the.com/liege

means A feudal lord entitled to loyalty and service from his subjects, or the loyal subject bound to serve him — the word works both directions.

from From Old French 'lige', traced back to a Medieval Latin term for someone bound to their lord by a pledge of allegiance. There's long been scholarly debate about whether it connects to Latin 'laetus' (a half-free serf settled on land) or to a Germanic root meaning 'free' — ironic, if true, since by the time the word reached English it meant anything but free choice. Either way, it arrived via French feudal vocabulary and settled into English to describe the absolute, no-exceptions bond between lord and vassal.