In history writing, a comitatus, which is Latin for a group of companions (comites), is an armed escort or retinue, especially in the context of Germanic warrior culture, where warbands were tied to a leader by an oath of fealty.
The comitatus is also examined through a Christian context in works such as Dream of the Rood, where Christ is depicted more as a warrior-king doing battle with the Devil and accepts physical defeat for spiritual victory.
"[5] In late Roman and early medieval times, the Latin word comitatus referred to an office or jurisdiction held by a comes or count.
[1] Regarding the armor and weapons of late first century Germanic warriors, Tacitus explains that few carried long lances or swords.
More commonly, Germanic warriors bore frameae, or sharp spears with short, narrow blades that could be used in close quarters or in long-range fighting.
Throwing away one's shield in the battlefield, or fleeing from battle, was considered a disgrace that could cause a warrior to be banned from attending assemblies and religious rituals and sacrifices.
"[7] The comitatus has also been seen as an Indo-European concept that predates Roman times, practiced from Western Europe to China, especially among Eurasian steppe tribes.
[11] Comitatus, being the agreement between a Germanic lord and his subservients (his Gefolge or host of followers), is a special case of clientage, and related to the practice of feudalism.
[12] Partly influenced by the Roman practice of patronage (patrocinium),[13] - as exemplified by the lex agraria, of a general distributing land to his officers after their retirement, as well as by the later bucellarius or private follower[14][obsolete source] – the Germanic comitatus eventually evolved into a wholesale exchange between a social superior and inferior.
[16] Equivalents highlighting different features of the lord/man bond include the trust-element of the early Frankish antrustio, royal bodyguard;[17] the Danish vederlag or Society, and the Norse hird or household following.
How typical this is of the medieval genre of the frauenlied – with the romantic theme of a woman being left by her husband because he needs to be with his liege lord – is however debatable.
[19] Even in Anglo-Saxon England, if the Exeter Book contains few pieces featuring women or written from the female perspective, Beowulf by contrast has roles for women precisely in strengthening the cohesion and unity of the comitatus:[20] thus the 'peace-weaver' (a woman given in marriage to resolve a feud) Queen Wealtheow makes the normative claim that “Here each comrade is true to the other/loyal to lord, loving in spirit./The thanes have one purpose, the people are ready:/having drunk and pledged, the ranks do as I bid.”.
"[22] Tacitus supplies much of what scholars believe to know about the customs of Germanic tribes, the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons, before they came to Britain during the fifth century and converted to Christianity.