FEUDALISM

IN EUROPE

NAME – Daniel Remdor Sonowal Warjri

CLASS – XI (Arts)

SECTION – B

SUBJECT - History
 INTRODUCTION

THE THREE ORDERS

Contents THE FIRST ORDER

THE SECOND ORDER

THE THIRD ORDER

 THE FOURTH ORDER

FEUDALISM IN ENGLAND

Contents THE END OF FEUDALISM

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Introduction
The term feudalism has been used by historians to describe
the economic, legal, political and social relationships that
existed in Europe in the medieval era. Derived from the
German word 'feud which means a piece of land, it refers to
the kind of society that developed in medieval France, and
later in England and in southern Italy.

Economically, feudalism revolved around agricultural

production. Peasants worked on their own land as well as that
of the lord. In return for their services, they received military
protection from the lords. Additionally, the lords had
extensive judicial control over the peasants' activities.

The emergence of feudalism can be traced back to practices

in the Roman Empire and during Charlemagne's rule in France
between 742-814 AD; however, it became an established way
of life in large parts of Europe during the eleventh century.

Feudalism represented a comprehensive societal structure

that governed medieval Europe for centuries with its roots
The Three
Orders
According to French Priests, people were
classified based on their occupation. Hence the
Three Orders of the Society were the clergy,
nobility, and peasantry.

The Three Orders was a system that divided the

people of the society into orders or sections
based on their occupation, lineage and
background.

The Three Orders from top to bottom are-

1. First Order: The Clergy

2. Second Order: Nobility
3. Third Order: Peasantry
 The First Order
The Priests placed themselves in the First Order.
The First Order, or the clergy, was a group of
people associated with the Catholic Church,
including bishops, priests, archbishops, and
cardinals. The clergy were a powerful institution
that was independent of the king. At the head of
the church was the Pope who lived in Rome.

Most villages had a church, where people would

come to listen to Sunday sermons and pray
together.

Everyone could not become a Priest- Serfs, the

physically challenged and Women were banned.
Priests were not allowed to marry. There were
religious nobility called the Bishops who like
lords, owned vast estates, land and lived in 6
palaces. The church was able to levy taxes,
 Monks
Apart from the Church, devout Christians had another
kind of organization. Some deeply religious
Christians, called Monks chose to live isolated lives, in
contrast to clerics who lived amongst people in towns
and villages. They lived in religious communities
called abbeys or often in places very far from human
habitation.

Monks were men who lived in monasteries and

devoted their lives to God and humanity. They were
members of a religious order and lived a simple life of
prayer, contemplation, and self-control.

Monks were to live in their respected abbeys forever

and spend their time in labour, prayer and farming.
Both men and women could become monks, women
monks were called Nuns. There were separate abbeys St Michaels’s Benedictine
for men and women in most cases and they, like Abbey in
priests were not allowed to marry. Farnborough,
From the 13th Century, some groups of monks called
 The Church and Society
Europeans in the medieval period retained elements of their pagan beliefs even after
embracing Christianity. Christmas and Easter were significant holidays, with Christmas
replacing an ancient pre-Roman festival and Easter supplanting a festival marking the
arrival of spring. Villagers continued their traditional practices, touring their lands but
now referred to as parishes under Christian influence. Holidays provided relief for
overworked peasants, who often used this time for merrymaking and feasting rather
than solely prayer. Pilgrimages were also important, with many undertaking long
journeys to visit shrines or prominent churches dedicated to martyrs.
 The Second Order
At the Second Order were the Nobles of France. They had
a central role in social processes because they controlled
land, this control was the outcome of a practice called
vassalage. The kings of France were linked to the people
by vassalage. The Nobles were vassals of the king while
peasants were vassals of the Nobles. They practiced a
ritual where vows were taken on the bible in Church, the
noble man accepted the king as his senior and the king
protected his vassal and also bestow land upon the noble.

