Feudalism: A Political System

Feudalism is a political system. It began during the early stages of the Middle Ages. It came about through attacks of invaders that lasted roughly from 850 to 950 A.D. in Europe. An example of how feudalism worked back in 911 A.D. is that two enemies, Vikings and the king of France, had a peace ceremony. The king of France gave the Vikings a large amount of French land and in return the Vikings had to pledge loyalty to the king. This system was originally based on rights and obligations. Feudalism is basically the exchange for “military protection and other services, a lord, or landowner, granted land called a fief. The person receiving a fief was called a vassal” (Beck). This means that feudalism relies on land, without land there would …show more content…
A manor was the lord’s estate and this economic system revolved around what happened inside the manor. This systems also is based on rights and obligations but only between the lord and his serfs. The exchange was that the lord would give the serfs farmland, housing, and protections from bandits or dangerous people. In return the serfs would take care of his animals, tend to his lands, and other tasks to take care of the estate. Both peasant men and women worked on the farms, and all peasants owed the lord certain tasks. Among these they had to work for at least a few days a week and also “a certain portion of their grain” …show more content…
A typical manor only covered a few square miles of land which usually consisted of the lord’s house, a church, and workshops. In general roughly 15 to 30 families lived in the village that was on the lord’s manor. Fields, pastures, and woodlands where what surrounded the village and occasionally a stream would go through the manor. This would provide fish, an important food source, and help power the mill to grind the grain. The lord’s manor was basically a self-sufficient community. The serfs and peasants did nearly everything to raise and produce things that they and their lord needed for basic life which was fuel, milk, cheese, lumber, leather products, cloth, and crops. The crops typically grown where rye, wheat, oats, and barley. Some vegetables that they grew where beans, peas, onions, beans, and beets. But even then they had to still trade for things like iron, salt, and not normal objects like millstones. To live on a lord’s land peasants had to pay a lot of taxes. There was a tax on all grain ground in the mill and on marriage. Attempts at trying avoid taxes by baking bread elsewhere was treated as a crime. Not to mention that weddings couldn’t take place without the lord’s consent. Plus there was also a ten percent tax from their income that went to the village priest, this was called a