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In a rural economy that lacked a strong central government, intricate local networks of mutual obligation were a logical response to the dangers of poverty, violence, sickness, and starvation. The feudal system was built around the exchange of land, labor, and military protection, among other rights and obligations that linked members of various classes. Starting around the sixth century, vassals would swear fealty to a more powerful individual, in return for the promise of protection. Kings and nobles built their military strength by acquiring increasing numbers of vassals; as the system developed, benefices (land given to the vassal by the lord) replaced residence in the lord's household, scutage (a monetary payment from the vassal to the lord) replaced direct military service, and other innovations formalized and institutionalized the relationships of feudal society. All participants in the feudal system constantly negotiated and competed for advantage; in the tenth and eleventh centuries, in particular, there was a power struggle between kings and church leaders. One significant problem with feudal relationships was that they could be repeated down through a massive pyramid, with vassals holding vassals who, in turn, held vassals, almost ad infinitum, which led to a fragmentation of both land and authority by the late ninth century. Loyalties could become divided as vassals swore fealty to multiple lords, to gain multiple land holdings. Eventually, vassals could claim hereditary possession of the lands they worked, reducing vassals' sense of obligation to lords. Nonetheless, feudalism provided a first glimpse of many of the political and legal institutions that developed into the modern nation-state.
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