The Earls have power over their lands and people, but must bend the knee to the King and serve as his vassals, just as their own vassals bend the knee to them, and serve them.
1928 January, Ernest C. Wilson, “A King and a Kingdom That Limped”, in Youth[5], volume 2, number 1, page 13:
Jezebel, though she bent the knee to Baal, was pleasing in Ahab’s sight; and he saw that her father’s army, though deplorably pagan, wielded heavy swords.
2001, Beth Moore, Living Free: Learning to Pray God's Word[6], page 86:
We will realize that in our weakness He is strong and that as we bend the knee to His lordship, God is more than able to deliver us.
2006, James W. White, Christianity 101: Tracing Basic Beliefs[7], page 55:
For one thing, Christians refused to bend the knee to anyone but God, certainly not to Caesar.
2013, Jessica Seneca, Road Trip: A Personal Journey Through Life’s Detours and Pit Stops[8], page 115:
When I finally bent the knee to His plan and was willing to speak to that one person, God began to use me and yes, it was to one woman.
Verb: "(idiomatic, by extension) to show undue deference, obedience, or support for someone or something"
1861 April, Frederick Douglass, “The Inaugural Address”, in Douglass' Monthly[9], volume III, number XI, page 434:
Some thought we had in Mr. [Abraham] Lincoln the nerve and decision of an Oliver Cromwell; but the result shows that we merely have a continuation of the Pierces and Buchanans, and that the Republican President bends the knee to slavery as readily as any of his infamous predecessors.
1967 May, Gladys Spearman-Cook, “The Gordian Knot”, in Occult Gazette[10], number 81, page 9:
With everybody being forced to bend the knee to their antiquated rules and derogative wisdom.
1993, Swami Vivekananda, Thoughts on the Gita[11], page 49:
This bending the knee to superstitions, this selling yourself to your own mind does not befit you, my soul. You are infinite, deathless, birthless.
2013, Gary Shapiro, Ninja Innovation: The Ten Killer Strategies of the World's Most Successful Businesses[12], page 117:
But there's something more sinister in the need for companies to bend the knee to Washington politicians.
2014, John Bootsma, quoted in Peach Arch News (White Rock, BC), 28 October 2014, page 7:
Not 'everyone' agrees with Surrey school board's bending the knee to the homosexual 'community.'
2016, Stuart Jeffries, Grand Hotel Abyss: The Lives of the Frankfurt School[13], page 166:
Kafka had bent the knee to his father’s desires and taken a job in an insurance office.
2017 Summer, Simon Hannah, “A tale of two manifestos”, in Red Flag[14], volume 1, number 3, page 13:
Here is the point at which the Labour left has humbly bent the knee to the establishment.
2015, Rev. Robert Plaisted, "Shrinking churches" (letter to the editor), The Bridgton News (Bridgton, MA), 28 May 2015, page 7D:
Jesus called us to "preach good news to the poor," but we've ignored the poor and bent the knee to wealth and power, treating corrupt, "trickle-down" economics as though it were God's word.
2018, Malcolm Strachan, "Remember Minnis' words then compare them with his new reality", The Tribune (Bahamas), 22 October 2018, page 8:
Irrefutably, many among us were insulted as the government bent the knee to Disney and acquiesced to their demands.
2022, Maureen Dowd, "The Marjorie Taylor Greene-ing of America", Falls Church News-Press (Falls Church, VA), 10 November - 16 November 2022, page 18:
Much to our national shame, it looks like these over-the-top and way, way, way out of the mainstream Republicans — and the formerly normie and now creepy Republicans who have bent the knee to the wackos out of political expediency — are going to be running the House, maybe the Senate and certainly some states, perhaps even some that Joe Biden won two years ago.
2022, "Log Cabin goes all-in on MAGA", Bay Area Reporter, 22 December -28 December 2022, page 13:
Sadly, bending the knee to anti-LGBTQ politicians seems to be about the only thing Log Cabin knows how to do.
2024, Zach Ajluni, "The GOP needs to break up with DJT", The Michigan Daily (The University of Michigan), 20 March 2024, page 9:
Instead of providing a solution to an issue many claim to be the greatest threat facing America, Republicans bent the knee to the former president [Donald Trump] and did his bidding.