Fief

Feudalism, England’s alternative to a government during the Middle Ages, played a significant role in the age of war and monarchs, and in some ways continues to have a role in today’s government. The workings of feudalism are simple. A king, or lord, gives land, also known as fiefs, ownership to nobles, also known as vassals, and in return for the king’s overall protection, the vassals would be responsible for providing their support and defense in the form of knights. In reciprocation for their service, knights were given smaller sized fiefs, this was known as subinfeudation. The peasants, or serfs, would do all upkeep of the land. Eventually, these landowners became very powerful, to the point that the common people would turn to them for…

The Middle Ages in Europe was a time categorized in a few different topics. Some might say that the Middle Ages was an age of faith, an age of feudalism, a dark age, or a golden age. The Middle Ages was an age of feudalism and faith because faith was based around daily life, and feudalism categorized the people into groups and the faith unified them. In the Middle Ages feudalism was the unwritten rules that determined the relationship between a lord and vassals. The vassal's…

The nobility were at the top of the Medieval social pyramid, but they also had economic and military needs. The king needed a group of loyal supporters, providing him with the things to stay as the ruler. He demanded and received goods and services from nearly everyone, rich or poor (Nardo 27). Because of that, he was able to maintain a powerful yet comfortable lifestyle (Nardo 27). The king also received protection as the lord supplied him with great armies of knights (Biel 9). He was also…

In Europe the way of passing down knowledge was through apprenticeship. From the middle-ages where they passed down blacksmith and butchery. To now where they do culinary apprenticeships. Jacques Pepin was one of the best to have emerge from this styles of learning. From starting right front the age of 13 with just learning how to work a wood stove to coming to America by himself and changing the entire cooking game. However in the other side only 30 some years later in America was a young boy…

The manor was an essential part of feudalism because it served as incentive for the people who lived on it, and owned it. A manor was given to a vassal from his lord as incentive for his loyalty. Peasants were his main source of income. They grew food, pay rent, paid, fines and paid fees (Cels, Marc 18). The peasants would pay different fees to their lord. One fee called tallage, this was an annual fee. The peasants would also pay a fee called woodsilver. This was a fee that enabled peasants to…

The Feudal System was a societal structure established in the European Medieval Ages. It involves the King’s distribution of his land amongst his subjects, as a form of loan. It was a tool used by rulers to ensure the loyalty of their country as well as the loyalty of those who may otherwise wish to overthrow his reign. Apart from this, the subjects benefitted from the system as it ensured that they would have at least a small piece of land, which was necessary as 98% of the medieval population…

The difference between vassal and lord shows the ranking of power, and the foundation for feudal relationships of medieval history. Idealised views of feudalism represent honorable agreements between a lord and his vassal or vassals in which they both offered their loyalties to one another in exchange for land and services that were usually military in nature. Instead the Agreement between Count William V of Aquitaine and Hugh IV of Lusignan translated by Paul Hyams of Cornell University,…

Like the king, vassals also had needs and wants that feudalism helped provide for. As warriors, they needed wealth to purchase equipment and care for their horses (Andrew Smith 1-2). So, they received fiefs from their lord as payment (Nardo 18). Fiefs could consist of money or making the vassal the mayor of a town or steward of another fief (Nardo 20, C. Smith 3). The most common form of a fief, however, was an estate or manor, which was a house or castle along with acres of fields and peasants…

supported the feudal order. Feudalism was the system of exclusive government and military institution which organized the society during a lawless and difficult time after the Roman Empire ended (Biel 9). In Feudalism, ownership of land was the foundation of superiority. This was because during the Middle Ages, people who owned land were the only ones who had a chance of gaining military and political power (Nardo 14). After Clovis, the Frankish king died in 511 A.D., Charles Martel and his…

The Middle Ages were a time of disarray, but feudalism brought a structure to the time period. Feudalism formed an economy and military during the Middle Ages. Manors were self-sufficient parts of feudalism. Serf farmers played a large role in making the feudal system work. All in all, feudalism met the needs of the people during the Middle Ages, and serf farmers played a large part in allowing it to work. Feudalism was a governmental and military system based on agreements between the lords,…