Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/169

 FEUDAL SYSTEM 161 less powerful freemen, which ended in the ser- vitude of one part and in the feudal vassalage of another, led such as fortunately still pre- served their allodial property to insure its de- fence by a stipulated payment of money. Such payments may be traced in extant charters, chiefly indeed of monasteries. In the case of private persons, it may be presumed that this voluntary contract was frequently changed by the stronger party into a perfect feudal depen- dence. From this, however, as I imagine, it probably differed, in being capable of dissolu- tion at the inferior's pleasure, without incur- ring a forfeiture, as well as having no relation to land. Homage, however, seems to have been incident to commendation, as well as to vassalage. Military service was sometimes the condition of this engagement. It was the law of France, so late at least as the commencement of the third race of kings, that no man could take a part in private wars except in defence of his own lord. Indeed, there is reason to infer from the capitularies of Charles the Bald that every man was bound to attach himself to some lord, though it was the privilege of a freeman to choose his own superior. And this is strongly supported by the analogy of our Anglo-Saxon laws, where it is frequently re- peated that no man should continue without a lord." By the edict of Milan, issued by Conrad II., emperor of Germany, in 1037, four regula- tions are established : " that no man should be deprived of his fief, whether held of the empe- ror or a mesne lord, but by the laws of the empire and the judgment of his peers ; that from such judgment an immediate vassal might appeal to his sovereign ; that fiefs should be inherited by sons and their children, or on their failure by brothers, provided they were feuda paterna, such as had descended from the fa- ther ; and that the lord should not alienate the fief of his vassal without his consent." This edict, though relating immediately only to Lom- bardy, is thought to mark* the full maturity of the feudal system, and the last stage of its pro- gress. Its object was to put an end to disa- greements between inferior vassals and their immediate lords, which had been caused by the want of settled usage. Guizot is of opinion that the essential facts of the feudal system may be reduced to three, viz. : 1, the particular nature of territorial property, real, full, heredi- tary, and yet derived from a superior, impo- sing certain personal obligations on its posses- sor, under pain of forfeiture ; in a word, want- ing in that complete independence which is now its characteristic ; 2, the amalgamation of sovereignty with property, the attribution to the proprietor of the soil, over all the inhabi- tants of that soil, of the whole or nearly the whole of those rights which constitute what we call sovereignty, and which are now pos- sessed only by government, the public power ; 3, the hierarchal system of legislative, judicial, and military institutions, which united the pos- sessors of fiefs among themselves, and formed them into a general society. Of feudal rela- tions, support and fidelity were the principal. The vassal owed service to his lord, and the lord protection to his vassal. If the vassal failed in his obligation, his land was forfeited ; if the lord failed, he lost his seigniory. It is disputed whether the vassal was bound to fol- low his lord's standard against his own kin- dred. As respected the king, the relations were loose and shifting. There are instances of vas- sals aiding their immediate superiors against the king ; and the royal power was always in antagonism to the feudal system. The cere- monies which took place when a fief was con- ferred were principally homage, fealty, and in- vestiture. The first expressed the submission and devotedness of the vassal toward his lord. The oath of fealty differed little in language from the act of homage, but was indispensable, was taken by ecclesiastics, but not by minors, and could be received by proxy. Investiture was the actual conveyance of feudal lands, and was proper or improper. By the first, the vas- sal was put in possession upon the ground, by the lord or his deputy, which the English law calls livery of seisin ; by the second, possession was given symbolically, by the delivery of a branch, turf, or stone, or some other natural object, according to custom. Nearly a hundred varieties of investiture are mentioned. The vassal's duties commenced with his investiture. These were very numerous, and it is impossible to define them at large. They embraced nearly every obligation that can exist in such a state of society as then prevailed over most of Chris- tendom. They varied, too, with place and time. Military service depended upon circumstances, though 40 days was the usual term that the tenant of a knight's fee was bound to be in the field at his own expense. Among the feudal incidents advantageous to the lord were reliefs, fines upon alienation, escheats, aid, wardship, and marriage, the two latter placing the wards and orphan minors among his vassals almost entirely at his mercy. The control of female vassals with respect to marriage was carried to its utmost extent in the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, founded by the first crusaders at the time when the feudal system was at its height. Improper fiefs, as they were called to distinguish them from the military fiefs, were in time granted, in order to gratify pride or to raise money. " They were granted for a price, and without reference to military service. The language of the feudal law was applied by a kind of metaphor to almost every transfer of property. Hence, pensions of money and allowances of provisions, however remote from right notions of a fief, were sometimes granted under that name ; and even where land was the subject of the donation, its conditions were often lucrative, often honorary, and sometimes ludicrous." Fiefs of office, too, were granted, by which persons received grants of land on condition of performing some domestic service to the lord. The mechanic arts were carried