Feudalism
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Tiered class system of medieval Europe in which land owned by someone of higher status was lived on and worked by someone of lower status in return for loyal service. The monarch was at the top of the pyramid, the peasants at the bottom. Feudalism began on the Continent as far back as the 8th century as a means of ensuring protection for powerful rulers against other powerful rulers. During the Middle Ages, certain provinces or countries recognised other kings as their feudal overlords.[1]
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[edit] Armiger
A nobleman entitled to bear heraldic arms; a squire carrying the armor of a knight. [2]
[edit] Dispossession
[edit] Fealty
Obligation of fidelity in a military, political and social sense on the part of a feudal tenant or vassal to his lord. The contract is not to be confused with homage, though both ceremonies were conducted at the same time. In the first part of the ceremony, where the liegeman swore personal homage to the lord, they swore to ‘become his man’. The lord swore an oath of his own where he pledged protection and defense for the tenant. During the second part of the ceremony, only the liegeman swore the oath, swearing to perform faithful service for the land so tendered. Called foi in French, Treue or Triuwe in German. [3]
[edit] Extinction
[edit] Liege
The primary lord of a vassal who holds by military tenure. The liege lord and vassal each have responsibilities to one another; the vassal must remain loyal to the liege lord above any other lords, while the liege is the vassal's principal protector. If a vassal holds land by such tenure from more than one lord, his or her liege lord is generally the one from whom he has held the longest. [4]
[edit] Lord Paramount
Subinfeudation, in English law, the practice by which tenants, holding land under the king or other superior lord, carved out in their turn by sub-letting or alienating a part of their lands new and distinct tenures.
The tenants were termed "mesne-lords," with regard to those holding from them, the immediate tenant being tenant in capite. The lowest tenant of all was the freeholder, or, as he was sometimes termed tenant paravail. The Crown, who in theory owned all lands, was lord paramount.
See: Subinfeudation
[edit] Retainer
Nobles typically employ a working household commensurate to their status. From the cook staff to the mechwarriors, there are many jobs that must be done to maintain the estate that is expected of a noble. The noble pays his retainers a wage, provides for their living expenses, and provides for their defence. In return, they are expected to always be available to serve their employer and to do so loyally and to the best of their abilities. What follows is a guide to the types of servants and retainers that a lord may employee, their pay and cost of living expenses, and recommended minimums for a given household. Remember, the base salary and living expenses can be modified up or down to reflect poorer or better conditions, pay, experience, and standing. [5]
see: Household Knights
[edit] Scutage
The sum that the holder of a knight's fee would pay his lord in lieu of military service. Sometimes used as a form of tax. [6]
[edit] Steward
The man responsible for running the day-to-day affairs of the castle in the absence of the lord. [7]
[edit] Subinfeudation
The process whereby, under the feudal system of tenure, a person receiving a grant of land from a lord, could himself become a lord by subdividing and subletting that land to others.[8]
Subinfeudation is the term for the hierarchical structure that existed between Lords and their Vassals in the middle ages. At the top of the structure there were kings. The kings in turn had Vassals who were powerful Lords or Barons. These powerful Lords were also major land owners, who in turn had Vassals who may have been lesser land owners, but still powerful, each Lord in turn has it's own Vassals terminating with the lowest level subordinate knights or minor land owners. [9]
[edit] Vassal
A vassal or liege, in the terminology that both preceded and accompanied the feudalism of medieval Europe, is one who enters into mutual obligations with a lord, usually of military support and mutual protection, in exchange for certain guarantees, which came to include the terrain held as a fief. By analogy it is applied to similar systems in other feudal societies. [10]
