Feudalism Notes

Feudalism

Factors Leading to Feudalism

  • Attacks and invasions prompted people to seek protection from lords.
  • Viking Invasions:
    • Vikings raided Europe from Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway, and Sweden).
    • Their long ships could navigate shallow waters, facilitating inland raids.
  • Magyar and Muslim Attacks:
    • Magyars (Hungarian nomads) invaded Western Europe in the late 800s.
    • Muslims struck north from Africa, attacking through Italy and Spain.

Map of Invasions in Europe (700-1000)

  • The map illustrates Viking invasion routes, areas of Viking influence, Muslim invasion routes and areas, and Magyar invasion routes and areas across Europe.

Development of Feudalism (850-950)

  • Definition: Feudalism is a system of government and landholding based on rights and obligations.
  • Land ownership was held by a lord who exchanged military protection for service on their land.
  • Land granted to a lord by a king was known as a fief.
  • The recipient of the land was called a vassal.
  • Feudalism depended on the control of land.

Feudal Pyramid

  • Feudal society was structured like a pyramid:
    • King: At the top.
    • Powerful Vassals: Wealthy landowners.
    • Knights: Mounted horsemen who pledged loyalty to vassals in exchange for fiefs.
    • Landless Peasants: At the bottom of the social structure.

Social Classes

  • Social classes were well-defined and determined a person's prestige and power.
  • Medieval society was typically divided into three groups:
    • Those who fought (nobles and knights).
    • Those who prayed (men and women of the Church).
    • Those who worked (the peasants).
  • Social class was usually inherited.
  • The vast majority of people were peasants.

Serfdom

  • Most peasants were serfs, who could not lawfully leave the place where they were born.
  • Serfs were bound to the land but were not slaves; lords could not sell or buy them.
  • Everything a serf produced belonged to the lord.

The Manors

  • A manor was the lord’s estate or land.
  • The Manor System was the basic economic structure of the Middle Ages.
  • It rested on rights and obligations between a lord and his serfs.
  • The lord provided serfs with:
    • Housing.
    • Farmland.
    • Protection from bandits.
  • In return, peasants (free or serfs) were required to:
    • Care for livestock.
    • Maintain the manor.
    • Provide at least a few days of labor each week.
    • Give a certain portion of their grain to the lord.

Self-Contained Manors

  • Manors became almost self-contained worlds.
  • Peasants rarely traveled more than 25 miles from their manor.
  • A manor usually covered only a few square miles of land.
  • It consisted of a small village surrounded by fields and pastures.
  • A stream would typically be nearby to provide fishing and power for a mill to make flour from grain.

Manor Self-Sufficiency

  • Manors were mostly self-sufficient.
  • Serfs and peasants made almost everything needed for daily life, including:
    • Crops
    • Dairy
    • Clothing
    • Leather goods
    • Lumber
  • Only a few goods needed to be purchased from the outside world:
    • Iron
    • Salt
    • Specific tools like millstones

Harsh Realities of Serfdom

  • Manor life for serfs and peasants was harsh.
  • Peasants had to pay a high price to live on a lord’s land.
  • They paid a tax on all grain ground in the lord’s mill; avoiding this tax was treated as a crime.
  • They paid a tax on marriage, which could only take place with the lord’s consent.
  • Beyond the lord’s taxes, peasants also paid a tithe to the church, representing one-tenth of their income.

Serf Living Conditions

  • Serfs lived in crowded cottages with one or two rooms.
  • Their houses had one multi-use room and one bedroom.
  • They warmed their houses by bringing their livestock inside.
  • Serfs slept on piles of straw.
  • Their diets were simple, consisting of vegetables, coarse brown bread, grain, cheese, and soup.

Serf Life: Work and Hardship

  • For most serfs, both men and women, life was work and more work.
  • Days revolved around raising crops and livestock and taking care of home and family.
  • Many children did not survive to adulthood.
  • Illness and malnutrition were constant afflictions.
  • The average life expectancy was about 35 years.
  • Despite the hardships, serfs accepted their lot in life, believing that God determined a person’s place in society.
  • They saw themselves as the foundation of their society.

Piers Plowman

  • Piers Plowman, written by William Langland in 1362, illustrates the hard life of English peasants:

What by spinning they save, they spend it in house-hire,
Both in milk and in meal to make a mess of porridge,
To cheer up their children who chafe for their food,
And they themselves suffer surely much hunger
And woe in the winter, with waking at nights
And rising to rock an oft restless cradle.