Unit Feudalism 2º ESO History

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FEUDALISM

CONTENTS

Origins and characteristics of feudalism

The fief

Feudal society

Feudal monarchy

Christian Church

Economy

The Crusades

Romanesque Art

Origins and characteristics of feudalism

Europe lived in a rural society in which people lived in farms and villages and where people lived from

agriculture and cattle raising. Society became rural at the end of the Roman Empire due to several reasons:

Trade and imperial power weakened.

Landowners walled their estates and recruited their own armies.

People sought nobility’s protection instead of emperor’s.

Feudalism began in Europe after Charlemagne’s death (814) when Europe lived a period of instability

owing to Vikings, Magyars and Muslims’ invasions.

Kings gave power to local noblemen in exchange for swearing allegiance to the Crown and helping him

with their armies.

Peasants sought protection of noblemen and they worked in their lands.

Society and control over the land changed once feudalism was established. Land was divided into great

estates or fiefs, where feudal lords ruled over these lands autonomously and peasants were ruled by these

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noblemen. Society was divided into strata or social classes:

Nobility and clergy were landowners and held political charges and power.

Peasants farmed lands and had no privileges.

The fief

A fief was a large area of land that belonged to the king, noblemen or clergymen over which they ruled.

They were divided into two major parts:

Demesne. It was the territory the lord used and had several parts too:

Residence of the lord, which used to be a castle or a manor.

Lands for cultivation and pastures.

There were forests to get wood and hunting.

Holdings. They were the rest of the fief and were composed of small plots of lands rented to the

peasants.

Peasants farmed those lands and gave part of the harvest to the lord. Moreover they worked sometimes in

the demesne. They had to pay for using lord’s facilities: mill, oven, press, bridges... Fiefs used to be self-

sufficient since there were not many commercial routes. Crops were obtained in the fief itself, and they also

raised the cattle. Moreover, garments and tools were made there.

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Feudal society

There were several strata that were completely independent, which people were born into (save clergy):

Privileged strata were noblemen and clergymen. They did not pay any taxes and had different judicial

systems. They were a very small minority of the population.

Nobility: It was a privileged stratum that held a lot of power.

They owned many lands and ruled over them.

Their main job was to fight, they were knights.

Upper nobility. They were direct vassals of the king and they were dukes, marquises, counts, and

barons.

Lower nobility. They were just knights and people who owned horses and weapons.

Noblemen were educated in a strict way. Before being 12 years old their fathers taught them hunting,

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horseback riding, and how to use weapons. They

were pages. Once they turned 12 they went to

another nobleman or the king’s castle to join the

other young noblemen and they became squires.

They were knighted when they were 21. Then they

could serve the king and rule any army. Noblemen

had bonds of dependency among them, so a more

powerful nobleman protected some weaker

noblemen and they paid homage to him in the

ceremony of vassalage. The vassal gave a present (obsequium) to his lord, who gave protection (mitium) to

the vassal. The vassal swore allegiance to his lord, to obey him and to fight with him. The lord protected him

and let him a part of the plunder. A vassal could swear allegiance to more than one lord. Lords could be

vassals of some stronger lords. At the beginning that relationship lasted for life, but it passed to the heirs

after the Capitulary of Quercy (877).

Clergy: It was another privileged stratum that had different kinds of clergymen:

Secular clergy. Priests were part of this group. They were in charge of parishes and depended on their

diocese’s bishop.

Regular clergy. It was formed by monks, and nuns that followed their order’s rule.

Monks and nuns had taken the vows of the order: poverty, chastity, and obedience. Their main duties were to

pray and to work (Ora et labora).

According to their religious order they

wore different habits. They lived in

monasteries in the countryside. They were

built around the church, next to which

there was a cloister and a chapterhouse.

There used to be a library and a

scriptorium. They had farms and lands

were vassals and serfs worked. They were

given many lands by the kings or

noblemen and created large fiefs.

The Benedictine Order of Cluny (Cluniac Order) was the main one after its reform in 910. The Order of

the Cistercians became popular after reforming the Benedictine rule in 1098. There was also an upper

clergy (Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops and some abbots) and a lower clergy (parish priests, chaplains).

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Common people (villains):

Peasants were free people that could move freely outside the fief. They were compelled to pay the tithe

(tenth part of their annual income) to the Church. Part of their production was paid to the lord as taxes. At

the beginning it was in kind, but currency became common later. They had the duty of working in the lord’s

lands to plough, to reap… They had to pay taxes for using the lord’s mill, oven or press.

Serfs did not own any land to farm. They were semi-slaves. Serfs farmed the lord’s lands in exchange for

clothes or food. They could not leave the fief without any seigniorial permission.

Feudal monarchy

The King was the head of the social pyramid; although he was just a feudal lord more (primus inter pares).

His power based on how many troops he could recruit, and sometimes great lords did not want to recognise

the royal power. That way, there were many wars among noblemen once the king was weak or a minor in

order to control him. The Kings considered that they had the divine right to reign. They were advised by the

Royal Council, which was composed by noble and ecclesiastical authorities.

