Livingston
Manor
Moon
Manor
Middle Ages: Manorialism
Madnick
Global studies 9
The Fall of Rome left a huge power vacuum
in Western Europe
Absence of power or
gov’t control
• Something had to replace social, political, and
economic systems that were destroyed
• These new systems were called…..
1. Feudalism (850)
2. The Church (750)
3. Manorialism (750)
Manorialism--definition
• Economic system of the
Middle Ages in which
land was divided into
farming communities
owned by nobles and
worked by freemen and
peasants
Manor
• Large area of land with farms, houses and
workshops
• Run by a lord who received land from a
greater lord; lived in the manor house
• Freemen-workers who were free to leave
• Peasants/Serfs/Villeins-workers who belonged
to the manor
Manors were self sufficient
•
•
•
•
•
•
isolated from each other
own court of law
church, mill, a bread oven, and a wine press
produced their own food, clothing, tools
raised sheep, cows, fruit, vegetables
built their own houses
Wine Press
Mill House
North
Field
Manor
House
West Field
Mill, barns,
bread oven,
wine press
Woods
South Field
Farming Technology
• Three field system- two fields planted
and one left fallow (empty)
• Fields rotated every year
• Iron plow and horse harness increased
speed of plowing
• Peasants were able to produce food
more quickly
Iron plow and horse harness