Feudal Europe - TeacherV.net · •Charlemagne restores order, builds govt. After death, things are divided again. It is during this time that we label the period the Middle Ages.

Feudal Europe Social Studies 8 – unit 2

• Ancient Rome had a strong empire and government.

• People obeyed laws and the emperor... or else.

• However, Rome fell to Germanic tribes

▫ They had no central govt.

▫ Loyal to tribal chiefs / Sense of independence

▫ Conflict was ruining almost every city in Europe.

The Middle Ages

• Charlemagne restores order, builds govt. ▫ After death, things are divided again.

▫ It is during this time that we label the period the

Middle Ages. Also called the Dark Ages.

▫ Covers years of roughly 500-1500 AD.

The Middle Ages

• Feudalism The patron-client relationship between two freemen (a Lord and his vassal).

▫ Origins in patron-client bond in ancient Rome

▫ Also in chieftain-warrior bond in Germanic tribes.

But why then in history?

Feudalism

• During Carolingian period, warfare changed greatly.

- More Armour - Mounted Cavalry

- Better Weapons - Ordered Ranks

• Weapons more expensive

• Training more expensive

• Armour more expensive

• Horses expensive

Feudalism

• Most warriors are poor and cannot afford this.

▫ Leaders begin granting land or other support to their warriors.

▫ In return, the warriors would fight for the leader.

• Other factors:

▫ Time of chaos overall

▫ Raiders and Bandits

▫ Corrupt local Counts

Feudalism

▫ People needed protection

▫ Would often band together with people close by, especially one stronger than them.

Would create a bond like that between a father and son.

Son owes certain things to the father, and vice versa.

Expand that, and you have Feudalism

The Middle Ages

• Land came under control of wealthy dukes & counts.

• These answered to the king, who needed them to stay in power / fight enemies.

• King gave them large portions of land and shared kingdom’s wealth

Nobles used wealth to build castles to protect against raiders

Feudalism – How it Worked

• Stronger nobles protected weaker ones.

▫ Each lesser noble was the vassal of the stronger.

▫ Vassal held land of their own or of overlord.

▫ Fought for each other when needed.

▫ Many people both lord and vassal to people above and below them.

▫ All nobles vassals to the king.

Feudalism – How it Worked

Feudalism – Ceremony

• Relationship forged with a special ceremony.

▫ Vassal came to lord’s room without armour or weapons.

▫ Knelt before lord. Placed hands between his. Promised to be faithful with an oath of fealty

▫ Lord gave a twig or some earth as a symbol that the vassal could use lord’s lands, called a Fief

This land still belonged to the lord.

When vassal died, it went back to lord, not to vassal’s children.

Though lord would often allow eldest son to continue there... Once he paid a special fee to take over the fief.

▫ Called a Relief

Could be taken away if vassal

is disloyal.

Feudalism - Ceremony

• Had to serve up to 40 days a year in battle.

▫ Over that and he could ask for additional pay or leave

▫ Provided own armour, weapons, and horse.

Vassal Duties

On to Glory!

How about you

attack tomorrow?

Today’s my last day.

• If lord captured, had to pay ransom to get him back.

• Help with costs for lord’s daughter’s marriage, or his son’s knighthood ceremony and celebrations. (Of course he wasn’t invited to the party, but he still had to pay for much of it.)

Vassal Duties

• Courts further ahead in Charlemagne’s time than later.

• No fair trial by jury or judge in Feudal system.

• Person declared guilty unless proven innocent.

▫ Opposite of today.

• There were three ways to prove your innocence if accused of something.

Law and Order

• 1. Call many witnesses to prove innocence.

▫ If you were found guilty, the witnesses shared your punishment... Which could be brutal.

▫ So, it was hard to find witnesses willing to speak on your behalf.

Law and Order

No.

I did not see him steal

The chicken. He was

Helping me slay a

dragon at the time.

Honest.

• 2. Trial by ordeal.

▫ A very painful test or experience.

▫ Accused would be tortured...

Carry a red hot iron in your bare hands

Put arms in boiling water

Walk over hot coals

Bound and tossed into river. Sink=innocent... but dead.

