Land held in absolute ownership, not subject to feudal obligations; freehold property in medieval systems.
From Old High German 'alod,' meaning 'ancestral property.' The term became important in medieval law to distinguish completely owned land from land held under feudal tenure.
In feudal systems, almost all land was technically owned by the king and you just borrowed it—but alodia were truly *yours*, making the concept legally and socially radical!
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