Pyramid of vassalage: what it was and what were its parts

The Middle Ages were a dark time but, in turn, very complex with regard to the relationships between social classes. Nobles and clergy established relationships of loyalty among themselves, in which some acted as feudal lords and others as vassals. forming complex pyramids of vassalage.

We are going to see more in depth what this type of social organization was, how one could become a vassal of a feudal lord and how the system ended up collapsing.

• Related article: "Middle Ages: the 16 main characteristics of this historical stage"

The pyramid of vassalage

The majority organization system in the Middle Ages was feudalism, in force in an especially notorious way between the 9th and 15th centuries in the western part of Europe.

Feudalism was based on vassalage relationships, which involved various people paying allegiance to feudal lords and, in turn, these feudal lords paying allegiance to nobles with higher titles, like kings or emperors.

In this way, medieval society was constituted by vassal relations, which formed what has been called the pyramid of vassalage.

What exactly was a vassal?

The figure of the medieval vassal was that of a person who was obliged to pay a fief, and offer services to his feudal lord.

This vassal was subject to a noble or a member of the clergy who was, governmentally speaking, above him. The noble or ecclesiastical was the owner of land, but it allowed other nobles of lesser rank to be able to exploit the territory, administer it and inhabit it, as long as they met various demands on the part of the feudal lord.

How did one become a vassal?

At the beginning of the Middle Ages, being a vassal was a condition that was acquired. The personal pact that was established between feudal lords and their vassals was made effective through a ceremony: the investiture. It was on this occasion when the vassalage contract was made, it was consecrated and the loyalty relationship began to take effect.

Although there were regional differences and the ceremony was not always the same, the typical image of this type of celebration was that the who became a vassal placed his hands on the lord's and declared himself "his man", swearing allegiance to him and rendering him tribute. The alliance was sealed by kissing the feudal lord and, later, that lord symbolized the cession of part of his territory by offering him a handful of land.

It should be said that vassalage, which was voluntary at the beginning, gradually became a binding relationship. That is, as the feudal lords became more powerful, with greater military influence and with more ability to declare the wars they wanted, any nobleman who did not have the proper protection of a feudal lord risked being the military target of nobles eager to expand their territories.

• You may be interested in: "Serfs of the gleba: what were they and how did they live during the Middle Ages?"

Obligations of the vassal

The vassal had a series of obligations to fulfill towards his feudal lord, obligations stipulated in the form of clauses and conditions during the celebration of the investiture. In case of not respecting them, the vassal relationship could be broken.

Among the main ones was to offer him military aid in case the feudal lord required it: the shield. In fact, the etymological origin of the word "vassal" literally indicates what its most important function was, since This word is cognate from the Celtic root "wasso", which literally means "young squire"..

The noble vassal had to make available to his lord the necessary soldiers and mercenaries in order to protect the feudal properties, bearing the costs of the feat.

In addition, the vassal had to put at the disposal of his feudal lord all the military forces commensurate with the amount of land and possessions. That is, if a vassal was rich and powerful, he had to send the proportional part to the level of wealth that he had obtained. It should be said that with the passage of time some noble vassals became so rich that they refused to send his soldiers to the wars of his lord, compensating him with the equivalent payment in metal.

Another of the vassal's obligations was to give his lord "consilium", that is, to advise him economically, politically and legally. Along with this, the vassal had to be present in those situations that his lord so required, situations that could be of all kinds and conditions, such as going on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, accompanying him on a trip, taking charge of his castle in his absence...

However, it should be noted that the vassal relationship was not unilateral, since the feudal lord had to respect and supply the needs of his vassal. Among them were military protection, maintenance, judicial defense, as well as allowing him to exploit the lands that he had ceded to him, as long as he paid a tribute for it.

Differences between vassalage and serfdom

It is very important to understand the difference between the vassals, who were nobles and members of the clergy, and the serfs of the gleba, who used to be extremely poor peasants, members of what in the Enlightenment would be known as the Third State. Although vassalage and serfdom were social relations typical of feudalism, they differed in terms of the rights of both parties.

In vassalage, both parties usually form part of privileged estates, in addition to signing a bilateral contract between equals. Both were free citizens with extensive recognized rights. On the other hand, in serfdom, a feudal lord allows peasants to live on his land, but these peasants must work the land in subhuman conditions. They are not free citizens, they are attached to the land where they live, they cannot leave it, and they are not remotely equal to the feudal lord.

Between servitude and slavery, the few differences that exist is that in servitude there are some recognized rights, such as being able to marry whoever you want or the right to life. The feudal lord gives them shelter and protection, but they must participate in his deeds as soldiers.

Structure of the vassalage pyramid

During the Middle Ages, as vassal relations were being formed between the different estates of the society of the time, the increasingly complex structure of the pyramid of the vassalage. Roughly speaking, the structure of this pyramid had the following links:

• emperor and kings
• High nobility (counts, marquises and dukes)
• Intermediate nobility (lords)
• Lower nobility (barons, viscounts, knights, noblemen, noblemen and squires)

At the top, as long as there was no emperor above him, was the figure of the king who technically owned all the lands in his kingdom. In this way, all the nobles who lived in them were below him, offering him loyalty, tributes and soldiers when necessary.

It should be said that The figure of the medieval king is not that of an absolutist king as the European kings of the Enlightenment could have been.. The medieval king, despite being the ruler of his kingdom, did not have absolute control over his lands. Despite the fact that his noble vassals were obliged to comply with the clauses stipulated during the homage ceremony, In turn, the rights they had over part of the king's lands made the monarch have more and more power. limited.

The rest of the links in the vassalage pyramid were made up of people who were both vassals and feudal lords of other vassals. That is to say, the same person could be subject to the power of a noble of higher rank but, in turn, have vassals, who were nobles of a lower rank than theirs.

The lowest part of society was represented by the common people, especially peasants., who could work for the lands of a lord as serfs. They weren't technically vassals, but rather medieval versions of what is meant by slaves.

The end of vassals and vassalage

The pyramid of vassalage began to collapse already from the top of its peak, when Charlemagne's empire faced internal disputes from his heirs in the 9th century. Although the Middle Ages had started relatively recently, this was already an indicator of how fragile the structure can be if one of the links disappears, in this case that of the emperor.

At the same time, these heirs of Charlemagne began to lose power by ceding rights to their vassals. Thus, and related to what we were commenting before, the kings had a power limited by the existence of the high nobility and, in turn, the high nobility ceded rights to the estates below her. The nobles began to lose the power to separate the fiefs from the vassals, going from titles that were obtained by means of a ceremony to titles obtained hereditary, without the fact that we are above them could freely decide if they deleted or not.

The dissolution of the bond that the vassals had with their lords was legally legitimized when A few centuries passed, when kings were formally recognized as emperors of their kingdoms. Kings were vassals of the pontiff, but not of emperors, a thing that, although it had not been fully fulfilled, was an aspect taken for granted in the first centuries of the Middle Ages. The same thing happened with some members of the nobility, creating states that, despite not being governed by kings, recognized their independence.

The pyramid of vassalage officially collapsed with the arrival of the Late Middle Ages, when the vassal relations are almost completely dissolved, although the existence of titles is respected nobility. The crisis occurred in the fourteenth century, manifesting itself in the form of a very clear separation between the high and low nobility. In addition, the figure of the king gained a lot of power, heading towards the absolutist monarchies so characteristic of the Modern Age.

Bibliographic references

• Cantor, N. (1993) The Civilization of the Middle Ages: A Completely Revised and Expanded Edition of Medieval History. Harper Perennial, UK.