178 



FEUDAL SYSTEM. 



which followed themigration of nations, and the death 

 of Charlemagne, it soon appeared useful and indis- 

 pensable that those states which were well protected 

 from foreign invasion, tltough they had no assurance 

 of internal security, should put themselves under the 

 protection of a powerful governor. Powerful barons 

 and rich bishops on one side, dukes and counts, the 

 representatives of the kings, on the other, oppressed 

 the neighbouring free proprietors of landed property, 

 till they looked with jealousy on the dependent vas- 

 sals, and submitted to the protection of the oppres- 

 sor, or some other nobleman, in order to obtain 

 security. Many persons, especially the poor, who 

 were obliged to cultivate their land themselves, and 

 could not leave it without much inconvenience, sub- 

 mitted to this protection, though they were in no 

 danger of oppression, merely to escape the military 

 service. For dukes, and counts, and the bailiffs 

 (who acted on behalf of the bishops), whose duty it 

 was to levy and command the army, instead of em- 

 ploying the raw militia, who often forgot their mili- 

 tary skill in long-continued peace, preferred their 

 own attendants, now styled the vassals, and released 

 such of the king's subjects as were willing to become 

 their vassals, and pay a certain contribution, from 

 the obligation of serving in the national militia. The 

 emperors and kings cared little from what source 

 the dukes obtained their forces, provided the number 

 was complete. Besides the advantages just mentioned, 

 they even preferred an army of vassals to the na- 

 tional soldiery, because the latter were bound only to 

 serve in the defence of the country, while the former 

 were bound to a much less limited, sometimes uncon- 

 ditional service, and were hence far more useful. 

 Thus the national militia gradually went out of use, 

 and gave place to the feudal militia. Another, and 

 not a small class of men, including the wealthy fami- 

 lies, afterwards called the inferior nobility, who cul- 

 tivated their land by means of hirelings or bondsmen, 

 were not anxious to free themselves from the military 

 service ; for war was always their favourite employ- 

 ment. But they could not dispense with the pro- 

 tection of the nobles ; on the other hand, their pride 

 could not stoop to serve in an army which was every 

 day sinking into disgrace. They longed for the 

 honour of being received among the vassals of the 

 nobility, and consented to hold their estates as the 

 feudatories of the nearest duke, or earl, or bishop. 

 Often, too, from a feeling of devotion, they became 

 the feudatories of the great religious establishments. 

 This is the origin of the great number of feudal 

 estates hi Germany at the present day, with the ex- 

 ception of the north-eastern provinces, formerly Scla- 

 vonic, and subsequently conquered and divided among 

 vassals. They were bound, like other vassals, under 

 tlie penalty of losing their lands, to follow their lord 

 in all his quarrels against any person excepting other 

 lords of whom they held lands, and excepting also 

 the emperor and empire. Moreover, in war, the 

 vassals were required to throw open their fortresses 

 and castles for the use of their masters. The dukes, 

 and counts, and bishops, who were paid in fiefs for 

 their several services, stood in this relation to the 

 emperor ; and inferior landed proprietors stood also 

 in the same relation to the superior nobility (for 

 this was the origin of the inferior nobility). Rich 

 and adventurous peasants, likewise, who preferred 

 honourable vassalage to honest but despised patro- 

 nage, invested some nobleman with their lands, or 

 were invested by him with the consent of the lord 

 paramount, with a further portion of his feudal terri- 

 tory (under tenants). The investiture was made, 

 from the time of the Saxon emperors, in the great 

 vice-regal fiefs, by a banner (which was the ensign oi 

 command) ; in the inferior ones by a sword ; and in 



the spiritual fiefs, by a ring and a staff; after the 

 peace of Worms, in 1122, which confined the power 

 of the emperor to secular affairs, by a sceptre. The 

 castle-fiefs, so called, were a peculiar kind of military 

 fiefs, the possessor of which was bound to defend the 

 castle belonging to his lord. The vassal who directed 

 the defence was called, in the imperial fortresses, a 

 burgrave. Thus the several orders of vassals formed 

 a system of concentric circles, of which each was 

 under the influence of the next, and all moved around 

 a common centre, the king, as the supreme feudal 

 lord. 



With military vassals another class arose. From 

 the oldest times, we find in the courts of kings, and 

 the governors whom they appointed, as well as in 

 those of the bishops, certain officers, who at first per- 

 formed active service, but were afterwards rather a 

 splendid appendage to the court. The four offices 

 of the marshal, the chamberlain, the cupbearer, and 

 the sewer, are the oldest and most honourable, but 

 by no means the only ones : offices, on the contrary, 

 were as numerous as the employments which could 

 be devised at court. These officers, at a period 

 when money was scarce, and the old German notion 

 in full vigour, which considered none but landed pro- 

 prietors as citizens, and none but the owners of large 

 estates as noblemen, were naturally rewarded by 

 grants of land during the time of service; and these 

 estates, like the military fiefs (but somewhat later, cer. 

 tainly not before the time of Frederic I.), became by 

 degrees hereditary. The splendour of the court, and 

 the advantages accruing from these services, induced 

 many noblemen to solicit them. They became the 

 first in the new class of servants or ministers which 

 was thus formed ; and under them there was a mul 

 titude of other servants, particularly on the estates 

 of the nobility. Every farmer (villicus) was paid for 

 the cultivation of one piece of land by the investiture 

 of another smaller piece ; and there was scarcely a 

 servant of the court who had not been invested, for 

 his services, with at least a house or a garden in the 

 village adjoining the castle. The great ministerial 

 officers, too indolent to execute the duties of their 

 offices themselves, with the permission of their lords, 

 soon began to commit them to others, whom they 

 paid in like manner for their administration by the 

 investiture of some other estates. Fiefs were gradu- 

 ally introduced, which were acquired not by military 

 or court services, but by performing certain duties 

 of no great difficulty, amounting to little more than 

 the acknowledgment of the lord's feudal superiority; 

 as by the yearly gift of a horse, a pair of hounds, a 

 falcon, or the like. Very slight acts were often 

 admitted as acknowledgments, as the holding of a 

 stirrup, or walking before the feudal lord on certain 

 occasions. Among the presents and acts are some 

 of a most ridiculous character, according to the 

 humour of the feudal lord; such as dancing before the 

 army, performing some trick, offering an egg, a 

 penny, &c. A refusal to perform feudal service, or 

 any other violation of fealty, was styled felony (q. v.). 

 Upon this and other difficulties incident to feudal 

 property, as hi cases growing out of the succession, 

 surrender, alienation, or under-tenure of a fief, the 

 lord decided in a feudal court, filled by vassals, who 

 were required to be of equal rank with the accused. 

 To appear in these courts at the summons of the 

 lord of the manor, and accept the place of an assessor 

 there, was reckoned among the duties incident to a 

 fief. A the relation of lords and vassals (at that time 

 one of the most important relations in life) became 

 more and more widely spread, and the number of 

 vassals increased at the expense of the ancient im- 

 mediate subjects of the empire, the latter were thrown 

 into the background, and at length nearly forgotten. 



