liege:
(also ‘liege lord’; plural: ‘lieges‘; pronunciation: the letters ‘lie’ rhyme with the word “lee”, and the letter ‘g’ rhymes with the ‘g’ in “danger”, and the last ‘e’ is silent — for the right pronunciation of this word, please click here)
a lord or ruler to whom others must give loyalty and service (in feudal system);
a feudal lord,
a liege lord (L) and his vassals or liegemen
King James was their liege lord.
There were several kinds of Lords in the past and the liege lord was the most important lord who had some minor lords (knights) loyal to him.
There were liege lords and liegemen loyal to them not only in European countries but also in Asian country, mostly in China and Japan, though the name was slightly different.
Some computer experts say jokingly that computer software and hardware developers, search engines and social media developers are the modern day liege lords and the computer users are their vassals and liegemen!
