[Discuss] Refined Unit Responsibility

[Anthony Cerqueira]

On 10/20/06, Samuel Knowlton <sam at iamsam.org> wrote:
>
>  >>The better question is, why would a noble follow orders? I mean it's
> not like he's in the army or something.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fealty
>
> An oath of fealty is, in many ways, stronger than your basic military
> hierarchy. You don't follow your sergeant's orders, you get discharged,
> maybe dishonorably, and move on. You break your oath of fealty, you're an
> oathbreaker and dishonorable scum, and that stays with you for life.
>
> There's just more wiggle room with fealty - it's not black and white like
> military hierarchy is. You can bend it more before it breaks.
>
>
>
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Ah good, good, wikipedia what can't it tell you, eh? ;)

Anyway you are quite right, a knight does swear to aid his lord when he
calls for it. That doesn't exactly give the lord the freedom to start
sending around orders though. Here this might help too.

 Lords, vassals and fiefs

Before a lord could grant land (a fief) to someone, he had to make that
person a vassal. This was done at a formal and symbolic ceremony
called a commendation
ceremony <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_ceremony> comprised of
the two-part act of homage <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homage> and oath of
fealty <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fealty>. During homage, the vassal
would promise to fight for the lord at his command. *Fealty* comes from the
Latin *fidelitas*, or faithfulness; the oath of fealty is thus a promise
that the vassal will be faithful to the lord. Once the commendation was
complete, the lord and vassal were now in a feudal relationship with
agreed-upon mutual obligations to one another.

The lord's principal obligation was to grant a fief, or its revenues, to the
vassal; the fief is the primary reason the vassal chose to enter into the
relationship. In addition, the lord sometimes had to fulfill other
obligations to the vassal and fief. One of those obligations was its
maintenance. Since the lord had not given the land away, only loaned it, it
was still the lord's responsibility to maintain the land, while the vassal
had the right to collect revenues generated from it. Another obligation that
the lord had to fulfill was to protect the land and the vassal from harm.

The vassal's principal obligation to the lord was to provide "aid", or
military service. Using whatever equipment the vassal could obtain by virtue
of the revenues from the fief, the vassal was responsible to answer to calls
to military service on behalf of the lord. This security of military help
was the primary reason the lord entered into the feudal relationship. In
addition, the vassal sometimes had to fulfill other obligations to the lord.
One of those obligations was to provide the lord with "counsel", so that if
the lord faced a major decision, such as whether or not to go to war, he
would summon all his vassals and hold a council. The vassal may have been
required to provide a certain amount of his farm's yield to his lord. The
vassal was also sometimes required to grind his wheat and bake his bread in
the ovens owned and taxed by his lord.

The land-holding relationships of feudalism revolved around the fief.
Depending on the power of the granting lord, grants could range in size from
a small farm to a much larger area of land. The size of fiefs was described
in irregular terms quite different from modern area terms; see medieval land
terms <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_land_terms>. The lord-vassal
relationship was not restricted to members of the laity;
bishops<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishops>and
abbots <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbot>, for example, were also capable
of acting as lords.

There were thus different 'levels' of lordship and vassaldom. The King was a
lord who loaned fiefs to aristocrats, who were his vassals. Meanwhile the
aristocrats were in turn lords to their own vassals, the peasants who worked
on their land. Ultimately, the Emperor was a lord who loaned fiefs to Kings,
who were his vassals. This traditonally formed the basis of a 'universal
monarchy' as an imperial alliance and a world order.
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