Feudalism in Europe and Classes of Society
System of Feudalism
The land was the center part of all the economic activities in medieval Europe. To protect the land, the gathering of resources was necessary. The social organization of that time was centered on land. Peasants used to cultivate their land as well as of their lord. In return, the lord protected the land of peasants. Lord had his own military. Lord also had judicial control over the peasants. The whole society was divided into three orders. Clergy, nobility, and peasantry were the three orders of society. The first order of clergy consisted of priests, bishops, popes, and other religious people. The nobility consisted of lords who owned most of the land. The third order consisted of all peasants and laborers.
Feudalism had many customs that oppressed the common people in Europe. Feudalism was not just an economic system. But it was also a social and political system. The first two classes of society enjoyed many privileges. Common people were exploited by the first two estates. The French revolution is such an event in which the system of feudalism was challenged and changed.
The first order: Clergy
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| Clergy |
The church was a very important institution at that time. The catholic church was very influential at that time. Church had the right to establish its own laws and regulations. The king used to donate land to the church. Church had full control over such lands. The church had the power to levy taxes on people. The church worked as a very powerful religious, economic, and political institution.
The pope was the head of all religious institutions. Every village had its own church. At the ground level, bishops and clerics guided the common people. People used to gather in church for prayers every Sunday. The priest also used to give sermons to the people. All people could not become a priest. The priest of the church used to stay unmarried all his life. Bishops had a similar lifestyle to lords. They also had grand palaces as their resident.
The peasants had to give the tenth part of their income as tax to the church. This tax was called the tithe. Many wealthy people made endowments to the church. The church gathered income from such many resources.
system of monks
There used to be another system called abbeys or monasteries. Deeply religious people used to live in isolated places away from main residential areas. Monks took vows to follow a simple lifestyle. They built monasteries for them away from town or village. When so many people started following the monks, the community of monasteries increased rapidly. Many common people also started living in monasteries. There were schools, colleges, and hospitals established near to the monasteries.
The second-order: Nobility
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| nobility |
The practice of a system called vassalage was present in that period in Europe. The nobility had the main role in many social processes. The nobles controlled most part of the land. The system of vassalage was actually a relation of serving each other. Big landowners were vassals of the king. Peasants were vassals of landowners or nobles. Nobles had full control over their land. Nobles or landowners were called lords. The lord had the ability to keep his own army. He had the right to hold his own court. He also had the right to mint his own coins. The lord dominated all the people who used to live on his land. Peasants worked as foot soldiers for their lord when he was in need.
The lord owned vast territory which consisted of his private land, pastures, and the land of the peasants. The manor was a large house belonging to a lord. Manor had storage rooms to keep food grains and armory. Lord used to control many villages. Some lords controlled more than a hundred Villages. The manor was a huge estate consisting of dozen to fifty families. The manor had facilities for producing all the basic things needed for daily life. Various artisans provided their service to the lord. the manorial estate also contained wine-press and forests.
Emergence of Knights
Frequent wars in the later period, caused the lords to form a permanent army. In previous times peasants worked as soldiers for the lord. But they became insufficient. There emerged a new class of people called knights. Lord gave knights a piece of land and in return, knights served the Lord in battle. knights used to practice daily to keep up their skills. Knights had a similar lifestyle to that of lords and bishops.
The third order: peasantry
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| peasantry-common people |
The third-order consisted of all the common people. The people who were not part of the first and second-order all included in the third order. But the peasantry was the largest group in the third order. There were two types of peasants, free peasants, and serfs. Free peasants used to cultivate the land of the lord. They worked as his tenants. Peasants had to serve at least forty days every year in the army of the lord. They also had to work on the private farm of the lord for at least three days a week. Peasants had to serve the Lord in many ways.
Peasants also provided other labor services to the lord. They had to provide such kind of service without any payment. The tasks they did freely for lord included digging ditches, gathering firewood, building fences, construction work, etc. Women and children from the peasant's family also did tasks such as spinning threads, making candles, and pressing grapes for wine. Knights imposed a tax called taille on peasants. The clergy and nobility were free from that tax.
Serfs cultivated the land that of the lord. lord used to take a large part of the produce of that land. Serfs had to provide their service without any wages. The lord prohibited the serfs from leaving his estate without his permission. The condition of serfs was similar to slaves as they had no freedom. Feudalism in Europe was a system that oppressed common people for a very long time. Even during the period of the renaissance feudalism dominated society.
To know more about feudalism in medieval society:
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