Legal Definitions - foreign service

Historically, foreign service referred to a specific type of obligation within the feudal system. It described duties or services that a tenant owed to their lord, but which were performed outside the immediate boundaries or direct scope of the land (known as a "fee" or "fief") that the tenant held. Unlike "intrinsic" services, which were directly tied to the land itself (such as farming the lord's fields or defending the local castle), foreign service involved tasks that extended beyond these local, inherent responsibilities.

Here are some examples to illustrate this concept:

• Military Campaign: Imagine a knight who holds a manor (his "fee") from a baron, with the primary obligation to provide military service to defend the baron's castle and immediate lands. However, the baron, as a vassal to a king, might require the knight to join the king's army on a campaign in a distant province, far from the knight's own manor or the baron's immediate territory.

  Explanation: This would be considered foreign service because the knight's duty extends beyond the defense of his own fee or his immediate lord's local domain, requiring him to perform military service in a "foreign" (external or distant) context.

• Inter-Estate Labor: Consider a group of villagers who hold their plots of land from a local lord, with their usual service being to cultivate the lord's personal lands (demesne) and maintain local roads within the estate. During a time of crisis, perhaps a flood in a neighboring county belonging to an allied lord, their lord might command these villagers to travel to that distant county to help with rebuilding efforts or emergency labor, even though it's not on their lord's direct property.

  Explanation: The villagers' obligation to provide labor is typically tied to their own lord's estate. Performing this service in a distant, "foreign" county, outside the boundaries of their fee and usual duties, constitutes foreign service.

• Diplomatic Mission: A skilled scribe holds a small parcel of land in exchange for maintaining the local lord's records and correspondence within the lord's castle. On occasion, the lord might dispatch the scribe on a journey to a distant royal court or to another noble's estate to deliver important messages or represent the lord in negotiations.

  Explanation: While the scribe's primary service is administrative and tied to the lord's immediate household and estate, traveling to a "foreign" court or estate for diplomatic or messenger duties goes beyond the direct, local obligations associated with his fee, making it a foreign service.