Manorial system - Page 2 - Historum

Pantagruel · March 7th, 2008, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edgewaters

One of the major differences, besides the one being economic and the other military, is the concept of fidelity, central to feudalism, but not a part of manorialism. Vassals were sworn servants who owed their lord something similar to fiduciary duty. They were tied to their liege alone.

True, but it's important to note that vassals could be tied to several different liege lords at once. This created an interesting situation when conflict arose between lords, because their vassals would in some cases have the option to decide which side it would be more profitable to support.

stevent · March 8th, 2008, 02:17 PM

Edgewaters,

Thanks for clearing up the differences. I also did some additional research on the subject after I had posted the question.

Pantagruel, you're right about vassals being tied to different lords at once. Norman Cantor in his book The Civilization of the Middle Ages points out that "... land-hungry knights became the vassals of two or more lords to gain additional fiefs. The anomaly might be solved by one of the lords asserting his rights to be the liege lord. If he did not and if the vassal's two lords should go to war against each other and summon the vassal to render them military service, the vassal would solve his predicament by joining the lord who seemed most likely to win" (pg 202).