Thursday 13 September 2012

Homage and Fealty


Homage is “done”, fealty is “sworn”.

Very generally the bond of tenure of land is complicated with another bond, that of homage and fealty; the tenant either has done homage and sworn fealty, or is both entitled and compellable to perform these ceremonies. The right and the duty go together; in one particular case it may be the lord, in another it may be the tenant, who will desire that these solemnities should be observed, for each of them may thereby gain something.

The ceremony of homage  is much the same all Europe over. Essentially, the tenant puts his hands between the hands of the lord and says: “I become your man of the tenement that I hold of you, and faith to you will bear of life and member and earthly worship [or of body and chattels and earthly worship], and faith to you shall bear against all folk  who can live and die], saving the faith that I owe to our lord the king.”

In the Laws of Henry I we may find the high-water-mark of English vassalism. Every man owes faith to his lord of life and limb and earthly worship, and must observe his lord’s command in all that is honourable and proper, saving the faith due to God and the ruler of the land; but theft, treason, murder, or anything that is against God and the catholic faith, such things are to be commanded to none, and done by none. Saving these, however, faith must be kept to lords, more especially to a liege lord, and without his consent one may have no other lord. If the lord takes away his man’s land or deserts him in mortal peril, he forfeits his lordship; but the man must be long suffering, he must bear with his lord’s maltreatment of him for thirty days in war, for year and day in peace. Every one may aid his lord when attacked and obey him in all things lawful; and so too the lord is bound to help his man with aid and counsel in all things, and may be his warrant—at least in certain cases—if he attacks or molests another.To kill one’s lord is compared to blasphemy against the Holy Ghost; it is a crime to be punished by a death cruel enough to seem a fit beginning for the torments of hell. If, on the other hand, the lord slays his man who has done no wrong, the offence can be paid for with money.

Homage is a bond of law (vinculum iuris) by which one is holden and bound to warrant, defend and acquit the tenant in his seisin against all men, in return for a certain service (per certum servitium) named and expressed in the gift, and vice versa whereby the tenant is “really” bound (re obligatur) to keep faith to his lord and do the due service; and such is the connexion by homage between lord and tenant that the lord owes as much to the tenant as the tenant to the lord, save only reverence.

Vassalism and Felony: Vassalism will be found in the fact that a man can hardly “go against” any one at his lord’s command without being guilty of the distinctively feudal crime, without being guilty of “felony.” Common law, royal and national law, has, as it were, occupied the very citadel of feudalism. Whatever may be the etymology of felony, there can be no doubt that originally the word came to us from France, and that in France and elsewhere it covered only the specifically feudal crimes, those crimes which were breaches of the feudal bond and which would work a forfeiture or escheat of the fief, or as the case might be, of the lordship; for the lord might be guilty of felony against his man just as the man might be guilty of felony against his lord. A mere common crime, however wicked and base, mere wilful homicide, or theft, is not a felony; there must be some breach of that faith and trust which ought to exist between lord and man.

Later all the hatred and contempt which are behind the word felon are enlisted against the criminal, murderer, robber, thief, without reference to any breach of the bond of homage and fealty.

The oath of fealty, fealty is "sworn" and it is worthy of observation that the oath is conceived as less solemn than the symbolic act and can be exacted in many cases in which homage is not exigible. The tenant stands up with his hand on the gospels and says: Hear this my lord: I will bear faith to you of life and member, goods, chattels and earthly worship, so help me God and these holy gospels of God; some add an express promise to do the service due for the tenement.

An oath of fealty (faithfulness), is a pledge of allegiance of one person to another. Typically the oath is made upon a religious object such as a Bible or saint's relic, often contained within an altar, thus binding the oath-taker before God. Fealty was sworn between two people, the obliged person (vassal) and a person of rank (lord). This was done as part of a formal commendation ceremony to create a feudal relationship.

The forms of a free man's homage and fealty: "I become your man from this day forth, for life, for member and for worldly honour, and shall bear you faith for the lands that I claim to hold of you; saving the faith that I owe unto our lord the king * * I shall be to you faithful and true, and shall bear you faith of the tenements I claim to hold of you, and loyally will acknowledge and will do the services I owe you at the times assigned. So help me God and the Saints." 

Breaking an oath is perjury.

Simple Homage v. Liege Homage

The oath known as "fealty" implied lesser obligations than did "homage". Further, one could swear "fealty" to many different overlords with respect to different land holdings, but "homage" could only be performed to a single liege, as one could not be "his man" (i.e., committed to military service) to more than one "liege lord".

