Suzerain is the supreme ruler of the feudal world

All the countries of Western Europe in the 9th-20th centuries were scattered. Germany, Italy and France were divided into thousands of separate possessions, ruled by dukes, counts or barons who have unlimited power in their lands.

They tried serfs and free peasants, taxed the people with taxes, fought and concluded peace agreements at their discretion. It was in those days that the words "suzerain" and "vassal" appeared.

The undivided power of the suzerains

A distinctive feature of feudal times was that the king had virtually no power. Moreover, in most cases the power of the ruler was so insignificant and weak that he had absolutely no influence on political events taking place in the state.

That is, we can say that theoretically the state was ruled by a monarch, and practically all reins of government were in the hands of suzerains. To make the picture more clear, it should be clarified that the overlord is the supreme ruler of the territory, which is the main one in relation to all vassals subordinate to him.

In turn, the question arises, who is a vassal. Proceeding from the foregoing, we understand that at that time they called landowners who completely dependent on their suzerain. They brought him the oath and, accordingly, had a whole series of duties both on the military unit and on monetary obligations.

Specificity of feudal relations

Thus, feudal relations in themselves represent a whole series of dependent landowners, headed by a king, whose authority, as mentioned above, was highly questionable.

The chief suzerain understood this perfectly, that's why he tried to maintain friendly relations with the most influential feudal lords of his kingdom in order to be able to rely on someone's help in case of danger or approaching hostilities.

The royal thrones served as a toy in the hands of influential lords. The power of each of them directly depended on how impressive the army had this or that suzerain. This not only allowed one to fight amongst themselves, but also to encroach on the royal throne. Possessing the strongest troops, dukes or counts could easily overthrow the king and put in his place his deputy and actually rule the kingdom.

The appearance of new vassals

In order to secure power and power, many feudal lords practiced handing out a part of their land to the use of smaller landowners. Together with the territory, serfs and free peasants moved into possession, which completely depended on the decision of the suzerain. This, in turn, obliged the vassals to swear an oath of absolute fidelity. At the first call of his suzerain, they pledged to appear in full combat uniforms, armed, on horseback. In addition, they were to be accompanied by the squires and the number of armed people conditioned in advance, trained in military skill, from the number of new subjects.