vassal, in feudal society, one invested with a fief in return for services to an overlord. Some vassals did not have fiefs and lived at their lord’s court as his household knights. Certain vassals who held their fiefs directly from the crown were tenants in chief and formed the most important feudal group, the barons.
What is the best definition of a vassal?
The definition of a vassal was someone in feudal times who received protection and land from a lord in return for allegiance and performing military and other duties, or someone who is subordinate. An example of a vassal is a person who was given part of a lord’s land and who pledged himself to that lord.
What did vassal do?
Vassal Definition
In the feudal system, Medieval Vassals by definition were people granted the use of a King’s land in return for their services, which included homage, fealty, and military services equivalent to that of a lord. Vassals can also be referred to as “feudal tenants”.
What is a vassal country?
A vassal state is any state that has a mutual obligation to a superior state or empire, in a status similar to that of a vassal in the feudal system in medieval Europe.
Where do you find a vassal?
Vassals were people who worked the vast plots of land that were held by lords, who though much fewer in number, held all the wealth and power. In days of yore, vassals pledged devotion to feudal lords, who were the landowners, in exchange for protection and use of the land—-called a fief.
Who were the vassal kings?
A vassal king is a king that owes allegiance to another king or emperor. This situation occurred in England after the Norman invasion of 1066.
Is a vassal a knight?
Knights did not exist at the beginning of the Middle Ages but began to emerge as the period progressed. Land given to a knight for service was called a fief. Anyone accepting a fief was called a vassal. The person from whom he accepted the fief was his lord.
What describes a fief?
In European feudalism, a fief was a source of income granted to a person (called a vassal) by his lord in exchange for his services. The fief usually consisted of land and the labor of peasants who were bound to cultivate it.
Where does the term vassal come from?
From Old French vassal, from Medieval Latin vassallus (“manservant, domestic, retainer”), from Latin vassus (“servant”), from Gaulish *wassos (“young man, squire”), from Proto-Celtic *wastos (“servant”) (compare Old Irish foss and Welsh gwas).
Is a vassal a servant?
a person holding some similar relation to a superior; a subject, subordinate, follower, or retainer. a servant or slave. of, relating to, or characteristic of a vassal.
What did the lord give the vassal?
As part of the feudal agreement, the lord promised to protect the vassal and provided the vassal with a plot of land. This land could be passed on to the vassal’s heirs, giving the vassal tenure over the land.
What is the relationship between the lord and vassal?
What was the relationship between lords and vassals? They had mutual obligations. Lords provided land and protection while vassals provided money, advice, loyalty and military service.
What is the difference between a lord and a vassal?
A lord was in broad terms a noble who held land, a vassal was a person who was granted possession of the land by the lord, and a fief was what the land was known as. In exchange for the use of the fief and the protection of the lord, the vassal would provide some sort of service to the lord.
