Feudal Europe

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

• How was feudalism a response to social, economic, and political collapse?
• How does the "manor system" relate to feudalism?
• Why was there no major plague under feudalism?
• How is it that feudalism is orderly but does not bring unity?
• How did the feudal system bring order to medieval Europe?
• How did Europe come out of feudalism and develop trade?
• What is the lasting impact of feudalism on modern Europe?