Fief

Well, imagine you lived a really long time ago, in a big kingdom ruled by a king or queen. The ruler of this kingdom would have a lot of land, and they needed to figure out who to let take care of it. So, they would pick people who they trusted to be in charge of different parts of their land.

These people were called lords or vassals, and the land they were in charge of was called a fief. The lord or vassal would promise to be loyal to the king or queen and give them a portion of whatever they made from the land. In return, the king or queen would let the lord or vassal use the land and protect them from their enemies.

It was kinda like the king or queen was giving the lord or vassal a job to do, and the lord or vassal would get paid with the land they were in charge of. So, it was a very important system for keeping a big kingdom organized and safe.