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THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY

From Hutton Webster's, Early European History (1917); edited for this on-line publication, by ELLOPOS

XV. FEUDALISM

Em. Macron, Rediscovering the Path to Europe

» 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 Feudalism

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DECLINE OF FEUDALISM

DURATION OF FEUDALISM

Feudalism had a vigorous life for about five hundred years. Taking definite form early in the ninth century, it flourished throughout the later Middle Ages, but became decadent by the opening of the fourteenth century.

FORCES OPPOSED TO FEUDALISM: THE KINGS

As a system of local government, feudalism tended to pass away when the rulers in England, France, and Spain, and later in Germany and Italy, became powerful enough to put down private warfare, execute justice, and maintain order everywhere in their dominions. The kings were always anti- feudal. We shall study in a later chapter (Chapter XXII) the rise of strong governments and centralized states in western Europe.

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THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY: Table of Contents

url: www.ellopos.net/politics/european-history/default.asp

IN PRINT

Cf. The Ancient Greece * The Ancient Rome
Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) * Western Medieval Europe * Renaissance in Italy