WORLD HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -vassal. a person under the protection of a feudal lord to whom he has vowed homage and fealty : a feudal tenant.

Detailed explanation-2: -A lord was in broad terms a noble who held land, a vassal was a person who was granted possession of the land by the lord, and a fief was what the land was known as. In exchange for the use of the fief and the protection of the lord, the vassal would provide some sort of service to the lord.

Detailed explanation-3: -A person could be both lord and vassal. Some knights with large fiefs gave small pieces of land to other knights; this created many levels of obligations. One knight could serve many lords; no prohibition against knight accepting fiefs from more than one noble.

Detailed explanation-4: -Vassal-A free man who held land (fief) from a lord to whom he paid homage and swore fealty. He owed various services and obligations, primarily military.

Detailed explanation-5: -vassal, in feudal society, one invested with a fief in return for services to an overlord. Some vassals did not have fiefs and lived at their lord’s court as his household knights. Certain vassals who held their fiefs directly from the crown were tenants in chief and formed the most important feudal group, the barons.