remained unaffected. Such an enfranchised fief became analogous to entailment (Familienfideikommiss); often it was explicitly converted into a fee tail (Fideikommissgut). Emergence and historical development The allod as a form of ownership was established among the Germanic tribes and peoples, before it became part of the feudal system. Land that was originally held in common by the whole community was transferred to a single individual. The freemen of the Germanic peoples divided or drew lots for the land in the countries they had conquered and taken possession of. This gave rise to the essential character of the allodial estate: a freely-owned property allocated and guaranteed by the will of the whole people or by the people's law (Volksgesetz). The landowner was independent of any superiors and free of any property right restrictions. In many regions only allodiaries were counted as freemen, i.e., those who enjoyed all common, public rights and duties. They served as territorial assemblymen (Landesgemeinde). The allodiaries of the early Middle Ages are one of the groups out of which the nobility sprang over time. They saw themselves as equal partners of the territorial lords, because they participated alongside them as members of the territorial assembly and were not their vassals. The freedoms associated with allodial estates (tax exemption, hunting rights, etc.) 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. The term ‘allod’ occurs only in the Franconian region and those territories influenced legally by Frankish tribes. After the Battle of Hastings in 1066, there were no more allods in England at all (though Lundy was later deemed to not be in England) and, in France, allodial estates existed mainly in the south. In Germany, the allodial estates were mainly those owned by the nobility in the south, though in the north at least one Belgian village remembers the name, 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