Unit One: Power of the Ideal

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Unit One Power of the Ideal
The Middle Ages
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FEUDAL SOCIETY
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Once upon a time there was a vast empire
ruled by one man
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Power and influence radiated throughout the
empire from Rome
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Alas, this empire crumbled and disappeared
Rome was sacked by barbarians
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What do you think will happen as a result of the
disappearance of the Roman Empire?
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CORRECT!
There was no longer a central government able to
Maintain an army
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Maintain roads
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Coin money
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Maintain courts
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What will happen as a result of
no army?
no road network?
no coinage?
no central government?
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What will happen to the great cities of the
Empire?
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So, heres what has disappeared from the once
mighty empire
Public order
Protection against foreigners
Safe travel
Tax collection and public services
Business and commerce
City life
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Lets put this in personal terms
How would your life change if there was no
Westport town government?
no police department
no fire department
no schools
no highway department
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What would you do to cope with the loss of these
services?
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Thats what people had to do after the fall of
the Roman Empire

• Fall back upon their own resources

• Make use of whatever and whomever was
  available locally

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The vast majority of people were farmers. They
needed

• Land to farm

• A place to live

• A source of protection

• A way to satisfy their emotional and spiritual
  needs

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Who was around to meet these needs?
The closest landowner with a horse and a
fortifiable home
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and a Roman Catholic priest
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THE MANORIAL SYSTEM
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People lived in small rural communities called
manors
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The manors were very isolated
What are the implications of that?
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Lets look as some aspects of life on the
medieval manor
How would you describe what they are doing?
Where on the manor would they live?
Who on the manor would not be doing this?
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What economic information can be inferred from
this illustration?
Whats the significance of the tool hes using?
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How are these people different?
How would you describe what they are doing?
Where on the manor would they live?
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What do they own that the peasants (actually,
serfs) do not?
What might the horses allow them to enjoy that
the serfs cannot?
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Why is this building so important to these serfs?
Who owns and lives in this building?
What are his functions on the manor?
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Reality check this is straight out of Disneyland
Actual medieval castles were usually drafty,
smelly dumps!
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Actually, this illustration is symbolically
correct
The lord and his upper class friends DID stand
far above the lowly serfs
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in terms of power, prestige and wealth
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Medieval society looked like this
Upper class quite small
Huge gap no social mobility
Lower class huge
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The upper class lords

• Provided protection

• Provided justice

• Owned all land

• Were born into their high status

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The lower class serfs

• Did all manual labor

• Provided for all economic needs of manor

• Were born into their low status

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Serfs had no geographic mobility, as they were
legally bound to the manor
But what about the feudal lords?
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The term manorialism refers to

• The economic social aspects of medieval society

• Life on the manor

• The relationship between the lord of the manor
  and his serfs

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THE FEUDAL SYSTEM
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Now lets put the feudal into feudal society
After the Roman Empire collapsed large landowners
handed out tracts of land to men who would
promise to fight for them in return
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The recipient of the land was the vassal
the landowner was known as the lord
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The land itself was called the fief
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On this extremely large tract would be one or
several manor communities
Remember, without his serfs this guy wouldnt eat!
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In theory, the 1 lord was the King who owned all
land in the realm
making this sound like a very centralized system
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In reality, even though all the lords owed fealty
(allegiance) to the king
some controlled as much land as he did and were
therefore powers unto themselves
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making this, in reality, a very de-centralized
political system
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Usually a lord
Had a number of vassals
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But any given vassal
might have another lord
or two
How might this become a problem?
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Moreover, his lord might have received fiefs from
other landowners
What are they to him?
What has he become?
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And his vassals
might have subdivided the fief they received
from the lord
You get the picture!
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In other words, many people in the feudal system
were both lords and vassals depending on which
personal relationship you are talking about
often leading to conflicts of interest where one
vassal might serve in the army of one of his
lords while sending one of his vassals to
another one of his lords.
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Fighting among lords was common
because the more land you had the more power you
had.
Why was this so?
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Time for a quick review
Economic Structure

• agricultural

• little/no trade

• self sufficient

• manual labor low productivity

• subsistence level

• lack of currency barter system

• Lower class provides for all economic needs

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Social Structure

• two classes huge gap in status

• status inherited little/no social mobility

• little/no geographic mobility

• live on small, isolated, rural manors

• family works together as basic economic unit

• education on-the-job training

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Political Structure

• land power

• upper class provides government functions

• feudal system power de-centralized

• chaotic overlapping obligations

• frequent warfare

• System based on individual, personal
  relationships

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Nowwhat about those spiritual needs?
They will be coming soon to a theatre near you in
thrilling
CocciaVision
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In the meantime, dont do anything foolish
the end