Serfs in Feudalism
By: Sofia Gomez
Feudalism was created by William the Conqueror who had a lot
of land. He created this system to organize all of his land. He made the
Peasants, Serfs, and Villeins work for him. This system helped organize
land, it benefited nobles and lords but was unfair for the serfs and
peasants. It 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. It was a way of governing in which the king
had great amount of land and needed the serfs and peasants to work in
his land. It was bad because the lord and the king wanted to control
everything and the church was against that. Many rulers wanted to
gain power so it caused a lot of problems.
The daily life of a serf was not easy. They didn’t receive the land
freely, and had to work for the king to obtain it. They were not freemen,
because they worked whenever they wanted to, 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 rest for a while, another piece would be for the king,
and the last piece of land for the serf. It wasn’t easy for them to get the
land, they had to do really difficult work. Medieval serfs were
somehow like slaves because they had to do the labors of the lord’s
land, but the difference was they pay them with land. Serfs worked in
their master’s land and in exchange they could use the lords land for
their own food.
In the Middle Ages there was a system called Manoralism and it
was the organization of a rural society and economy. The ones who
managed this system were the lords of the manor. This system gave
them economic and legal powers. The lord’s land required was called
“domain” which he required to support himself and his retinue. The
rest of the manor land was allotted to the peasants who were his
tenants. Manoralism 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 the vassal source of income granted to
the vassal 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 didn’t have enough to pay more taxes.
Feudalism was also a system of feudal justice. Feudal justice was
very harsh and very strict. They would be proven innocent but really
they were guilty. Justice was a way for the lord to show that he is
watching his people. There were three types of trials in feudal life. Trial
by Ordeal was very bad, a person being accused, would be placed in
some kind of a 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 which
the accused fought with the accuser, and they thought that god would
give the victory to the person in the right. The last trial is trial of com
purgation.
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, its a right in which
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 was 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 which 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
made up of people, it was organized from top to bottom. Pope, Bishop,
Arch Bishop, Arch Deacon, Abbot, Prior, Dean, and Monks. In the
church pyramid there were not serfs because the serfs worked in land
and not in church.
In this essay I talk about the main information of feudalism. First
it wasn’t a topic I was really into it, but now I can tell a lot of facts
about feudalism I wouldn’t have known unless I did this essay. 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 get to the end. If it wasn’t because of
feudalism we wouldn’t have the government we have right now. We
would have different government strategies and different rules if this
wouldn’t had happened.
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