LIEGE

This article appears in Volume V16, Page 594 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: LEO-LOB

LIEGE , an adjective implying the mutual relationship of a feudal superior and his vassal; the word is used as a substantive of the feudal superior, more usually in this sense, however, in the form " liege lord, " and also of the vassals, his "lieges." Hence the word is often used of the loyal subjects of a sovereign, with no reference to feudal ties. It appears that ligeitas or ligentia, the medieval Latin

term

TERM

for this relation-ship, was restricted to a particular form of homage. According to N. Broussel (Nouvel examen de l'usage general des fiefs en France, 1727) the homage of a "liege" was a stronger form of the

ordinary

ORDINARY (med. Lat. ordinarius, Fr. ordinaire)

homage, the especial distinction being that while the

ordinary

ORDINARY (med. Lat. ordinarius, Fr. ordinaire)

vassal only undertook

forty

FORTY

days' military service, the liege promised to serve as

long

LONG, GEORGE (1800-1879)
LONG, JOHN DAVIS (1838– )

as the war might last, in which his superior was engaged (cf. Ducange, Glossarium, s.v. " Ligius ").
The etymology of the word has been much discussed. It comes into English through the O. Fr. lige or liege, Med. Lat. ligius. This was early connected with the Lat. ligatus, bound, ligare, to bind, from the sense of the

obligation

OBLIGATION

of the vassal to his lord, but this has been generally abandoned. Broussel takes the Med. Lat. liga, i.e., foedus, confederatio, the English " league," as the origin. Ducange connects it with the word lilies, which appears in a

gloss

GLOSS, GLOSSARY

of the Salic law, and is defined as a scriptilius, servus glebae. The more usually. accepted derivation is now from the Old High Ger. ledic, or ledig, meaning " free " (Mod. Ger. ledig means unoccupied, vacuus). This is confirmed by the occurrence in a charter of Otto of Benthem, 1253, of a word " ledigh-man " (quoted in Ducange, Glossarium, s.v.), Proinde affecti sumus ligius

home

, quod Teutonice dictur Ledighman. Skeat, in explaining the application of " free " to such a relationship as that subsisting between a feudal superior and his vassal, says " ` a liege lord' seems to have been the lord of a free band; and his lieges, though serving under him, were privileged men, free from all other obligations; their name being due to their freedom, not to their service " (Etym. Diet., ed. 1898). A.

Luchaire

LUCHAIRE, DENIS
JEAN
- JEAN
ACHILLE (1846-1908)

(Manuel des institutions frangaises, 1892, p. 189, n. I) considers it difficult to

call

CALL (from Anglo-Saxon ceallian, a common Teutonic word, cf. Dutch kallen, to talk or chatter)

a man " free " who is under a strict

obligation

OBLIGATION

to another; further that the " liege " was not free from all obligation to a third party, for the charters prove without doubt that the " liege men " owed duty to more than one lord.

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