Feudal land tenures existed in several varieties, most of which involved the tenant having to supply some service to his overlord, such as knight-service (military service). The word 'fee' is related to the term fief, meaning a feudal landholding. The rights of the fee-simple owner are limited by government powers of taxation, compulsory purchase, police power, and escheat, and may also be limited further by certain encumbrances or conditions in the deed, such as, for example, a condition that required the land to be used as a public park, with a reversion interest in the grantor if the condition fails this is a fee simple conditional. A 'fee simple' is real property held without limit of time (i.e., permanently) under common law, whereas the highest possible form of ownership is a 'fee simple absolute,' which is without limitations on the land's use (such as qualifiers or conditions that disallow certain uses of the land or subject the vested interest to termination). A 'fee' is a vested, inheritable, present possessory interest in land. In English law, a fee simple or fee simple absolute is an estate in land, a form of freehold ownership.

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Fee simple absolute