Medieval Feudalism
“But what is the office of the duly ordained
soldiery? To defend the church, to assail
infidelity, to venerate the priesthood, to protect
the poor from injuries, to pacify the province,
to pour out their blood for their brothers (as the
formula of their oath instructs them), and, if
need be, to lay down their lives”
John Of Salisbury
What Do We Mean By ‘Medieval’?
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Medieval refers to a time period usually thought to begin around the time of the first
crusade 1096 and end when the Italian Renaissance began.
Medieval also refers to a distinct world view, in philosophy, in the arts, in literature
and in language.
Medieval society began as a simple (and crude) arrangement between King, Knight,
churchman and peasant.
It went on to develop into the Europe of Chaucer and Dante, of great cathedrals and
universities, of the English monarchy and Parliament, of Canon, Civil and English law
and it saw the blossoming and expansion of London.
The aim of the greatest minds was to provide man with strong institutions and
strong beliefs in a world that was turbulent and unpredictable. Easier said than
done, but there is no doubt that society progressed during these 400 years or so.
In England this progression began with the imposition of feudalism on society
(although, in truth it had already begun)
Feudalism
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Medieval Europe was not held together as a single state. The political structure was
feudalism
Simply explained, feudalism was a system of the exchange of property for
personal service.
The person who granted the property was the ‘lord’ or ‘over-lord’
The person who received it was the vassal.
This vassal promised service to his lord in a ceremony called the ‘act of homage’
All land belonged to the king, he granted it to barons (his vassals) in exchange for
fees, taxes and the service of his knights – who would get their own parcels of land
for their service, they in turn would grant it to their vassals. Here the allocation would
stop.
In the absence of money and products, land was the foundation on which all trade
and exchange was based. (land, after all, is the most basic asset a nation can
possess)
The Domesday Book
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By 1086 William wanted to know who in England owned which land, and how much it
was worth.
He needed this information so that he could plan his economy, find out how much
was produced and discover how much tax he could get.
He sent a team of people throughout his land to discover such information.
This survey was the only one of its kind in Europe.
Unpopular with the people, because they felt they could not escape from its findings.
It reminded them of the paintings of the Day of Judgment, or ‘doom’ they saw on the
walls of their churches, hence the book was christened the ‘Domesday Book’
After William I (1087-1154)
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William died in 1187
He was followed to the throne by his first son William II (1187-1100) and then by his
second son Henry I (1100-1135).
Both continued to strengthen the king’s power.
Henry established the Exchequer to deal with the collection of revenue.
On Henry's death, his daughter was supposed to succeed him, however her cousin,
Stephen, had other ideas and claimed the crown becoming Stephen I.
So raged a civil war which Matilda very nearly won, but by 1148 she had had
enough and fled to France.
Henry reigned until 1154. However, Matilda had the last (posthumous) laugh as her
son, also Henry (II) ascended the throne .
Norman rule had come to an end (but not its influence) and was replaced by The
Royal House of Plantagenet (Anjou)
The Legal System Reformed
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Henry II (1154-1189), the most powerful European monarch of his day
Main contribution was development of the legal system
He established common English law, created a bench of judges, precedent law and
trial by jury (as opposed to ‘trial by battle’, ‘trial by water’ and ‘trial by hot iron’)
This common law still distinguishes English-speaking countries with those where law
is of Latin and Roman origin.
In reality not English law, rather Norman law as those who wrote/devised it were
French speakers.
Conflict Of Church And State
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Unfortunately, for Henry, he is best
remembered for the murder of Thomas
Beckett, Archbishop of Canterbury
This tragedy had its roots in the Church's
‘Benefit of Clergy’
In short this gave the church the power to try
churchmen of crimes regardless of the law they
had broken (i.e. church and common law).
It also gave them the power to try the laity for
contravening church law.
Henry did not like this and thus appointed his
friend Thomas Beckett to the highest religious
position in the land, Archbishop of Canterbury.
However, Thomas went ‘all religious’ on him
and refused to do anything about the ‘privilege
of the clergy’
Henry was furious and Beckett fled to France.
When he returned he was killed by Henry’s
knights (mistakenly as Henry claimed)
Richard And John I
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Richard succeeded his father to the throne in 1189
He spent only 6 months of his 10 year reign in England
The other 9 ½ years were spent fighting.
Richard lived to fight and earned the name Richard the Lionheart because of his
bravery (some would say his stupidity)
He took part in the disastrous third crusade and ended up having to tax his nobles to
pay for his adventures.
He was also captured in Germany when returning from the same crusade and the
people of England had to pay his ransom.
He was killed, appropriately enough, by an arrow while engaging in his favourite
pastime, fighting.
On his death, he left England near bankruptcy and his brother John I (1199-1216)
was expected to clean up the mess.
John taxed the nobles and cut back on expenses (e.g. sent judges to the countryside
less often and so on) to try and do something about England's financial mess.
The nobles had had enough of being taxed and civil war loomed.
However, war was averted with the signing of the Magna Carta
The Magna Carta 1215 (part 1)
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15 June 1215 at Runnymede.
“No free man shall be seized or imprisoned or
stripped of his goods or possessions save
by lawful judgment of his peers or equals
or by law of the land”
“..to no one shall I sell or deny or delay
justice”
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Today such sentiments are seen as basic human
rights (and they echo the Declaration of Human
rights) but for the time they were earth
shattering.
Admittedly such rights were far down the
document, what was much more prominent were
the points ensuring the protection of the
Church and the barons (the authors of the
document.)
The Magna Carta 1215 (part 2)
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John signed the Magana Carta
reluctantly.
Then proceeded to appeal to Pope
Innocent to have it annulled, which he
duly did. John then declared the
document null and void.
War broke out
John then went and died (1216)
However despite this turn of events
this document and its restrictions
on royal power marked the
beginning of constitutional
government.
Henry III (1216-1272)
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Like his father he also ignored the
Magna Carta
Difficult as it may seem he alienated
the barons further by taxing them more
and, on top of this he started
distributing English land to French
Nobles.
The Barons rebelled under the
leadership of Simon De Montfort and
ultimately captured and imprisoned the
King.
Simon De Montfort thus became the
supreme authority in England for
fifteen months.
Under his authority constitutional
government continued to develop
The Birth of Parliament
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Under De Montfort, the Great Council of Barons who advised the king, came to be
called ‘Parliament’
In 1265 parliament accepted two representatives from each chartered town in
England.
The barons, as usual, were unhappy about this, they released the still imprisoned
king and Simon de Montfort was killed by the king’s forces.
De Montfort’s supporters continued to fight and eventually a compromise was
reached with Henry III
The crux of this agreement was that from then on Parliament would contain both
townspeople and nobility.
This developed further when at the beginning of the fourteenth century, parliament
was split into two houses - an upper house for the nobility ‘The Lords’, and a lower
house for the townspeople, ‘The Commons’
By the end of the thirteenth century, parliament had already become a cornerstone of
government.
The Rise Of The Towns
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In the thirteenth century towns became increasingly important. Why?
The crusades had opened up new trade routes which meant that trade centers such
as London expanded.
Townspeople got rich and as a result formed merchants guilds and trade guilds.
These became relatively powerful and their members became involved in local
government. It was only a matter if time before they demanded representation in
national government.
The ownership of land was no longer the only source of wealth. This development
undermined the power of the barons.
This rapid growth of towns resulted in a major problem that was to have an impact on
English society.
People lived in close proximity to each other, there was no sanitation, malnutrition
was rife. This was a breeding ground for infectious diseases and it left the door open
for the ‘Daddy of all Diseases’…..The Black Death.