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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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THE FIEF

An estate in land which a person held of a superior lord, on condition of performing some "honorable" service, was called a fief. At first the tenant received the fief only for a specified term of years or for his lifetime; but in the end it became inheritable. On the death of the tenant his eldest son succeeded him in possession. This right of the first-born son to the whole of the father's estate was known as primogeniture. If a man had no legal heir, the fief went back to its lord.

VASSALAGE

The tie which bound the tenant who accepted a fief to the lord who granted it was called vassalage. Every holder of land was the vassal of some lord. At the apex of the feudal pyramid stood the king, the supreme landlord, who was supposed to hold his land from God; below the king stood the greater lords (dukes, marquises, counts, and barons), with large estates; and below them stood the lesser lords, or knights, whose possessions were too small for further subdivision.

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

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IN PRINT

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