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LIEGE

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 594 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LIEGE , an See also:

adjective implying the mutual relationship of a feudal See also:superior and his See also:vassal; the word is used as a substantive of the feudal superior, more usually in this sense, however, in the See also:form " liege See also:lord, " and also of the vassals, his "lieges." Hence the word is often used of the loyal subjects of a See also:sovereign, with no reference to feudal ties. It appears that ligeitas or ligentia, the See also:medieval Latin See also:term for this relation-See also:ship, was restricted to a particular form of See also:homage. According to N. Broussel (Nouvel examen de l'usage See also:general See also:des fiefs en See also:France, 1727) the homage of a "liege" was a stronger form of the See also:ordinary homage, the especial distinction being that while the ordinary vassal only undertook See also:forty days' military service, the liege promised to serve as See also:long as the See also:war might last, in which his superior was engaged (cf. See also:Ducange, Glossarium, s.v. " Ligius "). The See also:etymology of the word has been much discussed. It comes into See also:English through the O. Fr. lige or liege, Med. See also:Lat. ligius. This was See also:early connected with the Lat. ligatus, See also:bound, ligare, to bind, from the sense of the See also:obligation of the vassal to his lord, but this has been generally abandoned. Broussel takes the Med.

Lat. liga, i.e., foedus, confederatio, the English " See also:

league," as the origin. Ducange connects it with the word lilies, which appears in a See also:gloss of the Salic See also:law, and is defined as a scriptilius, servus glebae. The more usually. accepted derivation is now from the Old High Ger. ledic, or ledig, meaning " See also:free " (Mod. Ger. ledig means unoccupied, vacuus). This is confirmed by the occurrence in a See also:charter of See also:Otto of Benthem, 1253, of a word " ledigh-See also:man " (quoted in Ducange, Glossarium, s.v.), Proinde affecti sumus ligius See also:home, quod Teutonice dictur Ledighman. See also:Skeat, in explaining the application of " free " to such a relationship as that subsisting between a feudal superior and his vassal, says " ` a liege lord' seems to have been the lord of a free See also:band; and his lieges, though serving under him, were privileged men, free from all other obligations; their name being due to their freedom, not to their service " (Etym. See also:Diet., ed. 1898). A. See also:Luchaire (See also:Manuel des institutions frangaises, 1892, p. 189, n. I) considers it difficult to See also:call a man " free " who is under a strict obligation to another; further that the " liege " was not free from all obligation to a third party, for the charters prove without doubt that the " liege men " owed See also:duty to more than one lord.

End of Article: LIEGE

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