All of these factors working together gradually weakened the mediaeval system of feudalism built on land ownership and reciprocated loyalty. Money was distributed by the monarch instead of land, and both a rich merchant class grew and serfs were able to buy their freedom. Knights rode horses and pledged to defend their lords’ land in exchange for fiefs. This section describes the history of the idea of feudalism, how the concept originated among scholars and thinkers, how it changed over time, and modern debates about its use. They were wealthy landowners such as nobles and bishops. The idea of feudalism was unknown and the system it describes was not conceived of as a formal political system by the people living in the medieval period. At the very top sits the king with a lot of power. This social hierarchy is often displayed as a pyramid, with the king at the top, then the lords, knights and peasants and serfs at the bottom.Įventually, by the 13th century with the rising popularity of coinage, money was paid by the lords to their sovereign instead of offering military service (which worked out fine since the monarch could use the money to pay for mercenaries instead). The structure of feudal society was like a pyramid. The serfs and peasants were tied to the land they leased, and in return for the land and protection given to them by the lord, they would give regular payment of produce.

It was a simple, but effective system, where all land was owned by the King. The units of distributed land are known as fiefs, the king would give fiefs to the nobles, and those who received them were known as the vassals. The feudal system had been used in France by the Normans from the time they first settled there in about 900AD.

Feudalism can be understood as a hierarchical society where the king owned most of the land, he would distribute it out to lords, who would then lease the units of land to the peasants and serfs. Following the dissolution of the Carolingian empire, feudalism began to develop as the main. Feudalism was a system of social society present during the high middle ages in Europe between the tenth and thirteenth centuries. THE RISE OF FEUDAL SOCIETY IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE (C.

Explain feudalism in the middle ages