feudalism - middle ages ii
TRANSCRIPT
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