Hist. Also in Latin pl. form leudes. [repr. med.L. leudēs, a. OHG. liudi, liuti: see LEDE.] In the Frankish kingdoms: A vassal or feudatory.
c. 1756–67. Burke, Eng. Hist., Wks. X. 338. This chief [of the ancient Germans] was styled Senior, Lord [etc.] … the followers were called Ambacti, Comites, Leuds, Vassals [etc.].
1845. M. Pattison, Ess., i. (1889), 17. The king, attended by some of his leudes, armed only with their swords, entered.
1863. J. White, Eighteen Chr. Cent., vii. 137. The Leud, as he was called—or feudatory, as he would have been named at a later time.
1872. Robertson, Hist. Ess., Introd. p. xxxv. They had exchanged the position of Leudes … for that of Antrustions.
