Chapter 17 The Early Middle Ages

Section 3 Feudalism and Manor Life

From the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 to about 1450.

State Standards

• 2.01 Understand the fundamental economic concepts and their application to a variety of economic systems.

• 5.11 Understand feudalism and the rise of the Christian church as dominant factors in Medieval Europe.

• 6.4 spi 5 Recognize the roles assigned to individuals in various societies.

• 6.4 spi 5 Compare and contrast the lives of individual citizens in various government organizations • 6.6 spi 2 Recognize the impact of individuals on world history

When the

Vikings Maygars

and

Mongols

began their raids in the 800’s, the Frankish kings were unable to defend their empire .

(The raiders moved really fast, but the king’s army moved really slowly.) So

nobles

(the rich and powerful people) had to defend their own lands.

• The power of the nobles grew, and the kings became less powerful.

The nobles were still loyal to the king, but they ruled their lands as independent territories.

• Nobles needed soldiers to defend their lands, and the best soldiers were

knights

, warriors who fought on horseback.

• Nobles gave the knights

fiefs

(feefs), or pieces of land, as payment for their military service.

A noble who gave land to a knight was called a

lord.

A knight who promised to support a lord in exchange for land was called

vassal

.

The system of promises that governed the relationships between lords and vassals is called

feudalism

.

A

Lords Duties

to his vassals

• To send help if an enemy attacked.

• To be fair. He couldn’t cheat them or punish them for no reason.

• To settle any disputes among the people living on his land.

If a lord failed to fulfill these duties, his vassals could break all ties with him.

• Many lords built castles to defend their land. • Most early castles were made of wood.

• (The big stone castles you’ve seen in movies were built later, in the Middle Ages.)

A

Vassal’s duties

to his lord

• To fight for him if his lord went to war.

• To give him money on special occasions (such as when the lord’s son became a knight or the lord’s daughter got married).

• To give him food and shelter if he came to visit.

• If a vassal was able to gain enough land, he could become a lord. • A person could be both a vassal and a lord.

• A knight could also accept fiefs from two or more lords and become a vassal to each.

Feudal obligations could get complicated!

• Feudalism was first created by the

Franks

, the people who had conquered the land that is now France

.

• In the 1000s Frankish knights introduced feudalism into northern Italy, Spain, and Germany.

• Feudalism then spread to eastern Europe.

• Feudalism also reached Britain in the 1000s. • It was brought to England by the duke of Normandy, an area of in northern France. • This duke, William, invaded England, defeated the English king, and declared himself the new king of England.

He became known as

William the Conqueror

.

• Because knights did not farm land, and

peasants

(the small farmers) did not own any land to farm, a new economic system developed.

• Under this system the knights allowed peasants to farm on the knights’ land, and the peasants paid the knights, usually with a portion of the crop or livestock.

• The large estate owned by a knight or lord was called a

manor

.

• Most manors included a large house or castle, pastures, fields, forests, and a village where the peasants who worked on the manor lived.

• Most medieval lords kept about one-fourth to one-third of their land for their own use.

• The rest of the land was divided among the peasants and

serfs

—workers who were tied to the land on which they lived.

• About nine-tenths of the population were serfs who lived on a noble’s land and worked for him.

• If a noble sold his land to another lord, the serfs were part of the deal!

• The serfs spent about half of their time working for the lord. In exchange for their labor, they were given a small piece of land to farm for themselves.

• Peasants and serfs worked hard, often continuing to work in the fields late into the night.

• Men did most of the farming.

• Women made clothing, cooked, grew vegetables, and gathered firewood.

• Even children tended the sheep and chickens!

• Most manors also had skilled workers and tradesmen, because lords wanted the people who lived on the manor to produce everything that was needed.

• These workers traded their goods and services for food.

• In the Middle Ages many surnames (family names) were derived from a person’s occupation.

– Miller – Cooper – Tanner – Fletcher – Driver – Skinner – Hunter – Smith

• Women in the Middle Ages had fewer rights then men.

• They had to obey the wishes of their fathers or husbands.

• Some women who wanted to have power and influence joined the most powerful institution of the Middle Ages, the Christian Church.

One of the most powerful women in the Middle Ages was Eleanor of Aquitaine .

• She ruled Aquitaine, a region in southwester France, as the king’s vassal.

• She became queen of France when she married King Louis VII.

• She later divorced him and became queen of England when she married King Henry II.

• Even as Queen of England, she continued to rule her own territory.

• She had many children, including two kings of England.

• During the Middle Ages most people lived on manors or small farms, so towns stayed small.

• As new technology was developed that made farming easier, the population grew.

• In time trade increased, towns grew into cities, knights began to demand money instead of land, and serfs and peasants left the manors for work in the towns.

These changes gradually weakened the manor system.

State Standards

• 2.01 Understand the fundamental economic concepts and their application to a variety of economic systems.

• 5.11 Understand feudalism and the rise of the Christian church as dominant factors in Medieval Europe.

• 6.4 spi 5 Recognize the roles assigned to individuals in various societies.

• 6.4 spi 5 Compare and contrast the lives of individual citizens in various government organizations • 6.6 spi 2 Recognize the impact of individuals on world history

• Most of the text in these slides is taken directly from

Holt Tennessee World History

, copyright 2008 by Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.