What is "homage"

Homage \Hom"age\, n. [OF. homage, homenage, F. hommage, LL. hominaticum, homenaticum, from L. homo a man, LL. also, a client, servant, vassal; akin to L. humus earth, Gr.? on the ground, and E. groom in bridegroom. Cf. Bridegroom, Human.]

1. (Feud. Law) A symbolical acknowledgment made by a feudal tenant to, and in the presence of, his lord, on receiving investiture of fee, or coming to it by succession, that he was his man, or vassal; profession of fealty to a sovereign.

2. Respect or reverential regard; deference; especially, respect paid by external action; obeisance.

   All things in heaven and earth do her [Law] homage.
   --Hooker.

   I sought no homage from the race that write.
   --Pope.

3. Reverence directed to the Supreme Being; reverential worship; devout affection.
   --Chaucer.

   Syn: Fealty; submission; reverence; honor; respect.

   Usage: Homage, Fealty. Homage was originally the act of a feudal tenant by which he declared himself, on his knees, to be the hommage or bondman of the lord; hence the term is used to denote reverential submission or respect. Fealty was originally the fidelity of such a tenant to his lord, and hence the term denotes a faithful and solemn adherence to the obligations we owe to superior power or authority. We pay our homage to men of pre["e]minent usefulness and virtue, and profess our fealty to the principles by which they have been guided.

   Go, go with homage yon proud victors meet ! Go, lie like dogs beneath your masters' feet !
   --Dryden.

   Man, disobeying, Disloyal, breaks his fealty, and sins Against the high supremacy of heaven.
   --Milton.

Homage \Hom"age\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Homaged; p. pr. & vb. n. Homaging.] [Cf. OF. hommager.]

1. To pay reverence to by external action. [R.]

2. To cause to pay homage. [Obs.]
   --Cowley.

late 13c., from Old French homage (12c., Modern French hommage) "allegiance or respect for one's feudal lord," from homme "man," from Latin homo (genitive hominis) "man" (see homunculus). Figurative sense of "reverence, honor shown" is from late 14c. As a verb, from 1590s (agent noun homager is from c.1400).

n. 1 (context historical English) In feudalism, the formal oath of a vassal to honor his or her lord's rights. 2 A demonstration of respect, such as towards an individual after their retirement or death 3 An artistic work imitate another in a flattering style. Recently, the pronunciation /oʊˈmɒːʒ/ has been introduced from French for this usage; see hommage, which preserves the French spelling. vb. 1 (context obsolete English) To pay reverence to by external action. 2 (context obsolete English) To cause to pay homage.

n. respectful deference; "pay court to the emperor" [syn: court]

Homage ( or ) is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic. The term is often used in the arts for where one author or artist shows respect to another by allusion or imitation; this is often treated and pronounced as the French hommage.

Homage may mean:

• Homage (arts), an allusion or imitation by one artist to another
• Homage (feudal), the medieval oath of allegiance
• Commendation ceremony, medieval homage ceremony
• Homage Comics, a comics imprint
• Homage (sculpture), by Haydn Davies, created 1975 and destroyed in 2005

Homage was a sculpture by Haydn Davies, commissioned by Lambton College to stand outside the school's main entrance in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. It was constructed in 1975 and destroyed by the college in 2005.

Homage in the Middle Ages was the ceremony in which a feudal tenant or vassal pledged reverence and submission to his feudal lord, receiving in exchange the symbolic title to his new position (investiture). It was a symbolic acknowledgement to the lord that the vassal was, literally, his man (homme). The oath known as "fealty" implied lesser obligations than did "homage". Further, one could swear "fealty" to many different overlords with respect to different land holdings, but "homage" could only be performed to a single liege, as one could not be "his man", i.e., committed to military service, to more than one "liege lord".

There have been some interesting conflicts about obligations of homage in history. For example, the Angevin monarchs of England were sovereign in England, i.e., they had no duty of homage regarding those holdings; but they were not sovereign regarding their French holdings. So Henry II was king of England, but he was merely Duke of the Normans and Angevins and Lord of Aquitaine. The Capetian kings in Paris, though weak militarily, claimed a right of homage. The usual oath was therefore modified by Henry to add the qualification "for the lands I hold overseas." The implication was that no "knights service" was owed for the conquered English lands.

After King John was forced to surrender Normandy to France in 1204, English magnates with holdings on both sides of the Channel were faced with conflict. John still expected to recover his ancestral lands, and those English lords who held lands in Normandy would have to choose sides. Many were forced to abandon their continental holdings. Two of the most powerful magnates, Robert de Beaumont, 4th Earl of Leicester and William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, negotiated an arrangement with the French king that if John had not recovered Normandy in a year-and-a-day, they would do homage to Philip. At first that seemed to satisfy John, but eventually, as a price for making peace with the French king to keep his lands, the Earl Marshall fell out of favour with John.

The conflict between the French monarchs and the Angevin kings of England continued through the 13th century. When Edward I was asked to provide military service to Philip III in his war with Aragon in 1285, Edward made preparations to provide service from Gascony (but not England – he had not done "homage", and thus owed no service to France for the English lands). Edward's Gascon subjects did not want to go to war with their southern neighbours on behalf of France, and they undoubtedly appealed to Edward that as a sovereign, he owed the French King no service at all. A truce was arranged, however, before Edward had to decide what to do. But when Phillip III died, and his son Philip IV ascended the French throne in 1286, Edward dutifully but reluctantly performed "homage" for the sake of peace. In doing so, Edward added yet another qualification – that the duty owed was "according to the terms of the peace made between our ancestors".