what kind of system was feudalism?

Answer 1

Feudalism was a hierarchical system where a lord who was a great landlord would give land away to vassals. In exchange the vassal had to provide the lord with produce from the land and serve the lord in military action when his service was required. The lord and his vassals also had serfs living on their land. They were allowed to live there and work on a plot of land provided that they gave a certain percntage of their produce to the lord. The serf was little more than a slave who had no rights. This whole feudalistic system was based on an agrarian economy. The industrial revolution brought about the need for change since feudalism could not accommodate the needs of the changing economy.

Answer 2

Feudalism was a tiered system. At the bottom were slaves and indentured servants. Next were the typical unskilled peasants. Then there were the craftsmen, followed by lower level rulers such as lords and dukes. Then came the kings/clergy who existed in an ever fluctuating relationship with one deferring to the other depending on the time and situation, then came the papacy which at times was fighting for power with some kings.

Answer 3

The question of feudalism is one that continues to vex historians, who have been known to get into screaming matches about it with each other. Few can agree upon a definition and some even deny that anything resembling feudalism existed. All at least admit that the social and political structure of the high middle ages is far more complex than was once thought.

The most basic definition of feudalism, that most can agree upon is that it was a reciprocal system that existed within the nobility under which some less powerful nobles (including knights) - known as "vassals" pledged loyalty and gave military service to a more powerful noble - their "liege lord" - in exchange for protection, support and (sometimes) land. This land was known as the "fief" and keeping it was contingent upon continuing loyalty.

A vassal's liege lord would, in turn, sometimes himself pledge loyalty to a yet more powerful lord or king, for the same deal. The higher up the chain, the more land and the power involved. The aspect of "feudalism" is also known as "vassalage."

However, it was not a simple system. A king's vassals could range from the great magnates to the humblest of knights. Kings could even be vassals to other kings. For example, in the 12th century, the kings of England were vassals to the French king, but only for their French-held land in Normandy, not for England. Also, a vassal may hold two different fiefs from two different liege-lords. If those two lords became enemies, the vassal was in quite a spot. All told, it is probably better to consider the system a complex web of loyalties and obligations rather than a straight up and down.

Beyond the nobility, there is far more dispute in modern history. A second socio-political system at work in the high middle ages, that historians used to consider part of feudalism is also known as "manorialism." Most peasants were lived in "manors:" collections of one of more villages. Some of those peasants were freemen, able to move about, but usually renting land in the manor from the lord of the manor (usually vassals themselves) for either money or for a fixed amount of their crops. The rest, however, were serfs, bound to the land that they worked and unable to leave. They received the land in exchange, not for cash or goods, but for work that they were obliged to do on the land on the manor not farmed by the tenant farmers or by the serfs as their own, known as the "demesne". The profits from this land went to directly to the lord.

Although part of the same socio-political milieu manorialism, unlike vassalage, it did not involve personal bonds of loyalty but rather legally and financially defined obligations. It too was complex: sometimes serfs would be able to pay to avoid their service; conversely, some freemen would voluntarily enter into a tenancy for their land which included service.

Overall, in Western Europe, "feudalism" was a feature only of the high middle ages from ca. AD 10th - 14th century and even then, it was patchy. After the Black Death in 1340s and 50s, it soon collapsed to be replaced by a more straightforward tenancy arrangement.