Plural of feudatory; multiple people who hold feudal estates or acknowledge feudal overlords.
Plural of feudatory, from Medieval Latin feudatarius meaning 'one who holds a fief.' This term became common in British India to describe local rulers under British colonial authority.
In British India, the British called local Indian rulers 'feudatories' to place them in a feudal relationship—it was a linguistic trick that made colonialism sound like an old-fashioned medieval hierarchy rather than an imperial conquest.
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