The Military's Impact On Feudalism

Feudalism during the Middle Ages had its advantages and disadvantages. For instance, it caused unfairness to lowest ranks. Nobles and monarchs had the most privileged lives compared with the peasants. People were born into a social class for life. You had no way of climbing up or down the social ladder. Even your children would be in the same rank as whatever you were. Only peasants and serfs had to pay taxes, and other people were only the people who would receive their taxes such as crops, grain, and whatever they could produce. With the crops that they produced, the lods would decide how much the worker would get to keep, and people thought that this was not fair.

The word knight got this name from the Old English word cniht. The Knight’s duty were very similar to the samurai's. They were hired to protect land and the people that owned the land. They also had a code like the samurai. This code stuck them to their duties and made sure that they kept their morals. Knights controlled land and the land was managed by the peasants of the kingdom. It was the peasants who mostly fought the battles instead of the knights. The knights led the peasants into the battle they fought.

At first knights and soldiers in the armies were of little social status. “Many knights in fact possessed little more than peasants” (Spielvogel 244). War was looked as kind of a barbaric act in the beginning and many knights could be found fighting each other. While some of this was tolerated, as they were seen as “defenders of society”, the Catholic Church decided that there should be some ground rules. At the start of the eleventh century, the church urged knights to take an oath to protect churches, and to not harm noncombatants. These rules allowed for battles to follow a civil path and to be carried out in a noble way.

Document 1) A: The Feudalism provided protection and military services for their families. Nobles agreed to give their loyalty to the king. As the peasants worked the land for the knights and nobles and which they gave to them was protection and a portion of the harvest to feed their families. Document 2)

The Homage Oath an excerpt by John of Toul claims, “I will aid the count of Champagne in my own person, and will send to the count and countess of Champagne the knights who service I owe to them for the fief which I hold of them…”(Document 2). John of Toul states that he will provide knights in return for protection which is another example of how feudalism rose. The feudal obligations in the chart shows that loyalty given to the lord by the vassal is in return for protection. As of military service for land (Document 4). What is given and received within relationships through the classes is the moral of the concept. Feudalism is crucial in the Dark Ages, because violence is rising which forces the economy and society to crash. The development of feudalism brought upon structure and organization. The people need a system to be able to move forward and thrive in their communities. Not only does feudalism have a major impact on the Middle Ages, but so does

Feudalism was a political, economic and social system that exchanged land and loyalty in return for protection. It was a commerce of protection and goods, as seen in the feudal system diagram, there are different types of social classes that have arrows describing what they are trading and to whom they are trading (Document 4). In the late ninth century, peasants gave food and service to the knights in exchange for protection. The knights gave military service in exchange for shelter and defense. The lords gave military aid while the king gives them fief and peasants etc.

Feudalism provided security of the people of the Medieval Europe by working for nobles and knights to get protection in return. Also, “the peasants or serfs worked the land for the knights and nobles and in return they received protection and a portion of the harvest to feed to their families” (Doc. 1). This states that when serfs worked for nobles and knights, they

The middle ages era is best labeled under “The Dark Ages” and “The Age of Feudalism”. In this time I believe that those labels work the best and are considered the most abundant that happened between 500 and 1400 in Europe. With all that happened then there is also a hand full of information to provide you with. “The dark ages” happened and scared the world. “The age of feudalism” changed our world later on giving us information to well control the world and not let it go into complete anarchy.

There were a number of conditions that would lead to the emergence of “feudal warfare” in the early Middle Ages and there would be an equal number that would lead to its decline in the later middle ages as well yet to find the meaning of “feudal warfare” one has to look first at where this notion came from, and that was Feudalism.

Feudalism was a unique and efficient system. Farmers were in the lowest class socially but still contributed and were important to making feudalism function. The lords manors were extremely important to the structure of feudalism. Feudalism also allowed peoples needs to be met. This system allowed kingdoms to be controlled which made it so

Knights, were from the medieval era. At age twelve or thirteen a boy born in to nobility would become a squire. They became assistants to knights, they would look after the knight's armor and weapons. They would be able to follow the knight in to battle and learn the use of the weapons. When the knights were in tournaments, the squire was the only person allowed to help him. Once the squire was old and skilled enough, he would become a knight himself.

To become a knight there was many stages throughout the first 21 years of their life to achieve the best of their ability in combat with two handed weapons and one handed weapons. From the age of 7-14 they were graded to a page and from 14-21 it was the last 7 years of

First, before knighthood could be attained, one would have to train for well over decade. Most knights were sons of nobles who were sent away

Usually if a boy’s father was a knight or was of a noble family, he would automatically become a knight. Sometimes, if a man proved that he was good on the battlefield then he was pronounced a knight. Young boys, usually age seven, were sent to castles or to wealthy people’s houses. There, they

Feudalism was a medieval government system that a King offered Citizens fiefs or units of land for military service. This discouraged a unified government. Lords would divide their land into smaller sections. Then they would give these lands to lesser people then those people would divide their land to even lesser Knights. Next is the steps to becoming a Knight