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Also known as tenance-in-chief, vassality

In medieval and early modern Europe, a tenant-in-chief (or vassal-in-chief) was a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the lord paramount to whom he did homage, as opposed to holding them from another nobleman or senior member of the clergy. The tenure was one that denoted great honour, but also carried heavy responsibilities. The tenants-in-chief were originally responsible for providing knights and soldiers for the king's feudal army.