Feudalism can be described as both a legal and military practice during the 9th all the way to the 15th century, consisting of multiple levels of social and economic classes that formed what is today known as a caste system. Feudalism worked as a means for dividing and holding land, in exchange for labor and service. Feudalism became the way of life mostly after the fall of an empire, the lack of a centralized power meant that small hereditary rulers formed and gathered land in their territories. From there those who rose to power would need people to work the land, grow and harvest crops, as well as provide military service to them. This is where the birth of the feudal system came to be.
The feudal system was designed as a means to provide service in return for a place to live, and protection. Before a lord could grant land or a fief to a vassal, Homage needed to be conducted. Homage was a ceremony where the vassal would receive his fief, the vassal would kneel before the lord and put his hands in the lord’s hands and then swear fealty. When the vassal pledged his loyalty and labor, he was also obliged to provide military service for his lord. Offensive service would consist of going outside of the lord’s territory on a military campaign, however, there was normally a 40 day limit to the amount of days that the vassal was
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required to provide military service per year. After 40 days of being present in the lord’s army, the vassal had the right to return home. In addition, defensive military service required defending the lord’s land from a threat, which could last forever and had no limit to the amount of day in service. Although it seems that this system for the most part was a one sided exchange, there were times that the lord could call upon his vassal(s) to give advice on certain topics pertaining to war, marriage, anything at all. This was known as a Suit DeCourt, in which the lord would request the presence of his vassal(s) and seek advice on what to do pertaining to the mentioned topics above although the lord was not required to take the advice of his vassal(s). However, the lord could request money from his vassal(s) in order to go to war, build a castle, or anything that the lord needed money for. Also, the lord was obliged to come to his vassal’s aid or protection if he/they were threatened in anyway. In this case it starts to appear that the feudal system was a two way street of interrelations in order for the survival of the land and peoples living within the system to thrive and survive, however the system itself was very weak. The Feudal system in France started in the 9th century and did not conclude until the 17th century, at the start of the French Revolution. Influenced by Roman and German establishments, the system of giving away land for bound service and loyalty became a popular and profitable idea for those that benefited. Heavily influenced by the church, due to the churches’ ownership of land in the form of monasteries, these large chunks of land were handed off as gifts to nobles, which carried over with certain feudal obligations. After becoming a norm through the 9th century all the way up to the 14th century, France’s feudal system began to slowly break down due to a result of more concentrated power rather than sparatic. This slowly began to set the stage for the rise of monarchs which would even further cripple the feudal system in France, and would finally implode with the beginning of the French Revolution. Feudalism in Germany was slightly influenced off of Frances system as a means to set the overall frame from Germany’s feudal system.
However the German system consisted of many more levels than it’s French or English counter parts. At the top of the hierarchy was a German Emperor that was recognized as the sole owner of German land during Germany’s feudal era. From this, the emperor would divide the land into multiple kingdoms with kings ruling over these kingdoms. From within the kingdoms rose dukes, princes, earls, and finally barons. Each title granted an individual specific rights and privileges that fueled the German feudal
machine. To answer the question of whether or not the feudal system fulfilled its purpose of providing an army of heavy cavalry to defend the local region and kingdom is with no pun intended a double edged sword. Technically yes, one could argue that the system of the sons of vassals pledging their life into becoming a knight for the service of their land was an effective means for boosting numbers for an army. However, if one is to question the effectiveness of the strategy and use of these knights, the topic almost becomes laughable. At the age of six or seven, sons would go off to become a knight with a family of higher rank then theirs. By the age of 15 or 16, this son would be assigned to a knight and become a squire, responsible for assisting the knight in anyway, such as cleaning gear, replace weapons, help knight get on and off a horse, and even drag the knight off the battlefield if wounded. If deemed worthy enough to become a knight, the son would be knighted at the age of 21, and be required to fight in armor and on horseback when needed afterwards, they would spend the rest of their days fighting the petty skirmishes and wars that your lord or baron sent you off to, assuming they lived. This is where I find this system to become humorous, give one person a loyal army that has no other purpose but to serve and that army could find themselves in some pretty interesting engagements. Forget about the fact that there was practically no strategy involved with knights, other than a head on charge and then an all out battle until either the banner fell or retreat was called, which would result in a high casualty rate. This petty warfare was ridiculous and turned out to be an ineffective method of warfare and essentially disappeared by 1100, but was always still there. To conclude, we see the feudal system arise from the collapse of empires as a way to salvage the territory that once made up the empire. From these plots of land the caste system was established to create a system of protection and servitude, which would provide Europe with a sense of government until the 15th century, lasting till the 17th century for France. The collapse of the feudal system came about with the rise of monarchs and the inefficient means of combat that attributed to the feudal system itself. I, Aaron Samuel Reed have given nor received any unauthorized assistance or information while completing this assignment.
