Feudalism

1. Life and Times
During Medieval
Europe 500 to
1400 AD
The Middle Ages

2. Introduction of Feudalism
After repeated threats of invasion, citizens lacked security. Farmers could
not work in their fields without protection. They could not work while
constantly looking over their shoulders for fear of invaders. Their lives and
normal routines were disrupted. As a result, communities hired soldiers to
protect them.

3. Feudal System and Fiefs
I. Feudal System
A. The basic government and society in Europe during the middle
ages in which the king owned the land and everything in it.
II. Fiefs (feefs)
A. Large sections of land the king granted to his nobles in exchange
for their loyalty.

4. 1. The nobles, in return for the land, the
nobles promised to fight for the king and
provide the king with soldiers or taxes.
2. The nobles then granted parcels of their
land to vassals, less powerful nobles, in
exchange for their loyalty.
3. The vassals would keep the peasants
safe in return for their growing crops.
Feudal System

5. Peasants
I. Peasants
A. The majority of people during the Middle Ages were peasants.
B. Peasants were required to worked the land of the estate and
perform many other services in exchange for a small plot of land and a small
cottage.
1. Kept the manor in repair, harvested crops, and served in the army.
2. Women tended the children and animals and wove cloth.

6. Serfs
I. Serfs
A. Peasants were required to spend about three days a week working
for the nobles.
1. Eventually, the peasants did more for the nobles than they did for
themselves and gradually became serfs, or people bound to the land.
2. When a fief was granted to a noble, it included the serfs who
worked the land.

7. Farming
Farming was an inefficient process at the beginning of the Middle
Ages. Seeds were scattered randomly, and crops grew in a tangled
mess. The seeds that did produce fruit were hard to harvest.
However, around 800 AD, several advancements in agriculture
made farming more efficient. One improvement was a system of
crop rotation in which farmers used three fields for planting. One
field was unused during a season, while the other two fields were
planted with two different crops. The next year, a different field was
left vacant, and crops were planted in the other two fields.

8. Manors
There were not many towns or villages in Europe at the beginning
of the Middle Ages. Instead, life centered around manors, large
farming estates that were self-sufficient. Nearly everything needed
was grown or made at the manor.
The feudal system made life in Europe during the Middle Ages
very harsh. The serfs were unable to free themselves from the
control of the lord of the manor.

9. Knighthood: Page
The lord of a manor had to be ready
to go to war with very little notice.
Sometimes his vassals would be
needed to help another lord to fight.
To help with the readiness for war,
male children were trained to be
knights, or professional soldiers and
specialists in war. Knighthood
involved several stages. From the
ages of 7 to 14, a young boy was a
page. He acted as a servant and
messenger to the lord and lived in the
lord’s castle.

10. Knighthood: Squire
At age 15, a boy became a squire,
serving only one knight. He was taught
to ride and fight. He cared for a knight’s
horse and kept his armor ready for war.
At 20, a squire became a knight if he
had served his master well.

11. Knighthood: Being Knighted
Sometimes men were knighted on the field of the battle,
but the ceremony usually took place during times of
peace. The earliest knighting ceremonies werte simple.
A knight buckled the armor onto the squire and
proclaimed the man a knight.

12. Age of Faith
By this time, Christianity had become very widespread. Faith in God
was an accepted fact of life, and the churched influence every
aspect of feudal life. Because people had unquestionable faith in the
church the Middle Ages are sometimes called the Age of Faith.

13. The Church in the
Middle Ages
I. The Church in the Middle Ages
A. Roman Catholic Church
1.The church was the most
powerful institution in Medieval Europe.
a. Entire lives were guided by
the Catholic Church.

14. The Pope
I. The Pope
A. The pope is the head of the Catholic church.

15. The Power of the Church in 1500
I. It Was Not Controlled by the King.
A. The church was Roman Catholic and therefore was lead by
the Pope.
1. This meant that the King could not tell anyone from the Church
what to do.

16. The Power of the Church in 1500
I. It Owned Land:
A. The Church owned many large areas of farmland.
1. People who grew crops on this land had to give one tenth of
everything they grew to the Church called the Tithe.

17. The Power of the Church in 1500
I. It Controlled People’s Beliefs:
A. The Church told people that
when they died, their souls lived on either
Heaven or in Hell.
1. Hell, they said, was a place of
great pain and suffering, people were
understandably frightened of going there.
a. So, the Church gave them
hope and said that after you die your soul
goes first to a place called Purgatory,
where it would stay until any sins had
been burnt away.

18. How the Church Enforced Its Authority
I. Excommunication
A. Christians who disobeyed the orders of the church were threatened
with excommunication.
1. Means to be forced out of the church and were treated as an outcast.
a. Considered a severe form of punishment.
b. Even kings could be excommunicated.
II. Interdiction – Cut off an entire nation or region from Church services

19. Inquisition
This threat was an effective
form of discipline for church
members. The church set up a
special court called the
inquisition. The purpose of the
Inquisition was to try people
accuse of heresy, or having
beliefs different from those of
the church.

20. Some people believed they could best serve God by withdrawing from society
and living an isolated life with others who had the same beliefs. Religious
communities for men were called monasteries; for women, they were called
convents.
Religious Communities

21. This religious communities were similar to manors because they were
self-sufficient. At the center of these communities stood church. Some
children here given to the church at birth and lived their entire lives here,
never leaving the monastery or convent.
Religious Communities

22. Religious Communities
Life in a monastery or convent was very strict. Nuns and monks where kept
busy nearly every hour of every day. Each monastery included a library, and
monasteries become important places of learning.
Beneath the library was a room called a scriptorium
which books were copied by hand. Here, much of the
history was recorded, copied, and saved for posterity
by the tedious work of monks. Most of the manuscripts
their copied where from religious works, specially the
bible. Monks also copied other works, including
writings from ancient Greece and Rome. The monks
solve some of the copies they made and kept others in
the monastery libraries.

23. STAINED GLASS WINDOWS
Hundreds of elaborate churches were erected during the middle ages,
especially between 1,000 A.D. and 1300 A.D.. Their towers seemed to reach
for heaven and rose high above shops and homes. Stained glass windows
told bible stories to people who could not read.

24. Thank You!