▫ If wounds you got from this were healing in 3 days, you were innocent.

Law and Order

This is better

than cable.

Pakistani “game show”

Contestant takes a piece of coal

from the furnace, and holds on

to it as long as he can. Longest

one wins the prize… but loses

most of the flesh on his hand.

• 3. Trial by combat.

▫ Accused fought to the death with accuser. Winner was the one in the right. God would decide.

▫ Sometimes a champion would fight for either side instead of themselves. Justice was a bit primitive during this time.

Law and Order

• Three classes in society:

▫ Nobles

▫ Bishops, Priests, church

▫ Common folk (serfs)

• Nobles do the fighting

▫ Honour, Adventure, $$

• Church does the praying

▫ Protection, Land, $$

• Serfs do the working

▫ Land use, Protection

Socials Classes

• Not like storybook castles with princess, dungeon, etc.

• Initially were just a tower built on a hill and surrounded by a fence.

▫ People could store animals there in times of conflict to keep them safe.

Castles

Save me!!... If

you make more

than $80,000 a

year.

• By 1000-1100 AD, castles become more elaborate.

• Thick stone walls replaced the tower

• Large walled courtyards held outbuildings, stables, kitchens, and gardens.

• Moats dug around it, often filled with water.

• Drawbridge for protection

Castles

England

England

England

England

England

Germany

Netherlands

Scotland

Latvia

Germany

Slovenia

Romania

Poland

Germany

????

• Lookouts in castle towers watched for enemies and blew trumpets as warning ▫ Everyone ran into castle

courtyard ▫ Drawbridge up ▫ Gate closed ▫ Archers on the walls or

in the towers

Enemies had to fill in or cross moat, batter down walls or gate, fight inside.

Castles and Warfare

Slit for hot oil to be

poured on attackers

The Middle Ages

• Defenders shot arrows or used hot tar on the attackers.

• Enemies might use high towers to get over the wall

• If they broke through, the lord of the castle would barricade himself in the keep.

▫ If captured, killed or held for ransom. Place robbed.

Castle under Attack

Castle under Attack

Siege Tower

Battering Ram

Catapult

Trebuchet

Siege Ladder

Constructed

Bridge

Devices for Attackers

6

Castle under Attack

Soldiers /

Archers

Iron Portcullis

Archer Slits

Thrown Rocks

Drawbridge

Boiling Oil

Devices for Defenders

Moat

7

• Church didn’t like useless fights among nobles.

▫ “Truce of God” forbade fights on Sunday or Holidays

▫ “Peace of God” was to protect women, children, priests as non-combatants.

▫ “Right of Sanctuary” gave protection in churches to people.

Castles and Warfare

Castles and Warfare

• Of course, if you’re fighting godless barbarians, you can’t expect any of these ‘rules’ to be kept.

- Churches burned - Priests & children killed

- Women raped - Fields burned

- Cattle stolen - Fighting at any time

• Lord and followers spent most of the day hunting, training, or fighting.

• In evening, went to large dining room with a roaring fire.

▫ Most furniture moved against the walls

▫ Large central table used

▫ Lots of food

Whole pig

Cakes

Beer and ale

Castles & Daily Life

▫ No plates or cutlery

Ate with hands from wooden trenches that held food

Dogs got bones and scraps.

Very few dishes used. Servants just swept up bones and removed table at end.

Next meal goes in trench with remnants of old food still in it.

The Middle Ages

• After dinner...

▫ Told stories of battle or ghost stories

▫ Played chess or dice games

▫ Minstrels played music and sang

▫ Jester / Fool would entertain with comedy

▫ Wandering actors might perform simple plays

The Middle Ages

Living in a Castle

Courtyard

Bread Oven

Doves

Main Entrance

Knife Grinder

Blacksmith

Stables

Exterior Wall

8

Living in a Castle

Chapel

Soldier’s Eating Area

Water Well

Dungeon

Food Storeroom

Kitchen

Garderobe (Toilet)

Great Hall

Private Room for Lord’s Family

Lord / Lady Bedroom

10

• Parents involved in kid’s lives. Shared time in great hall with others at night.

