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Examples of Feudalism are helpful to fully understand Feudalism and Feudal society. Feudalism was practiced in many different ways, depending on location and time period, thus a high-level encompassing conceptual definition does not always provide a reader with the intimate understanding that historical examples can show.
12th century England
Feudalism in 12th century England was among the better structured and established in Europe at the time. However it did have complexities which can be illustrated by the barony of Stafford as described in a survey of knight's fees called The Black Book Exchequer (A.D 1166).
A knight's fee was the amount of money and/or military service a fief was required to pay to support one knight. Thus, either a fief could provide the service of a knight, or an equivalent amount of money to allow a lord to hire a knight. Barons were taxed according to a certain number of knights owed to the king, based on the size of the fief.
Thus, the lord of Stafford, Robert of Stafford, was responsible for 60 fees. Robert had previously sub-let 51 of these fees in the form of 26 fiefs that ranged in size from two thirds of a fee to six fees. Further, some of these sub-fiefs had granted sub-fiefs of their own. In all, 78 "tenants" and sub-tenants were part of the Stafford estate.
Some of the Stafford tenants were themselves lords. Henry d'Oilly, who held 3 fees from Robert of Stafford, also held over 30 fees that had been granted to him directly by the king. Thus while Henry was the vassal of his lord Robert, Henry was himself a lord and had many sub-fiefs that he managed. These lords were not so much lords presiding over great estates, but managers of a network of tenants and sub-managers.
Multiple networks of lordship were layered on the same small plot of land. A chronicle of the time says "different lordships lay on the land in different respects". Each lord laid claim to a certain aspect of the service from the land, but no lord (other than the king) could lay claim to ownership (in the modern sense) of the land.
Sweden
The Swedish variant of feudalism consisted of resourceful enough landowners who committed to maintain a soldier with a horse in the liege lord's army; in compensation they obtained exemption from land taxation (so-called frälse).
This led to a curb in the relative local democracy in the Viking era, in favor of local lords who succeeded in exercising administrative and judicial power over their less powerful neighbors. The King also depended more on such vassals and their resources.
Modern England
Unique in England, the village of Laxton in Nottinghamshire continues to retain some vestiges of the feudal system, where the land is still farmed using the open field system. The feudal court now only meets annually, with its authority now restricted to management of the farmland.
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