What was feudal society?
Feudalism comes from the German word feud, a piece of land. It was a way of life in western Europe from about the 9th century. The king gave land to nobles; in return they promised loyalty and soldiers. The noble was the lord and the one who received land from him was his vassal. The link was sealed by a ceremony where the vassal swore loyalty.
Church leaders and writers said society had three orders: those who pray, those who fight and those who work.
The first order: the clergy
The Catholic Church had its own laws and owned huge lands. It collected a tithe, one-tenth of what peasants produced. Bishops and abbots were as rich as great nobles. Only some men could become priests: not serfs, not disabled people, and women could not be priests. Monks lived in monasteries, prayed, studied and farmed; nuns lived in nunneries. Monasteries such as those of the Benedictines were also centres of learning. Later, friars such as the Franciscans moved among the people and preached.
The second order: the nobility
Nobles controlled land, could hold their own courts, raise soldiers and even mint coins. The lord's house stood in a manor, an estate with fields, pasture, forest, a mill, a church and villages. Knights were mounted soldiers who got a piece of land (a fief) from the lord and fought for him. Poets and singers praised their bravery.
The third order: peasants, serfs and slaves
Most people were peasants. Free peasants held land as tenants of a lord, worked some days on his land and paid taxes. Serfs worked the lord's land and their own small plot, but could not leave the estate, had to use the lord's mill and oven (for a fee), and needed his permission to marry.
Serf or slave?
A slave was the full property of an owner, could be bought and sold and had no family rights. A serf was not sold as a person, lived with his family and kept part of his produce, but was tied to the land. Slavery had been common in the Roman world; by the feudal age serfdom mostly replaced it in western Europe.
Changes: new farming, towns and cathedrals
From the 11th century, heavy iron ploughs, horse collars, horseshoes and the three-field system (one field left empty each year) gave more food. Population grew, and towns grew too. In towns people said town air makes free: a serf who hid there for a year and a day became free. Merchants and craftsmen formed guilds. Rich towns built huge cathedrals with stained glass that told Bible stories in pictures.
The crisis of the fourteenth century
By the early 1300s growth stopped. Summers turned colder, harvests failed and famines came. Silver mines ran low, so trade slowed. Then in 1347 the Black Death, a plague carried by fleas on rats from ships, spread across Europe and killed a very large share of people by 1350.
With fewer workers, wages rose and farm prices fell. Lords tried to force old duties back, and peasants rebelled: in Flanders (1323), France (1358) and England (1381). Old serfdom could not return fully.
New monarchies and the rise of nation states
In the 15th and 16th centuries kings grew stronger: Louis XI in France, Maximilian in Austria, Henry VII in England, and Isabelle and Ferdinand in Spain. They built standing armies of paid soldiers, a paid bureaucracy and direct taxes. Gunpowder and cannons made castle walls and knights less useful.
Nobles lost power but many joined the king's service. In France a meeting of the three orders, the Estates-General, met in 1614 and then not again until 1789. In England the Parliament had a House of Lords and a House of Commons. Countries with one ruler, one army and one tax system are the beginning of nation states.
Try it: count the tithe
Take 30 small things (beans or coins) as a peasant's harvest. Give 3 to the Church as tithe (one-tenth). Give 10 to the lord as rent and labour. How many are left for the family? Now halve the family (the plague) but keep the same fields. What happens to the price of a worker's day? Check with the population slider in the 3D.
Key formulas and definitions
- Three orders: clergy (pray) · nobles (fight) · peasants (work)
- Lord → vassal → fief (land for loyalty and military service)
- Tithe = one-tenth of produce paid to the Church
- Serf: tied to land, has family · Slave: owned, can be sold
- Three-field system: 1 field winter crop, 1 field spring crop, 1 field empty
- Black Death 1347–50 → labour shortage → higher wages → revolts (1323, 1358, 1381)
- New monarchies: standing army + bureaucracy + direct taxes
Worked examples
1. A peasant family grows 200 sacks of grain. It pays a tithe to the Church. How many sacks go to the Church?
Tithe = one-tenth. 200 ÷ 10 = 20 sacks.
2. How was a serf different from a slave?
A serf was tied to the lord's land, had to work for him and pay fees, but lived with his family and kept some produce. A slave was the owner's property and could be bought and sold.
3. How did the three-field system raise food output?
Land was split in three: one part got a winter crop, one a spring crop such as peas or beans, and one rested. Each year they rotated, so two-thirds of land was used instead of half, and pulses made the soil richer.
4. Why did wages rise after the Black Death?
So many people died that there were far fewer workers. Lords competed for the few workers left, so they had to pay more.
Common mistakes
- Mixing up the orders: the clergy is the first order, not the nobles.
- Saying serfs and slaves were the same. Serfs were not bought and sold.
- Thinking the Black Death was the only cause of the crisis. Cold weather, famine and a fall in silver supply came first.
- Thinking nation states appeared suddenly. Kings built armies, officials and taxes step by step over two centuries.