A vassal, in the terminology that both preceded and accompanied the feudalism of medieval Europe, is one who enters into mutual obligations with a monarch, usually of military support and mutual protection, in exchange for certain guarantees, which came to include the terrain held as a fief. Feudalism, a term first used in the early modern period (17th century in its most classic sense refers to a Medieval Europe Political system composed Under the system of Feudalism, a fiefdom, fief, feud, feoff, or fee, often consisted of inheritable lands or revenue-producing ^[1] By analogy it is applied to similar systems in other feudal societies. It was always distinct from fidelitas, sworn loyalty of subject to king,^[2] and the honor, the respect and consideration that accrued to the vassal, unlike the delegated power of a comes or count, was not expressed in expectations of related public duty. A count is a Nobleman in European countries The word count comes from French comte, itself from Latin ^[3]

Contents 1 Western vassalage 2 See also 3 Compare 4 Notes 5 References

Western vassalage

In fully-developed vassalage, a commendation ceremony, composed of homage and fealty with solemnity adapted from formulas of Christian sacraments eventually made its appearance. A commendation ceremony ( commendatio) is a formal Ceremony that evolved during the Early Medieval period to create a bond between a Lord and his fighting For medieval usage see Homage (medieval and Commendation ceremony, or Homage (disambiguation Homage (from the French An Oath of fealty, from the Latin fidelitas ( Faithfulness) is a pledge of Allegiance of one person to another Such elegant refinements were not in evidence at the outset, however: according to Eginhard's brief description, the commendatio made to Pippin in 757 by Tassilo, duke of Bavaria, involved the relics of Saint Denis, Saint Rusticus and Saint Éleuthère, Saint Martin and Saint Germain, which had apparently been assembled at Compiègne for the event [1]. Einhard (also Eginhard or Einhart) (c 775 &ndash March 14, 840 in Seligenstadt, Germany) was a Frankish Pepin or Pippin (714 &ndash 24 September 768) called the Short, and often known as Pepin the Younger or Pepin III, was Tassilo III (b circa 741 d circa 796 was Duke of Bavaria from 748 to 787 the last of the house of the Agilolfings. Compiègne is a commune in the Oise département of France, of which it is a Sous-préfecture. They all lived at one time or another.

At the commendatio, "the vassal thereupon fell under the charismatic power, pagan in origin, of the lord: his mundeburdium or mainbour, true power, at once possessive and protective" (Rouche 1987, p 429). Under the influence of the "mainbour" all previous social differentiations fell away, in a restructing of social obligations that was radically new (Rouche 1987 p 429ff).

The development of the vassal, in a society that was increasingly organised around the concept of "lordship"— in French the seigneur— provides one of the threads by which the onlooker can see the Early Middle Ages evolving out of Late Antiquity. The Early Middle Ages is a period in the History of Europe following the fall of the Western Roman Empire spanning roughly five centuries from AD 500 Late Antiquity (c 300-600 is a Periodization used by historians to describe the transitional centuries from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in ^[4] Lordship is the basic social institution of the uprooted Germanic societies, as Tacitus described them in Germania and the Roman West experienced them firsthand in the Migrations Period. Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus (ca 56 &ndash ca 117 was a senator and a Historian of the Roman Empire. Germania was the Latin Exonym for The Migration Period, also called Barbarian Invasions, or sometimes Völkerwanderung ( German for "wandering of peoples" is the English name The irreducible unit within these "tribes", which were in fact often assemblages of mixed culture (see Alamanni), was the comitatus or gefolge, "the Germanic war band as described by Tacitus and in Beowulf. The Alamanni, Allemanni, or Alemanni were originally an alliance of Germanic tribes located around the upper Main river ( Germany Beowulf is an Old English Heroic epic poem of anonymous authorship dating as recorded in the Nowell Codex manuscript from between . . based on the loyalty of warriors to their chieftain. " (Cantor 1993 p. 197) A similar Roman institution, in the social disorder of the 5th and 6th centuries, was the patrocinium, commonly translated by the French term "clientage". The court-like followers who gathered of a morning in the hall of a great Roman personage in the early Empire had devolved into a gang of young "enforcers" grouped round the charismatic figure of a patricius. This word too had changed from its more familiar original meaning, now to denote a military commander: the careers of Stilicho or Aëtius give examples of a patricius of the 5th century. Flavius Stilicho (occasionally written as Stilico) (ca 359 &ndash August 22, 408) was a high-ranking general ( Magister militum Aetius or Aëtius may refer to Aetius (philosopher of Antioch a 1st-century B By contrast, an apparent comparable example from the East, like the general Belisarius, still bore the aura of imperial legitimacy that the Western warlords could afford to ignore. Flavius Belisarius (Βελισάριος (505(? – 565 was one of the greatest Generals of the Byzantine Empire and one of the most acclaimed generals in history

