Ce que j'ai trouvé ici, est que "fief"
veut dire plusieurs choses, ex:organization,electoral stronghold, et aussi "private kingdoom" que je pense est le meilleur pour la traduction dans ce texte.

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Note added at 2002-11-05 22:45:49 (GMT)
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\"cet ancien\" traduit par \"this old\" or \"the old\" is not offensive here.

the very heart of a vast property/estate

A fief (in English too) is land a higher authority in the feudal system lets a lower authority use in return for service. Whether the counts of Toulouse held this land from the king, say, in return for military service and protection, or whether the term is used in reverse, to mean land the counts of Toulouse allowed their own vassals to use, in return for food and wine, say, we don't know without context (and even then ...). I agree "stronghold" would be good if the subject is indeed a castle, fortified town, etc. rather than a range of hills, say.

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Note added at 2002-11-05 23:16:16 (GMT)
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Ah well, yes, that\'s just a minor drawback of the KudoZ system as it stands, in that the \"right\" or \"most helpful\" answer will often be the fruit of a sequence of reflection and improvement, with increasingly refined contributions being added on to a \"rough\" response rather than entered separately in the hope of getting those precious points! How altruistic my colleagues are!

... Medieval: the commune belonged to the fief of the Counts of Toulouse. The village was pillaged and abandoned in the 14th century. ...

http://www.beyond.fr/villages/fontvaucluse.html

... This medieval châteaufort and village was an important fiefdom of the Sabran
family, who were descended from the powerful counts of Toulouse. ...

http://www.armchairfrance.com/armchairuzesMay12'02.htm

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As a life-long medieval historian I can attest that, in contemporary scholarly historical writing, "fief" is definitely preferred over "fiefdom."

And "former" rather than "ancient" is the sense of "ancien." The "ancien regime" is not the "ancient/old regime," but the "former regime" (the O.E.D. notes a first usage in English in 1794).

As Bourth has implied, it isn't clear from this little bit of context whether the Count held this "fief" (which could be virtually anything, from real property to justice rights, to rents) himself or gave it "in fief" to one of his vassals in return for, say, loyal service, military or otherwise.

This latter possibility is somewhat more likely, given the fact that we are told that the fief was "in the heart of [his] vast domaines.

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Note added at 2002-11-07 13:50:35 (GMT) Post-grading
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Once again it appears that a wrong answer has been chosen and entered into the Glossary.

One might wonder what the purpose of such an exercise is.

\"Fief\" and \"Fiefdom\" are simlply not the same, in the English language.

While all \"fiefs\" are, in a sense, \"Fiefdoms\" (the latter defined by Webster\'s 3rd as \"an area over which one exercises control\"), not all \"Fiefdoms\" are, strictly speaking (i.e., using the word in it\'s proper technical and historical sense), \"Fiefs.\"

Powerful members of the U.S. congress are sometimes said --by the press-- to have a \"fiefdom,\" a (sometimes small and petty) area over which they \"exercise control\" --distribution of parking places, for example.

But there\'s *no way* that they could be said to have a \"fief.\"

The nature of Nancy\'s original quote suggests that it is from a more or less serious work dealing with a matter of medieval history --not necessarily a scholarly study, but obviously something more serious than an air-headed French newspaper article, perhaps something along the lines of a Guide Bleu description of a place.

The writer used the word \"fief\" in a more or less technical sense and any valid transation *must* take this into account in order to convey the tone and, above all, the intent of the author.

\"Fiefdom\" simply doesn\'t do this.

Yolanda\'s neutral comment (below) is worth considering, especially since \"a feudal estate\" is the first definition for \"fief\" given by Webster\'s 3rd.

And, the \"fief\" in question in Nancy\'s quote probably *was* an \"estate\" --many, if not most things held \"in fief\" were \"estates\" of one sort or another, i.e., agricultural land conditionally \"given\" to one fellow by another in return for some service or other consideration (e.g., a money rent).

However, we are not told what, specifically, the nature of this fief of the Count was and, therefore, we must allow for the fact that it could be, almost literally, any damned thing. All *sorts* of things were held \"_in feodum_\" (as the Latin of the charters usually puts it) : houses, mills, justice rights, whatever was of value and could be held by one man (or woman) from another man (or woman).

\"Fief\" and \"Fiefdom\" are not the same.

Period.