Editing Fee simple (section)

==Common law==
In English common law, the [[The Crown|Crown]] had [[radical title]] or the [[allodium]] of all land in England, meaning that it was the ultimate "owner" of all land in the past feudal era.  [[Allodial title]] is reserved to governments under a civil law structure.

However, the Crown can grant ownership in an [[abstract entity]] – called an [[estate in land]] – which is what is owned rather than the land it represents. The fee simple estate is also called "estate in fee simple" or "fee-simple title", or sometimes simply "freehold" in England and Wales. From the start of the [[Norman dynasty|Norman]] period, when [[feudalism]] was introduced to England, the [[Tenement (law)|tenant]] or "holder" of a [[fief]] could not alienate (sell) it from the possession of his overlord. However, a tenant could separate a parcel of the land and grant it as a subordinate fief to his own sub-tenant, a process known as sub-enfeoffing or "[[subinfeudation]]". The 1290 [[Statute]] of [[Quia Emptores]] abolished subinfeudation and instead allowed the sale of fee simple estates.<ref>Henderson, Ernest F. ''Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages'', (London: George Bell and Sons, 1910), 149–150. [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/ed1-quia.html Excerpt] retrieved 2007-10-31</ref>

[[William Blackstone]] defined fee simple as the estate in land that a person has when the lands are given to him and his heirs absolutely, without any end or limit put to his estate. Land held in fee simple can be conveyed to whomsoever its owner pleases; it can also be [[mortgage law|mortgaged]] or put up as security.<ref>Property: Examples and Explanations, B. Barlow Burke</ref>
Owners of [[real property]] in fee simple have the privilege of interest in the property during their lifetime and typically have a say in determining who gets to own an interest in the property after their death.

Historically, estates could be limited in time. Common temporal limitations include [[life estate]], a land ownership that terminates upon the grantee's (or another person's) death even if the land had been granted to a third party, or a term of years, a lease for a specified term, such as in an [[estate for years]]. A fee also could be limited through the method of its inheritance, such as by an "entailment", which created a [[fee tail]]. Traditionally, fee tail was created by words of grant such as "to N. and the male heirs of his body", which would restrict those who could inherit the property. If no heirs could be found, then the property would revert to the original grantor's heirs. Most common law countries have abolished entailment by statute.