The document summarizes the development of feudalism in medieval Europe following the fall of the Carolingian Empire. Invaders like the Vikings, Saracens, and Magyars attacked Europe in the 9th-10th centuries as central authority declined. People turned to local nobles for protection, leading to a system where nobles granted land to vassals in exchange for military service. This new political and social system was called feudalism. Feudalism structured society into nobles, clergy, and peasants and was characterized by relationships of loyalty between lords and vassals.

1. Feudalism

2. The Fall of the Carolingians
• The Carolingian Empire fell
following Charlemagne’s death in
814.
• During the ninth and tenth
centuries Western Europe was
beset by a wave of invasions from
different, foreign peoples which
added to the disintegration.

3. The Invaders
• Muslim Saracens attacked the
southern coasts of Europe.
• The Magyars came from western
Asia and attacked central Europe.
• The Vikings came from the north
and attacked far and wide,
raiding, pillaging, destroying cities
and even defeating small armies.

6. The Development of Feudalism
• Invaders posed a threat to the safety
of the people, especially in the
absence of a strong central
government.
• People began to turn to local landed
aristocrats or nobles to protect them.
• This change led to the new political
and social system called feudalism.

7. The Development of Feudalism
• At the heart of this system was the idea
of vassalage.
• It came from Germanic society, where
warriors swore an oath to their leader.
• Landowners would give pieces of their
land to others in exchange for military
service.
• Therefore, a man who served a lord
militarily was known as a vassal.

8. Feudalism
• The relationship between lord
and vassal was made official
by a public act of homage of
vassal to the lord.
• Loyalty to one’s lord was
feudalism’s chief virtue.

9. Feudalism
• Feudalism came to be characterized
by a set of unwritten rules known as
the feudal contract.
• These rules determined the
relationship between lord and
vassal.
• The major obligation of a vassal was
military service, about 40 days a
year.

10. Feudalism
• The land the lord granted to a
vassal was known as a fief.
• Kings had vassals who
themselves had vassals who also
had vassals.
• Feudalism became extremely
complicated.

11. Feudalism
• Medieval feudal system classifies
people into three social groups
– those who fight: nobles and knights
– those who pray: monks, nuns, leaders
of the Church
– those who work: peasants
• Social class is usually inherited;
majority of people are peasants

12. Hierarchy

15. Knights
• Almost all nobles were knights. In fact,
you had to be a noble just to be a
knight.
• Training began at age 7, as a page,
under the guidance of the lady of the
manor.
• Became squires at age 14-15 and were
trained by other knights.
• Those deemed worthy were “dubbed”
knights around age 21.

17. Knights
• Knights were equipped head to toe with
reinforced armor.
• Knights were notable for fighting atop a
horse but also fought on foot.
• Leather saddle and stirrups enable knights
to handle heavy weapons
- Lance - Broadsword
- Mace - Morningstar
• In the 700s, mounted knights became the
most important part of an army.

18. Knights
• As blacksmiths and armorers
improved their metalworking
skills, they developed plate
armor.
• The plates provided protection
and ease of movement.
• Each plate covered a different
area and had a specific name, as
shown in the drawing.
• Plate armor was effective against
cuts and thrusts, but it was very
expensive and few could afford it.

21. Knights
• The idea of feudalism worked and for a brief
period of time, the invasions of foreign
peoples ceased.
• Trained as warriors but with no adult
responsibilities, young knights began to hold
tournaments (mock battles) in the twelfth
century.
• These were contests for knights to show
their fighting skills.
• The joust became the main attraction.

23. Knights
• In the eleventh and twelfth centuries,
under the influence of the Church, an
ideal of civilized behavior among the
nobility evolved.
• It was called chivalry.
• Knights were to defend the Church and
defenseless people, treat captives as
honored guests, and fight for glory and
not material rewards.

24. • Can you think of a modern day
chivalric code? Military? Police?
• What about and example right
here at Creekside?

25. Knights Code of Honor

26. Chivalry

27. Chivalry

28. Economics during Feudalism
• The number of people almost doubled in
Europe between 1000 and 1300, from 38
to 75 million people.
• One reason is that increased stability and
peace enabled food production to rise
dramatically.
• Food production increased also because a
climate change improved growing
conditions and more land was cleared for
cultivation.
• Europe had more farmland in 1200 than it
does today.

29. The New Agriculture
• Technological changes also aided
farming.
• Water and wind power began to do
jobs once done by humans or animals.
• Also, iron was used to make scythes,
axes, hoes, saws, hammers, and nails.
• Advances such as the carruca, a heavy,
wheeled plow with an iron plowshare
pulled by animal teams made farming
much easier.

30. The Manorial System
• Medieval landholding nobles were a
military elite who needed the time to
pursue the arts of war.
• Peasants worked the lords’ landed estates
on the fiefs of the vassals.
• These estates provided the needed
economic support for the nobles.
• These agricultural estates were called
manors.

31. The Manorial System
• Increasing numbers of free
peasants became serfs–
peasants legally bound to the
land.
• Serfs worked the lord’s land,
helped maintain the estate,
paid taxes and rent, and were
under the lord’s control.
• By 800, probably 60 percent of
western Europeans were serfs.

32. The Manorial System
• Lords had a variety of legal rights over
their serfs.
• Serfs needed the lord’s permission to
marry anyone outside of the manor and
to leave the manor.
• Often lords had the right to try peasants
in their own courts.
• Serfs, however, were not slaves.
• Usually, a serf’s land could not be taken
away, and serfs’ responsibilities were fixed.
• The lord was obligated to protect his serfs.

33. Life of the Peasant
• European peasant life was
simple.
• The peasants’ one- or
two-room cottages were
built with wood frames
surrounded by sticks with
a thatched roof.
• They were very cramped
and there was little
privacy.

34. Life of the Peasant
• The seasons largely determined peasant life
and work.
• Harvest time, August and September, was
especially hectic.
• In October, peasants prepared the ground for
winter planting.
• November brought the slaughtering of excess
animals because usually there was not
enough food to keep them alive all winter.
• February and March brought plowing for
spring planting.
• Summer was a time for lighter work on the
estates.

35. Life of the Peasant

36. Life of the Peasant
• A peasant’s life was not all labor because of
the numerous Catholic feast days, or holidays.
• The three great feasts were Christmas, Easter,
and Pentecost.
• Other feast days were dedicated to saints or
the Virgin Mary.
• More than 50 days a year were essentially
holidays.

37. The Manor

38. The Manor
• By 1100, large estate houses gave way to castles.
• Many people made their homes at the castles
including the lord, his family, knights and other
warriors and their servants.
• Castles dominated much of western Europe.

39. Warfare
• Castles were also fortresses, designed
for defense.
• Castles were fortified with massive
stone walls and guard towers.
• Many large scale battles took place at
these castles.
• This type of warfare is known as siege
warfare.
• These battles were usually very gory.

40. Siege Warfare
• Typically, siege warfare took place with an army
surrounding a castle and cutting off food and
supplies in attempt to capture it
• If the people refused to surrender, they would
assault the castle using a variety of weapons,
such as catapults, battering rams, ballistas and
siege towers
• Defensively, the people in the castle would
shoot arrows , pour scalding hot water or tar
onto the attackers as well as launching
projectiles of their own

44. Knights
• Knights existed for several
hundred years until
technology and warfare
forced them to
abandon their
way of fighting
and adopt new
practices.