The feudal system spreads

The story

An empire too big to defend

At the beginning of the 9th century Charlemagne ruled an enormous empire, from present-day France to Italy and Germany. To administer it he sent out officials, the counts, to govern the various regions in his name. But after his death, in 814, his descendants quarrelled and divided the empire. The kings, weak and fighting among themselves, could no longer control their territories.

Meanwhile Europe was being attacked from all sides. From the north came the Vikings with their ships, which sailed up the rivers and plundered towns and monasteries. From the east the Hungarians, or Magyars, rode in on horseback, raiding as far as Italy and Germany. From the south came Muslim pirates, who set themselves up on the coasts. A faraway king could not defend anyone. People looked for help from the local lords, who had castles, horses and soldiers.

A pact of trust

A system of personal relationships spread. A powerful lord, the senior, offered a free man, the vassal, protection and a fief, that is, a piece of land or an office (such as the administration of an area) which allowed him to support himself. In return the vassal swore loyalty to him, and had to help him in battle and give him advice.

The oath was taken in a solemn ceremony: the vassal knelt before the lord, placed his joined hands in his, and swore; this was the homage. Then he swore on the Gospel or on a relic to be faithful. The lord made him stand up and gave him a symbolic object, such as a clod of earth or a branch.

This mechanism involved everyone. The king gave fiefs to the great nobles, the dukes and counts, who in turn gave them to lesser vassals, the knights, and so on. It was a kind of pyramid: on the highest steps stood a few powerful men, at the bottom many small lords. Often, though, things were not so tidy: a vassal could have several lords and had to choose whom to obey.

Being a knight was expensive. You needed a war horse, a coat of mail made of iron rings, a helmet, a shield, a lance and a sword, as well as servants and a spare horse. A warrior could not afford it alone: it was the income from the land received as a fief that paid for all this, and that is why land was worth more than money.

The castle and the village

To defend themselves, the lords built castles: at first simple wooden towers on an artificial hill, surrounded by a ditch, then stone fortresses. Around them lived the peasants, who worked the lord's land and received protection from him. Many were serfs: they could not leave their farm and owed the lord part of the harvest, days of unpaid work and fees for using the mill, the oven or the press.

A bishop around the year 1000, Adalbero of Laon, described society as divided into three orders: those who pray (the clergy), those who fight (the nobles) and those who work (the peasants). For him it was an order willed by God, but the poorest did not agree.

A system... or not?

The word “feudalism” was invented a long time later, between the 17th and 18th centuries (“féodal” in 1614, “feudal system” in 1736, “feudalism” in 1771), by jurists and historians. Today many scholars think that there was never a single identical system across the whole of Europe: the relationship between lords and vassals varied greatly from region to region and from century to century. In England, for example, after the Norman Conquest of 1066 King William gave the lands to his barons in a more orderly way than in France, and in 1086 he made all the landholders swear loyalty. In Italy, the cities played a different role.