Avassal[1] orliege subject[2] is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to alord ormonarch, in the context of thefeudal system inmedieval Europe and elsewhere. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called asuzerain. The rights and obligations of a vassal are calledvassalage, while the rights and obligations of a suzerain are calledsuzerainty.The obligations of a vassal often included military support by knights in exchange for certain privileges, usually including land held as a tenant orfief.[3]
In contrast,fealty (fidelitas) is sworn, unconditional loyalty to a monarch.[4]
In fully developed vassalage, the lord and the vassal would take part in acommendation ceremony composed of two parts, thehomage and thefealty, including the use of Christian sacraments to show its sacred importance. According toEginhard's brief description, thecommendatio made toPippin the Younger in 757 byTassilo III, Duke of Bavaria, involved the relics ofSaints Denis, Rusticus, Éleuthère,Martin, andGermain – apparently assembled atCompiegne for the event.[5] Such refinements were not included from the outset when it was time of crisis, war, hunger, etc. Under feudalism, those who were weakest needed the protection of the knights who owned the weapons and knew how to fight.
Feudal society was increasingly based on the concept of "lordship" (Frenchseigneur), which was one of the distinguishing features of theEarly Middle Ages and had evolved from times ofLate Antiquity.[note 1]
In the time ofCharlemagne (ruled 768–814), the connection slowly developed between vassalage and the grant of land, the main form of wealth at that time. Contemporaneous social developments included agricultural "manorialism" and the social and legal structures labelled — but only since the 18th century — "feudalism". These developments proceeded at different rates in various regions. InMerovingian times (5th century to 752), monarchs would reward only the greatest and most trusted vassals 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 estates.[6]
The stratification of a fighting band of vassals into distinct groups might roughly correlate with the new term "fief" that had started to supersede "benefice" in the 9th century. An "upper" group comprised great territorial magnates, who were strong enough to ensure the inheritance of their benefice to the heirs of their family. A "lower" group consisted of landlessknights attached to acount orduke. This social settling process also received impetus in fundamental changes in the conduct of warfare. As co-ordinatedcavalry superseded disorganizedinfantry, armies became more expensive to maintain. A vassal needed economic resources to equip the cavalry he was bound to contribute to his lord to fight his frequent wars. Such resources, in the absence of a money economy, came only from land and its associated assets, which includedpeasants as well as wood and water.
Many empires have set upvassal states, based on tribes, kingdoms, or city-states, the subjects of which they wish to control without having to conquer or directly govern them. In these cases a subordinate state (such as adependency,residency,client state orprotectorate) has retained internal autonomy, but has lost independence in foreign policy, while also, in many instances, paying formaltribute, or providing troops when requested.This is a similar relationship to vassals, but vassals holdfiefdoms which are present in the actual territory of the monarch.
In this framework, a "formal colony" or "junior ally" might also be regarded as a vassal state in terms of international relations, analogous to a domestic "fief-holder" or "trustee".
The concept of a vassal state uses the concept of personal vassalry to theorize formallyhegemonic relationships between states – even those using non-personal forms of rule. Imperial states to which this terminology has been applied include, for instance:Ancient Rome, theMongol Empire,Imperial China and theBritish Empire.
^The Tours formulary, which a mutual contract of rural patronage, offered parallels; it was probably derived from Late AntiqueGallo-Roman precedents, according to Magnou-Nortier 1975.
^F. L. Ganshof, "Benefice and Vassalage in the Age of Charlemagne"Cambridge Historical Journal6.2 (1939:147-75).
^Ganshof 151 note 23 andpassim; the essential point was made again, and the documents on which the historian's view of vassalage are based were reviewed, with translation and commentary, by Elizabeth Magnou-Nortier,Foi et Fidélité. Recherches sur l'évolution des liens personnels chez les Francs du VIIe au IXe siècle (University of Toulouse Press) 1975.
^"at". Noctes-gallicanae.org. Archived from the original on 2009-12-05. Retrieved2012-02-13.
^Ganshof, François Louis,Feudalism translated 1964
Sources
Cantor, Norman,The Civilization of the Middle Ages 1993.
Rouche, Michel, "Private life conquers state and society," inA History of Private Life vol I, Paul Veyne, editor, Harvard University Press 1987ISBN0-674-39974-9.
