Legal Definitions - assecurare

assecurare is a historical legal term that means to make something certain, safe, or secure, often by providing guarantees or assurances. In historical contexts, this frequently involved the use of "pledges," which could be physical objects, promises, or even individuals held as collateral to ensure an agreement was kept.

Here are some examples illustrating the historical application of assecurare:

• Imagine a medieval lord who wanted to ensure the loyalty and military support of a powerful vassal. To assecurare this allegiance, the lord might require the vassal to provide a valuable piece of land as a guarantee, or perhaps send a family member to live at the lord's court as a sign of good faith. If the vassal were to betray the lord, the lord could then seize the land or take action against the family member, thus demonstrating how the initial pledges made the vassal's commitment "secure."

• Consider two merchants in a past era agreeing on a future delivery of rare spices. To assecurare the transaction, the buyer might provide the seller with a valuable item, such as a silver chalice, or a portion of the payment upfront. This pledge would serve as a guarantee that the buyer would complete the purchase when the spices arrived. If the buyer failed to follow through, the seller would keep the chalice or the upfront payment, thereby having "made secure" their interest in the agreement.

• In a historical context, when two warring kingdoms negotiated a truce or a peace treaty, they often needed to assecurare that both sides would uphold the terms. A common method was for each kingdom to send a high-ranking noble or even a royal family member to the other kingdom's court as a "hostage" – a form of pledge. The presence of these individuals made it less likely for either side to violate the treaty, as doing so would endanger their own noble or royal family member held by the opposing kingdom, thereby "making secure" the peace agreement.