other hand, that the vaſal ſhould be faithful to the lord and defend him againſt all his enemies. This obligation on the part of the vaſal was called his fidelitas or fealty; and an oath of fealty was required, by the feodal law, to be taken by all tenants to their landlord, which is couched in almoſt the ſame terms as our antient oath of allegiance[1]: except that in the uſual oath of fealty there was frequently a ſaving or exception of the faith due to a ſuperior lord by name, under whom the landlord himſelf was perhaps only a tenant or vaſal. But when the acknowlegement was made to the abſolute ſuperior himſelf, who was vaſal to no man, it was no longer called the oath of fealty, but the oath of allegiance; and therein the tenant ſwore to bear faith to his ſovereign lord, in oppoſition to all men, without any ſaving or exception: "contra omnes homines fidelitatem fecit[2]." Land held by this exalted ſpecies of fealty was called feudum ligium, a liege fee; the vaſals homines ligii, or liege men; and the ſovereign their dominus ligins, or liege lord. And when ſovereign princes did homage to each other, for lands held under their reſpective ſovereignties, a diſtinction was always made between ſimple homage, which was only an acknowlegement of tenure[3]; and liege homage, which included the fealty before-mentioned, and the ſervices conſequent upon it. Thus when our Edward III, in 1329, did homage to Philip VI of France, for his ducal dominions on that continent, it was warmly diſputed of what ſpecies the homage was to be, whether liege or ſimple homage[4]. But with us in England, it becoming a ſettled principle of tenure, that all lands in the kingdom are holden of the king as their ſovereign and lord paramount, no oath but that of fealty could ever be taken to inferior lords, and the oath of allegiance was neceſſarily confined to the perſon of the king alone. By an eaſy analogy the term of allegiance was ſoon brought to ſignify all other engagements, which are due from ſubjects to their prince, as well as thoſe duties which were ſimply and merely territorial. And the oath of allegiance, as ad-
