Manorialism refers to the social interaction system that existed between these lords and the dependent population like the soldiers, serfs and laborers, with regards to their daily life and survival. These services are provided by the general population of the region consisting of the peasants, knights and the poor people, whose lives are dictated by the feudal lords and the clergy. The social structure, in which the king allots a gift in the form of a land and complete authority to a lord, to govern and rule an area, in exchange for the services such as defense, agriculture and allied services is the feudal system. Feudalism and manorialism, are in fact, deeply inter-related concepts. These consisted of the peasants, laborers and the soldiers forming the lowest strata of the medieval society. The medieval society was a hierarchical system, where the king or the monarch was the supreme authority, the independent clergy served by a powerful nobility and followed by the vassals. In some parts of the world, feudalism is still in existence. While many people generally associate feudalism/manorialism with Medieval Europe, it existed in other parts of the world as well such as Japan, India, and other areas. To meet this demand, peasants demanded better pay, more rights, and better living conditions. After the Plague claimed about 1/3 of the populated of Europe, nobles were in dire need of peasants to work their land. The beginning of the end for feudalism in Europe came with the Black Plague. Those at the bottom also almost always make the least money. The further down the pyramid you are, the harder you work. In a pyramid scheme, those at the top, the kings, simply sit around and collect the income generated by those at the bottom of the pyramid. In other ways, feudalism and manorialism are like modern pyramid schemes. The president has vice presidents in charge of smaller departments, and the vice presidents have managers heading up various parts of those departments. Today, a large company generally has a president. In some ways, the systems of feudalism and manorialism are kind of like the structure of modern businesses. These sub-vassals then had to pledge their loyalty, taxes, and armies to the noble that granted the fief and also to the king. In that case, the vassal would divide his land into smaller fiefs and distribute it to other nobles. Sometimes, the fief was still to large to be maintained by one vassal. If the king should ask, the vassal also had to pay taxes to him and provide armies in the event of war. As payment for the land, the vassal pledged his loyalty to the king or noble above him. The fiefs were then given to nobles of lower rank called vassals. Under feudalism, the king or noble that owned the land divided it into smaller, more manageable chunks called fiefs. Feudalism was a system designed to protect that wealth. During the Middle Ages, the real measure of wealth was land ownership.

The goal of feudalism was to protect the land from invasion and to provide the landowners with a stream of income (harvested crops). The emergence of the Medieval Feudal System of the Middle Ages affected all spheres of Medieval society: a land-based economy, the judicial system and the rights of the feudal lords under the feudal system and the lack of rights for the serfs and peasants.Īt its core, feudalism was simply a system of rights and responsibilities between land owners and those who looked after it. Feudalism had a dramatic effect on England and Europe during the Middle Ages. The pyramid of power which was the Feudal system ran to a strict ‘pecking’ order – during the Medieval period of the Middle Ages everyone knew their place.

Life lived under the Medieval Feudal System, or Feudalism, demanded that everyone owed allegiance to the King and their immediate superior. King William the Conqueror used the concept of feudalism to reward his Norman supporters for their help in the conquest of England. In return they got to live on the land, grown their own crops and had protection from the lord.įeudalism was based on the exchange of land for military service. Manorialism is basically the social system used to regulate the relationship between the vassals and the peasants or serfs that worked on their fiefs. The fief consisted of a manor house, church, village of peasant shacks (where the workers lived), several fields a mill and anything else the vassal needed. If the land changed hands, the serfs went with it to the new owner. Serfs were essentially slaves to the land. They were given their own crops to tend as well as tending to the lords crops. Peasants were lower class people that agreed to work the vassals land in exchange for a small part of the crops and other harvested resources.

Feudalism in the middle ages pyramid