![]() ![]() ![]() However much some scholars may 'deplore' the term feudalism, however much popular speech mangles the meaning behind feudal, with the proper definition and a brief explanation, they can open up many facets of Medieval European society and culture. This would be a mistake.Ěs a constructed term feudalism fulfills its purpose as a generalization: it gives students and lecturers a springboard from which they can leap to higher, more complex ideas and concepts, without losing much along the way. Now the tendency is to just get rid of the term, rather than defining it with authority, as with Brown. So why even use the term "feudalism?" Many people have different notions about what is and is not feudal. Here is another attempt at a definition: As a basic and simple definition one may assume that feudalism exists in a society withġ) extremely strong ties of personal dependence,Ģ) a strong military class at the top of the social structure,ģ) hierarchical systems of land rights based on personal dependence,Ĥ) a breakup of central authority, with State powers distributed to powerful men (usually) in control of large areas of land,Īnd 5) a body of institutions used to create and enforce the ties of dependence. (Just thought that I would throw this into the discussion, but the definitions of "manorialism" and "chivalry" are just as difficult as "feudalism.) These regional lords, through a complicated system of personal contract, could gather together a local defense force.įeudalism is a system of extremely, localized government that also has economic (manorialism) and social aspects (chivalry) that go along with the form of government. ![]() Lord and his vassal, bound together by a sacred oath, and bound to lendīasically, feudalism in Western Europe arose as a result of the disintegration of large-scale political authority (the disappearance of the Roman Empire) which led to the devolution of public power into the hands of localized, regional lords. Heart of the system lay in the relationship of mutual duties between a Security in an insecure world after the collapse of the Roman Empire. System of the Middle Ages that slowly developed as an ad hoc system of So, what does that leave us with (besides the negative and pejorative connotations of the word "feudalism")? What could be used as traits to define feudalism in England in the twelfth century are not what you would use to define feudalism in France in the eighth century, and none of those characteristics might ever apply to feudalism in either Poland and Serbia. Well, one of the first things that you will learn about feudalism is that there is no generally-accepted, standard definition amongst historians of just exactly what feudalism was and when/where it existed. ![]()
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