FEALTY

fealty (feel-tee orfee-<<schwa>>l-tee).Hist. In feudal law, the allegiance that a tenant or

vassal owes to a lord. — Also termed feodality.

“There was the possibility that if the entire top layer of the structure revolted, the king might

be deprived of all support. To meet this possibility, the king also bound directly to himself all the

important men in the lower strata of the [feudal] structure by an oath of loyalty. This was

particularly effective for in medieval times the oath of fealty had all the sanction of the church,

and in addition due to the necessity for feudal organization in times of disorder, had also a popular

sanction in public opinion so that the man who broke his oath to his lord was one of the most

execrable men to be found in the whole social organization.” Charles Herman Kinnane, A First[Blacks Law 8th]