 Simple Homage merely meant one had taken an oath of fealty,
Liege Homage means becoming one's liege-lord's man, willing to fight and dies for him.

Extracted and paraphrased from the following references

The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I, Volume I
by Sir Frederick Pollock and Frederic William Maitland
Second Edition
The Law Book Exchange Ltd
Union, New Jersey 1996

Book II, Chapter 1. Tenure
Section 6, Homage and Fealty
Page 296
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=J8qFSLLZhxQC&pg=PA296#v=onepage&q&f=true

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homage_(feudal)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fealty

http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Homage

http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Vassal

http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Feudalism

http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Fee

http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Fief

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fee_(feudal_tenure)

Lalor

Ranulf de Glanville (1812). A Translation of Glanville. W. Reed. pp. 215–.

 Ranulf de Glanville (1812). A Translation of Glanville. W. Reed. p. 222.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_ceremony

Sir Edward Coke; Sir Thomas Littleton; Francis Hargrave; Charles Butler, Sir Matthew Hale, Heneage Finch Earl of Nottingham (1832). The First Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England: Or, a Commentary Upon Littleton : Not the Name of the Author Only, But of the Law Itself ... : Haec Ego Grandaevus Posui Tibi, Candide Lector.  Homage. J. & W.T. Clarke.

 Sir Edward Coke; Sir Thomas Littleton; Francis Hargrave; Charles Butler, Sir Matthew Hale, Heneage Finch Earl of Nottingham (1832). The First Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England: Or, a Commentary Upon Littleton : Not the Name of the Author Only, But of the Law Itself ... : Haec Ego Grandaevus Posui Tibi, Candide Lector. Fealty. J. & W.T. Clarke.
Lyttelton (1769). The History Of The Life of King Henry the Second. Homage. pp. 110–.
Fealty and Homage: Enthronment of the Archbishop Elect.
The Life and Times of St. Anselm: Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of The Britains.

The Feudal System was fully established in England in 1085 by law 52 of King William the Conqueror


Archibald Brown (1874). A New Law Dictionary and Institute of the Whole Law: For the Use of Students, the Legal Profession, and the Public. Wm. S. Hein Publishing. pp. 155–. ISBN 978-0-8377-1949-8.

François Louis Ganshof (1964). Feudalism. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-7158-3.
 
Medieval Sourcebook: Two Reviews of Susan Reynolds: Fiefs and Vassals (1994)
Susan Reynolds, Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Susan Reynolds (1996). Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-820648-4.
by Fred Cheyette, in Speculum
by Paul R. Hyams: in Journal of Interdisciplinary History
Internet History Sourcebooks Project Link


La féodalité en crise. Propos sur « Fiefs and Vassals » de Susan Reynolds
E. Magnou-Nortier
Revue Historique
T. 296, Fasc. 2 (600) (OCTOBRE-DÉCEMBRE 1996), pp. 253-348
Published by: Presses Universitaires de France
 
Christopher Harper-Bill; Nicholas Vincent (2007). Henry II: New Interpretations. John Gillingham: Doing Homage to the King of France: Boydell Press. pp. 63–. ISBN 978-1-84383-340-6.
Gillingham, J. (2007). Doing Homage to the King of France. In Harper-Bill C. & Vincent N. (Eds.), Henry II: New Interpretations(pp. 63-84). Boydell and Brewer.


Jacques Le Goff (January 1980). Time, Work, and Culture in the Middle Ages. 'The Symbolic Ritual of Vassalage': University of Chicago Press. pp. 237–. ISBN 978-0-226-47081-8.


Fidèles ou vassaux- essai sur la nature juridique du lien qui unissait les grands vassaux à la royauté depuis le milieu de ixe jusqu'à la fin du xiie siècle

Chapter Title: Homage in the Latin chronicles of eleventh- and twelfth-century Normandy Chapter Author(s): Alice Taylor
Book Title: People, Texts and Artefacts
Book Subtitle: Cultural Transmission in the Medieval Norman Worlds
Book Editor(s): David Bates, Edoardo D’Angelo, Elisabeth van Houts
Published by: School of Advanced Study, University of London, Institute of Historical Research. (2017)
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv512xnf.19


Fundamental Axiom of Feudalism in England

Nulle terre sans seigneur

No land without a lord.
or
No property [land] without a liege.

