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Feudalism as practiced in the Kingdoms of England during the medieval period was a state of human society that organized political and military leadership and force around a stratified formal structure based on land tenure. As a military defence and socio-economic paradigm designed to direct the wealth of the land to the king while it levied military troops to his causes, feudal society was ordered around relationships derived from the holding of land. Such landholdings are termed fiefdoms, traders, fiefs, or fees.

Origins

The word, "feudalism", was not a medieval term, but an invention of sixteenth century French and English lawyers to describe certain traditional obligations between members of the warrior aristocracy. Not until 1748 did it become a popular and widely used word, thanks to Montesquieu's De L'Esprit des Lois ("The Spirit of the Laws"). The coined word feudal derives from an ancient Gothic source faihu signifying simply "property" which in its most basic sense was "cattle" and is a cognate of the classical Latin word pecus, which means both "cattle", "money" and "power".^[1] European feudalism had its roots in the Roman manorial system - [Colonus] (in which workers were compensated with protection while living on large estates) and in the 8th century CE Kingdom of the Franks where a king gave out land for life (benefice) to reward loyal nobles and receive service in return.^[2]

Anglo-Saxon feudal structures

Following the end of Roman rule in Britain, feudalism emerged in the subsequent Anglo-Saxon period, though not in as comprehensive or uniform manner as in the later Norman era.

Anglo-Saxon kings, within the Heptarchy period and united English kingdom post-King Athelstan, often granted supporters and nobles lands in exchange for military service. These were often thegns, who were warriors controlling lands and often fought with kings at their call-up and behest. Similarly, ealdormen ruled counties or groups of counties, and similarly were appointed by the king to grant service accordingly when called upon.

Various writs survive from Anglo-Saxon monarchs, where specific grants of land were given to nobility throughout England. Thegns often worked along with ealdormen and shire reeves to enforce law and order and collect taxes in given areas. This system was indigenous to the Anglo-Saxons, and greatly mimicked feudalism as practiced in Europe at the time. Armies used in various conflicts were drawn from such arrangements. The invasion of Scotland by King Athelstan in the 930s drew from thegns whom he had established. The English army at the Battle of Hastings also was similar, and as the English lost to the Normans, much of the standing native English nobility had been wiped out following the loss.

A primary difference between this form of feudalism, as practiced in Anglo-Saxon England vis a vis the Norman period, was that it was a more native form of ties between the king and his nobles. It drew heavily on longstanding Germanic practices, distinct in evolution from the Frankish models employed contemporaneously.

By 1066, England was a steady patchwork of lands owned by thegns and ealdormen, though the Anglo-Saxon nobility would steadily lose their lands after the Norman Conquest. The Domesday Book often remarked on who owned lands prior to the Conquest, which often were native English lords or King Edward the Confessor himself.

Classic English feudalism

Feudalism took root in England with William of Normandy's conquest in 1066. Over a century earlier, before the unification of England, the seven relatively small individual English kingdoms, known collectively as the Heptarchy, maintained an unsteady relationship of raids, ransoms, and truces with Vikings from Denmark and Normandy from around the seventh to tenth centuries.^[3] This fracture in the stability of the Heptarchy paved the way for the successful Norman Conquest, and England's new king, William I, initiated a system of land grants to his vassals, the powerful knights who fought alongside him, in order to have them maintain his new order throughout the kingdom.^[4]^{[clarification needed]}

The feudal system of governance and economics thrived in England throughout the high medieval period, a time in which the wealthy prospered while the poor labored on the land with relatively little hope of economic autonomy or representative government. In the later medieval period, feudalism began to diminish in England with the eventual centralization of government that began around the first quarter of the fourteenth century,^[5] and it remained in decline until its eventual abolition in England with the Tenures Abolition Act 1660. By then, a deeply embedded socio-economic class disparity had laid the foundation for the rise of capitalism to take the place of feudalism as the British Empire grew.^[6]

Under the English feudal system, the person of the king (asserting his allodial right) was the only absolute "owner" of land. All nobles, knights and other tenants, termed vassals, merely "held" land from the king, who was thus at the top of the "feudal pyramid". When feudal land grants were of indefinite or indeterminate duration, such grants were deemed freehold, while fixed term and non-hereditable grants were deemed non-freehold. However, even freehold fiefs were not unconditionally heritable—before inheriting, the heir had to pay a suitable feudal relief.

