In medieval and early modern Europe, a tenant-in-chief (or vassal-in-chief) was a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as opposed to holding them from another nobleman or senior member of the clergy.[1][2] The tenure was one which denoted great honour, but also carried heavy responsibilities. The tenants-in-chief were originally responsible for providing knights and soldiers for the king's feudal army.[3]
- ^ Bloch Feudal Society Volume 2 p. 333
- ^ Coredon Dictionary of Medieval Terms & Phrases p. 272
- ^ Bracton, who indiscriminately called tenants-in-chief "barons" stated: "sunt et alii potentes sub rege qui barones dicuntur, hoc est robur belli" ("there are other magnates under the king, who are called barons, that is the hardwood of war"), quoted in Sanders, I.J., Feudal Military Service in England, Oxford, 1956, p.3; "Bracton's definition of the baro" (plur barones) "proves that tenants of this class were considered to be the military backbone of the realm" (Sanders, p.3)