FEUDALISM

1
FEUDALISM

• Feudalism is a vague term invented by modern
  historians to describe a complicated pattern of
  social, military, and political arrangements that
  developed during the early Middle Ages
• Term is derived from the medieval Latin word
  feudum
• Meant fief (an estate of land given by a lord to
  a supporter in return for military service)
• A feudal society is therefore one in which nearly
  all land is held in the form of fiefs

2
IMPLICATIONS

• Feudalism had broad implications for all of
  society
• Since all wealth consisted of land and
  agricultural products, feudalism determined the
  distribution of wealth within society
• Person who held fief was the vassal of the lord
  who gave it to him
• ie., he was bound to the lord by special oath of
  loyalty
• Feudalism therefore determined social relations
  within society
• Vassal also governed his fief so feudalism also
  determined the structure of local government in
  society
• Feudalism, in short, dominated the economic,
  social, and political structures of medieval
  Europe after the year 1000

3
ORIGINS

• Origins of various aspects of feudalism can be
  traced back to barbarian invasions of Western
  Roman Empire during 5th century AD
• Swearing oath of loyalty was an old German
  practice
• Receiving land in return for service came from
  Late Roman Empire land law
• But for a long time these elements existed
  independently from one another and did not come
  together to form a complete system

4
WHAT CAUSED FUSION?

• During time of Charles Martel, Franks began to
  fight on horseback
• Due to invention of stirrup
• Protected by armor and a shield and armed with
  sword and lance
• Very expensive and required lots of practice
• Soldiers had to be rich enough to own a horse,
  necessary equipment, and have the free time to
  train
• Solution was to give warriors land and the labor
  to work the land and thereby give them the
  economic base and free time to serve him

5
MARTELS SYSTEM

• Martel devised a system based on customs and
  conditions of the time
• Enlisted able-bodied warriors into his cavalry
  and had them swear absolute loyalty to him
• They became his vassals
• Then he granted them an estate large enough to
  support the warrior as long as he loyally served
  Martel
• Fief returned to Martel when warrior died or
  proved to be disloyal
• Tied together vassalage and fief-holding in one
  system

6
THE KNIGHT

• Savage civil wars and Magyar, Arab, and Viking
  invasions produced terrible anarchy in which
  armed force was only effective law
• Heyday of the warrior
• And the warrior that was in most demand was the
  armored horseman
• Chevalier in French
• Knight in English

7
SPREAD OF FEUDALISM

• To get the most, and best, knights, rulers
  continued Martels practice of giving them land
  in exchange for their loyalty and military
  service
• Some warriors given thousands of acres in
  exchange for promising to provide 50 knights
• Provided for these knights by dividing his fief
  into subunits and giving them to his vassals in
  exchange for loyalty and military service
• Feudalism spread during chaos of 9th and 10th
  centuries
• An increasingly complex system in which vassals
  of a ruler had their own vassals
• And these vassals had their vassals and so on
  down the line
• Everyone in this expanding system was both
  someones vassal and someones lord
• Except those at the very bottom and the king at
  the top

8
LOCAL DEFENSE

• Frankish traditional warfare consisted of the
  king calling his warriors together in the spring
  and then the army would go off and fight
• Didnt work against the Vikings
• They struck so fast that by the time the king got
  an army together, they were gone
• Defense had to be improvised against them
• Situation increased the prestige and power of
  local lords at the expense of royal power
• People stopped looking to the king for protection
  and turned to their local nobleman

9
TRENDS

• Although vassal of the king, the local nobleman
  often acquired independent political control of
  his fief
• Simply because he was there and the king was not
• Nobles did not provide protection to local people
  for nothing
• In exchange, free peasants had to give him their
  land and smaller knights had to become his
  vassals
• Feudalism, which had been originally designed to
  aid the king, encouraged political
  decentralization which weakened the king

10
TRANSFORMATION OF FIEFS

• Fiefs were gradually transformed from being a
  revocable grant to a hereditary estate
• Fiefs were originally only granted for the
  lifetime of a vassal and Martel had reserved the
  power to revoke a fief at any time
• Situation began to change during reign of Charles
  the Bald
• By the year 1000 most fiefs had become hereditary
• Passed from father to son through primogeniture

11
RAMIFICATIONS

• When fiefs became hereditary, obligations between
  lord and vassal became governed by a mutual
  contract that neither side could alter
• Lord could now only revoke a fief if the vassal
  had violated a specific provision of the contract
• Power of vassal increased
• Lords could no longer act in arbitrary manner
• Had to call vassals together and ask their advice
  and consent before making a major decision
• Could no longer interfere in the way vassals ran
  their fiefs
• As long as a vassal upheld their end of the
  contract, he could do what he wanted within his
  fief

