Zoey Choi
7C
Feudalism Notes
Feudal and Manorial Systems
•
Feudal and Manorial Systems governed life and required people to perform certain
duties and obligation
Fiefs and Vassals
• Knights were usually paid for their services with land
• Land given to knight for services was called a fief
• Anyone accepting fief was called vassal
• Person from whom he accepted fief was his lord
• Historians call system of exchanging land fro service the Feudal system, or
feudalism
Feudal Obligation
Oath of Fealty
• Lords, vassals in feudal system had duties to fulfill to one another
• Knight’s chief duty as vassal to provide military service to his lord
• Had to promise to remain loyal; promise called oath of fealty
A Complicated System
Lord and Vassal
• Europe’s feudal system incredibly complex
• Person could be both lord, vassal
• Some knight with large fiefs gave small pieces of land to other knights created many
levels of obligations
• One knight could serve many lords; no prohibition against knight accepting fiefs from
more than one lord.
The Manorial System
• The feudal system was a political and social system. a related system governed
medieval economies, this system was called the manorial system because it was
built around large estates called manors.
A Typical Manor
• Most of manor’s land occupied by fields for crops, pastures and animals
Daily Life in the Middle Ages
Life in a Castle
• Life in Middle Ages not easy, did not have comforts we have today
• Early castles built for defense not comfort
• Few windows, stuffy in summer and cold in winter
Zoey Choi
7C
Life in the Village
• Despite discomforts, life in a castle was preferable to life in village. the typical village
family lived in a small wooden on-room house. the roof was made of straw, the floor
of dirt, and the furniture of right wood. open holes in he walls served as windows
• They had animals to provide extra heat in cld winters
• No chimneys house often full of smoke
• The families worked in the field for the whole time during the harvest time