As the system developed in the seventh century, the vassals were gangs of freemen who voluntarily subjected themselves, in some varying degree of formality, to the authority of a leader, from whose distribution of loot they could expect to be fed, clothed and armed. The quality of a vassal was only in his fighting ability and the strength of his loyalty. The etymology of "vassal" is from a Celtic word gwas "boy" that designated a young male slave, with a Latinised form, vassus that appeared in Salic Law (Rouche 1987 p 429), not unlike the derivation of "knight" from Old English cniht and cognates in Frisian and Dutch, all meaning "lad" [2]. Salic law ( Lat Lex Salica) was an important body of traditional Law codified for governing the Salian Franks in the Early Middle Ages Knight is the English term for a social position originating in the Middle Ages.

All later connotations, of chivalry, of aristocratic lineage and even of land-holdings have to be set aside: the original vassals were as mobile as their lords, a retinue of sworn bodyguards, whose status was a reflection of the status of their lord. Chivalric order Chivalry is a term related to the Medieval institution of Knighthood. The Merovingian kings of the 7th century dignified their personal retainers as antrustiones (Cantor 1993, p. The Merovingians (also Merovings) were a Salian Frankish dynasty that came to rule the Franks in a region (known as Francia in Latin 198). In an earlier age, Alexander's bodyguard of generals were similarly singled out as his "companions. Alexander the Great ( or, Mégas Aléxandros; July 20 356 BC June 10 or June 11 323 BC also known as Alexander III of Macedon (el Ἀλέξανδρος Γ' " The various meanings of peer (French paire) still retain some sense of this original parity among equals who followed the charismatic leader. The Peerage is a system of Titles of Nobility in the United Kingdom, part of the British honours system.

Charlemagne's later developments connected vassals with the rewards of land, the only form of generating wealth, in a slow process, connected with the development of the agricultural institutions called "manorialism" and the social and legal structures labelled— but only since the 18th century— "feudalism". Charlemagne (ˈʃɑrlɨmeɪn Carolus Magnus or Karolus Magnus meaning Charles the Great) (747 – 28 January 814 was King of the Franks from 768 to his This article is about the medieval system "Manors" redirects here Feudalism, a term first used in the early modern period (17th century in its most classic sense refers to a Medieval Europe Political system composed Linking personal vassalage with the real estate of a benefice was a slow process that unfolded at different natural rhythms in various regions. Originally a benefice was a gift of land ( Precaria) for life as a reward for services rendered In Merovingian times, only the greatest and most trusted vassals would be rewarded with lands. Even at the most extreme devolution of any remnants of central power, in 10th century France, the majority of vassals still had no fixed estate (Ganshof 1964).

The stratification of a fighting band of vassals into an upper group composed of great territorial magnates, strong enough to ensure the inheritance of their benefice to the heirs of their family, and a lower group of landless knights attached to a "count" or "duke" might roughly be correlated with the new term "fief" that was superseding "benefice" in the 9th century. A count is a Nobleman in European countries The word count comes from French comte, itself from Latin A duke is a member of the Nobility, historically of highest rank below the Sovereign, and historically controlled a Duchy or a Dukedom Under the system of Feudalism, a fiefdom, fief, feud, feoff, or fee, often consisted of inheritable lands or revenue-producing The social settling out process also received impetus in fundamental changes in conducting warfare. As the example of the Huns demonstrated to the Romanised world that cavalry superseded a melee of fighting men on foot in determining the outcome of battles, the cost of maintenance of a mounted and increasingly armoured fighting force was inflated. The Huns were an early confederation of Central Asian equestrian nomads or semi-nomads with a Turkic core of aristocracy A mounted vassal needed wealth to equip the band of mounted fighters he was under obligation to contribute to his lord's frequent disputes, and wealth, where a money economy had disappeared, was only to be found in land and its productions, which included peasants, as much a resource of the land as wood and water. A peasant is an agricultural worker who subsists by working a small plot of ground

See also

• Vassal state
• Feudalism
• Freeborn
• Count of Nychlenborch
• Thegn
• Vavasour, a type of vassal

Compare

• Gokenin, vassals of the shogunate in Japan
• nöken was the Mongol term for a tribal leader acknowledging another as his liege

Notes

References

• Cantor, Norman, The Civilization of the Middle Ages 1993
• Ganshof, François Louis, Feudalism translated 1964
• Rouche, Michel, "Private life conquers state and society," in A History of Private Life vol I, Paul Veyne, editor, Harvard University Press 1987 ISBN 0-674-39974-9

Norman F Cantor (born in Winnipeg, Canada on November 19, 1929, died in Miami Florida, United States on September François-Louis Ganshof ( 14 March 1895 –1980 was a Belgian historian of the middle ages

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