Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/383

 Ch. 10. other hand, that the vaal hould be faithful to the lord and defend him againt all his enemies. This obligation on the part of the vaal was called his fidelitas or fealty; and an oath of fealty was required, by the feodal law, to be taken by all tenants to their landlord, which is couched in almot the ame terms as our antient oath of allegiance : except that in the uual oath of fealty there was frequently a aving or exception of the faith due to a uperior lord by name, under whom the landlord himelf was perhaps only a tenant or vaal. But when the acknowlegement was made to the abolute uperior himelf, who was vaal to no man, it was no longer called the oath of fealty, but the oath of allegiance; and therein the tenant wore to bear faith to his overeign lord, in oppoition to all men, without any aving or exception: "contra omnes homines fidelitatem fecit ." Land held by this exalted pecies of fealty was called feudum ligium, a liege fee; the vaals homines ligii, or liege men; and the overeign their dominus ligins, or liege lord. And when overeign princes did homage to each other, for lands held under their repective overeignties, a ditinction was always made between imple homage, which was only an acknowlegement of tenure ; and liege homage, which included the fealty before-mentioned, and the ervices conequent upon it. Thus when our Edward III, in 1329, did homage to Philip VI of France, for his ducal dominions on that continent, it was warmly diputed of what pecies the homage was to be, whether liege or imple homage. But with us in England, it becoming a ettled principle of tenure, that all lands in the kingdom are holden of the king as their overeign and lord paramount, no oath but that of fealty could ever be taken to inferior lords, and the oath of allegiance was necearily confined to the peron of the king alone. By an eay analogy the term of allegiance was oon brought to ignify all other engagements, which are due from ubjects to their prince, as well as thoe duties which were imply and merely territorial. And the oath of allegiance, as ad- Rh