What happens if a vassal inherits not under the control of their sovereign?
Upvote:6
Consider also the case of Frederick I of Prussia. Inheriting the Margravate of Brandenburg (within the Holy Roman Empire) and the Duchy of Prussia (outside the Empire, actually only East Prussia) as Elector of Brandenburg-Prussia in a personal union, Frederick negotiated with Emperor Leopold I for the right to crown himself as King of Prussia, allegedly in exchange for military assistance against Louis XIV.
from Wikipedia:
His royalty was, in any case, limited to Prussia and did not reduce the rights of the Emperor in the portions of his domains that were still part of the Holy Roman Empire. In other words, while he was a king in Prussia, he was still only an elector under the suzerainty of the Holy Roman Emperor in Brandenburg. Legally, the Hohenzollern state was still a personal union between Brandenburg and Prussia.
This status continued under Frederick's heir Frederick William I and it wasn't until after his acquisition of West Prussia in 1772 that Frederick's grandson, Frederick William II the Great, first styled himself King of Prussia.
Upvote:11
Feudal lords have obligations to any liege from whom they hold fiefs in fealty. If a lord holds fiefs in two kingdoms, he is under feudal obligations to both sovereigns. This applies even if a vassal inherits a kingdom and become a king in his own right. For example, the Kings of England remained nominal feudal vassals to the Crown of France for their continental possessions.
This is evidenced by such instances as when the Lusignans (who were vassals of King John in his capacity as Count of Poitou), feeling wronged by John, appealed directly to King Philip II in Paris. Moreover, when John refused a royal summon to the French court, Philip declared his French possessions forfeit and seized them. In the other cases, the kings of England paid homage (usually kicking and screaming all the way) to the kings of France over their continental possessions.
The most fitting example to your question, though, would be the Dukes of Burgundy. While nominally a French fief, the lords of Burgundy acquired many territories that were nominally part of the Holy Roman Empire. In AD 1416, John the Fearless paid homage to the Emperor for Franche Comté, which was an Imperial fief, while the French King Charles VII later exempted his son from paying homage in an agreement (i.e. normally the Duke of Burgundy was obliged to paid homage).
Thus we may observe that, his position in the realm of England notwithstanding, King John was legally subject to the feudal overlordship of Philip with regards to his holdings in France. Of course, note that in practice a vassal with many holdings might be too powerful for the nominal liege to do anything about.
More post
- 📝 What was the first known war in history?
- 📝 Who stood for the Roman consulship in absentia?
- 📝 Why are Germans referred to so differently in different languages?
- 📝 Examples of wars without power as a motive
- 📝 Why was the area now known as Liberia chosen as the location for repatriation of African slaves in the US?
- 📝 What was the likely death toll of the Tudor invasion of ireland?
- 📝 What role (if any) did lend-lease equipment play in the Second Battle of El-Alamein?
- 📝 Were there distinctions between Arab, Berbers and Iberian Muslims in 10th century Islamic Spain?
- 📝 Why did WWI include Japan?
- 📝 Were there religious wars between two sects in Hinduism?
- 📝 What made early 20th-century Vienna such an incubator for various intellectual activities?
- 📝 How old is the Classic Arabic language?
- 📝 Are Luther and Calvin responsible for executing more humans than the Catholic Inquisition?
- 📝 Which RAF squadrons and aircraft types took part in the bombing of Berlin on the 25th of August 1940?
- 📝 First eastbound transcontinental flight departed from...?
- 📝 Why was Russia never part of NATO?
- 📝 Did Khalid ibn al-Walid report that he broke nine swords in the battle of Mu'tah?
- 📝 Why wasn't San Marino unified with Italy?
- 📝 Was Otto Carius fair in his assessment of American forces vs. Russians?
- 📝 Why did the Romans incorporate and rename the Greek pantheon?
- 📝 What factors contributed to Jews moving out of the Middle East?
- 📝 What do we know about Hitler/OKW's plans concerning USSR if Molotov/Ribbentropp Pact hadn't happened?
- 📝 Historical assessments of the effectiveness of torture
- 📝 Is there any research explicitly contradicting facts in Suvorov's "Icebreaker" book series claiming that Stalin intended to attack Hitler in 1941?
- 📝 Was it true that Nelson Mandela refused to renounce violence while in Prison?
- 📝 What was the role/duties of a "Constable of the Castle" in 1600?
- 📝 Did anyone besides Heinz Guderian believe that Germany needed to "liberate" Soviets to prevail on the eastern front?
- 📝 Why is Dravidian history ignored?
- 📝 Looking for the source of a quote on Nazi ideology
- 📝 What cultures did, or do, perform human sacrifice on a regular basis?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What happens if a vassal inherits not under the control of their sovereign?
- 📝 What did the Greeks call their gods while under Roman rule?
- 📝 What led some people to (correctly) believe that there was no land under the ice cap at the North Pole?
- 📝 Why do revolutions "eat their own?" What is the sociological dynamic here?
- 📝 What were the reasons that the British colonies in North America rebelled but not others?
- 📝 What is the evidence to claim that political order in ancient Rome was sufficiently different under "kingdom", "republic" and "empire"?
- 📝 What is the context for Napoleon's quote "[the Austrians] did not know the value of five minutes"?
- 📝 What did the people of the Middle Ages call their period?
- 📝 What names did the ancient Egyptians give to different stages of their history?
- 📝 What is the reason that not all roman emperors named a month after them?
- 📝 What was the role of Indian princes and aristocratic landowners under British colonial rule?
- 📝 What factors discouraged the Nazis from focusing all their forces on the Caucasus region during Operation Barbarossa?
- 📝 What happens to the corpses after the world wars?
- 📝 Why did the Ottomans not change their capital to an Arab city?
- 📝 What was the attitude of English knights towards their longbowmen counterparts?
- 📝 What is the name of the color used by the SBB (Swiss Federal Railway) in the 1920s to paint their locomotive?
- 📝 What was the size of the Chola Empire's navy under Raja Raja Chola I?
- 📝 What were the most common reasons why draft-age men were not conscripted for the Union Army?
- 📝 What was the program of the Mensheviks in their later years? How did they hope to achieve it?
- 📝 What is the historical evidence behind the claim that the Soviet armies perpetrated mass rapes during their stay in Germany?
- 📝 What was the civil weapons legislation under Hitler?
- 📝 What was the maximum percent of the Soviet territory that was under Nazi control?
- 📝 What was the role of a 'Tidy Man' and what might their duties have been?
- 📝 What would slaves in the Roman Empire call their masters?
- 📝 Why was Italy unified under the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia and not under a stronger state?
- 📝 What kind of ID Number, if any, did the Soviets institute for all their citizens?
- 📝 What was the first instance of native Americans using gunpowder weapons in battle and did they ever make their own powder?
- 📝 What evidence exists to say whether or not FDR was planning to use the Atomic Bomb just as Truman did?
- 📝 What caused women to lose their access to resources and become a part of men's possessions with the start of the agriculture era?
- 📝 What alternate north-south supply routes did the Soviet Union have when the Volga and Stalingrad were under attack?