The ''Heerschild'' (; lat, clipeus militarisStieber, Joachim. W. (1978). ''Pope Eugenius IV, the Council of Basel and the Secular and Ecclesiastical Authorities in the Empire'', E.J. Brill, Leiden, p. 124. ), also called the shield of knighthood, in the

Early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...

was the right to raise a

feudal levy Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...

of troops. The call to do so was the '' Heerbann''. The resulting importance of a system of military ranks, based on the ability to provide men for a campaign, became modified in the

law book A law book is a book about law. It is possible to make a distinction between "law books" on the one hand, and "books about law" on the other. This distinction is "useful". A law book is "a work of legal doctrine". It consists of "law talk", that i ...

s published in the 13th century. It finally ended up as being an important part of the structure of medieval society, as captured in the feudal law element of the '' Sachsenspiegel'' by

Eike von Repgow Eike of Repgow (german: Eike von Repgow, also ''von Repkow'', ''von Repko'', ''von Repchow'' or ''von Repchau''; – ) was a medieval German administrator who compiled the ''Sachsenspiegel'' code of law in the 13th century. Life Little is known a ...

. The ''Sachsenspiegel'', the Saxon law book, portrays the society of the medieval empire as divided into seven feudal military levels or ''Heerschilde'' (lit.: "army shields"). This ''Heerschildordnung'' was a scale determining a nobleman's status and was not based on military criteria.Mitterauer, Michael, tr. by Chapple, Gerald. (2010). ''Why Europe?: The Medieval Origins of Its Special Path'', Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, p. 122. The first ''Heerschild'' was the king or emperor as the supreme overlord. This was followed by the second "shield", formed by the ecclesiastical princes - the bishops and abbots - of the empire. The third level comprised the secular or lay

princes A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary title, hereditary, in some Euro ...

, who, in turn, sat above the "free lords" (''freie Herren''), i.e. nobles who were not princes, of the fourth stratum. The fifth and sixth ''Heerschilde'' were formed by freeman, whether eligible for jury service (''schöffenbar'') or not, in other words commoners who were able to act as magistrates (5th level) or not (6th level). As to the seventh level, the ''Sachsenspiegel'' remains vague, both in terms its composition, as well as whether it was in any real sense a ''Heerschild''. Based on this division of society, the ''Sachsenspiegel'' then dealt with the feudal law rights and obligations of each ''Heerschild''.

References

Literature

* Steffen Patzold: ''Das Lehnswesen.'' C. H. Beck, Munich, 2012, pp. 107ff, {{ISBN, 978-3-406-63235-8. Warfare of the Middle Ages Medieval law German feudalism