Life on a Medieval Manor

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Recommended: Outline the feudal system

At the height of the Medieval Ages, life existed mainly in two different forms: the Feudal system and the Manorial System. Barbarian attacks created many dangers for the common citizen, generating a need for personal protection of both their lands and their lives. It is true that kings still did exist at this time, but due to the decentralization of the government, the king became a distant and ambiguous figure. The lord of the manor then became the authoritative figure for the people of medieval society. Society now subsisted on the self-governing basis of the manor.
(describe the manor)The medieval manor was an agrarian estate made up of peasants and the lords who ruled over them. The lords provided the peasants with much needed and coveted protection, and in return peasants would lend their services as laborers towards the upkeep of the manor. During these times, farming became the major form of work, with around 90 percent of all men and women working the land, so lords used people’s agricultural skills to free up time for their combat practices. In order to become a part of a lord’s manor, a peasant needed to relinquish his freedom to great restrictions and be subject to the lord. Entailed in this agreement were the requirements that a peasant was bound to his lord’s manor and his alone; each must provide a specified allotment of work, encompassing the building of barns, farming lands, keeping overall maintenance of the manor as a whole; moreover, it was obligatory of lords to provide protection. Often times, a single lord would not rule just one manor, but rather it was common for a lord to rule over multiple manors, which meant that he could not have direct control over each individual estate. Instead, a lord wo...

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... the art of battle, needed protection, so they would call upon the services of skilled knights. The knights were armored, powerful cavalry and were great fighters. In return for their protection, the noble needed to offer land and a home for the knight and his family. This was worthy repayment of course, because land was so valuable in these ages. This repayment was known as a fief. Knights began to gather large enough fiefs to have a smaller sub-government within the fief itself. This opened the door to complicated fief-holding in which vassals became lords of more vassals in a continuing chain. This system was known as subinfeudation. Servitude was not an aspect of feudalism; feudalism was merely a consensual agreement between free men.
Considering the harsh times of the Medieval ages, both feudalism and manorialism worked to provide the people with the

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