The benefices were bestowed by the lord upon the vassal, the land to be held by tenure, and thus the vassal was placed under obligation to the lord. There were some lands that were held freely and not by tenure, such being known as allodial lands, but these freeholds decreased until finally they wholly disappeared and all the land was held by tenure. The immunities were grants of privileges to churches or to private individuals. These included the exemption from certain dues or certain obligations. In his domain the lord was a kind of sovereign. He administered justice, levied taxes, coined money, and declared war for himself and for his own benefit. The revenues of the lord were of various kinds. He received a certain part of the crops from his vassals and he received the judicial fees and other fees of various kinds. Property left after death where there were no heirs went to him. =The Feudal Castle and Its Life.= As has been stated, when the central power became weak and no longer able to protect the common people, they began to cluster about strong men for protection. These men occupied places that could be defended or else they sought out places of strength and security, usually, heights and places which were difficult of access. Here they built castles and fortified them. These were at first wood, making a kind of wooden blockhouse, but gradually stone came to be used and they were built exceedingly strong, and often considered impregnable. The feudal village lay beneath and about the castle. There was a complete social separation between the life in the castle and that in the village surrounding it. They pursued a different life, as the lord and his retainers were engaged in war or the chase or lived in idleness, while the people of the village were laborers. There became a wide separation between the village and the castle and special privileges grew up about the dwellers of the castle and, through inheritance, a nobility arose that lived in idleness and came to looking down upon and really despising the common people. This isolation of the castle did, though, bring a closer relation between the members composing its family. However much the lord might go out for war or for adventure, in the end he must return to his castle, as it was his home. Here he found his wife and children, with whom he must spend his time, mostly alone with them, so that close relations grew. When the lord was away from the castle, his wife must, naturally, have had charge of affairs and this would produce in her characteristics which would cause her to be respected by her lord and often to be considered his equal. It thus arose that domestic life came to mean much in that time and the family became the center of social relationship. The importance of the woman increased and the value of wife and mother became to be recognized beyond what had been known up to that time.