If we're readers of the historical romance, then we must surely be familiar with the pesky entailment since it factors so importantly in such dramas as Pride and Prejudice and Downton Abbey.

No need to get lost in the legal jargon when it comes to entailments, a common feature in historical romances. The graphic provided offers a quick guide to the most important elements of property entailments and the terms involved.

For more detail, especially regarding some of the more interesting details, such as when/if the female line could inherit in a world that favoured primogeniture, check out this article:

Golden Romance Research: Entailments