Beneath the king in the feudal pyramid was a tenant-in-chief (generally a baron or knight) who, as the king's vassal, held and drew profit from a piece of the king's land. At the next tier of feudalism, holding land from the vassal was a mesne tenant (generally a knight, sometimes a baron, including tenants-in-chief in their capacity as holders of other fiefs) who in turn held parcels of land when sub-enfeoffed by the tenant-in-chief. Below the mesne tenant, further mesne tenants could hold from each other in series, creating a thriving, if complicated, feudal pyramid.

Fall of English feudalism

English feudalism first began to fall during the Anarchy, in which there were two factions: the supporters of Empress Matilda and of Stephen Of Blois. Matilda was the daughter of Henry I of England who had recently died in 1135, when his ship sunk due to weather conditions. Matilda was Henry's only heir, so she was first in line to the English throne. However, many of the barons who had promised to allow Matilda to rule broke their promise and supported Stephen (Henry's nephew) as king. This divide led to a civil war, which allowed many peasants to gain political power^{[citation needed]} as there was no undisputed ruler. Eventually there was a compromise, although England still felt the repercussions of the civil war for years afterwards. The next important event was on 15 June 1215, when King John of England was forced to put his seal to the Magna Carta by pressure from his rebellious barons; this began the collapse of the King's power within the feudal system. In the mid 13th century, Simon de Montfort and several barons formed a crucial part of British politics with the creation of what became the House of Commons alongside what became the House of Lords. The final major event in the fall of English feudalism is considered to be the Black Death, which killed many of the peasants. The reduced supply of labour led to it commanding a higher price. This led to the Statute of Labourers 1351, which prohibited the payment of wages above their pre-plague wages levels. This caused peasants to work more and be paid less for their work.^{[citation needed]} This led to peasant uprisings demanding higher wages, such as the Peasants' Revolt in 1381. The king, Richard II, met the peasants' delegation and promised that their demands would be met. Instead of keeping his word however, the king instead tortured the leaders of peasant rebellions.^{[citation needed]} The peasants could no longer be forced to accept the servile conditions that they held under the Feudal system.

Vassalage

Before a lord (or king) could grant land (a fief) to a tenant, he had to make that person a vassal. This was done at a formal and symbolic ceremony called a commendation ceremony, composed of the two-part act of homage and oath of fealty. During homage, the lord and vassal entered a contract in which the vassal promised to fight for the lord at his command, whilst the lord agreed to protect the vassal from external forces, a valuable right in a society without police and with only a rudimentary justice system.

The contract, once entered, could not be broken lightly. It was often sworn on a relic like a saint's bone or on a copy of the Gospel, and the gravity of the commendation was accentuated by the clasping of the vassal's hands between the lord's as the oath was spoke.^[7] A ceremonial kiss often sealed the contract though the kiss was less significant than the ritual of homage and the swearing of fealty.^[7]

The word fealty derives from the Latin fidelitas and denotes the fidelity owed by a vassal to his feudal lord. Fealty also refers to an oath that more explicitly reinforces the commitments of the vassal made during homage. Once the commendation was complete, the lord and vassal were now in a feudal relationship with agreed-upon mutual obligations to one another. The vassal's principal obligation to the lord was the performance of military service. Using whatever equipment the vassal could obtain by virtue of the revenues from the fief, the vassal was responsible to answer calls to military service on behalf of the lord.

