0 in medieval Europe, a man who agreed to fight for a king or lord (= rich and powerful land owner) when needed, in exchange for land to live on --
1 a person in the Middle Ages who promises to be loyal to a lord (= a man of high social rank) who will protect him or her --
His vassals were therefore granted considerable autonomy over their own land and people, enjoyed more independence, and conducted their household succession as best benefited their ie.
In the 1630s, the kabuki-mono subculture spread among shogunal vassals and chonin.
Medieval law was indeed profoundly conservative, and most medieval vassals took it for granted that the right of resistance was a law which could not be abrogated.
Because of this principle of local distribution, the dominion of the crown vassals could not consolidate themselves into great sovereign courts as they could on the continent.
The enfeoffed knight, belonging to several bands of vassals, protected by each of his patrons against all the others, was virtually free of the strictest of military and judicial obligations.
On the other hand, with the expansion of feudal ties, there was a growing expectation that any lord ought to resolve the disputes among his own vassals.
Then the rest of the year was covered, a month at a time, by each of seven vassals, in return for the fiefs they held of the count.
Obviously, as we have seen in other monasteries, the abbot could thus create his own separate endowment with the surplus and even grant property in benefice to ministerials or vassals.
