Summary: Social Pyramid Of Medieval Society Under Feudalism

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Social Pyramid of Medieval Society under Feudalism

The King:
 Land rule by king was believed to belong to him
 Kept 25% of land
 Enjoyed wealth and privilege
 Spend much of his time administering the country, planning/fighting wars and fending off challenges to the throne
The Nobles
 Loyal to the king
 Lived in large manors built on the land granted to them (known as fiefs)
 Let peasants live on land in exchange for food and labour
 Spend days attending to business on land, hunting, attending church and ruling over vassals
Knights and Vassals
 Church was very influential
 People like abbots were often granted fiefs
 Church is wealthy as it doesn’t have to pay taxes
 Small population of knights but …show more content…
It was used to extract information from people, force people to confess to crimes, to punish suspects and satisfy hatred against people and families. The word torture came from the torquere meaning ‘to twist’. Many of the Christian tortures involved twisting body parts such as limbs, ligatures and mechanism as the church hated the loss of blood. Torture was mainly used in the Medieval European time between the 5th and 15th centuries.
Torture was carried out in many ways. It was implemented by causing physical or psychological destress and pain. Torture was also done by instruments such as the Iron Chair. The iron chair was used over an open flame to cook alive the person sitting on it. A physical type of torture is Sawing. Sawing is when a person is cut in half and killed but at least one source says that it was never used.
The Catholic Church has an acquaintance with Medieval torture but isn’t so much anymore. The Catholic teachings say ‘Torture is fundamentally incompatible with the dignity of the human person, and its practice is absolutely prohibited in all circumstances.’ Many people with a relation to the church hated the Shedding of blood so they used different methods to others in the torturing business. As much as now the church say torture is prohibited the church aren’t totally against …show more content…
It was used as a way of being recognised by people high up the social ladder than you. The men who competed would have probably been crazy as death was possible. Many knights and royals would compete in these events. The King and the Queen would have reserved seats to watch a jousting match and peasants would cramp themselves behind barriers to watch. All the men competing would anxiously wait to find out who is jousting against who.
Jousting is a sport that helps people and their families be recognised by someone higher up the social pyramid than them. Each jouster would hold a shield when in battle and on that shield would be their family crest. If the jouster wins the battle they would gain recognition, usually by the royals. Colours are also an important part of the clothing worn when jousting. Red is known to be the colour of royalty and the jouster on the right hand side of the first picture is wearing a red cloak. This makes you infer that this jouster is a royal. Jousters are brave but also crazy men who will put their lives on the line to show off their family’s