Middle Ages - Feudalism

Middle Ages

Also known as the medieval period, the time between the collapse of the Roman Empire in the fifth century AD and the beginning of the Renaissance in the fourteenth century.

Medieval

Another name for the Middle Ages.

Famine

a severe shortage of food (as through crop failure) resulting in violent hunger and starvation and death

Feudal System

A political and social system based on the granting of land in exchange for loyalty, military assistance, and other services

Lord

In feudal Europe, a person who controlled land and could therefore grant estates to vassals

Vassal

person granted land by a feudal lord in return for services

Knight

A man who received honor and land in exchange for serving a lord as a soldier.

Serf

an agricultural laborer bound under the feudal system to work on his lord's estate.

Manor system

economic plan within feudalism in which a lord or knight allowed peasants to farm land on his estate in return for food or other payment

Fealty

obligated loyalty or faithfulness

Black Plague

the epidemic form of bubonic plague experienced during the Middle Ages when it killed nearly half the people of western Europe

Hundred Years' War

War between France and Britain, lasted 116 years, mostly a time of peace, but it was punctuated by times of brutal violence (1337 to 1453)

Western Schism

Period in Western Europe when the Catholic Church split, electing two (and sometimes three) popes in Rome and Avignon, and undermining the authority of the church.

Noble

A member of a ruling family or one of high rank.

King

Highest-ranking leader of a group of people; leader in a kingdom

Fief

An estate granted by a lord to a vassal in exchange for service and loyalty

Pope

Head of the Roman Catholic Church

Clergy

Church officials who perform religious rites and rituals