Investiture

I will summarize more history from Book Six of Poul Anderson's The Shield Of Time. This story about medieval history requires Anderson to condense more information than usual. Readers heed it only to the extent that it directly affects the action.

I remember something of this period from school. Each new "Holy Roman Emperor," based in Germany, had to cross the Alps to assert his rule in Italy and to settle accounts with the Pope. In feudalism, land worked by serfs was held by lords. Land could be seized by force so the only way for a local lord to keep his land was to give it to a more powerful lord who then "invested" him in it. Thus, the local lord kept the land and was protected by the greater lord to whom he owed fealty/loyalty.

This system, of Western Christendom, was pyramidal - "My lord's lord is not my lord" - with Kings and an Emperor and was a rule of men, not a rule of law. If you owed fealty to someone, you had to hope that he was just. Since Bishops and Abbots held land, they were feudal lords and there was a controversy between secular rulers and the Pope as to who should invest them. Wikipedia informs me that this "Investiture Contest" ended in 1122, which surprises me because The Shield Of Time shows us continued church-state conflict, but maybe over other issues, later in that century.

My only sources are:

memories from school;
a quick glance at Wiki;
a careful rereading of The Shield Of Time, since this blog focuses on the works of Poul Anderson.