Feudalism in Europe

European Middle Ages500-1200

Quiz

• Name one group of invaders that attacked Europe from 800 to 1000?

• What is a “serf”?• Describe what life might be like living on a

“manor”?

Setting the StagePepin the Short

Carloman Charlemagne

Louis the Pious

Charles the Bald

Louis the German

Lothair

•Charlemagne’s grandsons broke up the kingdom•Territory became battleground of new invaders•Led to the rise of feudalism

•Political and economic system based on land ownership and personal loyalty

Invaders Attack Western Europe

•Muslim invaders seized Sicily, raided Italy, sacked Rome•Magyars from the east, terrorized Germany and Italy•Vikings from the north

The Vikings - Northmen

• Germanic people that lived in Scandinavia

• Worships warlike gods• Seafarers that attacked

with terrifying speed• Known for warships– Weighed up to 20 tons– Could sail in 3 feet of

water

The Vikings

• Vikings were also traders, farmers, and explorers

• Journeyed far and wide• Explorer Leif Ericson

reached N. America in 1000• Around 1000, Vikings

stopped their reign of terror• Later accepted Christianity• Warming trend in Europe

made farming easier = less seafaring needed

Magyars From the East

• Horsemen from modern day Hungary

• Invaded W. Europe in late 800’s

• Attacked isolated villages, overran Italy, took captives to sell as slaves

Muslims from the South

• Came from N. Africa through Spain and Italy• Goals: conquer, settle in and plunder Europe• Seafarers who attacked settlements on the

Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts

Results of Invasions

People now looked to local rulers for security (not a central ruler)

Widespread disorder

Kings unable to provide protection

People in constant danger

A New Social Order: Feudalism

• Feudalism: a system of governing and landholding based on rights and obligations emerged in Europe

• In exchange for military service, a lord (landowner) would provide a fief (land) to a vassal (person receiving the land)

• Depended on control of land

The Feudal PyramidKing

Vassals Nobles and bishops

Knights Mounted horsemen who defended their lord in exchange for a fief

SerfsLandless peasants who tended the fields, could not lawfully leave

The Manor System• Manor: the lord’s estate & the basic economic

arrangement during the Middle Ages• Depended on a set of rights and obligations

between a lord and his serfs

Provided housing, farmland, protection

from bandits

Tended the lord’s lands, cared for the animals, maintained the estate

LORD

SERF

The Life of a Serf

• Women shared in the work• Owed duties to the lord– At least a few days per week– A portion of their grain

• Rarely traveled more than 25 miles from the manor

• Produced nearly everything they and their lord needed for daily life

The Life of a Serf

• Taxed on all the grain ground in the lord’s mill

• Baking bread elsewhere was a crime

• Paid a tax on marriage• Weddings could only

occur with the lord’s permission

• Owed the village priest a tithe (church tax) = to 1/10 of their income

• Lived in crowded cottages with only 1 or 2 rooms

• Slept on dirt floors in beds made of straw

• Ate mostly vegetables, bread, grain, cheese and soup

• Life = work as soon as you were old enough

• Illness and malnutrition were common

Life on the Manor• Usually covered a few square

miles of land• Consisted of:

– Lord’s manor house– Church– Workshops

• 15 to 30 families lived in the village on a manor

• Surrounded by fields, pastures, woodlands

• Streams sometimes ran through the manor

• Produced crops, milk, cheese, fuel, cloth, leather goods, lumber

For next class…

• Feudalism Layer Cake Assignment