What Is Feudalism?

What is Feudalism?

Feudalism is the way society was organized in Western Europe during the Middle Ages. It existed from the 800s to the 1400s. An important characteristic of feudalism was the relationship of a lord to a vassal. A lord received a large piece of land from the king. He then gave a piece of his land to another man, called a vassal. The vassal took an oath of allegiance and pledged military, political, and financial service to the lord. In return, the lord promised to protect the vassal from foreign raiders. Vassals were considered equal to lords in social status. They were allowed to pass their land to their descendants and used peasants to work the land. The peasants (or serf) were the lowest class of society. The system of feudalism helped hold off invaders and restored some peacefulness to Western Europe. The peacefulness allowed for a revival of trade and commerce, which eventually led to the development of a middle class and hastened the end of feudalism.

Below is an example of how the feudal system would look like. Answer the following questions using the information from above and below.

  What can you learn from the pyramid about which rank of people is greatest in number?

  How might people of one rank feel about people in another rank?

Feudalism is the way society was organized in Western Europe during the Middle Ages. It existed from the 800s to the 1400s. An important characteristic of feudalism was the relationship of a lord to a vassal. A lord received a large piece of land from the king. He then gave a piece of his land to another man, called a vassal. The vassal took an oath of allegiance and pledged military, political, and financial service to the lord. In return, the lord promised to protect the vassal from foreign raiders. Vassals were considered equal to lords in social status. They were allowed to pass their land to their descendants and used peasants to work the land. The peasants (or serf) were the lowest class of society. The system of feudalism helped hold off invaders and restored some peacefulness to Western Europe. The peacefulness allowed for a revival of trade and commerce, which eventually led to the development of a middle class and hastened the end of feudalism.

Below is an example of how the feudal system would look like. Answer the following questions using the information from above and below.

  What can you learn from the pyramid about which rank of people is greatest in number?

  How might people of one rank feel about people in another rank?