Commendation ceremony
（重定向自Homage and Fealty）
![David Bruce, King of Scotland, acknowledges Edward III of England as his feudal lord (1346), in a ms of Froissart's Chronicles, c.1410](/Images/godic/202501/18/David_Bruce,_king_of_Scotland,_acknowledges_Edward_III_as_his_feudal_lord3748.jpg")
![Charlemagne receiving the oath of fidelity and homage from one of his great vassals:facsimile of a monochrome miniature in a 14th century Ms of the](/Images/godic/202501/18/King_Charlemagne_receiving_the_Oath_of_Fidelity_and_Homage_from_one_of_his_great_Feudatories_or_High_Barons3748.png")
![Papacy and monarchy: Catholic Marie de' Medici assumes the traditional pose of a vassal in homage at her coronation following Henry IV's assassination, as painted by Peter Paul Rubens.](/Images/godic/202501/18/Peter_Paul_Rubens_0503748.jpg")
A commendation ceremony (commendatio) is a formal ceremony that evolved during the Early Medieval period to create a bond between a lord and his fighting man, called his vassal (Latin vassus). The first recorded ceremony of commendatio was in 7th century France, but the relationship of vassalage was older, and predated even the medieval formulations of a noble class. The lord's "man" ("vassal" comes from a Celtic word for "boy") might be born unfree, but the commendatio freed him. (See Vassal).