FEUDAL STATES OF EUROPE 259 course as a rule it was easier for them to keep their neigh- bors in vassalage than to exact service and fidelity from far- off fiefs. Feudalism, in theory at least, would not admit of distinct state s with distinct territories, but would require a succes- sion of lordships within lordships. At the head Feudal would be the king or emperor. Then would come theory of his great vassals, the dukes and counts with their feudal courts, owing duties to the king as their suzerain, but free to govern their subvassals. Many of these sub- vassals might boast strong castles and considerable lands which they had subinfeudated to vassals of their own, over whom they might claim some powers of government. And any vassal or subvassal would at least have his manorial court, where he lorded it over his serfs. No one had com- plete governmental power or sovereignty, just as no one person had complete private ownership of the land of the fief. The functions of government, as well as real estate, incomes, and services, had been feudalized. Feudal theory, however, was never fully accepted in medieval politics, just as all the land was never divided into fiefs and manors and just as there were always Actual states some persons who were neither lords nor vassals of the feudal nor serfs. Kings still claimed to be something more than mere feudal overlords. The lords who built up local feudal states usually tried in practice to exercise greater powers than strict feudal theory would allow. Sometimes they possessed some other title or inherited position than that of a feudal lord upon which to base their claim to rule. The Dukes of Normandy and Bavaria, for instance, had once been the leaders of independent peoples. Many a feudal state had a natural or historical unity not given to it by feudalism. Not all feudal lords were able to build up states, and a state based solely upon feudalism was not likely to last long. But for several hundred years all states were greatly affected and colored by feudalism. Even kings found themselves not only limited in power by feudal- ism at every turn, but exercising most of the power that
