Afterlehen

An Afterlehen or Afterlehn (plural: Afterlehne, Afterlehen) is a German term for a fief that a liege lord has himself been given as a fief and then, in turn, enfeoffed wholly or partially to one or more lesser vassals. It is variously referred to in English as a mesne-fief or mesne-tenure, an arriere-fief or subfief, under-tenure or mesnalty.

Within the feudal system of the Holy Roman Empire, these mesne fiefs became inheritable over time and could have up to five "stations" between the actual holder of the fief and the overarching liege lord.

An example of an Afterlehen is Rothenberg Castle in Bavaria, Germany.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Fahrenkrüger (1801), 2nd Part, p. 26. Retrieved 11 May 2017 (in German-English)
  2. ↑ The Holy Roman Empire, 1495-1806: A European Perspective ed. by Robert Evans and Peter Wilson (2012), p. 124. Retrieved 8 Feb 2014.
  3. ↑ Word Formation in German, Vol. 373 by Frederic Turnbull Wood, School of Germanic Languages, University of Va. (1948), p. 48. Retrieved 8 Feb 2014
  4. ↑ Vollständiges Taschenwörterbuch der vier Hauptsprachen Europas. Deutsch-englisch, by Johann August Diezmann (1832). Retrieved 8 Feb 2014.
  5. ↑ Despotism and capitalism: a historical comparison of Europe and Indonesia by Tilman Schiel (1985). Retrieved 8 Feb 2014.

Literature