The monarch alone "held" all the land of England by his allodial right and all his subjects were merely his tenants under various contracts of feudal tenure.
The Old French variations seisir, saisir, are from Low Latin sacīre, generally referred to the same source as Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐍄𐌾𐌰𐌽 satjan, Old English settan, 'to put in place, set'.
the handover of "earth and water" by political entities subjecting themselves to the Persian Empire, which thereafter considered their rulers its vassals).
[4] In European feudal states, "ownership" of land, also known as allodial possession, was generally restricted to monarchs and was thus rarely an operative principle.
Primer seisin is defined as "the right which the king had, when any of his tenants died seised of a knight's fee, to receive of the heir, provided he were of full age, one whole year's profits of the lands, if they were in immediate possession; and half a year's profits, if the lands were in reversion, expectant on an estate for life".
Only then could the heir pay his feudal relief to the treasury, which final step would enable him to obtain seisin, i.e., actual possession.
Between the death of the previous tenant and the new seisin, there was an empty tenure of the fief, which was legally inconvenient, but tolerated as generally of short duration.
Yet in the case of a barony, which was an extensive tenure of frequently several dozen manors, the king needed to make certain that the heir who presented himself to pay homage was the true heir, for should his homage be accepted, his status was irreversibly confirmed, and the new baron would be entitled to attend parliament.
[citation needed] At one time, the right of the wife to a dower and of the husband to an estate by curtesy depended upon the doctrine of seisin.