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From Hutton Webster's, Early European History (1917); edited for this on-line publication, by ELLOPOS
XV. FEUDALISM
» Contents of this Chapter
Rise of Feudalism * Feudalism as a System of Local Government * Feudal Justice * Feudal Warfare * The Castle and Life of the Nobles * Knighthood and Chivalry * Feudalism as a System of Local Industry * The Village and Life of the Peasants * Serfdom * Decline of FeudalismRISE OF FEUDALISM
A DARK AGE
The ninth century in western Europe was, as we have learned, a period of violence, disorder, and even anarchy. Charlemagne for a time had arrested the disintegration of society which resulted from the invasions of the Germans, and had united their warring tribes under something like a centralized government. But his work, it has been well said, was only a desperate rally in the midst of confusion. After his death the Carolingian Empire, attacked by the Northmen and other invaders and weakened by civil conflicts, broke up into separate kingdoms.
DECLINE OF ROYAL AUTHORITY
Charlemagne's successors in France, Germany, and Italy enjoyed little real authority. They reigned, but did not rule. Under the conditions of the age, it was impossible for a king to govern with a strong hand. The absence of good roads or of other easy means of communication made it difficult for him to move troops quickly from one district to another, in order to quell revolts. Even had good roads existed, the lack of ready money would have prevented him from maintaining a strong army devoted to his interests. Moreover, the king's subjects, as yet not welded into a nation, felt toward him no sentiments of loyalty and affection. They cared far less for their king, of whom they knew little, than for their own local lords who dwelt near them.
THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY: Table of Contents
url: www.ellopos.net/politics/european-history/default.asp
Cf. The Ancient Greece * The Ancient Rome
Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) * Western Medieval Europe * Renaissance in Italy