The equipment required and the duration of the service was usually agreed upon between the parties in detail in advance. For example, a vassal such as a baron, with a wealthy fiefdom lived well off the revenues of his lands and was able (and required) to provide a correspondingly impressive number of knights when called upon. Considering that each knight needed to attend his service with horses, armor, weapons, and even food and provisions to keep himself, his animals, and his attendants for the demanded period of time, a baron's service to the king could be costly in the extreme.^[7]

This security of military help was the primary reason the lord entered into the feudal relationship, but the vassal had another obligation to his lord, namely attendance at his court, whether manorial, baronial or at the king's court itself in the form of parliament.^[8] This involved the vassal providing "counsel", so that if the lord faced a major decision he would summon all his vassals and hold a council. On the manorial level this might be a fairly mundane matter of agricultural policy, but the duty also included service as a juror when the lord handed down sentences for criminal offenses, up to and including in cases of capital punishment. Concerning the king's feudal court, the prototype of parliament, such deliberation could include the question of declaring war. Depending on the period of time and the location of the court, baronial, or manorial estate, feudal customs and practices varied. See examples of feudalism.

Varieties of feudal tenure

Under the feudal system several different forms of land tenure existed, each effectively a contract with differing rights and duties attached thereto. The main varieties are as follows:

Military tenure

Freehold (indeterminate & hereditable):

by barony (per baroniam). Such tenure is good constituted the holder a feudal baron, and was the highest degree of tenure. It imposed duties of military service. In time barons were differentiated between greater and lesser barons, with only greater barons being guaranteed attendance at parliament.^[9] All such holders were necessarily tenants-in-chief.
by knight-service. This was a tenure ranking below barony, and was likewise for military service, of a lesser extent. It could be held in capite from the king or as a mesne tenancy from a tenant-in-chief.
by castle-guard. This was a form of military service which involved guarding a nearby castle for a specified number of days per year.
by scutage where the military service obligations had been commuted, or replaced, by money payments. Common during the decline of the feudal era and symbolic of the change from tenure by personal

Non-military tenure

Freehold (indeterminate & hereditable):

by serjeanty. Such tenure was in return for acting as a servant to the king, in a non-military capacity. Service in a ceremonial form is termed “grand serjeanty” whilst that of a more functional or menial nature is termed “petty sergeanty”.
by frankalmoinage, generally a tenure restricted to clerics.

Non-freehold (fixed-term & non-hereditable):

by copyhold, where the duties and rights were tailored to the requirements of the lord of the manor and a copy of the terms agreed was entered on the roll of the manorial court as a record of such non-standard terms.
by socage. This was the lowest form of tenure, involving payment in produce or in money.

References and sources

References

^ Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th.ed. vol. 9, p.119.
^ Cartwright, Mark. "Feudalism". World History Encyclopedia.
^ Morris, Marc (2021). The Anglo-Saxons A History of the Beginnings of England: 406-1066. UK: Hutchinson Publishing. pp. 190–300.
^ Strickland, Matthew (1996). War and Chivalry : the Conduct and Perception of War in England and Normandy, 1066-1217. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 31.
^ Writs of Summons for the last general feudal levy of the English kingdom were issued in 1385, per Sanders, I.J., English Baronies, A Study of their Origin & Descent, 1086-1327, Oxford, 1960, preface, p. vii
^ Comninel, George C. (2000). "English feudalism and the origins of capitalism". The Journal of Peasant Studies. 27 (4): 1–53. doi:10.1080/03066150008438748. ISSN 0306-6150. S2CID 59130738.
^ ^a ^b ^c Gies, Joseph & Frances (1974). Life in a Medieval Castle. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company. pp. 40–52.
^ Encyc. Brit. It was a standard part of the feudal contract that every tenant was under the obligation to attend his overlord's court to advise and support him; Sir Harris Nicholas, in Historic Peerage of England, ed. Courthope, p.18, quoted by Encyc. Brit, p. 388: "It was the principle of the feudal system that every tenant should attend the court of his immediate superior"
^ From Magna Carta: "And for obtaining the common counsel of the kingdom and the assessing of an aid (except in the three cases aforesaid) or of a scutage, we will cause to be summoned the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and greater barons, severally by our letters". See also the Dialogus de Scaccario.