From: jtn@nutter.cs.vt.edu (Terry Nutter)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Residence in local branches
Date: 22 Jul 92 20:05:10 GMT
Followup-To: rec.org.sca
Organization: SCA

Unto the good gentles of the Rialto does Hossein Ali Qomi send greetings
and prayers for the blessings of Allah, most especially to Fiacha.

Fiacha recently posted a request of me:

>I would appreciate an explanation of all of the technical terms in the
>explanation.

As you request, herewith a set of definitions:

allod = land freely owned and held without obligation of any sort.

court of eyre = a court of assize _iter ad omnia placita_, i.e., a commission
	of itinerant justices operating within one of the four traditional
	circuits of England, hearing cases brought before the king's
	justice.

disseissin = the legal proceeding whereby a holder may be deprived of
	seissin, i.e., the proceeeding whereby a feudal tenant may be
	removed from a feudal holding by his lord.

distrain = to obtain relief by distress, i.e., to obtain satisfaction by
	seizing the goods of another to force that other to meet an
	obligation or to meet an obligation imposed on that other without
	his consent.

escheat = the reversion of a feudal holding to the lord who granted the
	holding; escheat took place if the holder died without heirs
	appropriate to the feudal contract or otherwise violated the
	feudal contract (i.e., commited felony).

fief = a heritable benefice held under conditions of contract for homage
	and fealty and such customs and dues as are specified in the
	contract.

liegancy = the condition of having a liege lord.

liege lord = (1) the lord to whose feudal obligations a holder is obligated
	to give primacy (e.g., in England the lord from whom one's
	primary residence is held; in France, usually the lord from
	whom one holds one's largest or wealthiest holding); (2) a lord
	for whose rights a reservation is included in an oath of fealty,
	(e.g., the king, as in the clause, "saving only the faith which
	I owe to the King," in English fealty oaths from Henry I onward).

seissin = the right of possession of a feudal holding, i.e., the right
	to hold for feudal dues and customs without interference and to
	fully enjoy the usufruct of the holding.

tenant-in-chief = a tenant who holds directly from the king (in England,
	a tenant-in-chief is known as a baron).

>I would very much like to see an explanation of what fealty meant in period
>published in something like TI (notes on how and when fealty changed would be
>nice). If I can be so wrong about what ought to be a fundamental concept, I
>am sure that a large proportion of the populace would benefit from such an
>explanation. Please write at greater length.

As the saying goes, I'm dancing as fast as I can.  I'm writing a two-part
CA on homage and fealty.  The first part, covering the sixth to eleventh
centuries, should be out as the first CA of 1993.  The second part,
covering the eleventh to seventeenth centuries, should be out in the summer
or fall of 1993.  Merely notes on how and when fealty changed would be
uncomprehensibly elliptical except for the expert, which is why I am taking
the more expansive, explanatory approach.

Best Wishes,

Hossein/Greg