RAC: Lesson - The Middle Ages: Feudalism

A political map of Europe in 830 CE.The Middle Ages: Feudalism

In the Middle of What?

The “Middle Ages” is a funny term – what is it in the middle of? It means the period between Antiquity (or Ancient Rome) and Modernity (the Enlightenment onwards). Both Antiquity and Modernity were viewed by Europeans as intellectual high points, while the Middle Ages was just in between the good stuff. However, as we’ve already read, the Byzantine, Dar al-Islam, and Mongol Empires all had their greatest moments between 500 and 1500. For these empires, this era was the good stuff. So, first, when people talk about the Middle Ages, they are usually referring to Western Europe in the 1000 years after the fall of Rome. Second, no one waits around for a millennium! Western Europeans made good stuff happen in this period, too.

Image Notes: Map of Western Europe during the Early Middle Ages. The map is very different from a modern map, and this doesn’t even show all the smaller territories. Notable empires from this Module include the Abbasid Caliphate (light brown, in North Africa), Umayyad Empire (yellow, in Spain), and the Byzantine Empire (in purple, around the Black Sea).

The Early Middle Ages

While the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire) was relatively safe from invaders, the fall of the Western Roman Empire to outsiders defined the start of the Early Middle Ages. For the next 500 years, Western Europe dealt with Muslim invasions from the South, Hun and Germanic invasions from the East, and Vikings from the North. It was actually a settled, converted-to-Christianity Germanic king who developed Feudalism to protect against these invasions. Since Kings couldn’t be everywhere all at once, they allowed local lords to govern the land. In turn, the local lords hired knights to protect the land. Nearly everyone who wasn’t a knight or a lord was a peasant or serf who worked the land. Female and male peasants worked in relative equality and maintained the right to leave and find better lords to work for. Serfs, however, were not allowed to leave. In a feudal system, there were no big cities as there had been during the Roman Empire—instead, everything was very local. And there was very little social mobility between the different economic/political levels.

Select each category below to better understand the feudal system. Note that the list goes from the most powerful to the least.

King

Controlled large portions of land. For example: the King of France.

Local Lords

Served the king, but governed smaller portions of land, called manors.

Knights

Served the local lords by protecting the manor. In return, they received money and land from the lord.

Peasants

Peasants worked the manor in exchange for protection by the local lord's knight(s).

Feudalism and the Christian Church

An illuminated (illustrated) manuscript from the 15th century.

The Christian Church was outside the Feudal system but depended on the local lord’s money, the knight’s protection, and the peasant’s food. In the Early Middle Ages, they had 2 main goals: convert non-Christians and stabilize society. They were initially successful with the Gothic, or Germanic, tribes. Germanic invaders realized pretty quickly that they could settle into Western European society if they converted to Christianity, but they still wanted to maintain their political and cultural power. The Christian Church helped navigate the power struggle between the old Roman laws and the Germanic laws. By the end of the Early Middle Ages, the Vikings also largely stopped invading, converted to Christianity, and adapted to Western European society. Monks and Nuns, or monastic orders (Christians who live in monasteries, do not marry, and pray daily), also contributed to stabilizing Western Europe. Most importantly, they hand-copied Greek and Roman texts for scholars. Additionally, they helped outcasts (abused women, orphans, and sons without inheritance) and travelers.

Image note: this is a detail from a 15th century illuminated (illustrated) manuscript that was copied by monks. In the image, you can see monks singing.

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