Ostrogoths came into Italy in the year 489 A.D., or as the Normans
entered England in 1066, their king at once took it for granted that
he owned all the conquered land. In some cases, he might divide the
kingdom up among his chiefs, giving a county to each of forty or fifty
leaders. These great leaders (dukes or barons, as they were called in
the Norman-French language, or earls, as the English named them) would
in turn each divide up his county among several less important chiefs,
whom we may call lesser or little barons. Each little baron might have
several knights and squires, who lived in or near his castle and had
received from him tracts of land corresponding in size, perhaps, to
the American township and who, therefore, fought under his banner in
war.

[Illustration: A Norman Castle in England]

Each baron had under him a strong body of fighting men, "men-at-arms,"
as they were called, or "retainers," who in return for their "keep,"
that is, their food and lodging, and a chance to share the plunder
gained in war, swore to be faithful to him, became his men, and gave
him the service called homage. (This word comes from hōmō, the Latin
for "man.") The lesser baron, in turn, swore homage to, and was the
"man" of the great baron or earl. Whenever the earl called on these
lesser chiefs to gather their fighting men and report to him, they had
to obey, serving him as unquestioningly as their squires and retainers
obeyed them. The earl or duke swore homage to the king, from whom he
had received his land.

This, then, was the feudal system (so named from the word feudum,
which, in Latin, meant a piece of land the use of which was given to a
man in return for his services in war), a system which reversed the