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In exchange for the use of the fief and the protection of the lord, the vassal provided him with some kind of service. Classical feudalism describes a set of reciprocal, legal and military obligations between the warriors of the nobility, which revolve around three fundamental concepts: lords, vassals and fief.Ī lord was, generally speaking, a nobleman who owned land the vassal was the person who was granted (by the lord) the possession of the land and this was known as the fiefdom.
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Even when the infrastructure existed to maintain such unitary power (as was the case with European monarchies), it began to give way to this new structural power, known as feudalism, and eventually disappeared. This acquired power greatly diminished the unitary power of these empires. Thus, the soldiers began to ensure a hereditary system over the land, and their power over the territory began to encompass the political, judicial, and economic spheres. of the cavalry, by not assigning land to these troops. Feudalism, in its many forms, emerged as a result of the decentralization of an empire, especially the Carolingian Dynasty (a line of Frankish kings who ruled Western Europe between the 8th and 10th centuries), which lacked the necessary bureaucratic infrastructure to support it. Although the etymology of the word is derived from the Latin feudum or feodum (feud), then the word used, neither feudalism nor the system it describes was conceived as a formal political system by people living in the Middle Ages.Įven today, the term is a matter of debate, with some scholars limiting its use to describing arrangements among the nobility, some extending its use to describe the social order of the Middle Ages, and another group of scholars questioning its usefulness as a term. It is broadly defined as the way in which society was structured around the relationships derived from the possession of land in exchange for a service or work. The differing definitions can get as broad as to equate with manorialism, and thus simply being the predominant system of the Middle Ages, or so narrow that it only includes systems in France from about 900 AD to 1430, the Holy Roman Empire of the period of 911 to 1438 AD, and in England from 1066 to 1154 during a time when Normans had not yet achieved stability.ģ) armed forces secured through private contracts.Feudalism describes a combination of military, social, and legal customs that took place in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. It should also be borne in mind that the word feudalism is not well defined and is even falling out of use for that reason. Its purpose was to provide for decentralized ability to respond to such problems as raids, invasions, rebellions, and other disturbances without having to wait for the central government to be able to act. Answer A political and economic system of Europe from the 9th to about the 15th century, based on the holding of all land in fief or fee and the resulting relation of lord to vassal and characterized by homage, legal and military service of tenants, and forfeiture.Īnswer It should be added that the feudal system, though a type of manorial system, additionally was characterized by a weakcentral government and a hierarchical set of obligations from the king, through levels of nobility, to freemen and serfs. A typical manor consisted of a castle, small villages and farmland. A manor is the land owned by a noble and everything on it. These lands eventually develop into manors. As the Roman Empire crumbled, emperors granted land to nobles in exchange for their loyalty.
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Answer Feudalism was the system of the loyalties and protection during the middle ages.