Could a ruler demand a homage from an independent prince?

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I will start by making two suppositions (OP: please correct me if this is not what was meant).

  1. The question is relative to a specific time (Middle Ages, approx. 10th to 14th centuries), place (Western Europe) and society (feudalism).
  2. The term "prince" may be taken in a broad sense, to include other nobles with some local power base (barons, counts, ...)

The term "homage" can have two different meanings. According to the Collins English Dictionary, in a feudal context we can have either

a. the act of respect and allegiance made by a vassal to his lord. See also fealty

or

b. something done in acknowledgment of vassalage

This perhaps covers rather well the two aspects of the relationship between major and minor lords, from the point of view of the minor (dependent) party. On the one hand, he owed the major lord due respect, perhaps externalized by a solemn promise. On the other, he needed to come to his lord's assistance when required - which was a reciprocal undertaking by both parties.

This dual nature of the minor lord's obligations is perhaps reflected by the formal act of allegiance. In 12th- and 13th-century Catalonia, the rather ceremonious form of homagium ore et manibus was well established, and has been documented in Valencia at least until the middle of the 14th century[1]. The minor lord promises his fealty in words "ore", but also places himself symbolically into his hands "manibus".

Back to the question:

  • Could a ruler demand homage from an independent prince, in the sense (b) of military help? I think not, if the prince was truly independent of the ruler, i.e. did not depend on the ruler's military might to conserve his domain and position. This happened often, when minor vassals on the periphery of a king's area of influence were far enough from the king's center of power and had accumulated enough local influence. For example, the counts in late 8th- and 9th-century Marca Hispanica were in theory vassals of Charlemagne and his descendants, but in practice were very much independent.
  • Could a ruler demand homage, in the sense (a) of showing respect and allegiance? This is perhaps a more complex question. The legal basis of the vassal's position was in the feudal system the territory that the major lord had given him. If he openly flaunted the terms of his relationship, he would in essence be undermining his own legal right to hold the land and the people. This is quite different from inventing some suitable excuse so as not to reply to the lord's summons for men (a bad harvest, local troubles needing attention, ... whatever). I am under the impression the prince would have needed to feel very sure of his own position to risk going that far.

[1] Culturas Políticas Monárquicas en la España Liberal, Mateu Rodrigo Lizondo, Universitat de Valencia. ISBN: 8437093252

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