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Feudal Oath

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Law and oaths were the basis of feudalism, without them the system would be a chaotic mess. The laws that governed serfs very strict and limited their freedom greatly, giving them almost no control of their life. Serfs were at the bottom of the feudal system, a serf was someone who was bound to the land he or she worked on. They had almost no control over their lives, they could not leave their land, they provided service to their lords and nobles, served in their lord's house, and paid taxes to their lord (Richardson 2). The only reason why they did this was for protection and a home in the manor. The reason why these peasants wanted shelter so badly was because diseases were everywhere and manors were few and widespread, it could take days of travel to get from one manor to the next and even then a peasant would be forced to stay in that manor. After a vassal made his feudal oath he was given a fief from his lord, it had land and peasants for him to watch over. The core of the feudal oath was a vassal, who was usually a knight, giving loyalty to his lord in return for a fief, this fief often included land, and maybe armour and weapons, or even a horse. By …show more content…

Knights were also important to the structure of feudalism because they protected peasants, they did this in return for a share of what the peasants produced. Feudalism was a system based on loyalty where the serfs worked hard and the nobles protected them, this system was used to govern all people in the Middle Ages. A knight was a member of a medieval army who wore armor and used crude but effective tactics to win battles, they charged at the enemy with swords and shields to take out enemy soldiers. Without these charming warriors the feudal system would have crumpled because of lack of protection in the lower

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