I have been arguing with a couple friends regarding a story we been reading. And my question is, in medieval Europe, was there ever a pseudo-social contract between Lords and serfs?
For example, if a rival lord launch an attack on Lord A's lands, would Lord A be obligated (morally or legally) to protect his peasants?
I guess what I am trying to ask is quite a few people claimed that a Lord is more like a Land Lord who collect rent from peasants who live on the land, and peasants pay taxes in the process.
I seem to remember the peasants work to pay for protection from bandits and other lords, So who is right?
The answer to this is going to vary with time and place, and have a lot to do with how desperately the lords needed someone to cultivate their land and how desperately the peasants wanted land to cultivate.
If you were formally someone's serf, that is, you swore an oath of fealty to them, they did have the obligation to come to your aid and protect you from physical harm. A lord who could not protect his serfs was no lord. A great many peasants were not serfs, particularly in the towns. The obligation would be a moral one and reflect on the lord's prestige - it would be pretty much unenforceable, legally.
This all comes with the caveat that this is effectively the storybook picture of feudalism. The reality was not nearly so neat.