Feuds
Medieval life was violent. Violence could erupt nearly anywhere and
was almost a daily fact of life. Capital punishment, or execution, was
a common occurrence. Without the institutions of the Roman Empire,
legal arguments frequently were settled not in an organized court
system but in battle or through vendettas, or feuds, between families
that led to murder and bloodshed. They often had little choice; it was
either the sword or starvation.
Security
Feudalism emerged in the centuries following the fall of the Roman
Empire. Without the order that the Roman Empire had provided, life
in much of Europe became a free-for-all dominated by armed bandits,
warlords, and outlaws. The general population had little protection
from them. Feudalism provided some measure of security during an
extremely insecure period of history. A king or lord provided land
grants to their vassals. The vassal, in return, owed a duty of loyalty to
his “liege lord.” In times of peace, he managed the land with the help
of his serfs. But when that land came under threat, he owed the lord
protection. Often times, small armies of knights would defend the
land from outlaws.
Guilds
Merchants and craftsmen set up organizations in medieval towns
called guilds. A guild protected its members against unfair business
practices, established prices and wages, and settled disputes between
workers and employers. Guilds played an important part in town
government. When the first guilds were organized, the towns had few
laws to protect merchants or craftsmen. Guilds often led the
townspeople's fight against the lords for self-government, so members
of guilds often ran the new town governments.
Towns
Early towns were only small settlements outside the walls of a castle
or a church. As towns grew larger, walls were built around them.
Soldiers on the walls kept a lookout for attacking armies. The towns
became crowded because the walls limited the amount of land
available. Many buildings were five or six stories high. Streets were
narrow, crooked, dark, and filthy. People threw all their garbage and
waste into the streets, so disease spread quickly. The wide use of
lamps, torches, and candles at night made fire one of the great dangers
for a medieval town. Wealthy citizens had stone and brick houses, but
most houses were made of wood. A large fire was likely to wipe out a
whole town. The city of Rouen, in France, burned to the ground six
times between 1200 and 1225.
Church
The power of the church became the single great force that bound
Europe together during the feudal period. The church touched almost
everyone's life in many important ways. The church baptized a person
at birth, performed the marriage ceremony, and conducted burial
services when the person died.
Excommunication
Although church leaders did not take a direct part in feudal warfare,
they controlled the lords with their own types of weapons. One great
power of the church was its threat of excommunication. To
excommunicate a person meant to cut the person off completely from
the church and take away the person's hope of going to heaven.
Fief
During the Middle Ages, land was the source of nearly all wealth in
Feudal Europe. Land provided lumber and stone to build houses,
fuel, food crops, animal fur and fabrics for clothing—nearly all of the
necessities of life. The lords who owned large estates of land, known
as fiefs, had almost always received them as grants from a king for
their service, usually in war. With the land came a noble title, such as
duke, earl, or baron.
Divine Right
Feudalism was the law of the land. It was the basis by which the
upper nobility class maintained control over the lower classes. This
rigid structure of government consisted of kings, lords, vassals,
knights, and the peasants and serfs. The clergy of the church also held
tremendous influence in the feudal system. The structure first came
about because of the great size of the land the kings had under their
control. The kings held this land by what they believed was “divine
right,” the right to rule with complete authority granted by God and
then passed on through heredity.
Homage
Only noblemen or aristocratic warriors could take part in feudal
practices. A saying of the time stated, “No land without a lord, and no
lord without land.” Homage was a ceremony by which a man became
a follower of a lord. The ceremony set up a personal and honorable tie
between the man and the lord, who promised faithfulness to each
other. The man knelt before the lord, placed his hands between those
of the lord, and acknowledged himself to be the lord's faithful man.
The lord then recognized the man as a faithful servant, raised him to
his feet, and kissed him. After performing homage, the man usually
took an oath of fidelity, swearing on the Bible or holy relics to remain
faithful.