When was feudal system introduced

They established their own system of justice, minted their own money, and set their own taxes. In return for the land they had been given by the King, the Barons had to serve on the royal council, pay rent and provide the King with Knights for military service when he demanded it.

They also had to provide lodging and food for the King and his court when they traveled around his realm. The Barons kept as much of their land as they wished for their own use, then divided the rest among their Knights. Barons were very rich. Knights were given land by a Baron in return for military service when demanded by the King.

Feudalism is the name given to the system of government William I introduced to England after he defeated Harold at the Battle of Hastings. Feudalism became a way of life in Medieval England and remained so for many centuries. William I is better known as William the Conqueror. He had defeated the English army lead by Harold but he had to gain control of all of England before he could be truly called king of England. He was a foreigner who had forced his way to London.

He was not popular with the people of England and he had to use force to maintain his control on England. William could not rule every part of the country himself — this was physically impossible. Not only was travel difficult and slow in the eleventh century, he was also still Duke of Normandy and he had to return to Normandy to maintain his control of this land in France. Therefore, he had to leave the country for weeks at a time.

He needed a way of controlling England so that the people remained loyal. William spent much of his time in London. Feudalism, in its various forms, usually emerged as a result of the decentralization of an empire, especially in the Carolingian empires, which lacked the bureaucratic infrastructure necessary to support cavalry without the ability to allocate land to these mounted troops. Mounted soldiers began to secure a system of hereditary rule over their allocated land, and their power over the territory came to encompass the social, political, judicial, and economic spheres.

Many societies in the Middle Ages were characterized by feudal organizations, including England, which was the most structured feudal society, France, Italy, Germany, the Holy Roman Empire, and Portugal. Each of these territories developed feudalism in unique ways, and the way we understand feudalism as a unified concept today is in large part due to critiques after its dissolution.

Karl Marx theorized feudalism as a pre-capitalist society, characterized by the power of the ruling class the aristocracy in their control of arable land, leading to a class society based upon the exploitation of the peasants who farm these lands, typically under serfdom and principally by means of labour, produce, and money rents. While modern writers such as Marx point out the negative qualities of feudalism, the French historian Marc Bloch contends that peasants were an integral part of the feudal relationship: while the vassals performed military service in exchange for the fief, the peasants performed physical labour in return for protection, thereby gaining some benefit despite their limited freedom.

Feudalism was thus a complex social and economic system defined by inherited ranks, each of which possessed inherent social and economic privileges and obligations. Feudalism allowed societies in the Middle Ages to retain a relatively stable political structure even as the centralized power of empires and kingdoms began to dissolve.

Feudalism in 12th-century England was among the better structured and established systems in Europe at the time. Below the king in the feudal pyramid was a tenant-in-chief generally in the form of a baron or knight , who was a vassal of the king. Holding from the tenant-in-chief was a mesne tenant—generally a knight or baron who was sometimes a tenant-in-chief in their capacity as holder of other fiefs.

The boy would serve as a page and would improve his fitness and skills by playing sports and through exercise. At the age of fourteen or fifteen the boy would become a squire, looking after the lord's armour and horses and possibly accompanying the lord into battle. At the age of twenty-one he would then become a knight. In a ceremony held in the presence of the lord and other knights of the order he would swear an oath of loyalty and bravery and to defend God, the church and ladies.

Finally, kneeling before his lord, the lord would place his sword on the new recruit's shoulder and declare him a knight. Explore all four floors of a Norman square keep similar to Dover Castle that was built in the twelfth century.

Episodes Episode Index. Z List of Medieval People. Life in Medieval Times. Castle Index Page Castle Development. Glossary of Terms. See Also. Medieval Life. Virtual Buildings Transport yourself back up to a thousand years and explore historical buildings as they may have appeared in the past. Medieval People Arthur of Brittany. Athelflaed Lady of the Mercians.

Catherine of Valois. Cranmer, Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury. Joan of Kent.