Later feudalism (11-15th centuries)

By definition feudalism is the social system which existed during the Middle Ages in Europe in which people were given land and protection by a nobleman and had to work and fight for him in return. In his book named ‘Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism’, Perry Anderson defines feudalism as “A mode of production dominated by the land and a natural economy, in which neither labour nor the products of labour were commodities.” It was not a static structure but had its own dynamics of change. The person who makes a proper study of this topic will think about a division of this into 1) early feudalism (6th century AD to 11th century) and 2) later feudalism(11th to 15th century AD).

As we all know early feudalism includes the incidents which come chronologically. It includes Germanic invasions, spread of Christianity, Islam conflicts and Battle of Poitiers, rise of Carolingians, events that happened in the year 1000 AD, emergence of feudalism and its features, agricultural and demographic trends and growth of economy and urbanism. Later feudalism which followed the early phase deals with political and religious events, rural economy and feudal society, growth and development of agrarian economy, urbanism, military and social aspects.

So in order to tell about later feudalism I think it is better to begin with the historiography. Karl Marx’s concept of feudalism resulted from the Germanic conquests and he says that it is due to interaction and fusion with Germanic people and Romans that feudalism emerged. Likewise Dospch from Austria focussed on the collapse of Roman Empire as due to the pacific absorption of Germanic peoples. Perry Anderson and Marc Bloch paid attention to Roman and Germanic spectrums. While Henry Pirenne and Jacques Le Goff stressed on outside events like the importance of Mediterranean in the economic point of view and later the loss of its importance, Muslim conquest of European territories and its contributions to the whole Europe and eastern regions ,quarrels between Byzantines and Latins etc. R Lopez gave importance to commercial upgradation of Europe by discussing the spread of agriculture. Maurice Keen directly spoke about the emergence and growth of feudalism with the stress given to religion and social situations of the medieval period. While some of the stars of the Annal movement will perhaps be remembered more for their early or extreme positions than for their broader contributions – Braudel’s durées, Duby’s micro-total history, Le Roy Ladurie’s creative and idiosyncratic Montaillou for example – Le Goff’s endeavour to reintegrate political history with the advances associated with the Annals will probably be among the most enduring of its legacies. Indeed it could be argued that such an integration is central to the Annales’ wider influence, saving it from what its harshest critics have seen as a series of spectacular but synchronic dead ends.

But at last in one way or another every interpretation came under two topics: European history, and feudalism.

As the topic here is later feudalism, priority must be given to the golden period of feudalism, that is 11th-14th century, the socio-political-economic levels and the feudal crisis. The essay deals with how political and social factors figured tigether, followed by society, economy and its decline.

‘Feudal’ is, of course, a term which, after years of revision and complex debates, many historians would see banished. Le Goff does duly qualify the term, noting its limited and anachronistic nature, but does not then embark on a technical discussion of the nature of feudalism, leading us through the transformation or mutation debates, or give the standard lengthy disquisition on the anachronism of a term of unfortunate but necessary convenience. Rather the term is allowed to stand for the invocation of a world, its agricultural base, living spaces and power structures, and the texture of its life.

Politico-religious structure

Many of the characteristics of the first phase were altered and new trends appeared. But in between the two phases there is an important century which can be called as the classical age of feudalism which was the 10th century or the year 1000 AD. Jacques Le Goff elaborately dealt with the creation of an imperial Ottonian or the Holy Germanic Roman Empire after the Carolingians, its kings and their attempts at the unification of Europe where north was separated from south by the Alps, the economic developments which boosted the trade sector, the spread of Christianity, etc. He also deals with the conflicts within the Christians and the development of the peace movement started in Europe to overcome these, which he calls ‘historical linkage to feudalism’. The feudal lords and political leaders then moved in to take over this peace movement. The result of the discovery of the apostle of Saint James at Santiago de Compostela in Spain in 820-30 AD is important here. This was the period of consolidation of Europe, according to Le Goff.

