The conſtitution of feuds[1] had it's original from the military policy of the northern or Celtic nations, the Goths, the Hunns, the Franks, the Vandals, and the Lombards, who all migrating from the ſame officina gentium, as Crag very juſtly entitles it[2], poured themſelves in vaſt quantities into all the regions of Europe, at the declenſion of the Roman empire. It was brought by them from their own countries, and continued in their reſpective colonies as the moſt likely means to ſecure their new acquiſitions: and, to that end, large diſtricts or parcels of land were allotted by the conquering general to the ſuperior officers of the army, and by them dealt out again in ſmaller parcels or allotments to the inferior officers and moſt deſerving ſoldiers[3]. Theſe allotments were called feoda, feuds, fiefs, or fees; which laſt appellation in the northern languages[4] ſignifies a conditional ſtipend or reward[5]. Rewards or ſtipends they evidently were; and the condition annexed to them was, that the poſſeſſor ſhould do ſervice faithfully, both at home and in the wars, to him by whom they were given; for which purpoſe he took the juramentum fidelitatis, or oath of fealty[6]: and in caſe of the breach of this condition and oath, by not performing the ſtipulated ſervice, or by deſerting the lord in battle, the lands were again to revert to him who granted them[7].
Allotments thus acquired, naturally engaged ſuch as accepted them to defend them: and, as they all ſprang from the
- ↑ See Spelman of feuds, and Wright of tenures, per tot.
- ↑ De jure feod. 19, 20.
- ↑ Wright. 7.
- ↑ Spelm. Gl. 216.
- ↑ Pontoppidan in his hiſtory of Norway (page 290) obſerves, that in the northern languages odh ſignifies proprietas and all totum. Hence he derives the odhal right in thoſe countries; and hence too perhaps is derived the udal right in Finland, &c. (See Mac Doual. Inſt. part. 2.) Now the tranſpoſition of theſe northern ſyllables, allodh, will give us the true etymology of the allodium, or abſolute property of the feudiſts; as, by a similar combination of the latter ſyllable with the word fee (which ſignifies, we have ſeen, a conditinal reward or ſtipend) feeodh or feodum will denote ſtipendiary property.
- ↑ See this oath explained at large in Feud. l. 2. t. 7.
- ↑ Feud. l. 2. t. 24.
