, | |
| When arm’d, to justifie th’ Offence), | |
| And the whole Fief, in right of Poetry she claim’d. |
18[?]. W. Sawyer, New Year Numbers, xii.
| Not of thy strength nor cunning didst thou come, | |
| Into the fief and heritage of life; | |
| And shall all fail thee in thy going hence? |
1873. Symonds, Grk. Poets, i. 27. An occasion offered itself to Philip for interfering in the Greek affairs. From that moment forward for ever the cities of Greece became the fiefs of foreign despots.
b. In fief = in fee: see FEE sb.2 1 b.
1728. J. Morgan, Algiers, II. v. 313. The knights hold the said Islands in Feof from the king of Sicily.
1821. Byron, Mar. Fal., V. i. In fief perpetual to myself and heirs.
1871. B. Taylor, Faust (1875), II. Preface, x. Faust receives the sea-shore in feoff forever.
2. Comb., as fief-holder, one who holds a fief from a superior.
1864. Kirk, Chas. Bold, II. IV. iii. 419. The fief holders of France, Spain, and Germany were still more assiduous in the cultivation of martial exercises, which formed indeed almost the single occupation of their lives.
1882–3. Schaff, Encycl. Relig. Knowl., I. 484/2. As the strength of the central government became weakened, the power of the feudal lords or fief-holders increased, and the popes were not slow in taking advantage of the situation.
