The Feudal system

My last post was about King Charlemagne.  Do you remember that the Frankish Empire fell apart after his death?  The people within the empire began to fight with each other, and there was no way to end this fighting and chaos.  This is when the feudal system came to be.

The new system was based on a pyramid of vassals (someone who serves), everyone served someone above them.

image from Medieval Chronicles

So how did this new system work anyway?  The main premise of this system was the system of government based on the tenure (the right of the person to have the property) of the land, -i.e. a system in which the landholders were the governors.  A person is allowed to live on the land as long as they provide services, worked the land, and any other tasks that could be imposed upon them.

The Kings were always at the top but a king could not control all of the land alone so the land was divided among Barons.

The Barons pledged loyalty and soldiers to the king.  The Barons ruled areas known as fiefs.  The Barons had the power to divide up the king's land among the Lords or knights.

The Lords/knights ran individual manors.  They were also responsible for the king's army.  If they did not maintain the king's army, they would be charged taxes.  This was known as shield money.

I found this great demographic at
historyonthenet.com

At the bottom were the peasants or villeins. This was also the most abundant population in this new system ,around  90%.

These peasants lived a hard life often working six days a week and having barely enough food to survive.  Peasants lived to be around 30 years old.

Extra facts:

~The Black Death helped kill the feudal system (no pun intended) since millions of people died as a result of the Black Death.

~Another factor that helped end the feudal system was the use of money, as in the land-based economy system faded away making room for a new money-based economy.

That is the brief description of the feudal system.  Check out the links below if you want to learn more or take a quiz.
My post about the plague.
My King Charlemagne post.

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Here is a quiz from History on the net.

Medieval Life