King John's 'Act of Vassalage' to the Pope. May 15, 1213, surrounded by Bishops, Barons, Knights and various Nobles of the Realm, King John took an oath of fealty to the Pope on his knees before Pandulph. The occasion was the surrender of the Crown to the Pope. King John then made his submission, in the House of the Knights Templar.
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The first "act of vassalage" was the act of homage. The vassal placed his hands between the hands of the man who would be his lord, and the vassal swore fealty, loyalty, and obedience to his lord.
This was a solemn, symbolic, and visual act that carried the hallowed aspect of religious sanction (Brown 29). This act could include the investiture of land (granting of a fief by the lord to his vassal), but it did not always involve land. Knights could swear vassalage to a lord and serve in that lord's household without being granted a fief of land; they could be seeking instead contacts in the nobility or rewards from tournaments and battles. The relationship of vassalage was a voluntary one between two free men, but it was irrevocable except for the default of obligation on the part of either lord or vassal (Brown 24-9). If a vassal failed to provide military service or aid to his lord, or if the lord failed to protect and provide maintenance for his vassal, the bond was broken. The greatest crime in medieval England was the "crime of felonie"; this was the crime of breaking one's oath of loyalty to one's lord or one's vassal.
