ABSTRACT
If tenure teaches that no one save the Crown actually owns the land, then what exactly does a ‘landowner’ own? The answer is that he owns an estate in the land. He has a special status in relation to the land. He has a bundle of rights in the land. This bundle of rights – this status – is called his estate. The medieval lawyers thought of the estate as something separate from the land itself. The ‘landowner’ held the land; he owned an estate in the land. That comes close to saying that the landowner does not own the land, but he owns an ownership in the land.
