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Feudal Europe: Difference between revisions
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[[Category:feudalism]] | [[Category:feudalism]] | ||
'''Feudal Europe, European feudalism or "feudalism"''' | |||
== '''European feudalism overview''' == | |||
* largely from the 9th to 15th centuries | |||
** not a uniform system across place and time | |||
** for example, feudalism arose in England after the Norman invasion of 1066, but it existed in France since the AD 800s | |||
* generally a system of shared power between and among a hierarchy of authorities | |||
** as in, knights, lords, vassals | |||
** can be thought of as "chains" of allegiances and duties and obligations | |||
== Etymology & vocabulary of feudalism == | |||
=== Etymology === | |||
* the noun "feudalism" is a modern invention (18th century) | |||
** Adam Smith discusses the "feudal system" in his "Wealth of Nations" | |||
* during the "feudal" period, people did not refer to themselves as living under feudalism | |||
** the word "feudal" may have been used, but as an adjective not a noun | |||
* "feudalism" is unrelated to the word, "feud" | |||
** "feud" is from Old English, "gefea" or "gefa" which means "enemy" or "foe" | |||
** however, "feud" is easy for students to remember "feudalism" in terms of a system of allies and enemies | |||
* most directly derived from the Latin ''feodum'' for "fief" | |||
* Proto-Indo-European word origin = "'''''peku'''''" for cattle | |||
** Latin "pecus", | |||
** Old German, "fehu", Old English "feoh" | |||
*** these languages shifted "P" to "F", as in the Latin "pater" > to English "father" | |||
** see [[Indo-European word origins]] | |||
* the Roman term "beneficium" (for a grant of land or rights; see "Origins" section below) | |||
** starting in AD 984, Medieval writers began to use Latin "feudum" instead of "beneficium" in reference to grants | |||
* in the Medieval system, property could be used as a form of exchange instead of money or gold | |||
** thus the ancient word for cattle, "''pecu''", which became in Frankish, "''fehu''", was used with "''od''" which meant "goods" | |||
** ''fehu-od''" = an exchange or payment with property instead of money | |||
*** cattle, horses, clothing, arms, etc. | |||
*** which became "feos" | |||
* so "feudalism" is derived from the exchange of goods and services | |||
=== Vocabulary === | |||
* the primary words of feudalism are "fief," "lord" and "vassal" | |||
** '''fief''' = land or rights granted to a "vassal" by an overlord (higher rank), generally heritable (passed on by hereditary birth) | |||
** '''lord''' = a person holding authority over certain people and places | |||
*** in England, the word "lord" became the title "Lord" (as in the House of Lords in Parliament) | |||
* '''vassal''' = a person who owes allegiance, duty, taxes, and homage (an oath of submission and/or a public respect) to another person of higher rank | |||
** vassals were generally knights, who acquired their own fiefs with peasants to work the land for them | |||
** "vassal" comes from Celtic for "young boy" or "servant" | |||
*** the Romans adopted the word from Celtic and called it ''vassal'', which became ''valet'' in French | |||
* related terms | |||
** '''chivalry''' | |||
*** from cheval | |||
** '''knight''' | |||
== Origins == | |||
* Ancient Rome | |||
** in exchange for some service, the Romans would grant a ''beneficium'', which was a property, title or privilege | |||
*** the words "benefit" and "beneficial" a derived from ''beneficium'' | |||
** a ''precaria'' was a temporary land grant that had few obligations | |||
*** for example, to give someone land that needed to be cleared for farming | |||
*** ownership of the ''precaria'' would revert to the landlord upon death of the tenant | |||
*** since the obligations were loose, the ''precaria'' was not a secure grant, thus the word "precarious", which means "uncertain" or "dangerous" | |||
*** '''''tenant''''' = someone who lives on land owned by someone else | |||
* Frankish kingdoms of France | |||
* | |||
==Summary Questions== | ==Summary Questions== | ||