A political, social, and military system whereby all land is owned by the king, who grants some or most of it as fiefs to vassals. Fiefholders who hold directly from the sovereign are called Tenants in Chief. They in turn grant fiefs to lesser vassals, and so on for several layers. In exchange for the fief and its revenues, the fiefholder provides military service to the person who granted it (his liege). The process of territorial division is called subinfeudation. Each fief-grant is an individual contract between landholder and liege, involving service roughly proportional to the value of the fief. A “knight’s fee” is the amount of land considered sufficient to support one knight. In most cases, a knight’s fee is equivalent to a manor. The knight must report for duty with his liege, at his own expense, for a fixed period each year, usually 2–3 months.