unto our Lord the King, and to [mine other Lords.]The Lord provided for the maintenance and protection of the Vassal, usually including a chuch of land. In return, the Vassal provided the lord with certain services, the most important being military service. Faithfulness in service to the lord was a matter of life and death, literally. It was a deeply personal and binding contract that few would have dared to break. Your word is all that you have, protect it. It started as a form of defense against all the invaders. No protection from invaders (Huns, Magyars, Vikings). They need protection: Where? Go to biggest landowners in the areaor vice versa. He needs soldiers to defend him, too, but soldiers are very expensive. Only other landowners (nobility) can afford to equip themselves for medieval warfare. (Why? STIRRUP). Table: Hierarchy/Titles If there is something threatening this noble, for example, the king can call on the others to provide men to fight. The sons of nobles are raised to be great warriors. If they perform well, the lord grants them pieces of land. They are now nobles in their own right, and can get married. (Remember Testosterone theorysame time period). Borders are rather fluid. Your vassals can leave, you can take away their land, they can conquer or lose more land. The lands belonging to a lord may not be touching or ven very near each other. The king gives land to those who please him, so favorites can add more land while unfavorites can even lost it. (remember no money-land is basic form of wealth)With warfare all around, in many places the basic units of government get even smaller. Get rid of the guy at the top-even smaller and smaller units. With this increase in decentralization, or weakening of central power in EuropeFor a while, the Eastern emperor was the only person that even looked like a ruler to many members of Latin Christendom, and they did exercise some power over the folks in the west. But even that ...
