fealty – מילון אנגלי-אנגלי
fealty
n.
loyalty, faithfulness
Fealty
fealty
Noun
1. the loyalty that citizens owe to their country (or subjects to their sovereign)
(synonym) allegiance
(hypernym) loyalty
Fealty
Obligation of fidelity in a military, political and social sense on the part of a
feudal tenant or
vassal to his
lord . The contract is not to be confused with
homage , though both ceremonies were conducted at the same time. In the first part of the ceremony, where the
liegeman swore personal homage to the lord, they swore to ‘become his man’. The lord swore an
oath of his own where he pledged protection and defense for the tenant. During the second part of the ceremony, only the liegeman swore the oath, swearing to perform faithful service for the land so tendered. Called foi in French, Treue or Triuwe in German.
FEALTY
Fidelity, allegiance.
Under the feudal system, every owner of lands held them of some superior lord, from whom or from whose ancestors the tenant had received them. By this connection the lord became bound to protect the tenant in the enjoyment of the land granted to him. On the other hand, the tenant was bound to be faithful to his lord and defend him against all his enemies. This obligation was called fidelitas or fealty.
This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.