Displaying 1 glossary term in Land Tenure & Law starting with B
Land Tenure & Law
Old English
Bocland (Bookland)
OE bōcland ('land held by written title-deed / bōc')
Land held under the authority of a royal charter (*bōc*), granting the recipient private hereditary ownership with full power of testamentary bequest and alienation, free from customary communal constraints.
Bookland was initially invented for the Church to endow permanent monasteries, but was later extended to secular thegns; its creation required the solemn consent of the witenagemot.
“Bookland holders enjoyed royal privileges but remained subject to the immutable common burdens of the *trinoda necessitas*.”
S 104 — Royal Grant of Bookland by King Offa
Read in charter →