Читать книгу Western Civilization - Paul R. Waibel - Страница 55

The primary function of the feudal system was to exchange land for military service. Land was the one valuable commodity in the agricultural world of medieval Europe. In theory, the land belonged to the king, or in the case of the Holy Roman Empire, the emperor. Without money to hire soldiers, the king used the one thing he possessed, that is, the land. The king would give use, not ownership, of a piece of land to a nobleman in exchange for military service. Depending on the size of the land that the nobleman received, he was required to provide a certain number of armed mounted knights to serve in the king's army for a certain number of days each year.

The one granting the land became the lord, and the one receiving the land became the lord's vassal. The grant of land, itself, was called a fief. A fief contained one or more manors, that is, self‐sufficient agricultural units roughly similar to a plantation. Serfs or peasants came with the land. Their role was to work the land and perform other various duties for the one who possessed the land, and who was their lord, the lord of the manor. The lord of the manor used the income from the land to provide the necessary armament, weapons, and warhorse for himself and, if necessary, the other knights he agreed to furnish.

The exchange of land for services took the form of an investiture ceremony. The vassal knelt before his lord, placed his hands between the lord's hands and swore to be the lord's man and perform the duties agreed to, some of which were traditional and others were specific. The lord would then hand a clump of dirt, or other object symbolizing the land grant, to the vassal. Thus, the vassal was invested with his fief.

There was both a property element and a personal element in the feudal system. The land (fief) granted to the vassal was the property element. The oath of loyalty that established a personal bond between lord and vassal was the personal element. It was not a one‐sided arrangement. The vassal was obligated to serve the traditional 30 or 40 days of military service, provide lodging for the lord and his retinue when they visited the vassal's manor, and all other duties agreed to in the investiture ceremony. The lord was obligated to defend his vassal in the event of war and provide justice for his vassal in the lord's court.

The important thing to understand is that these relationships were between individuals, not between an individual and the state, kingdom, or other political unit. If the vassal did not fulfill his obligations, the lord could recover the fief, a process known as forfeiture. Upon the death of either the lord or vassal, a new feudal contract was agreed to between the survivor and the heir of the deceased. Upon the death of a vassal whose heir was either a minor or a daughter, the lord exercised wardship and enjoyed the income from the fief until the heir reached majority or he found a husband for his ward, the deceased's daughter.

In the feudal system, every man was a vassal, having sworn fealty to a lord. Often an individual was a vassal of more than one lord, and himself a lord with vassals. The feudal system was, theoretically at least, a feudal pyramid with the king, or emperor, at the peak of the pyramid with a string of vassals under him. Each of the king's vassals might have a string of vassals under him, and so forth as the pyramid fanned out in a process referred to as subinfeudation. A king could be a vassal of another king. William I of England was both King of England and Duke of Normandy. As the Duke of Normandy, William was a vassal of the king of France. In 1213, King John surrendered England to the pope and then received it back as a vassal.