Nulle terre sans seigneur - Wikipedia


Anglo-Saxon Law

In King Athelstan's time everyone had to be attached to a lord. Unattached people were outside the law, had no assigned court which to attend, had nowhere to go to have their case heard or for them to be tried. They were outlaws. Anyone could kill them on sight.

https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/560-975dooms.asp#The%20Laws%20of%20King%20Athelstan

Great Britain (1840). Ancient Laws and Institutes of England. Laws of King Athelstan: Of Lordless Men: G. Eyre and A. Spottiswoode, printers to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty. p. 201. https://goo.gl/wXftnR

Of lordless men.

2. And we have ordained: respecting those lordless men of whom no law can be got, that the kindred be commanded that they domicile him to folkright, and find him a lord in the folkmote; and if they then will not or cannot produce him at the term, then be he thenceforth a flyma, and let him slay him for a thief who can come at him: and whoever after that shall harbour him, let him pay for him according to his wer, or by it clear himself.

 In Anglo-Saxon times the term was Hyremannus [Hiredman] = Retainer. After a ceremony of homage and fealty the hiredman owed service to his Lord for life.

Statutes of William The Conqueror

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/medieval/lawwill.asp

Here is shown what William the king of the English, together With his princes, has established since the Conquest of England.

1. Firstly that, above all things, he wishes one God to lie venerated throughout his whole kingdom, one faith of Christ always to be kept inviolate, peace and security to be observed between the English and the Normans.
2. We decree also that every free man shall affirm by compact and an oath that, within and without England, he desires to be faithful to king William, to preserve with him his lands and his honour with all fidelity, and first to defend him against his enemies.
...

 Marc Bloch. tr. Manyon, ed. Feudal Society. Vols I and II Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-67757-4.
[La société féodale (1939)]
http://www.persee.fr/doc/bec_0373-6237_1941_num_102_1_460369_t1_0218_0000_000

Marc Bloch (1961). Feudal Society. Volume 1 - The Growth of Ties of Dependence University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-05978-5
[La société féodale, La formation des liens de dépendance.(1939)]
Chapter list: http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo3641119.html

Marc Bloch (1961). Feudal Society. Volume 2: Social Classes and Political Organization
University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-05979-2.
[La société féodale, les classes et le gouvernement des hommes.(1940)]


Lordship

Let's not speak of Feudalism rather let's discuss Lordship. Lordship is all about managing households, their dependants and the concept of power. Lordship seems always to involve a symbolic ritual of vassalage (Goff).

In Roman society all members of a household were placed in a status of social inferiority to its dominus (Lord), or paterfamilias (father of the family). Even St. Benedict referred to the abbot of a monastery as its Lord, as he acts in Christ's place. But a certain amount of humility was implied in this statement. Pope Gregory the Great called his position “Servant of the Servants of God”.

The leaders of the tribal warbands of the Germanic peoples were expected to distribute largesse and receive in return the loyalty of their followers after raiding expeditions. This kind of relationship evolved after time into honour and loyalty which was a kind of relationship which became very widespread and common by the ninth century.

Vassalage evolved and became the means and route to landed wealth with its motives of greed and ambition, and the human vidity for power and possession, self-promotion and violence, all resting on a theology of inequality, in which a vassal practiced submission by petitioning for his lord's grace, confirming the latter's power and lordship over the vassal in God's image. This was as if one had petitioned for favour and judgment in a manner based on a quasi-biblical culture in the act of homage, a ritual which entailed a reverential and humble submission of the vassal to his lord even unto submitting to a tyrant. One's lord was for life one could not undo or break this bond of trust.

By the eleventh century every castle and the fiefs dependent upon it created a lordship thus there began a process of an intimidating domination of peasants by the knights who had nothing less than a motive to extend and exploit their fiefs, nothing less than that which might be termed The Feudal Revolution. The very essence of the act of homage: self-surrender of one person to another.

In the Church this manifested itself in a difference of attitude between those clerics who held large fiefs because of their positions within the Church and those who adopted and tried to live up to the monastic vow of poverty, often where pastoral competence was pitted against dynastic, proprietary and familial interest.


Medieval Lordship
Thomas N. Bisson
Speculum
Vol. 70, No. 4 (Oct., 1995), pp. 743-759
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Medieval Academy of America
DOI: 10.2307/2865342
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2865342




Posted by at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)