Feudalism was created by William the Conqueror, he had a lot if
land. He created this system to organize all of his land. He made the
Peasants, Serfs, and Villeins work for him. Feudalism helped organize
land, it benefited nobles and lords but was unfair for the serfs and
peasants. Feudalism was based on the exchange of land for military
service. Feudalism wasn’t created in any particular time or place it was
created in a long period of time. Feudalism was a way of governing in
which the king great amount of land and needed the serfs and peasants
to work in his land. Feudalism was bad because they wanted to control
everything and the church was against that. Many rulers wanted to
gain power so that also made a lot of problems.
The daily life of a serf was not easy. They didn’t receive the land
free, they will have to work for the king’s land to get their land. They
were not freemen, they will work whenever they wanted, but if the
king thought they weren’t working enough he would fire them and
take their land. The land of the king was divided into three parts. One
piece of land they would let it rets for a while and another piece would
be for the king, and the last part for the serf. It wasn’t easy for them to
get the land; they had to do really difficult work to get their land.
Medieval serfs were kind of like slaves because they made them do the
labors of the lord’s land but the difference was they pay them with land.
Serfs provided work in their master’s land; in exchange they would use
the lords land for their own food. They were not freemen, they will
work whenever they wanted but if the mayor thought they weren’t
doing enough he would fired them.
In the Middle Ages there was a system called Moralism and was
the organization of a rural society and economy. The ones who
managed this system were the lords of the manor, because this system
gave them economic and legal powers. The lord’s land required to
support himself and his retinue. The rest of the manor land was
allotted to the peasants who were his tenants. Moralism is the system
that the lords of the manor took advantage of the serfs and the
peasants.
A fief was a grant of land given to a vassal from a lord. In
medieval feudalism a fief was a vassals source of income granted to
him by his lord in exchange for his work. The fief was given to the
vassal with a commendation ceremony. The purpose of the ceremony
was to create a life-long relationship between the vassal and his lord. A
piece of the fief was given to the serf and if the lord wanted he could
over tax the serf that lived there causing them to starve because they
don’t have enough for more taxes.
Feudalism was also a system of feudal justice. Feudal justice was
very harsh and very shift. They would be proven innocent but really
they were guilty. Justice was fun; it was a way for the lord to show that
he is watching his people. There were three types of trials if feudal life.
Trial by Ordeal was very bad. A person being accused, would be placed
in some physical torture and it was up to God to show the court the
way. Another type was the trial of Combat. This is a trial in witch the
accused fought with the accuser, and they thought that god would give
the victory to the person in the right.
The feudal system was continuous by the rights and privileges
given to the upper classes and in most cases act out by laws. There are
a lot of rights in the feudal system. The right of hunting was most
valued by the nobles, having feudal privilege to hunt on other peoples
land. The right of jurisdiction gave judicial power he nobles and lords
in cases going up in their domains. The right of wearing spurs its just
like it sounds, nobles could use spurs of gold or silver depending on
their knighthood rank. The right of save convoy, it a right in witch
people could require it in any moment. The right of knighthood,
knights had the right of getting double rations when prisoners of war.
The right of common oven, serfs could use the oven of the lord and
needed to make use of the food. The right of disinheritance, was a law
enjoyed by the nobles if someone died in their land, they could claimed
the goods of that person. The right of having seats of honor in churches
and monuments it’s just what its name says, and it is for the nobles.
The right of treasure trove gave the nobles the power to use minerals
and treasure found on their lands. The right of shipwreck gave the
right to the nobles of appropriating the contents of ships that parked in
their shores. The right of shelter was the first charge obligatory to the
nobles, it was that when a great baron visited his lands they were
following the rules. Those were the rights of the feudal system in witch
the serfs didn’t benefited a lot from them; they were mainly for nobles
and lords. This shows how it was unfair for the serfs, and for the
nobles it was a rich life with land and food.
The feudalism pyramid included a lot of people, the most
fortuned ones at the top (the king) and the last ones, treated like slaves
(Serfs/Peasants/Villeins). There were two types of pyramids. The
pyramid of Power and the pyramid of the Church. The pyramid of
Power was: The Pope, The King, Nobles, Knights/Vassals, Freemen,
Yeomen, Servants, and Peasant/Serfs/Villeins. . That was the power
pyramid and the serfs were always at last. The church pyramid was:
1.The pope 2.Bishop 3.Arch Bishop 4.Arch Deacon 5.Abbot 6.Prior
7.Dean 8.Monks. In the church pyramid there were not serfs because
the serfs worked in land and not in church.
In this project I learned the mayority of the information about
feudalism. First it wasn’t a topic I was really into it, but now I know a
lot of facts about feudalism I wouldn’t have known unless I did this
project. I still don’t find this topic very fun but it has some piece of
information that you really want to know what happens with it at the
end, like when you read a book you want to do the end.