Vassalage

Abstract

In the early thirteenth century a new formal relationship between popes and kings appeared: kings might now be papal ‘vassals’ (vassalli) and their kingdoms ‘fiefs’ (feuda). Such language appeared in King John of England’s surrender to Pope Innocent III in 1213 and thence spread to other kingdoms, including the kingdom of Man, through a network of courtiers at the papal curia, all of whom had connections with the English royal court. The development and construction of these relationships was a two-way process in which both kings and popes participated; such relationships were not enforced on unwilling rulers by an over-mighty papal monarchy.