commended himself to a landlord. Carolingian kings extended the term to middle-level
landlords who received royal benefices in return for administrative services; these royal
vassals (vass[all]i dominici) swore fealty to the king in the hands of the royal missi.
Thus, two distinct levels of vassals were linked hierarchically to the king and
subsequently, after the collapse of royal authority, to the counts.
In the 10th century, “vassal” was applied to the retainers of counts and barons and
often was synonymous with “knight,” but thereafter it rarely appeared in Latin texts.
Although vavassor later denoted low-level feudal tenants, perhaps the descendants of
10th-century vassals, contemporaries generally referred to anyone who had performed
homage (hominium) to a lord as the latter’s “man” (homo). Fulbert of Chartres (1020) and
Galbert de Bruges (1127) spoke not about vassals but rather about men who had done
homage and sworn fealty. Administrative bureaus later compiled lists of knights,
homages, military service, and fiefs, rather than of vassals.
It was in the vernacular, principally in the chansons de geste, that “vassal” survived in
the sense of warrior and was associated with the qualities of courage and loyalty,
although the earliest vernacular historians, such as Villehardouin, who can be assumed to
reflect current usage, did not employ the term.
Theodore Evergates
[See also: FEUDALISM; FIEF HOLDING]
Dunbabin, Jean. France in the Making, 843–1180. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Fourquin, Guy. Lordship and Feudalism in the Middle Ages, trans. Iris and A.L.Lytton Sells. New
York: Pica, 1976.
Ganshof, François L. Feudalism, trans. Philip Grierson. New York:Harper, 1961.
Poly, Jean-Pierre, and Eric Bournazel. La mutation féodale, XIe– XIIe siècles. Paris: Presses
Universitaires de France, 1980.
Woledge, Brian. “Bons vavasseurs et mauvais sénéchaux.” In Mélanges offerts a Rita Lejeune. 2
vols. Gembloux, 1969, Vol. 2, pp. 1263–77.
VAUX-DE-CERNAY
. The abbey of Vaux-de-Cernay was founded 2 miles from Cernay-la-Ville (Yvelines) by
monks from Savigny in 1118 and, like the other houses of the Savigniac order, passed
under Cistercian control in 1147. Partly destroyed after the Revolution, the property was
bought by the Rothschilds in 1873 and recently has become an exclusive resort hotel. The
site is dominated by the ruins of an imposing 12th-century church some 205 feet long.
The plan was determined and the lower walls of the chevet, transept, and nave aisles
partly built before the abbey came under the Cistercians. In plan, it consisted of a large
square chevet, a projecting transept with pairs of eastern chapels, and a lengthy nave with
aisles. Although the nave was completed in the second half of the century, the church was
groin-vaulted throughout. The west wall of the façade has a large rose window, some 22
feet in diameter, flanked by two smaller oculi. Taken under royal protection in 1142, the
abbey of Vaux-de-Cernay had a long and distinguished history in the 12th and 13th
centuries, with a number of its abbots serving in royal administrations. The most famous
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