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Feudalism took root in England with William of Normandy's conquest in 1066. Over a century earlier, before the unification of England, the seven relatively small individual English kingdoms, known collectively as the Heptarchy , maintained an unsteady relationship of raids, ransoms, and truces with Vikings from Denmark and Normandy from around ...
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.
An essential element of feudal society, [7] [5] manorialism was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market economy and new forms of agrarian contract. Manorialism faded away slowly and piecemeal, along with its most vivid feature in the landscape, the open field system.
Feudalism in the 12th century Norman England was among the better structured and established in Europe at the time. However, it could be structurally complex, which is illustrated by the example of the feudal barony of Stafford as described in a survey of knight's fees made in 1166 and recorded in The Black Book of the Exchequer.
It taxed a percentage of movable property ("movables") and income. Similar taxes were collected in 1185 and 1188. The 1188 tax was known as the Saladin tithe because people were ordered to pay a tenth of all income and movables. Later, a 25 percent tax on movables and income was levied for Richard's ransom. John used this tax on several occasions.
The lord of the manor rented most of the land to tenants, known as censitaires or habitants, who cleared the land, built houses and other buildings, and farmed the land.A smaller portion of the land was kept as a demesne (land owned by the manorial lord and farmed by his family or by hired labour) which was economically significant in the early days of settlement, though less thereafter.
Feudalism in Europe emerged in the Early Middle Ages, based on Roman clientship and the Germanic social hierarchy of lords and retainers. It obliged the feudatory to render personal services to the lord. These included e.g. holding his stirrup, joining him on festive occasions and service as a cupbearer at the banquet table.
A fief (/ f iː f /; Latin: feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of feudal allegiance, services or payments.