12
FEUDAL OBLIGATIONS I

• Basic purpose was cooperation in war
• Lord had to protect vassals and their land
• Vassals had to serve in lords army
• Originally, vassals had to serve for as long as
  the lord needed them
• Vassals later distinguished between two types of
  war
• If lord was attacked, vassals immediately came to
  his aid and stayed for as long as they were
  needed
• But it the war was not defensive, vassals limited
  their military service to 40 days a year

13
FEUDAL OBLIGATIONS II

• Vassals was obligated to act as member of
  garrison in lords castle
• Castles were crude at this time
• Made by digging a circular ditch about ten feet
  deep and 30 feet wide
• Excavated dirt piled into large mound in center
• Edge of ditch surrounded by wooden wall and
  another wall built around center mound
• Wooden tower built in top of mound
• Length of service in castle evolved with time
  from unlimited service to a 30 day a year limit

14
FEUDAL OBLIGATIONS III

• Vassal had to attend lords court when he was
  summoned
• Important because lord and vassal saw themselves
  as partners and neither would make an important
  decision without consulting the other
• It was customary for a lord to consult his
  vassals before he made a decision that might
  directly or indirectly affect them
• This was especially crucial if he wanted to
  embark on a project that required their
  assistance
• Vassal obligated to give honest advice to his lord

15
FEUDAL OBLIGATIONS IV

• Chief officers of lords household sometimes
  given fiefs as compensation for their services
• Constables, marshals, chamberlains, and sometimes
  head servants and even cooks
• These individuals had the obligation to perform
  their specified functions at the lords court

16
FEUDAL OBLIGATIONS V

• Vassals had two economic obligations
• Relief
• Paid to a lord whenever a vassal died and his son
  inherited the fief
• Amount was usually about one years revenue from
  the fief
• Aid
• Supplementary revenue in emergency situations
• Knighting, marriage, new projects, etc.
• By 1000, aid had become divided into two groups
• Demands that had to be met without question
• Demands which required approval of assembled
  vassals before they would pay anything

17
THE RIGHTS OF LORDS

• All vassals had to get their lords approval of
  their future son-in-laws before marriage could
  take place
• When a vassal died and left behind a minor as
  heir, lord or his agent would manage fief until
  heir was old enough to run it himself
• When vassal died with no heirs at all, the fief
  reverted back to lord

18
THE DUTIES OF LORDS

• Had to protect vassals from all enemies
• Also bound to do justice to vassal
• If vassal believed he was being mistreated he
  could demand hearing before court of fellow
  vassals
• Very common for a vassal to renounce a lord for
  failing to protect him or because he was denied
  justice

19
FIDELITY AND HOMMAGE

• Relationship between lord and vassal inaugurated
  in solemn ceremony known as swearing fidelity and
  doing hommage
• Vassal would kneel before lord and swear to be a
  faithful vassal and perform all services due from
  his fief
• Two men would then kiss and lord would give
  vassal clod of earth
• Symbolized his fief

20
LIEGE HOMMAGE

• As time went on, vassals began to have multiple
  lords
• Held different fiefs from different lords and
  owed each customary service and obligations
• Caused a great deal of confusion
• Practice of liege hommage developed in response
  to this situation
• Vassal owed personal military service only to
  liege lordand only to him

21
PROBLEM AT THE TOP

• King was at top of feudal pyramid
• Weak position
• Since he had no independent army, he needed
  cooperation of his vassals to do anything
• Difficult to get all of them to cooperate on
  anything
• Vassals hesitated to side with king against
  disobedient vassal because they might be in same
  position themselves some day
• Made king a figurehead and a prisoner of his
  vassals

22
REAL POWER

• Real power rested with man who had a manageable
  number of vassals (concentrated in a specific
  geographic area) and who had resources to build
  and maintain a castle
• Put him a near invulnerable position
• Called barons by the 11th century
• Began to develop independent states, ignoring
  their obligations to the king

23
LONG-TERM DEVELOPMENTS

• Political decentralization, represented by the
  rise of barons, would be a major characteristic
  of the Middle Ages
• Would cause continual, and often bloody, struggle
  between king, who wanted to bring all the
  territories in his theoretical kingdom under his
  direct control, and barons, who fought to
  maintain their local power and independence
• Barons had a lot in their favor
• Hereditary fiefs
• Loyalty of local knights
• Other vassals of the king hesitated to fight one
  of their own
• Castle was hard to capture
• Kings would ultimately win this struggle but it
  would take almost 600 years to do so and would
  destroy the feudal system they had invented in
  the process