Others were more like slaves. They owned nothing and were pledged to their local lord. They worked long days, 6 days a week, and often barely had enough food to survive”(“Middle Ages History”). Knights were above the peasants and they were given land granted by the barons in exchange for their military services if the king needed it. They were responsible for protecting the baron who granted them land as well as the baron’s family and the manor they lived at. The knights were able to keep any amount of land they were given, and they gave out the rest to the serfs. The lord, or baron, was above the knight in the social class divide. They were given land by the king and in return they showed loyalty to the monarch. They provided the king with fully equipped knights if the king needed some to serve. If the baron “did not have an army, sometimes they would pay the king a tax instead. This tax was called shield money”(“Middle Ages History”). The king was at the top of the feudal system and held the most power and wealth. The king could not maintain control over all the land in England so he divided the land up to the barons which eventually
A cruel cycle in which the rich people maintain control and the poor people are trapped with no way to rescue themselves, feudalism is a hierarchical market system. The people with money in Men With Guns are the landlords, the owners of the plantations. These people obviously control the land that they own as well as the profit from the output their land produces, but they also control the government, the army, and consequently, the common people. This near omnipotent control forces the common people into a feudal relationship. Unless the peasants work on the feudal plantations, they will starve.
There was a hierarchy of people with feudalism. At the top were powerful lords who split their lands amongst lesser lords. These lords were called vassals If someone was a vassal to a powerful lord, that meant they would pledge his service and loyalty to the more powerful lord. Once this pledge was completed, the powerful lord would grant an estate to the vassal. These estates were called fiefs. .
Imagine having to keep a promise to support a lord for exchange for land. Or having to work on land in transaction for protection and a bit of the harvest for your family. This is one effect of the rules of feudalism and the manor system (OI). For Europeans in the Middle Ages, the social, political and economic lives were influenced by the feudal system.
In the medieval times everything had an order to follow, a price that had to be paid, and a contract that had to be obeid. Each person had a rank, which decides on your lifestyle and future for you and your descendants to come. A serf was at the bottom of the pyramid, therefore they had to work at sunrise to sunset. The lords and the ladies lived conformably in their glorious castle, which was flooded with servants. Alot of things obviously had change, which is the more reason to learn more about our history.
Feudalism dominated European social life during the Middle Ages (Doc.1). “Feudalism was a political, economic, and social system in which nobles were granted the use of land that legally belonged to the king” (Doc. 1) "Social" life in the Middle Ages was the only kind of life people knew. Whether nobility, craftsperson or peasant, your life is defined by your family, your community and those around you (OI). “The Church protected the Kings and Queens (OI).” “The King is above Nobles, Nobles above Knights, and the Knights are above serfs (Doc.1).”
Opposite to the clergy were the lords and nobility who developed their own culture, which was centered on chivalry. According to this ideal, the duty of a knight was to unite Christian virtues with courage and spirit of battle, demonstrated by jousting. The lords attempted to regulate their lands and reduce the influence of the nobility and the Church. Their power, however, was dependent on their subjects in the economic system of feudalism, which defined power relations. A lord would lend a fiefdom to a vassal, which thus created a social relationship in that the vassal owed service and the lord owed protection.
