The allodial landowner, also known as an allodiary or hereditary lord, had the right to alienate the property, which was almost always land, a city plot, or an estate, and owed no feudal duties to any other person in respect of it.
This definition is confirmed by the acclaimed jurist Hugo Grotius, the father of international law and the concept of sovereignty: "holders of allodial land are sovereign" because allodial land is by nature free, hereditary, inherited from their forefathers, sovereign and held by the grace of God.
To begin with, the income from allodial estates was not even liable for taxes paid to any other sovereigns, including the Landesfürsten (princely heads of state).
In all of these ways, the allod differed from fiefs, which were mere tenures held by feudatories (Lehnsmänner) or their vassals (Vasallen).
[citation needed] The allod as a form of ownership was established among the Germanic tribes and peoples, before it became part of the feudal system.
were only exercised by the nobility in most states – even if, after 1500, they had to subordinate themselves increasingly to the territorial princes (as part of the establishment of statehood) – who remained, politically and economically, the most influential group of landowners.
In Germany, the allodial estates were mainly those owned by the nobility in the south, though in the north at least one Belgian village has a name that recalls this system, namely Braine-l'Alleud, Dutch Eigenbrakel (where eigen is cognate to English own), in the province of Walloon Brabant, formerly in, or surrounded by, the southern part of the Duchy of Brabant; this is in contrast with Braine-le-Comte ('s-Gravenbrakel), some 25 km away in Hainaut, whose name refers to a fief from the count of Hainaut; both Hainaut and Brabant were formerly part of the Holy Roman Empire and before that of Lotharingia.
There were many lords who founded their powerful position on extensive allodial estates in the eastern Alpine countries and the lands of the Bohemian Crown.
In most of Scotland, the feudal system was abolished in the early 21st century; allodial tenure still exists in Shetland and Orkney.