Vassalage is the set of rights and obligations binding a vassal, a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch under the feudal system of medieval Europe and elsewhere, to a suzerain, the dominant party in the relationship. A vassal's obligations often included military support by knights, given in exchange for privileges that usually included land held as a tenant or fief.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Vassalage is the personal bond of loyalty and service at the core of feudalism; feudalism cannot function without the vassalage relationship between lord and vassal.
Vassalage organized the political and military obligations of the feudal order while manorialism organized its economic life on the same estates; the two systems operated together in medieval Europe.
Protectorate and vassalage are both asymmetric-sovereignty relationships in which a weaker polity submits to a stronger power protection or overlordship while retaining nominal internal rule.
Sources
Vassal (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationLead sectionQuote, Lead section
The rights and obligations of a vassal are called vassalage, while the rights and obligations of a suzerain are called suzerainty.
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