Vasilief, A History of the Byzantine Empire

The Empire of Nicaea (1204-1261)

Byzantine feudalism 

Page 13

The almost permanent struggle on the eastern frontier in Asia Minor against the Arabs caused the so-called akritai to appear. Akrites (plural akritai) was a name applied during the Byzantine period to the defenders of the outermost borders of the Empire; it is derived from the Greek word akra, meaning border. The akritai sometimes enjoyed a certain amount of independence from the central government and are with some grounds to be compared with the western European margraves (meaning rulers of the borderland, marches) and with the cossacks of the ukraina (also meaning border), in the history of Russia. In these border districts where war was the normal state of things and security did not exist, one felt, according to a French historian, A. Rambaud, far removed from the Byzantine Empire, and one might have been not in the provinces of an enlightened monarchy but in the midst of the feudal anarchy of the West. An English historian, J. B. Bury, says that the continuous strife against the Saracens (Arabs) in the East developed a new type of warrior, the kavallarios, i.e. a rider, knight (in German Ritter), whose heart was set on adventure and who was accustomed to act independently of orders from the emperor or a military superior... In the tenth century many of them possessed large domains and resembled feudal barons rather than Roman officers. The famous families in Asia Minor of Phocas, Sclerus, Maleinus, and Philocales, with whom Basil II (976-1025) irreconcilably and continually struggled, are representatives of large landlords in Asia Minor who because of their vast land properties were not only a social anomaly in the Empire but also a serious political danger to the reigning dynasty, for they could group around them their own military forces. A man who received a pronoia upon condition of military service had the right or probably even the obligation to maintain a body of troops which, if circumstances allowed, he could bring to a considerable size. The famous Novels of the emperors of the Macedonian dynasty in defense of small land-ownership point out once more how threatening from the state standpoint was the development of large landownership.

The troubled period of the eleventh century was characterized by a struggle between the large landowners of Asia Minor who relied on their military forces, and the central government. The result was that in 1081 a representative of large landownership, Alexius Comnenus, took possession of the throne and founded a dynasty of long duration (1081-1185). But Alexius was forced to recognize Trebizond as an almost independent state and during his reign he took severe measures against the large landowners among both laity and clergy. A strong reaction against large landownership took place under the last emperor of the Comnenian dynasty, Andronicus I (1182-1185). But the former system triumphed again under the Angeli (1185-1204).

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Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/vasilief/feudalism.asp?pg=13