Army successes

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Army successes (also army successes ) is a term from the medieval feudal system and describes the duty to have to provide military support to one's liege lord in the event of war. In the early days of the Holy Roman Empire , the call for army succession was made through the ban , which is why the terms are sometimes used synonymously.

In the age of the Viking campaigns , the Hungarian invasions and the Saracen piracy (from around 800 to shortly after 1000 AD), the troubled peasants and citizens sought protection from combatants, whether from the aristocracy or free peasantry, who in turn subordinated themselves to more powerful princes and those to the king. The great landowners of the early Middle Ages were replaced by a new, energetic sword nobility (after Marc Bloch ).

As an economic basis for the fighting way of life as well as the elaborate equipment of the armored riders , the feudal lord gave them a piece of land at their free disposal and thus tied them to himself - also through the revocability of the feud in case of neglect of duty. At the same time he granted them protection and security by means of his larger suite of knights . In return, the feudal taker had to swear allegiance to the liege lord and be available in times of peace for advice and court services, in times of war for army succession (for a limited number of days per year without further payment) and for this purpose pack horses, riding horses and fighting horses Bring (in a fixed number) as well as squires and servants (also in accordance with the minimum number) along with weapons and armor. Also bishoprics and abbeys were under the king service obligation to military service, which in practice usually the count's governors of bishoprics perceived and monasteries with their Rittergefolge; but often the bishops put themselves at the head of their contingent.

The vassals of the king and princes had to give the right to a portion of their land to sub minion, the manors emerged, which in turn parts of their manors to their Erbuntertänigen or tenants ( of hearing and ALQUERIA awarded) which for lease fees in kind and labor services to had to afford. They tilled the fields and in return received protection against attacks, such as feuds , which did not always work in practice. The extended war campaigns of the kings, which took place every summer, often stood in the way of regular cultivation and harvest due to the fact that many peasants were taken along as part of the army succession of the princes and knights. The peasants who were still free often sought to evade military exemption by placing themselves under the protection and service of the more powerful, from whom they assisted with equipping or - in return for the obligation to pay taxes - also completely exempted them from military service which in turn promoted feudalism .

literature

  • Marc Bloch : The feudal society. Revised new edition, Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-608-91234-7 .
  • Ph. Contamine, NP Brooks, K. Simms, H. Zug Tucci, MA Ladero Quesada, H. Kleinschmidt, S. Ekdahl, M. Polivka: Herr, Heerwesen A. West- und Mitteleuropa. In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages . Volume 4. 1989, Sp. 1987-2002.

Individual evidence

  1. military service, f. . In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm : German Dictionary . Hirzel, Leipzig 1854–1961 ( woerterbuchnetz.de , University of Trier). Vol. 10, Col. 755.