The Agreement Between Lord And Vassal Summary

The Agreement between Lord and Vassal is an account of a relationship between Hugh of Lusignan and William V of Aquitaine (who was also Count of Poitiers ). This account is seen through the perspective of Hugh, and provides examples of different powers, actions, and decisions of lords and vassals. According to the introduction of the Agreement, this account was "wrote or dictated " between 1020 and 1025 . Through criticism and analysis of this source, I hope to determine what information historians can gather from a first-person document and how/if this document has a place in the milieu of history.

Because the account is through the viewpoint of the vassal, who feels he has been slighted, we must take what he says about his lords and treatment

Because he had knights and men of his own, according to the Agreement, it can be assumed that he was not some lowly peasant, but rather a lower level noble . We can assume that if Hugh did write this document himself, he could not have been a peasant, because as a whole peasants were illiterate, and their histories are written by those above them. Beech refers to Hugh as a castellan, or castle governor, which would be an accurate term to describe Hugh's state of power. Because of his inferior status to the Count, Hugh would have had to surrender his own men to the Count whenever the Count demanded. This would add to the slightness that Hugh felt. How could he be respected in his position, when he was denied (in his eyes) of his rights, and still had to concede to the will of his lord? To Hugh, this would not be fair, because the Count was not holding up his end of the deal. As a reader, one would be led to side with Hugh, without getting a proper account from the Count. The reader must keep in mind that they are only getting one viewpoint. In From Reliable Sources, the authors talk "suppression and shading" of information. What is Hugh not telling us or hiding from us? We can never really know because of lack of the Count's point of view. The absence of the viewpoint of the lord leads to a very much biased source. What we also do not know is how long after the transgressions done by the Count to Hugh did Hugh choose to document the information? We know that is was documented between 1020 and 1025 (estimated), but is Hugh remembering this at the end of his life? The end of the Agreement states that he did receive the "honor of his uncle Joscelin" one year before he died, and history assumes his death to be no later than 1032. If Hugh is recalling the events mentioned as late as seven to twelve years later, one must take into consideration the loss of memory that