Say a emperoror decides to visit a kingdom and orders the king to vacate their throne and allow the emperor to sit upon it. for as long as he was in the kingdom’s capital Would the king be bound to listen to his “king”? Could the emperor, as the king’s ruler, overrule any of the king’s rulings as per his wish? Say the king wanted to avoid war with a neighboring country but the emperor wanted it, who would the people listen to?
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This is the kind of question civil wars are fought over. An emperor’s authority comes from the support of their vassals, so undermining and overstepping them would certainly lead to discontent and potentially destabilize the realm. On the other hand, an emperor acting in good faith with the support from the rest of his kings would have no problem steamrolling another king’s authority, especially if they were a threat to the internal stability or security of the empire.
A common vassalage contract might require the vassal to provide taxes and levies to his liege. If the king wants to avoid war he can certainly ask the emperor to reconsider, but at the end of the day refusing to submit the levies when the call to war goes out will cause problems later on.
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