He is the one who, in ancient times, was forced to pay the fiefdom. It was the subject of a sovereign government or any other type of supreme government. These subjects joined a knight (noble) through a bond of vassalage.
He was one who was subject to a feudal lord, and was part of the chain of vassalage in the European Middle Ages, being at the same time the feudal lord of other vassals. Although the vassal had various duties to his master, he also had duties to the vassal.
The vassal was the man who demanded the protection of a noble superior (from the point of view of the social hierarchy) and to whom he swore allegiance in his favor. Both established a vassalage contract that implied mutual obligations.
With the Roman expansion and the long duration of the campaigns, the generals and their troops developed a mutual loyalty (and leaving Rome aside, provoking long and bloody civil wars that would cause the dismemberment of the empire in the fiefdoms that compose it) It became in a protovasailage. And to ensure this loyalty, there had to be a constant expansion that would give enough territory to distribute among the troops, that each would have work in their land.
Making a comparison with medieval society:
- The generals would be the lords (in both positions they had to be of patrician origin).
- Legionaries (peasant-soldiers, colonists) would be vassals who swear allegiance and relief to their general in exchange for lands or fiefdoms; be general and soldiers: Roman citizens.
- The pilgrims would be the non-slave natives who would work free for their lord (the legionnaire, vassal of the general) as a non-tributary tax. The pilgrims give rise to the servants, who are ruled by the noble regime.
To formalize the agreement between the vassal and his master, a ritual, the vassalage ceremony, was performed. With this reciprocal commitment, both parties agreed on a strategic alliance. Thus, the feudal lord offered his lands (the fiefdom), the military protection of his army and the protection of the law. In return, the vassal promised to work the land his master had left him and, at the same time, swore allegiance to him.
