Sometimes a lord might pay for mercenaries to take his place rather than offering military service himself – this was called scutage.
In return the monarch’s tenants, or vassals, promised obedience through an act of homage and payment in the form of military service and/or goods. There was a promise of military and legal protection along with the land. The monarch then distributed land or fiefs to his lords – the lands varied in size and location. William the Conqueror regarded the whole of conquered England as his along with the deer, the boar and the wolves who were owned by no one except God and since God had clearly given William England by right of Conquest then the large beasts which roamed the land must also be his….
Essentially the tenant-in-chief was the monarch. Feudalism was the method by which society was structured across the tenth to thirteenth centuries.
