Feudalism

From History Wiki

When we last took a look at Europe, the Roman Empire had basically collapsed for the last time in 395. As Europe's disarray continued, it was increasingly unable to offer any resistance to outside invasion. by 720, the Iberian Peninsula was under the control of the Umayyad Dynasty of the Islamic Empire. Only the forces of Charles Martel had stopped them from advancing north of the Pyrenees.

But as human nature seems to abhor a general lack of social structure, it would seem necessary that as old social systems collapse, new ones must rise to take their place. What ultimately rose, was a system now known as feudalism.

Feudalism, in itself, was not so much a single universal system so much as it was a collection of varied but somewhat similar approaches to social organization. At the core of each such system, however, was the idea of Lords, Vassals and Fiefs. The primary relationship was that of Lord and vassal, and the Lord could just as easily be a nobleman or a religious leader. Essentially the lord was someone who held control, and a vassal was the lord's follower. This relationship centered on a contract known as the fief. Usually the fief was a plot of land that the lord allowed the vassal to use in exchange for services, usually of a military nature.

Eventually as lords ran out of land that could be award as fiefs, the system began to be replaced by other approaches to social control.

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