What did feudal lords do?

>>3302172
>Do I have every commoner on my land swear fealty to me the moment I get my lordship?
Depends on how high a lord you are. If you are the lord of a Manor, a knight or something, yes, if you are the duke of Burgundy, no, obviously not.

>How do I get men to join my retinue, do I command them to do so or hire them?
Depends, some will be the sons of your vassals if you are an actual lord (Baron, Count, Duke, Marquis etc), some will be hired guns with a lotta loyalty. If you are a simple lord of a single manor, your retinue will likely be entirely paid, maybe a yeoman or two, as the only people on your lands besides you are peasants and freemen.

>Can I conscript the peasants whenever I feel like it and raid my neighbor's lands?
I mean you can raise your levies whenever you want in theory, but if you do it in harvest time, you're going to lose money on lost crops, and people might even starve, you also better have some way of feeding and compensating your levies during the time spent not working the land.

Whether or not you can go picking fights with your neighbours all depends on the political situation in your kingdom. If the HRE is in one of its regular civil wars, yeah sure, no one will care. If you are a manorial lord in the royal demesne of the King of France, you better have a DAMN good reason, or the King will fuck you up.

>>3303715
Cont.

>Do I personally dictate how high the taxes and tariffs are? Can I go over and fuck any woman in my lands with no (legal) repercussion?
You can tax people as much as you want, yeah. What are the peasants going to do? Revolt? Yes actually.

No you can't go around raping women. Well, you can so long as you can pay the local sheriff to not care.

>Can I personally own businesses and farmsteads and whatnot? Why not get all of them in my land and reap all the profits directly?
You pretty much own all the land anyway. The farmers pay you by giving you some or most of their harvest. The guilds and whatnot will pay you rents, usually in money. Corporations don't really exist. You can patronise a guild if you really want, but exporting things is very difficult and you will likely have very little local market value, due to everyone on your land being peasants (unless you're literally a Duke with great towns and cities in your demesne). Shit is expensive, complicated, and there is no guarantee you will do anything but waste money, because there is no stock exchange, and information takes weeks to get anywhere. Plus your shit will constantly be being stolen by corrupt merchants and bandits and hungry peasants and whatnot.

>>3303722
Cont. Mk II

>How much influence does the local bishop and the local aristocracy have in my lands?
A lot.

The church has massive influence. If the local bishop decides you are a faggot, your life will very quickly become very hard.

The local aristocracy's influence again depends on how high up you are, and how powerful they are. If you are a manorial lord of very low standing, the Baron whose land you rent can literally impoverish you if he decides that you did something to break your oath of fealty and kick you off his land. If you are the Duke of Burgundy, you have a massive army, a vast treasury and can sway and even threaten the King of France to comply with your demands, if one of your vassals steps out of line you can literally wipe him from existence if you really want.

>And finally can I legitimize my bastards or do I need to speak to some higher authority for it?
Ask the church.

>>3302172
>Can I go over and fuck any woman in my lands with no (legal) repercussion?
You absolutely can not. You're not an absolute despot and your peasants have rights. Your claim to legitimcy is on a large part based on your role as the protector of your subordinates.

>How do I get men to join my retinue, do I command them to do so or hire them?
Depends on the culture etc but I'm failry certain that a common denominator would be that people seek you out for "employment" as one of your retinue. Nobles might send their lesser sons to you and warriors are always looking for a patron that can support their marital lifestyle. IIRC it was a common practice in the germanic and norse cultures for a nobleman's warrior retinue to not be outright "hired" as such but rather have everything payed for aswell as an ample share in the nobleman's wealth in exchange for their service. As such a nobleman would be focused on provided a good living for his men. Giving of gifts were highly central to this relationship.