Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/624

* FEUDALISM.
 * >G8

FEUDALISM. franchises now imperfectly understood. Some- times only partial rights of government were given in the immunities, as where the King ^ninted all pecuniary profits from court jurisdic- tions over a certain district, but did not give any other powers. Ultimately, as feudal condi- tions became so nearly universal, it was con- sidered that landholding in itself involved the possession of certain political rights over the tenants of the land, the extent of these rights be- ing dependent on the customs or circumstances of each particular case. And in this manner, in the lower as well as in the higher grades of holding of landed estates, there was the same union of proprietorship of the land, lordships over vassals, and rights of sovereignty over inhabitants. In the creation of this complex mass of personal and territorial relations, there was much that was a matter of voluntary choice, but still more that was the result of the exercise of compulsion. The early Middle Ages were a period of violence and disorder, and feudalism was rather a re- sultant from the conflict of different forces than any planned or logical scheme. Nevertheless a certain equilibrium was reached, if it was only the recognition of the common interests of op- pressor and oppressed, of the powerful and the weak; in spite of a thousand variations, from country to country, from estate to estate, from person to person, there was a certain amount of uniformity. It is this degree of consistency which has suggested and partially justified the use of the term 'feudal system,' and taking it in this sense, it is possible lo give an approximate description of this general body of feudal cus- toms. The Feudal System. About the thirteenth century a number of treatises or codifications of feudal law and customs were drawn up, such as that of Beaumanior and other similar Cou- tvmiers in France, the Sachsenspiegel and Schwabensjiirr/rl in Germany, and the Lihri Feu- dorum in Italy. The appearance of these feudal codes, as well as other facts arising from a direct study of institutions, seems to point lo the thirteenth century as the culminating period of feudalism, though the course of its development was very different in different countries. From the point of view of landholding. feudalism was most complete in England, due doubtless to the occurrence, just in the constructive period of feudal institutions, of the Norman Conquest with its accompanying confiscations and regrants. In- dependent political powers were developed most completely in Germany or Italy, but on the whole feudalism had its most symmetrica] development in France, and it is (here studied most satis- f I' torily as a complete system. The base of the whole structure was (he fief. A lief was a body of land; if might he made ii|i of a large si retch of contiguous territory or of many separate tracts, or it might he a single e file, or even possibly a comparatively small nber of acres in a certain manor or township, which a tenant held from his lord on condition oi certain 'feudal' services. When the lief was I'd. oi- when ii was obtained by in heritance, or when ,-i new lord succeeded to th,' rainty, a ceremonial 'investiture' look place ii ding to t in- i radii iona I forms of t he cere- nioii and homage 1 he tenanl kneeled before the lord, placed his clasped hands be- tween the hands of his lord, and in this attitude swore to be his man and to preserve fidelity to him in all things. The lord accepted the fealty and homage by kissing the tenant and infer- entially promising him his protection and patron- age, and by conveying to him, frequently by some symbolic action, the fief of which the vassal now became possessor. The services owed by the tenant were of the following general classes: Military service was the duty of serving his lord in war with a certain number of men for a certain time; accord- ing to a widespread custom, once a year and for forty days. So general was this duty that feudal tenure is frequently called military tenure. Court service was the twofold duty of coming when summoned to be a member of a body to decide in cases concerning one of his 'peers' or fellow vassals of the same lord, and of submit- ting himself to the jurisdiction of such a court or of his lord. 'Wardship' is the term applied to the right of the lord to assume the guardian- ship of the minor heir of a deceased tenant and the income from the estate during the minority, with the requirement, however, that the proper support and education of the heir be provided for from the estate. 'Marriage' similarly wa9 the right of the lord to control the choice of a husband for the heiress or the widow of a tenant, and frequently of a wife for the heir. These last two forms of service reduced themselves prac- tically to the imposition of a money fee propor- tionate to the value of the estate concerned. Military service also was frequently transformed into a money payment. There were other direct money payments, although usually at quite un- certain intervals. Of these, 'relief was a money fee due from an heir on the acquisition of his property. It was very commonly estimated at a sum equal to the value of one year's income of the estate. 'Aids' were payments of an amount settled by custom under three contingencies: ( 1 ) to defray the expenses of knighting the lord's eldest son; (2) of the marriage of his daughter: (3) of his ransom in case he were captured in war. These were seldom exacted by any feudal lord except the King, and by him only from his direct tenants or tenants-in-chief; but these in such a ease might call upon their tenants to re- imburse them for what they had paid to the King. Finally, 'escheat' and 'forfeiture' were (lie conditions in which the fief could be taken hack by the lord, the former in the case where there was no heir, the latter in the case where the tenant had failed in the performance of his feudal obligations. 'Sub infeudation' is a term used to describe the grant of a portion of a tenant's holding to another person, to hold from him on similar terms to those on which (In- first tenanl holds from his lord. Generally speaking, all tin- land of a country was held from the King by a comparatively small number of direct ten ant-, known as tenants in capite, or in chief. Many of these had very large fiefs consisting of a vast number of estates. They granted some poi Lions of their holdings, a- lesser fiefs, to others, and these a -dill further portion lo oilier-- below them, and so on till there were frequently >-ix. eight, or more hush: or 'mean' lords between the actual tenant of a certain estate and the King from whom it was ultimately held. All tenants below those in oapiti were known a- 'sub tenants.'