HOMAGE, INVESTITURE, AIDS, ETC.

HOMAGE.

Boutillier, Somme rurale, I, 18.

These documents illustrate the form of feudal practices after the system had become fairly well fixed. Most of the passages are from Coutumiers, codes or digests of feudal law and practice, of which there were a great many in the Middle Age. Some of the famous ones are: in England, those of Bracton and Littleton; in France, the Établissements de St. Louis, Coutumes de Beauvaisis, by Beaumanoir, and several provincial customs, as the Coutumes of Normandy, of Anjou, etc. Most of the references were taken from Du Cange, Glossarium, Hominium.

The man should put his hands together as a sign of humility, and place them between the two hands of his lord as a token that he vows everything to him and promises faith him; and the lord should receive him and promise to keep faith with him. Then the man should say: “Sir, I enter your homage and faith and become your man by mouth and hands [i.e., by taking the oath and placing his hands between those of the lord], and I swear and promise to keep faith and loyalty to you against all others, and to guard your rights with all my strength.”

(Thatcher, p.363)