2 - Multiple lordship and the honour

Summary

It Has Long been tacitly assumed that the tenants of the great barons, whether knightly or not, generally had allegiance to only one lord. The findings in Chapter 1, however, show that multiple allegiance is considerably more common than has previously been recognised. At least a quarter of minor lords from the sample area were in such a relationship by c.1216, and this is likely to be an underestimation. These figures signal that there is a fundamental lacuna in our understanding of lordship and local society in this period. Far from being a marginal practice, multiple allegiance in this area was widespread. This chapter will shift from the quantitative focus of Chapter 1 to a series of representative examples. As noted in the Introduction, an influential strand of historiography regards the practice of multiple allegiance as being corrosive or outright damaging to the fundamental structures of lordship and, by extension, damaging to the society that was built around these structures. The reality seems, however, to have been that the practice was widespread, regarded as normal, and was no more intrinsically problematic than other ties such as kinship.

This chapter provides a study of allegiance among minor lords in the long twelfth century. The examples below show overwhelmingly that the seigneurial relationships of this group were varied, and that the outlines of service and behaviour similarly varied between lords. As discussed in the Introduction, allegiance has often been treated in feudal historiography both as a fixed category and a monolithic concept. It is argued here, however, that allegiance should instead be seen as a series of concentric circles of fuzzy expectations with some crucial, irrevocable duties at its core: to perform any agreed service, and not to injure one's lord, either in person or possessions. Particularly since the Norman Conquest, much of tenure had become bound up with lordship, and this connection was only strengthened through the twelfth century. Lords expected service in return for these land grants: failure to do so breached the relationship, and what few instances we have for a breakdown in lordship centre on this point. While multiple lordship could provide challenges to these duties, generally they could be resolved.