All throughout history and even in modern day countries have been structured by a social class system, however sometimes terrible disasters can set off this social balance. The Black Death was an appalling pandemic that swept through Europe killing thousands of medieval Europeans. Feudalism was a social system based on each level giving and getting products and services to keep the medieval society and it’s people alive. All classes during the Black Plague were affected, noble or serf, this caused a monumental power shift and the social classes never to be the same again. With feudalism’s tight social structure, the Black Death in the late 1300s demolished the population and feudal ties in medieval Europe.
Feudalism is a system of land ownership and duties that were used in the Middle Ages. Under feudalism, all the land in a kingdom was the king's. However, the king would give some of his land to the lords or nobles who fought for him. Rulers in all society wanted to create law and order and ensure that people make good use of the society’s resources. That is why feudalism was created. Monarchs had to accept limits on their own personal power. They also needed to respond to expectations that other groups in society have a say in decision-making. People began to use medieval courts for problems that had previously been solved by trial by combat.
The feudal system was one that arose in England after the invasion and conquest of William I. It has been said that this was the perfect political system for this time period. Life was really hard back in the Middle Ages and safety and defense were really hard to come by after the empire fell. There were no laws to protect the poor, so they turned to their lords to keep them safe. The king was in complete control of the system and he owned all the land. One quarter was kept as private property and the rest was given to the church or leased
During the Middle Ages, feudalism served as the “governing political, social, and economic system of late medieval Europe.” Feudalism consisted of feudal liege lords giving land and protection to vassals, common men, in exchange for their allegiance and military service. Although this principle may at first sound like a fair trade, it in actuality restricted the entire society and took away every bit of their independence. In essence, this system could even be compared to a “mini-dictatorship” because the common people relied on ...
As time progressed the feudal system was created. It was designed to divide the lands and protect from attack. The king first gave a fief or a piece of land to a royal vassal. As proof for this exchange in land a vassal would swear to the lord to be his man all the days of his life and protect him against "all men who may live or die." Next came investiture. Investiture was a symbolic gesture when a King or a lord presented a royal vassal or a vassal a stick, a small rod, or a clod of earth to show that he has given him a fief. Now this royal vassal was in charge of a huge piece of land. In order to defend it he would then divide his land into smaller pieces. He would take these smaller pieces and give them to warriors or who agreed to be his own vassals. Thus, the royal vassal became a lord to other vassals. The vassals now under this lord would now divide their lands and grant fiefs to warriors of their own. Last in the dividing of land was the knight whose parcel of land was too small to be divided.
In the feudal system, a social hierarchy divided the people of the land. There were kings, nobles and lords, vassals, and serfs. The kings were obviously the highest class, while the serfs were the lowest class of people who had
In contrast in Germany, kings seem unable to keep a reign on their crown as well as their nobles and other officials. ("HISTORY OF FEUDALISM." HISTORY OF FEUDALISM. ) The structure seems to fall over due to the nobility’s places as second in the Feudalism structure. But in some cases the nobility actually had more money and power than the king himself. This and as well as the other problems discussed would eventually lead to taxing and ruling from a central place, slowly becoming the norm. But, although the system seems to fall apart its customs seem to be made use to other places.
Different states go through different types of political and economical systems through a life time. In this case, most of the agricultural society was largely supported by the feudal system social hierarchy. Karl Marx defined feudalism as the power of the ruling class based on the control of “arable land”, this in turn affected class society based on the exploitation of the peasants who farm these lands (Beitscher and Hunt, 2014). In the feudal system, most of the rights and privileges were given to the upper classes. In this hierarchical structure, the kings occupied the highest position, followed by barons, bishops, knights and peasants (History-world.org, 2014).Feudalism is considered to be the “medieval” form of government (Beitscher and Hunt, 2014). Before capitalism came around as an economic model most states were a feudalistic country. These systems had an affect on society due to the fact it impacts citizens by “controlling” how they live and interact. The peasants were required to work for the nobles in return for land. This hierarchy was fuelled by the religious assumptions of the time that stated kings, dukes and other nobles served by the will of God over everyone else lower down the social order (Beitscher and Hunt, 2014). As industrialism provided a much more technical understanding of the world, it challenged these religious assumptions for the social