the interest which a landholder possesses in his land. The term arises from the fact that under the old feudal system the ownership of all land was vested in the king, and all private holders of land were his tenants. The interest of such a tenant was called his estate, and this was always less than absolute ownership. Thus various classes of tenancies or estates were developed, and these persist in law to the present time. Of these estates three are called freeholds. They are the fee simple, that is, the right to dispose of land in any way, which suits the possessor, practically an absolute ownership; the fee tail, which gives the possessor the right to dispose of his land only to his own issue, and the life estate, which gives the possessor the right to dispose of the land only to his own issue, and the life estate, which gives the possessor the right to dispose of the land only for the space of his life-time. The estates which are not freeholds are various forms of tenancies, the difference usually being in the period over which the contract extends, whether for years, for life, from year to year, terminable at the will of either party or at the sufferance of the so-called owner of the land. See REAL PROPERTY. An estate in its political meaning indicates one of several distinct classes or castes in society. Thus, under feudalism, the nobles, the clergy and the commons each constituted a separate estate. The history of the Middle Ages and the early modern period is largely the record of the contest between these three classes singly, in combination or against the Crown. The press was called by Burke the fourth estate.