Le Goff tells about the general features that these years bequeathed to Europe and which constitute its ‘feudal stratum’. These include forms of agricultural production, village and parish structures, noble mores and courtliness, militarism, religious reform, money, popular religion, humanism, and many more. One may well ask in what precise sense many of these phenomena can be put under the category ‘feudal’. . When the text returns explicitly to feudalism, and particularly ‘Feudal fragmentation and monarchical centralization’, it is not to recapitulate technical debates, nor to address the familiar question of whether we can define an entire society as ‘feudal’, but to propose a pragmatic interpretation of a political situation and its long-term relevance.

Rural economy and feudal society

During the course of tenth century the feudal system of production acquired a definite shape. Feudal Europe was rural, a Europe of soil. Europe was a world of bread that time. It produced wine, ale and cider in a great quantity. Agricultural output increased both due to high productivity and extension of cultivation. There was a cycle of agricultural expansion, increase in population which was at its maximum during the later centuries, food shortages, famines, demographic crisis, decline of population, etc. Most of the lands were taken care by a small number of men in power. They were the heads of Churches, great religious houses, secular princes, warlords, members of military aristocracy. They commanded and exploited the working mass of people, either because of the surviving degraded forms of slavery, or because of the monopoly of political power. And the high yields, improved techniques, fertile soils, and big investments placed a large surplus there by giving a stake in the perpetual of the new system. So rural life prevailed throughout Europe and this led to the growing efficiency of human labour. New type of iron-made plowshare was introduced and this encouraged the means of traction. Oxen and donkeys were replaced by horses with shoulder harness which improved their capacity were used in the northern plains. The method of crop rotation was changed to triennial which led to the increase in overall yield. The climate was optimum for the Europeans which favoured the agrarian sector a lot during 900-1300 AD. The increase in population growth placed more labor at the disposal of the lords. All dependant peasants had to pay various feudal dues. So all this led to an increase in the volume of surplus which was available to the feudal aristocracy.

After 1000 AD, nobility emerged as an upper layer within the group of seigneurial lords. They were a class with high prestige socially and religiously. According to Leopold Genicot, they were a superior social class with strength that stemmed from its wealth which enjoyed all privileges and commanded great social respect. Its prestige was based on blood. Nobility was conferred with judicial and military power to govern different counties into which the empire was divided. Being a class with high prestige, it was intent on showing off its rank through social and religious gestures that involved showering benefits on abbeys and saints. Nobles, the appointees of the ruler, were paid through shares in royal revenue and land endowments. Soon they were called a ‘supra-ethnic aristocracy’. Around 1000 AD, an elite group of fighters attached to a particular castle and its lord came into being. They were positioned in the social hierarchy immediately below the nobility. They were specialized in combat in horseback and fighting genuine battles for their lords. But church always tried to civilize these knights. It tried to channel their violence by deflecting it first towards pious ends such as the protection of churches, women, and unarmed people.

Courtliness of nobles consisted of good manners, or etiquette—how to behave, speak, eat at tables, etc. Refinement of townsfolk and the crudeness of peasants was almost contradictory. Monogamy became prevalent, as opposed to earlier polygamy; now, there were severe punishments for adultery. Blood relatives were discouraged from marrying. Courtship was also important, and the man swore an oath of loyalty to the woman. But the man had real control.

As mentioned earlier this time period can be called as a period of restructuring. The castle, the feudal domain, the village and the parish were the fundamental cells that formed the basis of this restructuring. The feudal domain designated the territory dominated by the castle and encompassed all its lord’s land and peasants. It included land, men and the income obtained from both from the cultivation of land and the dues paid by the peasants. The feudal lord enjoyed a number of rights known as ‘ban’. Some historians replace the word ‘feudal system’ with ‘seigneurial system’. The word feudalism designates a more limited organization in which the lord was the master of the fiefdom that was ceded to him, as a vassal, by his overlord. Villages were the major features of the 11th century Christendom. They are the settlements of peasants and subjects. The church and cemetery constituted the centre of the village and the parish. Parishes were established in all territories and it gathered the faithful together under the priest. So the villagers were closely linked to their parish. . As an institution, however, the parish was not stabilized until 13th century.

