Enfeoffment in 1600s (Schmalkalden/Hessen)

[sarahlynne]

Hello,

Can anyone explain enfeoffment in the mid-1600s to me? I have an ancestor who was enfeoffed land in the Schmalkalden area in 1641 and other than this being a land conveyance, I don't understand the significance of enfeoffment. In arcinsys there are only a handful of enfeoffments for the Schmalkalden area, which makes it seem special, but I really don't know. Here is the index description of the record I'm looking at:

Landgraf Georg zu Hessen belehnt Hansen Dietzel zu Aspach und dessen Erben mit dem pfandlich einhabenden halben Teil des freien Guts zu Aspach und der dazugehörigen Schäferei-Gerechtigkeit auf 100 Stück Schafe.

Thank you!


(Google Translate-Version: Hallo,

Kann mir jemand Enfeoffment Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts erklären? Ich habe einen Vorfahren, dem 1641 Land in der Gegend von Schmalkalden entzogen wurde, und abgesehen davon, dass es sich um eine Landvermittlung handelt, verstehe ich die Bedeutung von Verleumdung nicht. In Arcinsys gibt es nur eine Handvoll Enfeoffments für das Gebiet Schmalkalden, was es besonders erscheinen lässt, aber ich weiß es wirklich nicht. Hier ist die Indexbeschreibung des Datensatzes, den ich betrachte

[Xylander]

Hello,
can we see the original source? Seems to be a problem caused by transcription or translation.

oh,I see
Landgrave Georg of Hesse enfeoffs Hansen Dietzel of Aspach and his heirs with a half of the free estate of Aspach and the accompanying sheepherding justice for 100 sheep.

to enfeoff means to give a fiefdom

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fief

Kind regards
Xylander

[sarahlynne]

Oh, I'm sorry. I posted the wrong thing!

Landgraf Georg zu Hessen belehnt Hansen Dietzel zu Aspach und dessen Erben mit dem pfandlich einhabenden halben Teil des freien Guts zu Aspach und der dazugehörigen Schäferei-Gerechtigkeit auf 100 Stück Schafe.

[Xylander]

It was the right thing, but the translator - and I - cannot do it correctly. But do you see the background now?

[sarahlynne]

Hello. Thank you. I'd seen the wikipedia page before but it's not specific enough to help. It's more about the middle ages and England. Much of what I've read about enfeoffment mentions titles and service. I don't think my ancestor received a title or anything, but I don't want to just assume that. So in the 1600s, I'm wondering if it simply meant a granting a land, or if it still meant a title/service, etc. For example, this ancestor's children sold the land after he died, and the person who bought it later got an enfeoffment for it too. If he'd already bought the land, what was the purpose of the enfeoffment? And, for this area, there aren't many of these enfeoffment documents in the archive, but there are lots of documents related to land sales between people - was the enfeoffment special in some way? I don't read German so I'm not having much luck finding a scholarly source that would explain all this.