Standard and E.Q.:

1
Standard and E.Q.

• SSWH7 The student will analyze European medieval
  society with regard to culture, politics,
  society, and economics.
• a. Explain the manorial system and feudalism
  include the status of peasants and feudal
  monarchies and the importance of Charlemagne.
• EQ How was Feudal Society structured? What was
  the role of knights and women during Feudal times?

2
Structure of Feudalism in Europe
3
Monarchs or Kings

• Became weaker after Charlemagne
• Remained highest authority
• Controlled land

4
Lords and Nobles

• Lived on Manors in Castles
• Included power clergy
• Hunted, defended manor, oversaw serfs, and
  settled legal disputes

5

• Knights
• Trained warriors who studied warfare from age
  seven
• Followed code of Chivalry
• Exchanged military service for fief

6
Peasants

• Serfs worked land for the lord. They could not
  leave the land.
• Freemen paid lord for use of land and could move
  around

7
Serf a peasant legally bound to live on a
lords estate.
Vassal a person who received a grant of land
from a lord in exchange for a pledge of loyalty
and services
8
King
Provide money and knights
Grants Lands to
Nobles
Grants Lands to
Provide protection and military service
Knights
Grants Lands to
Provide food services when demanded
Peasants or Serfs
9
Provide
Grants
Provide
Grants
Grants
Provide
10
The Code of Chivalry

• Knights were expected to display courage in
  battle and loyalty to their lord.
• By the 1100s a code of chivalry was developed to
  describe these expectations.
• Primary focus the knight must fight bravely in
  the defense of 3 masters his feudal lord, his
  heavenly Lord, and his chosen lady.

11
Training

• By the age of 7 a boy
• would be sent off to the
• castle of another lord as
• a page.
• As a page, he waited on
• his hosts and began to
• practice fighting skills.
• Around age 14 he attained the rank of squire. A
  squire acted as a servant to a knight.
• Around age 21 a squire became a full-fledged
  knight.

12

• After being dubbed a knight, the new knight would
  travel for a year or two.
• The gained experience fighting in local wars.
• They may have taken part in mock battles called
  tournaments.
• Actual warfare was EXTREMELY gory.

13
Womens role in Feudal Society

• Nobel women
• Could inherit an estate from her husband
• With the lords approval she could also send
  knights to war
• When the lord was absent, she was military
  commander of the castle (she might even fight)

14

• Most of the time noble women were limited to
  activities in the home or in the convent.
• Nobel women held little property because lords
  passed their fiefs to sons, not daughters.

15
Peasant Women

• Performed endless labor around their homes and in
  the fields
• She bore children and took care of them