FEUDALISM

FEUDALISM
- was a set of legal and military customs in Medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries,which broadly defined was a system for structuring society around relationships derived from holding of land in exchange for service of labour.

DID YOU KNOW THAT:

The word feudalism was derived from the latin word feodum or feudum. The system it describes were not conceived of as a formal political system by the people living in the medieval period.

THE BEGINNING OF FEUDALISM

Feudalism might have grown out of Germanic custom. In Germanic tribes,warriors swore an oath of loyalty to their chief. They fought for their leader and in turn,the king provided for their needs. Nobles of this kingdom carried on with this tradition. Lesser nobles would serve as knights for a lord or a greater noble.

In the year 700 CE, a new invention called stirrup reinforced feudalism. The stirrup changed the nature of warfare. By supporting the knight while he was in horseback,the stirrup allowed him to wear a heavy protective armor and carry heavier weapons. But armor and horses are costly and to be effective, a knight had to be well trained. Most knights did not have the money to buy armor and horses or the time for training.

Charles Martel realized the value of heavily armed knights in his campaign against muslims,since he had no money to pay his knights,he gave them land. For the next centuries, the practice of granting land in exchange for military service spread across Western Europe. During the Viking invasions,powerful lords took control of large tracts of lands which they divided among lesser lord called vassals.

Feudalism as a System
Feudalism was based on an exchange of rights and duties between nobles. Many unwritten rules governed the relationship between a lord and a vassal. These rules,called feudal contract. A lord provided his vassal an estate or a piece of land called fief. A fief ranged in size from a few acres to hundreds of square miles. In exchange for his fief,a vassal gave his lord a military service,usually about 40 days. A vassal had also financial obligations to his lord.

These included payment of an annual fee called relief;payment of ransom money if his lord was captured in battle;and payment of a fee when the lords eldest daughter was getting married or when his eldest son was knighted. The vassal knelt before his lord.The ceremony took place whenever a new fief was granted or when a son inherited his fathers fief. This ceremony is known as homage. In theory, everyone in feudal society had a lord except the king. The king owned all the land and granted fiefs to his chief nobles.

FEUDAL SYSTEM

In reality feudal kings had very limited power. They could not collect taxes or enforce laws outside their own estates. Despite the kings limited power,the kings people still thought of him as the highest noble in the land. As feudalism developed,it became more complex because of the practice of subdividing the fiefs. Vassals gained land through inheritance,marriage and war. The vassal owned loyalty to each of his lords even if the lords were fighting each other. Warfare was frequent under feudalism..

Feudal nobles believed that warfare was a way of life for the peasants who farmed land. Warfare was a disaster. Feudal lords built strong stone castles or fortified homes for protection. Castles were built on top of hills or near rivers for added protection. A heavy iron gate as well as water filled ditch or moat helped people defend the castle.

CHIVALRY
Starting in the 11th century,feudal nobles developed a code of conduct called chivalry. It is a combination of christian values of a warrior. A knight was expected to be brave,generous and loyal. Chivalry also dictated rules of warfare. Chivalry promoted ideals of behavior for knights that reduced the brutality of a fighting age. But few knights followed all the rules. Troubadors were poet-musicians at the castles and courts of europe.

MANORIAL SYSTEM
During the 9th and 10th centuries,a new economic system,closely tied to feudalismwas developed in western europe. The heart of medieval economy was manor or lords estate. Most manors included one or more villages and the surrounding lands. Peasants who made up the majority of medieval society lived and worked on the manor.

PEASANTS & LORDS

The manor was administered by a lord. Most of the peasants on a manor were serfs who were bound to the land. Serfs were not slaves who could be sold and bought but still they were not free. Peasants and their lords were tied together by mutual rights and responsibilities. They had to work,pay the lord a fee when they married,when hey inherited their fathers acres or when they used the local mill to gring grain. Each peasant family had to pay rent of the land.

The medieval manor was a small self-sufficient community. Peasants produce almost everything they needed,from food and clothing to simple furniture tools. They had no schooling and no knowledge of the larger world. A typical manor included a few dozen one-room huts clustered close together in a village. Peasants life centered on planting and harvesting. Farming methods were primitive and ineffective in the early part of the middle ages. Improvements in agriculture began in the 700s and 8oos and became widespread in the year 1000. one advancement was the three-field system.

Three-field system- a method of crop rotation. It worked better than earlier farming systems. It spread planting and harvesting over the year,and it did not wear out soil. Peasants diet improved. With the use of new inventions,peasants also grew more food. The heavy plow could turn the dense,moist soils of northern europe. The invention of the horseshoe and better horses could be used for plowing. The watermill and windwill provided new sources of energy for grinding grain.

FEUDAL JUSTICE
It was the duty of the lord to maintain order in their land. They were expected to give justice to both their vassals and peasants. Feudal justice was base largely on custom because there were few written laws. Examples of custom are: -recognized the right of an individual to be tried by his peers or equals -prevented the lord from taking away a vassals fief unless the vassals peers agreed that the action was just.

There are 2 courts administered by the lord: one for his vassals,another for the peasants on his manor. On occasion where the court decides the lord would summon all his vassals to meet as a court and decide on the issue. On serious crime,the accused had to choose; either to admit guilt and be sentenced or deny any guilt. Trial by ideal is given to the accused. Trial by ideal is a physical test like carrying a burning hot iron over a certain distance. The accused shall be judged guilty if blood was found in the iron,and if the accused is uninjured,he shall be rendered innocent.

DECLINE OF FEUDALISM
Feudalism began its decay in the 13th century. There were many reasons for its decline such as:

-feudal wars -the crusades -the growth of towns -the serfs -the growth of trade

THE END