Fuedal System?

Question

What was the whole point of the fuedal sytem that the norman king William stated? I know the basic strructure of the system but want to know the reason why it was started. Any thoughts appreciated . xxx

Answer 1

This is sticky; what they taught me in school was apparently not the real nitty-gritty. This is such a complicated issue, having such underlying issues as who were the Normans? Who were the Celts? The thing of it is, many of the invading knights were, guess what? Celts, from the British Islands. As to why William the Conquerer started the feudal system (feudal from the Latin fief, or land) is based on the idea if you work hard, you should be rewarded and if you are rewarded you will be loyal to the person giving you the land.
William the Conqueror, as the de facto king, owned everything. But, by himself, he could do nothing. He divided his land amongst Barons who were loyal to the King.
Barons, on their own, could do nothing, so the Barons would divide their land amongst the Knights, who would fight for the Barons (and hence the King) and would be loyal to the Barons. The Knights in turn would have the cerfs work the land. The Knights protected the serfs, but made them work hard.
Overall, William the Conqueror and his invading armies spoke French. The British spoke, well, a sort of English. The serfs were, for the most part, the British, and were dealt with harshly, taxed for everything and punished harshly. (Believe it or not, this was an actual improvement over their life style before the invasion).
The Knight system, jousting and all that, was imported from France. But, guess what? Most of the invaders married British women. These women taught their children (drumroll) English! So, in the end, the winners were not the Norman invaders, but the English (as was often the case through out history).
So, in a nutshell, the reason why it was started was it was an effective way to control the people by rewarding those faithful to the King.

Answer 2

It goes back to the fall of the Roman Empire. In really simplistic terms, during that era, from around AD 200 to AD 500, the establishment of large estates throughout the Roman Empire in Europe called for cheap labor. Rome wasn't conquering a lot of other lands at that time, so there weren't a lot of slaves to work the land. They instead would take on peasant farmers who were driven from their land by the large estate owners and turn then into serfs. Gaul, or what would later become France, was heavily influenced by the late Roman culture. England had some Roman influence, but not as much as Gaul/France. By the time of William, this system was well ingrained in the culture. Owners of large pieces of land, or lords, used serfs to farm their land. When William invaded, he brought that system to England. I can't remember the exact details, but at another time during the fall of Rome, it was made a law that everyone who was born into a family of a certain class or task would have to remain in that to ensure there were enough artisans and serfs — and tax dollars —  to keep the feudal economy going. That trend dominated for hundreds of years, until well into the Renaissance.

Answer 3

It created a pecking order for the society. Kept people from rising without royal aid and nobles from falling without royal decree. Kept control of the population. And it gave the country a leader.