Name:

Nikhat Mehmood

Class:

B.S 2nd Year 4th semester

Department:

General History

Subject:

History of Europe

Course No.:

422

Date:

12th Dec 2011

Submitted to:

Maam Nasreen Afzal

Topic:

The Structure of a Feudal Society in Europe

Introduction
Europe has been a major power and center of attention since people first inhabited the lands. Commerce, population, and control over Europe have always been an issue. Along with controlling Europe accompanies the loss of control over Europe. Throughout European history the rise and fall of kings, monarchies, and feudalism establish a lasting impression on European institutions. Feudalism flourished in Europe from the 9th century to about the 15th century. This time was a perfect setting for feudalism. Feudalism was the law of the land. In other terms it is "ant social system in which great land owners or hereditary overlords extract revenue from the land and also exercise the functions of government in their domains". In actual reality it is a social, political, and economic oligarchy. Feudal government depended on personal agreements between a numbers of individual who possessed military power. These individuals usually had landed estates. They owed loyalty not to a nation, but only to those individuals with whom they had made agreements. The methods by which they received the products of their estates and ruled their workers constitute another aspect of feudalism, called the manorial, or seigniorial, system.

The Manorial or Seignorial, System

The social and economic organization of a fief was based upon the manor, a district held by a feudal lord (seigneur). A manor could be an entire fief or only part. Generally, it included a village and fields, barns, mills, granaries, and sources of water. From the manor's production, a lord derived the resources he needed to support his family and to meet his obligations to his lord. For peasants, the manor provided protection and basic necessities. The manor was a self-sufficient economic unit. Artisans made essential goods. The land was divided into closed (fenced) and common (shared) lands.

Structure of a Feudal Society

This rigid structure of government consisted of kings, barons, knights, villeins, and the peasants. The structure first came about, and remained for so long, because of the great size of the land the kings had under their control. It was the basis by which the upper nobility class maintained control over the lower classes. The structure of the feudal society in the middle ages based on the following.

The King

The King was in complete control under the Feudal System. He owned all the land in the country .The kings held this land by what they believed was "divine right", the right to rule granted by God and then passed on through heredity. However, there was no physical way for a king to govern all the land effectively because there was no quick communication system, and it often took several days to travel from one part of the country to the other, even in a relatively small country such as England. The king needed a way to maintain control over his lands, even if indirectly. As a solution, he formed a sort of contract with his direct underlings. The men who leased land from the King were known as Barons; they were wealthy, powerful and had complete control of the land they leased from the King. However, before the barons were given any land they had to swear an oath to remain faithful to the King at all times.

The Bishops
Bishops could wield as much power as the barons. They ruled over areas called dioceses and all the priests and monasteries within them. The regular collection of tithes and other taxes from their dioceses made many bishops extremely wealthy.

Barons
Barons leased land from the King which was known as a manor. They were known as the Lord of the Manor and were in complete control of this land. In turn, they had to pay "homage and fealty" to the king. They did this by giving their support to the king at all times, governing the land that was given them, and being ready to provide troops and fight for the king when the need arose. They established their own system of justice in the manor, minted their own money and set their own taxes. In return for the land they had been given by the King, the Barons had to serve on the royal council, pay rent and provide the King with Knights for military service when he demanded it. They also had to provide lodging and food for the King and his court when they traveled around the country. The Barons kept as much of their land as they wished for their own use, then divided the rest among their Knights. They also had to pay taxes whenever the king called for them. Also, whenever a baron died, his fief was passed on by heredity. The receiver of a fief had to pay an inheritance tax

Knights
Whenever a baron was granted or inherited a fief, he was made into a vassal of the king. Also, the barons became lords of their fiefs. However, the barons had the same problem the king had. Because they governed large tracts of land, they divided their land up too. They made the same type of agreement the king made with them, except with their underlings, usually a trusted knight or relative. Knights were given land by a Baron in return for military service when demanded by the King. They also had to protect the Baron and his

family, as well as the Manor, from attack. The Knights kept as much of the land as they wished for their own personal use and distributed the rest to villeins (serfs). Although not as rich as the Barons, Knights were quite wealthy.

Villeins
Villeins, were given land by Knights. Villeins had more rights and higher status than the lowest serf, but existed under a number of legal restrictions that differentiated them from freemen.Villeins also rented homes and sometimes property, but their houses were generally very small one-room buildings and the land they were allowed to use was often of inferior quality to their lords agricultural fields. Villeins were the most numerous types of European serfs. Legally tied to the land, they literally belonged to the lords estate and could not move away without their lords permissionwhich was seldom given. Villeins had to work their lords lands for a time percentage of each year, and were allowed to work their own in their remaining time. Ultimately, however, their own crops and possessions still technically belonged to the lord.

The Peasants or Serfs:

The peasants were at the bottom of the feudal tree. Life on a manor was extremely hard for a peasant. It consisted of work and family life. Approximately ninety percent of the people in the middle ages were considered to be peasants. There was a division of the peasants into free and a type of indentured servants. The free peasants worked in their own independent businesses, usually as carpenters, blacksmiths, weavers, or bakers. They paid the lord a type of rent for using their small plots of land. The other, unfree peasants lived on the land without paying any money, but worked for the lord, earning their stay.

Conclusion:
The feudal society was constructed for one reason: security. The nobles wanted the security of maintaining control over their far-reaching kingdoms, so they were forced to delegate power to local control. The peasants wanted security from marauders and barbarians from neighboring lands. They also wanted security from invading armies. And thus the development of the feudal system and the fief structure was almost inevitable.