Christian Church

The Church had a major role in that society. The Papacy strengthened its power against nobility and

monarchs. There were many religious feasts that paced the year. The Church tried to rename weekdays in

order to forget their Latin and pagan names. It only succeeded in Portuguese. The Church regulated the

Peace of God and the Truce of God. The first one protected every clergyman, traveller or those people who

worked for the Church, as well as merchants and their goods. The second one was a truce in the battles

between every Thursday and Monday that was recommended by the Church in order to attend freely the

religious services. It comprised also Advent, Lent and Easter. Kings and noblemen gave many lands and

money to the Church, which made them major landowners. The Church assisted population through the

foundation of hospitals and orphanages. Many pilgrimage routes were promoted to obtain forgiveness.

Rome and Jerusalem were major pilgrimage cities, but St. James’ Way was established to visit St. James’

tomb in Santiago de Compostela.

Economy

New farming techniques were developed in this period. Roman plough was substituted by the mouldboard

plough, which could move land deeper, but some previous tools were still used by peasants (hoe, sickle, and

scythe). Horseshoe became common for horses and horses and oxen were better yoked to ploughs.

Moreover, new hydraulic techniques developed, such as watermill that used water streams to grind cereals.

Foundries were located next to rivers to produce better iron tools (mainly sickles and axes).

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Crop rotation was established as a three-field system, so oats and barley were sown in spring, wheat and

rye were sown in autumn, and legumes (peas, beans...) became common in agriculture. Some parts of the

land were left fallow so that it may be more fertile. Many forests were ploughed up to increase farming land,

and although production and population grew thanks to these new techniques, productivity was still quite

low.

The Crusades

In 1078 the Turks from Baghdad invaded Jerusalem and prohibited the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The Pope

Urban II in 1095 addressed Christians to re-conquer Jerusalem and the Holy Land against Muslims. He

pleaded for help to the rest of the kings in Europe and promised forgiveness of the sins to everyone who

participated in his will. The Papacy also established a new tax to fund the campaign (Bull of Crusade). Most

of the crusaders came from France, from England, and from Germany (Holy Roman Empire). Crusaders

departed from France and Italy on 15 August 1096 and they arrived in Jerusalem on 7 June 1099 and finally

conquered the city on 15 July 1099. All the remaining Jews and Muslims were massacred.

After the conquest of Holy Land some military feudal states were established, such as the Kingdom of

Jerusalem. Moreover, Military Orders were founded to preserve the control over the Holy Land, which

were composed by military monks (Order of the Hospitallers, Order of the Holy Sepulchre, Order of the

Temple, Teutonic Order, etc. All these orders had their own symbols and their knights wore habits. They

built many castles in Near East, like Krak des Chevaliers (Syria). They obtained many fiefs in Europe and

got a lot of power.

Trade between East and West developed thanks to the Crusades, so Genoa, Venice, and Pisa were the cities

which obtained more profit from this situation. Conquests were ephemeral due to the continuous struggles

among the different crusader states and with the Byzantine emperor. Fanaticism and religious intolerance

were promoted, and Jerusalem was finally lost by Crusaders once Saladin, the Seljuq sultan, conquered the

city in 1187.

There were eight crusades between

1095 and 1272. Only the first Crusade

managed to conquer Jerusalem, the

other ones were completely

unsuccessful.

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Romanesque art

Romanesque art is mostly religious and it spread thanks to the Benedictine order. This style lasted between

the 10th century and the late 12th century. The beginning is affected by the Millennial Fear in year 1000,

when many Christian believers thought the Apocalypses was coming. The final period came because of the

arrival of an urban culture in the Late Middle Ages.

Romanesque art was created in Burgundy (France), and its characteristics are more or less common in all

Catholic Europe. Architecture is the main art that developed in this style. It is common the use of the round

arch, the barrel vault, and the groin vault. Churches and monasteries were the main buildings that they

constructed. Churches had Latin cross ground plans with side aisles, and some of the pilgrimage churches

had aisles in the apse (ambulatory). Major buildings are St. Sernin (Toulouse, France), the Cathedral of

Pisa (Italy), the Cathedral of

Durham (UK) and the

Cathedral of Santiago de

Compostela (Spain).

Sculpture is really linked to

architecture and it appears on

capitals and portals. It is not a

realistic sculpture, because

figures are completely rigid

with no movement. Motifs are mostly religious and they had didactic

functions because of most of people were illiterate. The usual themes are

the Pantocrator (Judge Christ, the Tetramorfos (Christ and the four animals representing the Evangelists)

and the Virgin.

Painting is also linked to architecture and we preserve wall paintings.

Most of the remains are on the vaults of the apses, where we can appreciate

the plain and bright colours. They do not have any movement or

expression, but everyone understood their meaning because of the

repeating iconography. The themes are the same ones as in sculpture.