The Nobles enjoyed significant power and had absolute

control over his property. He could raise troops called
Feudal Levies, host his own courts of justice, and coin
his own money. He was the Lord of all the people settled
on his land. He owned vast tracts of land which contained
his dwellings, his private fields and pastures, and the
homes and fields of his tenant-peasants. The peasants, in
addition to working in their own farms, were also made to 9
work in the fields of their Lord, and were expected to acct
Manorial Estates
A Manorial Estate was a self-sufficient landholding owned by nobles
in Medieval Europe. It included the lord’s manor house, villages, it
contained dozens of families. Everything needed for daily life was
found on the estate: grains were grown in the fields, forests for
hunts, blacksmiths and carpenters to maintain the lord’s
implements and household, pastures where the cattle grazed, a
church, a castle. Women spun and wove fabric while children
worked in the wine presses. The Manor was not completely self-
sufficient as salt, millstones, metalware and other necessities had to
be imported from outside sources. Some Lords were fond of
luxurious goods produced outside and bought those instead of
locally produced items.
Knights
From the 9th Century onwards, there emerged a new section
of people- The Knights. There were frequent localised wars in
Europe and peasant-soldiers were not enough, a more
organized group of soldiers and good cavalry was needed.
The Knights were linked to the lords, just like the lords were
to the king. The lords bestowed a piece of land to the knights
called fief which extended between 1000 to 2000 acres or
more, including housing, church, watermills, wine press, etc.
The Knights regularly practiced with dummies to keep up
with their skill. A knight could serve multiple lords but his 10
foremost loyalty remained to his own lord.
The Third Order
The third order formed the majority of the population in
Medieval Europe. It comprised of Free and Unfree
Peasants who were under their lords. They were
subjected to paying taxes to the church and nobility, for
example the taille which was a direct tax. Free Peasants
held their farms as tenants of the lord, they cultivated
their own land but set aside a few days to work on their
lord’s land. Peasant men had to render military service
and all peasants were required to do unpaid services like
digging ditches, gathering firewood, building fences,
repairing roads and buildings. Women and children,
besides helping in the fields, did other menial labour like
spinning thread, weaving cloth, making castles, helped in
wine presses.

Serfs also cultivated plots of land but these belonged to

the lords. They did not own land of their own. Much of the
produce from the land cultivated by serfs were given to
the lord. They received no wages and weren’t allowed to
leave the estate without the lord’s permission. The serfs
used the lord’s mill and oven to bake bread and wine
 The Forth Order
Expansion in agriculture led to an increase of
population and lifespan. New towns started
developing and the old ruined towns of the Roman
Empire began to grow again. Towns also
developed around big Cathedrals. Towns gave
freedom to people from the lord’s control.
If a Serf could run away to towns and hid for a
year and one day without being caught, he could
become free. Free peasants and serfs who ran
away were amongst most of the people in towns
who provided unskilled labour.
Guilds were associations or organisations where
each skill or industry was organized, it controlled
the quality of a product, its price and sale. As
trade and commerce expanded, Merchants and
shopkeepers became plenty and there was a need
for people who had specialised skills like lawyers
and bankers. Craftsmen started settling in Cities
where they could trade their goods and get food.
Thus as towns and cities expanded, the population
grew and different people started settling which 12
led to the creation of the Fourth Estate.
 Feudalism in
England
Feudalism in England developed in the 11th Century. It
started when William, the Duke of Normandy crossed
the English Channel with an army and defeated the
Saxon King of England. From this time, England and
France were often at war over disputes for territory and
trade.

William I had the land and distributed it to the 180

nobles who migrated with him to England. The lords
became the chief tenants of the king, and were
expected to give him military support. The lords were
obliged to supply a certain number of knights to the William, The
Duke
king but the nobles were however, forbidden from
of
using them for private warfare. The knights were given Normandy
land by the Lords and served under them just as the 13
lords served under the king. The Anglo-Saxon peasants
The End of Feudalism in Europe

Feudalism declined due to socio-

economic changes that occurred in
Europe in the 16th century. The
military aspects of feudalism ended
by about the 1500s due to the
nobility hiring professional armies
instead of creating standing armies
consisting of peasants.

14
 Conclusion
In conclusion, the concept of the three orders in medieval society - those who pray,
those who fight, and those who work - illustrates the hierarchical structure and
interdependence that characterized this period. The clergy, nobility, and peasantry
each played crucial roles in maintaining the social order and contributing to the
functioning of society.

The clergy provided spiritual guidance and education while also owning substantial
land holdings. The nobility held political power, controlled vast estates, and provided
protection to their vassals. The peasantry worked the land and provided essential
labor for both agricultural production and military service.

Overall, this system created a complex web of social relationships that shaped
medieval life. However, it also led to inequalities in wealth distribution and access to
power.

Feudalism brought about many changes in society, economy, it revolutionised

agricultural practices and brought changes to land use; it led to many crisis over time.
As societies evolved over time through various revolutions including economic growth 15
or changing political structures during later periods like renaissance which reshaped
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

• NCERT Themes in

thank you World History

• All In One History for
Class 11
• Byjus.com
• Google.com
• Besthistorysites.net
• Unacademy.com