In the middle ages lots of suffering and decentralization had occurred. There are many reasons as to why this had occurred and solutions to theses rising conflicts were feudalism and manorialism. But why were these ideologies used or caused? The reasons for the occurrence of medieval feudalism and manorialism is the political , social decentralization and economic problems that had occurred during and after the disappearance of the roman empire , invasions of the barbarians , rise of barbarian kingdoms , civil wars within the barbarian kingdoms and the need of stability and safety that made the people of that time desperate.
Medieval feudalism had occurred because of the political disorder that the end of the Roman Empire left behind as well as the invasions and rise of barbarian empires like The Carolingians . These changes in western Europe had created a scrambled political system and a new system had to grow out of it. When the roman empire disappeared, the way it governed and reformed the places it ruled, had gone with it. So without a political system to follow there is no order whatsoever. As the roman empire disintegrated invasions and civil wars had become greater . All these invasions from barbarians had caused kingdoms to grow for these invaders. One out of the many barbaric kingdoms are The Carolingians. This empire had tried many tactics to create stable system within the land but civil wars didn’t allow it to create political stability. So like the roman empire , the Carolingian Empire had to be divided and that didn’t make anything better. Feudalism was the only political stability that can be used because all the factors had built up to it.
The few political factors that caused feudalism leads to the...
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... reasons where disappearance of the roman empire , invasions , barbaric empires that had the same outcome as the roman empire, and civil wars. The social reason was that the kings were weakening and the nobles were rising into authority because they had all the components that appealed to the people who lived in the disaster filled lands of western Europe . Manorialism could be caused by the same factors as feudalism but it seems to be caused by an economic influence. Trade was declining and without trade the land and people would perish and fall apart for there is nothing sustaining the economy. Both distinctive systems were the solutions to the problems that had risen in the middle ages.
Works Cited
Mckay, John, Bennett Hill, John Buckler, Clare Haru Crowston, and Merry Wiesner-Hanks. A History Of Western Civilizaation. 10th ed. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 215-34. Print.
The feudal system was one that arose in England after the invasion and conquest of William I. It has been said that this was the perfect political system for this time period. Life was really hard back in the Middle Ages and safety and defense were really hard to come by after the empire fell. There were no laws to protect the poor, so they turned to their lords to keep them safe. The king was in complete control of the system and he owned all the land. One quarter was kept as private property and the rest was given to the church or leased
The rise of feudalism in Europe has also been debated about by historians. A feudal society may have formed in the later Merovingian dynasty where a variety of capitularies slowly made the peasant more reliant, and subservient to his lord. Tho...
(AGG) The Black Plague was a big contributor to the decline of feudal times and how they worked. (BS-1) The Black Plague was a horrendous disease that made millions of people suffer from its horrible symptoms. (BS-2) The Plague spread very quickly, along trade routes and with travelers causing many people to be affected from it. (BS-3) Feudalism was an organized system to separate people into classes and create a government. (BS-4) Military was an important part of the feudal system, they provided protection and got things in return. (BS-5) Religious beliefs such as the great chain of being were a vital factor in the feudal system being able to work effectively. (BS-6) There were lots of oaths and agreements from class to class which
Eventually, the Germanic kings could not effectively maintain law and defend from invaders. Thus, Feudalism developed. Feudalism is a system of government in which lords gave parts of their land, or fiefs, and gave it to their lesser lords, or vassals. The vassals pledged loyalty and service to the lord in return for his fief. This exchange of fiefs and loyalty was known as the feudal contract. Vassals were in charge of running their estates, or manor, and they used serfs, which were low-wealth peasants, to provide the manor and the higher lord with food. Serfs were not slaves, but they had very limited freedom. (Ellis & Esler 2012)
Coffin, Judith G., and Robert C. Stacey. "CHAPTER 18 PAGES 668-669." Western Civilizations: Their History & Their Culture. 16TH ed. Vol. 2. New York, NY: W. W. Norton &, 2008. N. pag. Print.
Coffin, Judith G, et al. Western Civilizations: Their History & Their Culture. 17th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Co, 2011. Print.
