The Feudal System
May 10th, 2008 | by indo |
Above : Empire Of Charlemagne Map
Some knowledge of the feudal system is necessary in order to understand the new relations which were created between Henry and the Irish, when on the one hand the chiefs acknowledged the supremacy of the King, and on the other hand he professed to give away large tracts of Irish land to his followers. The ” submissions ” as well as the ” grants ” were looked upon by both parties from different points of view, and their meaning was interpreted in different ways by the Irish, whose ideas were those of the clan system, and by the Normans, who were governed by the feudal system. Two different conceptions of social and political life were brought into conflict.
The feudal system probably had its origin in the conditions under which the ” barbarian ” tribes led by their Kings bad planted themselves on the ruins of the Roman Empire. It had developed under the Empire of Charlemagne, and now spread over Western Europe, breaking down the early Teutonic and Celtic systems, except amongst the independent Celtic nations of the extreme West. The Normans had carried it into England at the Conquest, and upon it their Kingdom there was based. For many centuries England was governed by it, and it still influences her constitution and laws. It was firstly a system of government, and secondly a system of land tenure.
The feudal system of government was that of lord and vassal. The lord protected the vassal, who, for his part, paid homage to the lord and promised him fealty. The relationship was generally, but not always, accompanied by a grant to the vassal of lands belonging to the lord, in return for which the former gave military service to the latter in his wars. There were many gradations, and in most cases the same person might be at the same time both a lord and a vassal. At the head of all was generally the King, who was no man’s vassal—except where he paid homage to an emperor (as in Germany), or to some similar over-lord. Under the King were his imir-’Hate vassals, his great lords—dukes, counts, earls, great barons, etc. These, in their turn, had their own vassals, lesser barons, knights, etc., and they, again, frequently had ” tenants ” under them, the owners of single ” manors ” or ” demesnes.” Beneath all were the serfs, who were regarded merely as part of the manor or demesne. The essential principle of feudal government was the exclusive dependence of the vassal upon his lord. “Every lord judged, taxed, and commanded, the class next below him.”
The duty of the vassal being to his own lord alone, if that lord rebelled against his King the vassal was bound to follow him against the King. For instance, the German Emperors and the Kings of France were engaged for many centuries in wars with their great vassals, and these again with their own tenants. But the Norman Kings had introduced an important change in England by procuring a law that all free holders of land should swear fealty to the King direct, whether they were or were not also vassals of an intermediate lord. This direct allegiance to the Crown was enforced by the custom—largely developed by Henry II himself—of sending the King’s sheriffs and judges into every shire to uphold the authority of the King, and to carry out his laws.
Accordingly, when we read of Irish territories being parcelled out into counties, we know that it was for the purpose of sending sheriffs and judges into them to enforce the rule of the Crown of England in the early period against his own too powerful subjects, and at a later stage against the whole Irish people.
The feudal system was, in the second place, a system of ownership of land. According to it, the land of a country was the absolute properly of its sovereign lord—generally the King. The King granted it in large fiefs to his great vassals or ” tenants in chief,” on condition that (amongst other services) they would aid him in his wars with a specified number of knights and men-at-arms. They, in their turn, sub-granted parts of their fiefs to ” mesne lords ” on similar conditions, and so on. These fiefs, although not at first hereditary, soon became so, but if the owner broke his pledge of fealty, the lands might be resumed by his lord. This system of land tenure was, therefore, similar to the system of government just described, and the two together made the full feudal system. But they were not always combined, and frequently feudal government existed without feudal land tenure, and homage and fealty were often paid without admitting any right of the lord to the lands. In England, however, owing to the circumstances of the Conquest, feudal ownership of land was universal, and the dominion of the King over the lands of his tenants was unquestioned.
Tags: empire of charlemagne, feudal, feudal land tenure, grant, hostile system, lord and vassal, roman empire, submission