It was through the acquisition of a fief, and later of a title, that the Caracciolo Brienza established themselves as a new, separate family within the Caracciolo clan. As late as the Aragonese period (1442–1503), many families and clans of undisputed nobility, including several members of the Caracciolo clan, did not own fiefs and were content with the ownership of allodial land in or near the city of Naples where they resided. By the mid-sixteenth century, however, the old urban patriciate and the provincial baronage had become much more integrated; many barons moved to Naples and managed to enter the Seggi before their closure, while the increased commercialization of fiefs, encouraged by the Aragonese and Spanish kings, led to greater availability of fiefs for both new and old aristocratic families. The fief, and especially the titled one, became, therefore, an essential element of the aristocratic patrimony, both for its economic value and for the status and powers it conferred. By the late sixteenth century, and until the abolition of the feudal regime in 1806, to be a member of the high aristocracy of the kingdom meant to be a feudal lord, to be a baron.