How long was feudalism

As in any other context, the strongest argument in feudalism - transcending the niceties of loyalty - is naked force.

The Normans in England or in Sicily rule by right of conquest, and feudal disputes are regularly resolved in battle. But feudalism also provides many varieties of justification for force. And the possession of a good justification is almost as reassuring to a knight as a good suit of armour. One excellent excuse for warfare is the approval of the church. In the pope virtually commands the Normans to attack Sicily , by giving them feudal rights over territory not as yet theirs. Similarly Rome lets it be known that the Holy See is on the side of William when he invades England in Another important form of justification is a dynastic claim to a territory.

Generations of marriages, carefully arranged for material gain, result in an immensely complex web of relationships - reflected often in kingdoms of very surprising shape on the map of Europe. A simple example is the vast swathe of land ruled over in the 12th century by Henry II. Stretching from Northumberland to the south of France, it has been brought together by a process of inheritance and dynastic marriage.

More complex, but equally typical of Christian feudalism, is the case of Sicily. In the 11th century the Normans seize it by invitation of the pope. In the 12th century the island is joined to distant Germany because the German king marries a Sicilian princess. And in the 13th century it is linked with France because the pope, intervening again, is now opposed to the Germans.

Complexity and decline: 12th - 15th century. With the passage of time the feudal system becomes more complex, more rigid, more open to abuse. Fiefs tend to become hereditary, reducing the personal link between vassal and lord. Payments of money begin to replace the original simple obligation of armed service.

While modern writers such as Marx point out the negative qualities of feudalism, the French historian Marc Bloch contends that peasants were an integral part of the feudal relationship: while the vassals performed military service in exchange for the fief, the peasants performed physical labour in return for protection, thereby gaining some benefit despite their limited freedom.

Feudalism was thus a complex social and economic system defined by inherited ranks, each of which possessed inherent social and economic privileges and obligations.

Feudalism allowed societies in the Middle Ages to retain a relatively stable political structure even as the centralized power of empires and kingdoms began to dissolve. Feudalism in 12th-century England was among the better structured and established systems in Europe at the time. Below the king in the feudal pyramid was a tenant-in-chief generally in the form of a baron or knight , who was a vassal of the king.

Holding from the tenant-in-chief was a mesne tenant—generally a knight or baron who was sometimes a tenant-in-chief in their capacity as holder of other fiefs.

Below the mesne tenant, further mesne tenants could hold from each other in series. Before a lord could grant land a fief to someone, he had to make that person a vassal.

This was done at a formal and symbolic ceremony called a commendation ceremony, which was composed of the two-part act of homage and oath of fealty. During homage, the lord and vassal entered into a contract in which the vassal promised to fight for the lord at his command, while the lord agreed to protect the vassal from external forces. Roland pledges his fealty to Charlemagne.

Roland right receives the sword, Durandal, from the hands of Charlemagne left. From a manuscript of a chanson de geste, c. Once the commendation ceremony was complete, the lord and vassal were in a feudal relationship with agreed obligations to one another. Using whatever equipment the vassal could obtain by virtue of the revenues from the fief, he was responsible for answering calls to military service on behalf of the lord.

He needed a way of controlling England so that the people remained loyal. William spent much of his time in London. He built his own castle — the Tower of London — so that it dominated the city. It was also his home while in London. He did not trust the builders of London — or English stone — so he used Norman craftsmen to do the skilled work while the English acted as labourers and he brought in from Caen in France the stone needed for what we now call the White Tower.

He also built the first castle at Windsor. The motte is still visible. Castles represented a visible threat to the people of England. Soldiers were kept in them and they could be used against the English should they cause trouble. However, he needed a way of actually governing the country.

This was the Feudal System. William divided up England into very large plots of land — similar to our counties today. William argued that those noblemen who were willing to die in battle for him, would also be loyal to him. The land was not simply given to these nobles.