Chapter Summary: A Lesser Lord In The Middle Ages

A lord would grant land to another noble in exchange for protection and military services. This grant was called a fief. Those who received fiefs were called vassals. Within the fief, the vassal was the highest authority. Fiefs could be various seizes. Some were single estates just big enough for a knight and his family. Others were large, as big as an entire country or province.

The serf provided material, military aid, and advice for the lord’s counsel. The lord provided protection for the serf, maintenance, and aid when the vassal requested. The land of the vassal, holder of he land through homage, was broken into strips of land called fief. After the homage ceremony, the lord then granted a fief to the serf. A man could then be a vassal to multiple lords and a lord could obtain multiple vassals, which thus introduced subinfeudation. This caused great complexity especially if the lords had different views and the vassals were divided. In this case, a contract was initiated swearing a serf to the main lord.

At the height of the Medieval Ages, life existed mainly in two different forms: the Feudal system and the Manorial System. Barbarian attacks created many dangers for the common citizen, generating a need for personal protection of both their lands and their lives. It is true that kings still did exist at this time, but due to the decentralization of the government, the king became a distant and ambiguous figure. The lord of the manor then became the authoritative figure for the people of medieval society. Society now subsisted on the self-governing basis of the manor.

During the middle ages the lack of protection and a stable government after the Fall of Rome created the need for a new political system. Feudalism was the political system that emerged and shaped the lives of people socially and politically. Manors were small communities that were made up of a castle, church, village, and land for farming. The structured society provided a place and responsibility for everyone. The feudal obligations showed that in exchange for one thing they would be provided with something else. Serfs and peasants would work and produce goods for the rest of the manor and in return had their land and promised protection. The vassals would need to obtain land from the Lord and in return would provide the Lord with military service, loyalty, and ransom if asked for (Doc. 4). To make clear the vassal’s specific allegiance to their lord whom they owed in for exchange for their fief they would take the Homage Oath (Doc. 2). This interdependent system required everyone to do their part and it created social classes that they were born into. Their daily lives were centered on the manor and that was how it stayed until towns began to

Under the feudal system, people would usually either work on manors or fields. According to document 4, vassals would give their loyalty, Military service, even a ransom if needed and in exchange, the Lord would give them both protection as well as land. Most people during the Middle Ages were vassals, very few were lords. If one was a lord, they then held absolute power over the fiefs. This meant the Lord could hold a court and decide the punishment for crimes. In this Age of Feudalism, the only people who had a higher status than the Lords was the King. In document 2 John of Toul the liege man of the count and countess of Champagne is promising to, "- aid the count of Champagne in my own person," as well as saying, "- whose service I owe to them for the fief which I hold of them." In these two statements, John of Toul is willing to fight in battle for the count of Champagne because he owes them service because of the land he was given by them. This statement shows how truly powerful the feudal system was at the time and how people did follow the rules of

In the Middle Ages your social status depended on your rank. The ranks were kings, nobles, knights, and then serfs.(Doc.1) Typically, the serfs did the most for everyone else, they provided food and services when demanded in exchange for protection and maybe something to eat.(Doc.1) Knights provided protection and military service for nobles in exchange for land. (Doc.1)

This was influenced by the manor system, “ The manor was the economic side of feudalism” (Doc 2). This meaning that your ranking in the feudalism was your job in the manor system. If you were a serf you worked, and farmed for the King, Knights,and Nobles and you had one day a week to farm to feed yourself and your family. If that isn't hard enough they also had to pay high rents to the lords for using his land to farm. The Knights and Nobles had to fight and serve the King for exchange of land,and they had to pay taxes. This showing that life in the Middle Ages was hard for many

In manorial villages the lords of the land would have vassals and serfs. A vassal was a voluntary obligation taken so the vassal would be cared for. Although once one became a vassal this obligation would follow through all the generations of the family. Serfs on the other hand

The fact that it is a hierarchy, with one allegiance after the next, means that everyone in the end is loyal to the King. And indeed, a Knight's (the mounted riders that composed the nobility, and that were the mainstay of the army) first allegiance was to his King, and then his Lord. His family came last. Because everyone was loyal to the one above him, and he was the top, everyone was loyal to him. Therefore, even though he himself didn't really own much land anymore, he still had the loyalty of all of the army.

The feudal system was the method of government that was used in the Middle Ages. The feudal pyramid consisted of four levels, King at the top, Church Official and Nobles/Lords next, then Knights, and peasants at the bottom. The King had the most power, the nobles were sometimes vassals to the king, knights fought in the king’s army, and peasants worked in the field all day and were very poor. In one scene of the movie, peasants are seen working in the fields. They are very dirty and have bad quality clothing which shows how little money and power they had compared to King Arthur, who had fancy clothing and did not have to work. King Arthur then asks the peasants who their lord is, which shows how lords or vassals

During the ninth century, the land that was granted to a vassal was now known as a fief. After owning the land for a while, many vassals would possess the power to exercise rights of jurisdiction or political and legal authority within their fiefs. When the Carolingian political system began to fall, because of numerous invasions and internal differences, various powerful lords arose. Now it was the people’s job to keep order, they could no longer depend on the government. Since number of lords substantially increased, the number of vassals multiplied also. This abundant increase brought about the development of subinfeudation. This is where fief-holding became complicated. Vassals of a king might also have vassals who might owe them military service for land that was granted to them. These vassals sometimes also had other vassals under them who might only have enough land to provide their equipment. Even though this system brought about greater and lesser landowners, this relationship was still honorable. Since this was a willing relationship between free men, it was not based on servitude. This

Monarchs owned the land and he would divide the land that he did not need up between the men who were called lords in return for loyalty to him in times of war. The lords enlisted soldiers who were called knights to be the fighting force in these wars. The lowest people in the feudal system were called peasants; these people farmed the land to provide food and provided other services for the kingdom in exchange for protection.

A noble, or lord, was in control of his manor. The manor was the heart of feudal economy (Ellis and Esler 222). A manor often consisted of the castle, a church, a village, and

The feudal system of the time operated on the premise of peasants or serfs, and thanes, or lords. The lords owned the land, and the peasants worked on it. In turn, they received the protection

vassals, or landowners, and finally down to the peasants, known then as the villeins. The fiefs, or