How did the Crusades help break down feudalism?

Question

I read somewhere that if the lord needed money, he would allow the peasants to buy their freedom.

How did the peasants get their money in the first place?

Answer 1

Now those are two separate questions.

First, how did the peasants get their money? Be aware that money, in the form of specie, or hard money that you might carry in your pocket, was very limited and most people had very little of it. This is not to say, however, that they had no wealth. Peasants who worked hard and had good land, who were blessed by good weather and the lack of war, were able to produce more food and food items, maybe even craft items beyond what they could personally consume. Litte by little, through abundance of crops and animal husbandry they were indeed able to add to wealth that they controlled.

This would still not make them anything more than a peasant however. One must also be careful on this idea of buying ones freedom, since peasantry in a strict feudal community and country was not the same as slavery in America. There were marked differencet. Feudalism was, in a way, a bit more like share-cropping whereby the land owner leased out, or rented out his land in return for the service of the peasants and a share of the crop. In the best conditions, everyone could benefit. But as they often say, 'when the nobility fights, the peasant's crops burn'

One way for the peasants to escape was to go on crusade to the Holy Land. For a lord or noble to object to the peasant leaving would be to risk the wrath of the Church. This was a step taken very reluctantly. Also, when peasants left the land it left it available for new peasants to come onto the land, or the children of other peasants to expand their lease holdings. It could be a good thing, to have peasants leave, because so very few of them were ever able to find their way back (there were no maps in those days and unless they lived close to a major city or on a river, who knew how to get home?). Over-populatin was a problem that both the Crusades and the black death solved.