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Examples of feudalism
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=== England === {{Main|Feudalism in England}} Feudalism in the 12th century [[Norman England]] was among the better structured and established in Europe at the time. However, it could be structurally complex, which is illustrated by the example of the [[English feudal barony|feudal barony]] of [[Stafford]] as described in a survey of knight's fees made in 1166 and recorded in ''The Black Book of the Exchequer''. This was a roll of parchment or several such, recording the quantity and tenant of each knight's fee held ''in capital''. It was a record commissioned by the [[Treasury]] as the knight's fee was the primary basis for assessing certain types of taxation, for example, feudalism is the exchange of land for military service, thus everything was based on what was called the [[knight's fee]], which is a fiefdom or [[Estate (law)|estate of land]]. A [[English feudal barony|feudal barony]] contained several knight's fees, for example, the baron [[Robert de Stafford]] held a barony containing 60 knight's fees. Often lords were not so much lords presiding over great estates, but managers of a network of tenants and sub-leases. Stafford tenants were themselves [[lord of the manor|lords of the manors]] they held from him, which is altogether different from their being [[English feudal barony|barons]]. Henry D'Oilly, who held 3 fees from Robert de Stafford, also held, as a [[tenant-in-chief]], over 30 fees elsewhere that had been granted to him directly by the king. Thus while Henry was the vassal of his overlord Robert, Henry was himself a lord of his manors held [[Tenant-in-chief|'' in capital'']] and [[subinfeudation|sub-enfeoffed]] many of his manors which he did not keep [[Demesne|in demesne]], that is to say under his management using simple employees. It would also have been possible and not uncommon for a situation where Robert of Stafford was a vassal of Henry elsewhere, creating the condition of mutual lordship/vassalage between the two. These complex relationships invariably create loyalty problems through conflicts of interest. To resolve this the concept of a [[liege lord]] existed, which meant that the vassal was loyal to his liege lord above all others, except the king himself, no matter what. However, even this sometimes broke down when a vassal would pledge himself to more than one liege lord. From the perspective of the smallest landholder, multiple networks of tenancy were layered on the same small plot of land. A chronicle of the time says "Different lordships lay on the land in different respects". Each tenant laid claim to a certain aspect of the service from the land. [[Magna Carta]] was used in 1215 by the barons to force King John to respect feudal rights, limiting the power of the King by defying his rights under feudal law.<ref>{{cite web |title=Magna Carta in context |url=https://www.bl.uk/magna-carta/articles/magna-carta-in-context |access-date=22 June 2023 |archive-date=21 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230621233619/https://www.bl.uk/magna-carta/articles/magna-carta-in-context |url-status=dead }}</ref>
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