• Boys and girls both trained to ride and hunt

• Girls taught to spin, sew, embroider, manage a home and family.

▫ Wore long dresses and never pants.

Castles for Kids

• Sons of nobles to be trained to serve other nobles and the church.

• No formal education. Most could not read or write.

▫ Not too important

▫ To be called a Christian Gentleman was the highest compliment.

Castles for Kids

• At ages 7-14, a boy was called a page.

▫ Left home to be trained by lord and lady at another castle.

How to play games, sing, play the harp

Prayers memorized

Show respect to the church

Wait on lord and lady

Be obedient and silent

Castles for Kids

How to care for and ride a horse

How to swim well (knights often had to cross rivers)

Assist lord and lady on the hunts.

▫ At age 14, a page became a squire

- Worked for a knight

- Cleaned and cared for armour and horse

- Helped him dress for battle

Castles for Kids

I have to go to the

bathroom. Can you

get me out of this

stuff?

I hate this job!

Went to battle with him to help out before and after.

Learned to ride, wear armour, use a sword and a lance.

Had mock battles with other squires.

A well-trained squire, when he reached the age of 21, could become a knight himself.

Castles for Kids

• Highest point in young man’s life.

• Big ceremony marked the event

▫ Took a bath of purification

▫ Put on white robe

▫ Spent night in church, fasting and praying at alter. Sword and shield beside him.

▫ Priest came in early morning to hear his confession of sins and bless him.

Becoming a Knight

▫ Took oath to be brave, protect church, help the weak, honour women.

▫ Left church and went to courtyard where family and friends were waiting

▫ Approached and knelt down before a noble.

▫ Struck on shoulders with flat of sword.

“Arise, Sir Knight! Be brave and loyal.”

▫ Mounted horse & rode off.

Becoming a Knight

What would be the purpose of this?

… and it wasn’t just for fun.

Becoming a Knight

• Tournaments sponsored by rich nobles as contests and entertainment.

• Large crowds watched.

• Ladies dressed their best in fine gowns and jewellery

• Knights wore colours of his favourite lady on his helmet and tried to win her favour.

Tournaments & Contests

• Day started with jousts

▫ Rode against one other knight.

▫ Tried to unseat the other from their horse with a long wooden lance

▫ Points for shattering your lance on opponent’s shield

• Later in day would joust with entire teams at once, facing each other at ends of a long field.



▫ Force of blows was tremendous. Some died or were badly wounded.

▫ Winners would take loser’s horse as a prize.

• There would also be one-on-one armed combat contests... Though not to kill as during the Roman empire (at least not intentionally).

▫ Loser had 3 shields broken or gave up.

The Middle Ages

• The eldest son of a lord would inherit his lands and castle when the lord died.

▫ Called Primogeniture

▫ Designed to keep lands from being divided too much... as happened before

Multiple Sons of a Lord

▫ Other sons had no land unless they could win them or marry a rich heiress

▫ Some entered church and rose to high positions

▫ Some warriors for hire


▫ Some served in campaigns such as the crusades as professional soldiers or mercenaries for hire

Others went to new lands as Europe expanded globally.


• Knighthood emulated respect, courtesy, and kindness... but only to members of the same class, or to the church.

▫ Lower classes received little consideration from knights

▫ Church taught love to all, but didn’t really happen.

▫ Knights protected serfs and common people though.

The Church & the Knighthood

The Serfs - Manorialism

• Medieval Europe had a range of agricultural strategies for producing food.

▫ Some came from free peasants who owned their own land and also did fishing or herding.

▫ Most came from large manors with unfree serfs that worked the land.


• The Manor, a community of lord and serfs, was the main unit for Economic, judicial, and social life.

• Lord and officials managed:

▫ Use of the land / Rent

▫ Labour services owed

▫ Fines and punishments


• The lands of most manors was divided into two or three open fields. ▫ This was further divided into strips for cultivation as

a good way to share good and bad soil among serfs

▫ Lord owned all the land, but rented strips in all three areas to peasants.

