(_a_) _Relief_ is easily explained. The fee, or _feudum_, or hereditary feudal estate, seems to have been the result of a gradual evolution from the old _beneficium_ (or estate held merely for one lifetime), and that again from the older _precarium_ (or estate held only during the will of the overlord). Grants of land, originally subject to revocation by the lord, had gradually attained fixity of tenure throughout the life of the original grantee; and, later on, they became transmissible to his descendants. The hereditary principle at last completely triumphed; the Capitulary of Kiersey (A.D. 877) is said to be the first authoritative recognition of the heir’s absolute right to succeed. The process was a gradual one, and it would seem that even after the Norman Conquest, this rule of hereditary descent was not established beyond possibility of dispute.[85] This right of the heir to succeed always remained subject to one condition, namely, the payment of a sum of money known as “relief.” This was theoretically an acknowledgment that the new tenant’s right to ownership was incomplete, until recognized by his superior—a reminiscence of the earlier _precarium_ from which the _feudum_ had developed. ----- Footnote 85: See Pollock and Maitland, I. 296. _Relief_, then, is the sum payable to a feudal overlord by an heir for recognition of his title to succeed the last tenant in possession. The amount remained long undefined, and the lord frequently asked exorbitant sums.[86] ----- Footnote 86: See _infra_, under c.2, for the steps in the gradual process whereby this evil was redressed. -----