Re: Feudalism

Tron wrote:
Hi,

"Paul J Gans" <gans@xxxxxxxxx> skrev i melding news:f4qank$sm5$2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
......


But here we don't care much about those terms. In a
newsgroup devoted to the Middle Ages, we do care about
"feudalism".


What is the history of the term "feudal"? Does the term trace back to the middle ages? Was it used in the middle ages? According to my trusty Duden, it is actually m. latin (feudalis) from feudum = estate, and has slipped into legalese as a way of assigning certain issues to problems around holding og granting a fief (which is from the same root as "feud", which is from the same root as "Vieh" (cattle), which the germanix seem to have used as synonymous with "wealth"). In german it would be "Lehenswesen", I guess. Probably there should be a translation for this in English.

Norway abandoned "nobility" in the 19. century, and this happened in strictly economic terms; these laws were in use just a few years ago, when it was discovered that a certain rich man had established a huge fund for his heirs, with the proviso that they may never deduct from the main capital, only from profits and interest. This, according to our tax authorities most just and fair (in case they're watching), meant that this fund was not totally under the control of the heirs implied by full ownership - they could not dispose of it as they wished. And this "independence", by the "inviolability" (?) of a volume of property (be it funds, shares, land ....) was said to be a characteristic of the financial circumstances around our old Adel (nobility), who could not e.g. sell their land - the current owner was just a "temporary manager", a steward for the whole clan, holding its lands in trust for future generations.

Personally, I think that is the crux of the matter. The holder of the land held it not for himself, but for his "heirs and successors". Even today, some English aristocrats do not seem themselves as "landowners" but as lifetime tenants or guardians preserving the estate for future generations of the family.

Strictly speaking, English landowners today "hold" their land of The Queen. Now, she is hardly going to grab it all back but that's the legal situtation.

There is correlation between landownership (holding land of the king) and genealogy and heraldry. The coats of arms and long genealogies were not necessarily for snob value, but to delineate "the heirs and successors" in case a line died out. And, just as the male heirs of an armiger may use those arms, so those same male heirs were in line as "heirs and successors", should a line die out or should a daughter's husband not agree to take the name and arms of the landed family.



So .... could "feudal" actually have a use in (the history of) jurisprudence, and thereby have a use in (the history of) economics, and thusly gain entrance into history ...?

Of course it could and it does and did. That was the point.
.

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