▫ One section was always allowed to lie untouched for a season to allow renewal of the soil


Larger view on next slide ▫ Peasants had a house and garden area.

▫ Strips a peasant could use would not be beside each other, but scattered. Lots of time could be lost in travelling from one section to another.

▫ Not an efficient way to use land, but often done so each serf would have access to water.


▫ The right to rent certain strips was inherited by a peasant’s children.

▫ Not all got the same area. Some peasants had 20 acres, and some had 2.

▫ Among these strips was demesne (rhymes with reign) land belonging to a lord.

Peasants farmed that for him and his family as well.

All produce was lord’s

▫ There could also be glebe land, for use by the priest.

Priest worked it himself or hired labourers to do it for him.

▫ Other land was meadow, forest or wasteland.

Lord hunted here

Peasants grazed their animals, got firewood, built homes from trees.



Life kinda

Sucks as a

serf.

▫ If you had too little land to provide for your family and rent owed to lord, you worked for others as well, or became baker, blacksmith, or carpenter.

• Lord’s control over serfs was just above slavery.

▫ Could not leave manor without lord’s permission.

▫ Was judge over serfs, with punishments handed out.


▫ Demanded 3 days a week of work from serfs on his land.

▫ Had to help especially at harvest times.

▫ Provided mandatory gifts to lord on holidays (eggs on Easter, chicken on Christmas).

▫ Paid yearly rent fees.

▫ Paid fee when passing land to a son.

▫ Paid to use mill, oven, or winepress

• Hard life.

• Some advantages though

▫ Family benefitted from improvements made to land

▫ Rents were fixed and could not be raised... So good years could provide a profit

▫ Access to towns to buy goods, sell extra crops, sell services.


• Small, primitive homes. Stables attached.

• Animals kept in house for family’s (and animal’s) warmth in winter.


• Ate mostly grain (bread), with eggs, cheese, beans, and some meat for protein.

• Ate Pottage (boil anything..)

• Drank wine or beer

• Men worked the fields and built home

• Women raised children, watched animals, made cheese and butter, made clothes, collected eggs, and tended garden.

Peasant Life

• Homes basically bare except for kettles, table and benches, and straw beds.

• No chimney, so smoke from cooking filled house before going out the door or a hole in the roof.

• No light after dark as candles too expensive. Went to bed fully clothed.

Seldom washed or bathed... yuck. Imagine the stink....

Peasant Life

I ain’t had

no bath in

86 years… and

I smells just

Fine.

Peasant Home

Smoke Hole

Thatched Roof

Timber Frame

Straw Bed Stone Fire Pit

Cooking Pot

Clothes Chest

Attached

Stable

Food

Storage

Walls of Mud and Straw

Tools

Notes and labelling not needed for this image. 11

KEY FEATURES Nobleman’s Castle

Lord of the Manor

Hunting Area Strip Farming

Grazing

Commons

Village Mill

Church

Priest’s

House

Wheat Field

Pound

Peasant

Homes

Stocks

Inn

Private Garden

14

Medieval Village / Manor Life

JOBS & WORK

The Yellow items correspond to the squares in

your coursepack.

The Green items are there for additional info, but

as you know most of them already, there’s no need

to write them down.

JOBS & WORK Fighting & Order

Supervise, Administer

Hunting

Strip Farming

for self and lord

Watching

Animals

Grinding

Preach

& Pray

Planting,

Tending,

Harvesting

Thatching

Spinning

Wool

Bee Keeping Gardening

Carpentry

Blacksmith

Selling Produce, Eggs, Cheese

Innkeeper

Judge and Punish

17

• The hard life and many fees began to breed discontent for many peasants, especially if the lord was cruel or unjust.

• In time it would foster a deep hatred for the nobles and a desire to overtake them financially, or by open revolt.

Peasant Rumblings

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Mohammed and the Rise of Islam

Feudal Europe - TeacherV.net · •Charlemagne restores order, builds govt. After death, things are divided again. It is during this time that we label the period the Middle Ages.

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