Manorialism

Imagine a hot and brutal day in the fields, just like the day before, and the day before that, and the day before that, this is what life would be like for serfs in the middle ages. The middle ages was a time when feudalism defined the europeans in their world. The peasants or serfs worked the land for the knights and nobles and in return they received protection and a portion of the harvest to feed their families (OI). Even though the serfs had their work cut out for them, the vassals, got…

Before there was the revolution, the French Crown did its best to concentrate the power to its hands rather than having it divided to the local nobilities, as it was done in the Feudal times. As Tocqueville explains in his book, the most vivid description is the centralization of power that leads to the crown: the crown employed in a nutshell bureaucrats, who were usually from the outside of the nobility class (Tocqueville, Book II Chapter 2), to do the works of the nobility during the Feudal…

tried to make sense of how we currently regulate our roadways. I first looked closer at the vehicle titles the state provides, given the fact this this was of great interest to me. What I discovered was that the titles they provide are not an Allodial titles which would constitute absolute ownership of real property but instead feudal titles. These feudal titles are exactly like the land titles granted to peasants by nobles in medieval Europe when feudalism was the dominant social system. These…

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…

What are the key features of a feuded society? Why is this important to know today? Feudal society What is feudal society? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary (2016) "the system of political organization prevailing in Europe from the 9th to about the 15th centuries having as its basis the relation of lord to vassal with all land held in fee and as chief characteristics homage, the service of tenants under arms and in court, wardship, and forfeiture" Image source:pyramid of feudal…

When we think of “Medieval England” we think about guys in armor suits, royalty ruling cruelly over their land and servants, and among other things, farms. However, medieval England- and medieval europe for that matter -isn’t that far from our own society today. We actually inherit many of the things that were created in the medieval times, such as the basic structure of land tenure that we now see as renting. Society in the Middle Ages may appear to be much different than ours today, but in…

Serf farmers were held accountable for many jobs that had to be done around the farm, and they weren’t repaid fairly. Serf farmers had many responsibilities and had to cater to the lord’s needs. The lord of the manor controlled the work performed by the farmers. The farmers had to be able to work for hours on end every single day, do most of the lord’s work for them (such as weeding their land and selling their grain), and they were also expected to give the lord 40 eggs on easter (Howarth 9).…

Manors, which are self-sufficient farming estates, were the primary centers for agricultural production. Many poor farmers and laborers without land to work on gave whatever land they had to large landowners in return for physical and political protection from the landowners. In doing so, and giving their freedom to the landowners as well, they became serfs and vassals. To ensure protection from these large landowners, also known as lords, these serfs and vassals had to give their services and…

After the fall of the Roman Empire, people lacked security and felt as though they were always at risk so manorialism was created. It was an economic system that centered on the lords manor/estate. One or more villages and the land surrounding them was what a manor was made up of. Each group in society had a place, as well as they were entitled to specific responsibilities…

Andrew Smith, author of “Feudalism vs Manorialism”, puts it concisely, “Feudalism was characterized by the granting of fiefs, chiefly in the form of land and labor, in return for political and military services - a contract sealed by oaths of homage and fealty”. The feudal structure was crucial to the survival of the Europeans after the devastating fall of the Roman Empire. Manorialism was key to feudalism’s success in more ways than one. While manorialism critically aided feudalism, without a…