The feudal system was a political, military, and economic system based on the holding of land. The system was developed since the whole entire basis of rule from all the civilizations before the Middle Ages was lost. Early Europe was in desperate need of such a system since they were constantly being raided by the Vikings and other outsiders.
So the peasants were extremely poor at that time. After the Black Death, population decreased, serfs and peasants were able to move around and they had much more freedom than before. They were no longer belong to the lord, and had choices of who they would work for. Most peasants chose to work for high paid jobs. The landowners, in order to attract people to work for them, provided the workers tools, housing and land. “The worker farmed all he could and paid only the rent.” The better treatment of serfs weakened the manorialism, as well as the decline of nobles.The plague killed so many people, and even nobles could not escape. The wealthy families were incapable of continuing growing, because their descendants died. So their position could not be passed on. Many families extinct. To fix this problem, the government setted up a new inheritance law which allowed both sons and daughter inherited property.
The purpose of this research paper is to evaluate feudalism’s effectiveness as an economic system. Feudalism was the system most common in Middle Ages Europe. This structure of land distribution involved breaking up land into smaller pieces with their own rulers in exchange for loyalty to the king. This investigation will focus on the Feudalism specifically in Europe in the Middle Ages, as opposed to Oriental feudalism. The books The Middle Ages by Joseph Dahlmus and Feudal Society by Marc Bloch, which dives into Feudalism’s details and effects, are two prominent sources in the paper.
The death of Charlemagne, the succession of power to his son, Louis, and the signing of the Treaty of Verdun began the collapse of the strong and united Europe that had formerly been in place. Soon after the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire the West started to face a myriad of problems. “The renewed invasions of the Vikings, Magyars, and Muslims and the disintegration of the Carolingian Empire led to the emergence of a new type of relationship between free individuals” (Spielvogel 163). The decline in government authority and protection forced peasants, who made up the majority of the medieval population, to depend on land-owning lords and barons that acquired their properties as sovereign power decentralized. This relationship based on the context of the subjection of a subordinate to a superior became known as feudalism. Coinciding with the breakdown of government was a transformation of the Church through the way members of the religious community lived, worked, and worshiped. Monasticism, such as that developed by St. Benedict, formed as an answer to problems within the Church and a need for structure in religious life. St. Benedict’s Rule and feudalism are leading examples of how there was a resolute search for stability in medieval Europe.
Hobson, J. M., 2004. The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 57
Peasants Were an essential part of feudal society because they paid for things like military and did the hard work for the higher class. Serfs did services for the Lord and in return he let them stay on the land and gave them protection.(S5 25)The Lord would exploit the serfs to gain military power and used the money to buy military equipment.(Newman, Simon. “Feudalism in the Middle Ages.”) Knights and nobles helped hold Feudalism together and keep it stable by upholding laws, making agreements of their own, and keeping loyalty to each other so that everybody gets something? A knight upheld the laws of his Lord and collected taxes and in return the Lord gave him land and treasure.(Smith, Cynthia. “The Central Middle Ages-The Military Elite.” 2)The Lord had duties to uphold, if a knight died, he must take care of the knights family as if they are his and had to offer shelter, protection, and land to everyone that is loyal to him. While he got protection, money, and power.(Smith, Cynthia. “The Central Middle Ages-The Military Elite.” 3) Feudalism made sure that everybody gets something and are taken care while giving some people more power than
During the Middle Ages, feudalism served as the “governing political, social, and economic system of late medieval Europe.” Feudalism consisted of feudal liege lords giving land and protection to vassals, common men, in exchange for their allegiance and military service. Although this principle may at first sound like a fair trade, it in actuality restricted the entire society and took away every bit of their independence. In essence, this system could even be compared to a “mini-dictatorship” because the common people relied on ...
Spielvogel, Jackson J. Western Civilization. 8th ed. Vol. 1. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2012. Print.
McKay, J/P/, Hill, B.D., Buckler, J., Ebrey, P.B., Beck, R.B., Crowston, C.H., & Wiesner-Hanks, M.E. (2008). A History of World Societies, Volume A: From Antiquity to 1500. New York, NY: Bedford/St. Martin's