A person who holds a feod or fee; a vassal or feudal tenant holding land from a superior lord.
From feod (fief) plus -ary (one who holds or practices). This term emerged in medieval English legal vocabulary to describe the social rank of fee-holders.
A 'feodary' occupied a weird middle ground in medieval society—powerful enough to hold land and rule peasants, but dependent on a greater lord for their position. Hundreds of thousands of people throughout medieval Europe lived their entire lives as feodaries, and their status determined everything from their clothing to whom they could marry.
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