(Flaith)
Basically the rights of a lord are mainly to his clients, as they make up his status. A
lord must have a certain number of clients to be a lord at all, the lowest level being the
so-called aire de/so (literally "lord of vassalry") which has 5 free and 5 base
clients (free and base clientship will be explained later).
However, a lord has to be fair against his clients, he looses his honour if not fulfilling
his obligations towards his clients, and may also loose his honour-price for various
offenses including refusal of hospitality, sheltering a fugitive from the law, tolerating
satire, eating food known to be stolen, and betraying his honour.
Additionally there exist relatively detailed descriptions of what he has to own
additionally to having the required number of clients, up to the size of his house and
number of beds in it.
Additionally a lord can have dependants of unfree rank (in contrast to the clients which
are freemen) This includes the fuidir (semi-free tenant, who cannot make a legal contract
without permission of his lord and has to fulfill any task the lord chooses to assign him
to (in difference to clients which have a fixed set of tasks to fulfill). The fuidir has
to be maintained by the lord who also has to pay for any offences, but may himself collect
any penalties due to offences against the fuidir. However, the fuidir may leave his lords
property if he leaves behind no liabilities or debts and surrenders 2/3 of the produce of
his husbandry to his former lord. Then there is the bithach (literally "cottier, one
who lives in a hut") which is usually equated with fuidir, the distinction between
the ranks being unclear. Finally there is the senchleihte, which is a bothach or fuidir
whose forebears have occupied the same land for at least three generations. Senchleithe
literally means "ancient dwelling". Such a person is not a slave, but is bound
to the land and cannot renounce his tenancy. If the land changes owner, so does the
senchleithe.
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