More generally, in the later 12th and 13th centuries sharply contradictory movements could be observed in the rural society of Western Europe. On the one hand, demesne lands contracted and labour services on them diminished in most regions, with the notable exception of England. Seasonal labourers, paid in wages but prescribed customary duties, became more frequent on seigneurial estates; while leasing of manorial reserves to peasant tenants increased greatly at the expense of direct home cultivation. In certain areas, especially perhaps Northern France, communities of peasants and villages purchased enfranchisement from lords anxious to realize their revenues in cash. On the other hand, the same epoch also witnessed a renewed wave of enserfment, which deprived previously free social groups of their liberty and lent a new hardness and precision to the juridical definitions of lack of freedom, from the late 11th century onwards. Free peasant holdings, which unlike villein tenures were subject to partible inheritance, were simultaneously worn down by dominical pressures in many regions, becoming converted into dependent tenancies. Allodial holdings generally receded and dwindled in this epoch, which saw a further spread of the fief system. These conflicting agrarian trends were all manifestations of the silent social struggle for land which gave its economic vitality to the age. It was this hidden yet ceaseless and restless tension between the rulers and the ruled, the military masters of society and the direct producers beneath them, which lay behind the great mediaeval expansion of the 12th and 13th centuries.

Economy and urbanism

After 1000 AD the feudal economy became technologically stagnant. Till the Mediterranean commerce was on the rise it happened in Gaul, Spain, Italy and Africa. But when the Islamic invasions gained momentum, came up till the Tyrrhenian Sea and captured the coasts of Africa and Spain, it directly started affecting the municipal activities of that area and they gradually ended. Only in areas like south Italy and parts of Venice municipal activities continued without stopping, probably because of the Byzantine trade. The towns went on in existence, but did not have any artisanal or merchant population living in them.

The “cities” had a bishop, making them centres of ecclesiastical administration. The economic aspect thus degraded to a great extent, though the religious aspect continued to be important. A small market catered to the needs the clergy of the cathedral or monasteries and the serfs. These cities rested on agriculture, the bishops and abbots and lords derived their living from the rents and dues that they got from the estates. The cities became a centre for manorial administration.

Generally, there were more hands for work on the demesne than before. Consequently instead of taking rent in the form of labour services the lords began to demand dues either in kind or money. But according to March Bloch, trade and monetary exchange was not entirely absent from the feudal economy. Europe which practiced trade and manufactures were self-governing communes, enjoying corporate political and military autonomy from the nobility and the Church. Marx saw this difference very clearly, and gave memorable expression to it: ‘Ancient classical history is the history of cities, but cities based on landownership and agriculture”. The peasants used to keep some amount of money with them but the lords had always used their power to take away these petty monetary savings from these peasants by various means like fines or tailles. The shift from labour services to dues payable in money was facilitated by the growth of urban centers and trade by 12th century. This paved the way to the commodity production that is production for the market. But the fact of the matter was the predominant Mediterranean crisis.

Soon after this period recovery began. A big change was taken place in the character of feudalism by the 15th century and trade, monetary exchange and handicraft production was expanded in this period. The expansion was associated with the development of towns and rise of merchant class. Aspects of the credit system, such as instruments of credit, long-term investment in trade, , medieval banking, usury, the international dissemination of credit, and creation of house rents and life rents, developed gradually. The European economy was thriving once again, and gold coinage returned by the mid-13th century.

In the Meuse valley, a similar development in the field of metallurgy took place. Copper working, which dates back to the bronze working period of the Roman Empire, developed and received a boost because of riverine navigation, and stood a chance for export. It became confined to the areas of Namur, Huy, and most of all, Dinant, where the workers went to the mines of Saxony for their copper in the 11th century. The manufacture of baptismal fonts became active and reached places as far as Southampton and Winchester. In Italy, silk weaving came from the sea in the east and confined itself to Lucca and Milan. Lombard and Tuscany manufactured fustians.

This is Europe in one aspect. Developments were happening, but there were some troubles also.

But another problem I would like to mention here is about the population which was very high at that time, so many people remained landless and jobless. So they were hired by land owners and big peasants and they were paid wages in money. Monetary exchange in the countryside became frequent and there started a wide range of economic activities.

