The Fief Management Edict, 1736

[The King Of The Moon 7016]

THE FIEF MANAGEMENT
EDICT, 1736

 

By order of his Excellency, Peter Faust de Vitus, The Secretary of the Interior, 16th of Horen’s Calling, 1736.

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Wary of future misinterpretations of their respective roles, it has come to the Office of Interior’s attention that the duties of the realm’s enfeoffed are scarcely recorded and underpublicized. 

In lieu of this, the Office of Interior has opted to fulfill the duties entrusted to it in the Council of State Establishment Edict, 1732 as highest administrator by enforcing this Edict’s mandate on the sub-Ducal landed classes of the realm.

 

Whilst fully applicable to the enfeoffed of the Orenian Crownlands, it must be stated that the vassal territories of our Holy Empire beyond the Crownlands are granted exemption from the Fief Management Edict, 1736 by the Office of Interior. 

 

This goes without saying then that vassal leaders such as the Kings of Haenseni-Ruska, Curonia and Kaedrin as well as Dukes and so on have no obligation to enforce this Edict upon the lower ranking enfeoffed of their own respective territories, though may opt to follow the Crownlands’ example and add this edict to their own property laws if they so please.

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Henceforth, the following terms are to be recognised as legal definitions and requirements of the landed sub-Ducal nobility in the Crownlands (and further territories opting to follow its example):
 

1.  A ‘Fief’ in the context of this Edict is defined as a plot of land granted legally by letter of enfeoffment to an individual  Knight or Dame, Baron or Baroness, Viscount or Viscountess, Count or Countess or Margrave or Margravine. 
2. The rights of ownership bestowed upon the enfeoffed stated in their letter of enfeoffment, regardless of wording, must be recognised as secondary to the Visconti Principle as recorded in Lex Imperialis.
3. All duties relating to tax, levvies, peacekeeping and so on afforded by respective letters of enfeoffment must be prioritised above this Edict.
   1. All privileges relating to the aforementioned must be prioritised as secondary to this Edict.
4. It is the privilege of the enfeoffed to construct for themselves or their house a reasonably sized manor or estate accompanied by any farms, stables, mines, workshops, factories or other sites for the purpose of said Fief’s trades as well as appropriate housing for the Fief’s labour force as outlined in the Fief Management Edict VI.
5. The construction of any towns, villages, fortresses, castles, keeps, military camps, inns, hotels, hostels, groves, abbeys, monasteries and other settlement intended to house a mass group larger than permitted in the Fief Management Edict VI are strictly prohibited.
   1. It is the enfeoffed’ duty to request permission for and abide by orders involving the construction of military buildings for the Secretary of War.
6. It is the privilege of the enfeoffed’ to house no more than three serfs, household staff, bannermen or other forms of labourer upon their lands along with their legal spouses and children aged below five years.
   1. Legal or blood relatives of the enfeoffed may also populate a Fief infinitely.
   2. Exemptions in hosting more serfs workers or household staff than specified must be approved of by the Secretary of the Interior. 
   3. Exemptions in hosting more bannermen than specified must be approved of by the Secretary of War.
7. It is the privilege of the enfeoffed to utilise their land as they please for means of generating revenue in service of their house and the Crown, however proposing the land for otherwise illicit use is strictly prohibited.
   1. Illicit use is defined as housing, producing or encouraging any and all forms elsewhere defined criminal activity.
8. It is the duty of the enfeoffed to outline the borders of their Fief with the growth of a hedgerow in the absence of natural borders such as bodies of water cliffs higher than five meters. 
   1. These hedgerows must be consciously planted and managed in accordance with the size and location of one’s Fief as predetermined by the Crown.

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Signed and Approved

HIS EXCELLENCY, Peter Faust de Vitus, the Secretary of the Interior, 
Lord of Vitzburg, Admiral of the Fleet and First Sea Lord of the Holy 
Orenian Empire