The feudal lord owed his vassals justice, protection, shelter and refuge.

If certain privileges, claimed by the feudal lord, were onerous, the vassal was not without some guarantee that he would be shown fair play; for it was evident that unless in some way rights and obligations were fairly well balanced, and there was a fair return for service rendered, the whole system would soon crumble to pieces.
The "system," if it can be called one, was, as we have said, by no means perfect, but it bridged the historic gap which stretches between the fall of the Carolingian power and the full dawn of the Middle Ages.

It saved Europe from anarchy.

Its blessings cannot be denied.

It helped to foster the love of independence, of self-government, of local institutions, of communal and municipal freedom.