Fiscal exploitation and the bad state of roads was always a problem. The only government to take charge of road-mending was the monarchical kingdom at Naples. Modes of transport were limited to light two-wheeled wagons and horseback, though there was improvement in draught horses in the 10th century. Over time, territorial princes began protecting rights of merchants. Influential trading groups travelled long distances to generate greater profits. Fairs characterised the trade from tenth century onwards. The Champagne fairs became popular as the ‘Money Market of Europe’. Social equilibrium in the feudal set-up was maintained by tenants who paid obligations to their lord in kind, and self-sufficient feudal world deprived of markets, thrived on exchange in kind to pay tenants for their services. However, though barter had always been used in social interaction, it never replaced money. Initially there were gold coins, and later, after the closing down of the Mediterranean trade in the 8th century, silver coinage. The Carolingian monetary system under Charlemagne was known as ‘silver monometallism’. The Church and the Jews were both very powerful and important moneylenders, even if the role of Jews has been exaggerated. Import of spices created the wealth for Venice.

Feudal crisis

So feudalism brought a drastic change in all aspects—social, political, economic, religious, etc. to Europe. I have already mentioned about the troubles in the whole of Europe during the 11th-12th centuries. Even though Europe survived it up to a mark till that time, the new cycle of growth of population, followed by massive demographic expansion, occupation of marginal lands, declining productivity, higher feudal rent, food scarcity, famine and starvation culminated in another crisis. Historians coined this using the term ‘general crisis of fifteenth century’ which affected most of Europe.

Naval supremacy was established in the western Mediterranean, while the domination of eastern Mediterranean was ensured after the victory of 1st crusade and opening of Atlantic land routes. Commerce and industry had by now become an independent profession. The landowner could also have invested a part of his income in the growing maritime commerce of that time. Nobles must also have contributed in the building of Genoese ships and then gained a part of the profit from their sale in the Mediterranean ports. Meanwhile, serfs from the countryside who escaped to towns and lived as artisans or as employees of the merchants could now be persuaded by their lord to come back. This naturally led to an increase in the population of towns.

The problem thus started with overpopulation and increasing landless peasants. The lords preferred to split the demesne into small holdings and rent these out to peasants and kept a small holding of land themselves. Due to the reduction in the sizes of their demesnes, the lords had only very little use for labour services. The monetization of economy was accompanied by the decline of demesne farming and emergence of a class of wage-earners in rural society. There were disparities among the peasants also. There were peasants who have lands and who don’t have land. Feudal rent was going up due to the scarcity of land, which was in turn as a result of population increase and the difficulties which peasants faced in resisting feudal exploitation. The productivity of marginal lands was very low. So there was a decline in productivity. The attempts by lords to maximize the extraction of produce affected poor peasants who lived in starvation more adversely. So agricultural production stagnated and eventually declined. Feudal lords continued simply exploiting the peasants to extract a large surplus. Their power made it easy for them to control the peasants.

By the beginning of 14th century a serious scarcity of food happened in Europe. This led to the misery of those who hired out their labour for a wage. Wages were coming down while prices of essential commodities were going up. The food shortages led to famine during 14th century. The famine deaths caused a decline in population and this trend was accelerated by large scale deaths caused by terrible plague which swept throughout Europe.

The plague epidemic of 1348-51 was known as ‘black death’. It killed a great number of people.

In one way we can say that, this crisis was the outgrowth of the fourteenth century crisis. But the output was very pathetic. Because the crisis in seventeenth century paved the way to new ideology named as ‘Capitalism’. Henri Pirenne argued that growth of trade led to the emergence of a new ideology while M.M Poston argues about the reason of population growth. Many historians argued that the power of the lord to take away a substantial portion of the produce from the peasants brought about a fall in productivity. But according to Maurice Dobb, the decline of feudal mode of production began with the decline of serfdom. It brought changes to all over Europe and all these led to a transfer to a new form that is the Capitalism.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

  1. Class notes
  2. Jacques Le Goff, The Birth of Europe
  3. Perry Anderson, Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism