LATER FEUDALISM from 11th-15th centuries)

I Year History

This essay deals with feudalism in Europe from the 11-15th centuries which is also known as the later part of feudalism. Feudalism was a social condition which had existed in Europe during this time. In feudalism the people were given land and protection by the nobles in return for their labour and military services. In this essay the later part of feudalism in Europe will be dealt with chronologically. Feudalism emerged in Europe in the 10th century, expanded in the 11th and reached it height in the 12th and 13th centuries after which it began to decline. Some historians replace the word ‘feudal system’ with ‘seigneurial system’. The word feudalism shows a more limited organisation in which the lord was the master of a fiefdom, as a vassal, granted to him by his overlord. This was also the time when there was a renewed wave of enserfment which had preciously deprived the liberty of the people. We will at first deal with the feudal mode of production and the manorial estate both of which were key components of feudalism.

The feudal mode of production was dominated by land and natural economy. The peasants did not own the land but were tied to it by a social relationship of compulsion with the feudal lords who extracted the surplus from them. The feudal were normal lay people or members of the clergy who used violent means to secure increased rents or to repress the peasant revolts. Lords owned the land and received rent and surplus from the peasants who were under their jurisdiction. The level of control and organisation that a lord possessed over his demesne was crucial as it determined the success of new techniques which were introduced. The peasants worked on the land of the lord and also their own strips. However as population increased, the size of average peasant holdings decreased from 100 acres in the 9th century to 20-30 in the 13th. The total population of Western Europe probably more than doubled between 950 and 1348, from some 20,000,000 to 54,000,00.

In the Manorial system there was a characteristic division of the estates into the lord’s demesnes which was organised by his stewards and tilled by the villens and peasants. The lord received a complimentary surplus but control and production was in the hands of the villeins themselves.

Sub-infeudation is an interesting concept in the feudal system. The monarchical ruler usually gave his lands to the nobles and received their services which were manly military in nature. The nobles then, gave their land to ordinary peasants from whom they received rent and other services. This process continued in many levels and this is known as sub-infeudation. The monarch was thus dependant on the nobles as they were dependant on him. He would not have direct control over the entire land but his control would be mediatised through layers of sub-infeudation.

11th and 12th centuries

One of the major changes was the increase in agricultural surplus as a result of the new feudal relation, which increased the productivity. Feudal Europe was essentially a Europe of the soil. It was where bread dominated and wine, ale and cider were also important. From 1000A.D, a favourable climate and the introduction of a number of important techniques helped in producing the surplus. The swing plow was superseded by a plow equipped with an asymmetrical plowshare and a moldboard and that plowshare was made of iron rather than wood. Horses began to replace oxen and a shift was made to the system of crop rotation.

There were four main cells of the society of the time- the castle, the feudal domain, the village and the parish. . The feudal domain designated the territory dominated by a castle and encompassed all its lord’s land and peasants. The village replaced earlier rural settlements and was a key component of 11th century Christendom. In this period there were large number of hands available for work and so the lord now took rent in either kind or money rather than labour.

After 1000A.D the nobility or the society’s upper crust emerged. They were linked to wealth and power and nobility was essentially a matter of blood. They enjoyed certain privileges and commanded respect. Most of the lands were taken care by few men of the nobility or heads of the church who were in power. The surviving forms of slavery and the monopoly of political power enabled them to exploit the working mass of people. The nobility was given military and judicial powers to govern counties into which the empire was divided. In the same time a new group emerged hierarchically positioned just below the nobles. These were men were an elite group of fighters specialised in horseback fighting were attached to a lord and castle and fought battles for their lords. The church was hostile to them and tried to civilise and eventually did manage to do so. Also in this time a number of military orders such as the order of the Knights Templar and Hospitallers of Saint John ofJerusalem made their appearance. The purpose of these orders was to use sword and prayer in order to fight the pagans.

Jacques Legoff talks about the institution of marriage of the time. Marriage was now a concern of the church and was controlled by it. Mutual consent was required thus improving the position of women.

The Gregorian Reform was an important change in this century. It was named after the pope who inspired it, Gregory VII. This reform separates the laity and the clergy with both assigned their specific separate functions to perform. Where the church failed to satisfy the needs of the people there were emergences and re-emergences of popular cultures. This century also saw the introduction of a variety of new currencies across the empire. Pilgrimages which increased in importance paved the way for trade.

Feudal Monarchies

In the political domain of the 11th and 12th century there were two contradictory things happening. On the one hand there was the establishment of the feudal society with the weakening of the central power. On the other hand, people were regrouping to leaders who were trying to hold on to the power which they got with the feudal fragmentation. Thus compromise political systems were introduced which were known as feudal monarchies. Only the emperor and the pope were above the monarchical rulers who paid homage to them. This too was not for long because independence from the empire and emperor was a major political development of this period. The medieval kings had three functions: the dispensation of justice, military functions and the responsibility of the economy. However the rulers were not absolute.

Feudal monarchies were present in 11th and 12th century England, France, Norman Diaspora etc. In England, fortunate changes occurred which strengthened the kingdom. Royal agents in the forms of sheriffs appeared in the counties while around the king a bureaucracy of specialists was set up, most notable for the activities of financial officers. Henry II’s was the first modern kingdom of Christendom. But this king clashed with his wife and two sons- Richard the Lionheart and John Lackland. The feudal custom of dividing up property between the king’s sons had been retained in England unlike in France where the property reverted to the royal domain if a prince died.

The other monarchy which was as stable was that of France. Its stability was because of the continuity of kings and also the long line of male heirs. The Capetian dynasty had reigned in France since 987. The French kings first, disciplined the lords, and then got the support of the clergy and the minor nobility thus keeping the higher aristocracy away from power. Finally they made Paris their capital and built a palace there.

Crusades

The crusades were the military operations by the Christians in Palestine done in order to take Jerusalem and the territories where Christianity is said to have begun, from the Muslims. The development of a theory of just war supported this. A just war was one decided upon and waged not by an ordinary individual but by a leader invested with supreme authority, such as that of the Christian emperor, and later the princes and kings of the Middle Ages. The first crusade in 1099 achieved the capture of Jerusalem and the massacre of Muslims. The Crusades, as preached by Urban II, were presented as a war to liberate Palestine and also as a pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre. However, that struggle was deflected so as to win many other battles for the Church, both internal and external. The Crusades, for their part, were depleting both the manpower and the resources of Europe.

Europe of persecution

There were three main groups that were persecuted in Europe at this time, the heretics, the Jews and the sodomites. The church could not accept the heresies that brought its power into question. A Europe of protests now appeared with lay people challenging the church’s monopoly of the gospel and the increased accumulation of wealth by the church. An Episcopal inquisition was thus set up by Pope Gregory IX , which passed judgement in the name of the church and the Pope. This institution interrogated the accused in order to obtain a confession of his or her culpability.

The Jews were persecuted because they were usurers and because they were the ones responsible for the death of Christ. Finally the sodomites or the homosexuals were persecuted because of the evolution of the notion of nature in the 12th century and it was considered a sin against nature. However it was tolerated up to an extent in the monasteries.

Thirteenth century

Two contradictory things were occurring in Europe in the later 12th and 13th centuries. On the one hand, demesne lands contracted and labour services on them diminished in most regions, while leasing of manorial reserves to peasant tenants increased greatly at the expense of direct home cultivation.

The thirteenth century is regarded as the high point of the medieval West. Its successes appeared in four main domains. The first was constituted by a surge in the creation of towns. The second success was the revival of trade and the rise of the merchants. The third success was in the domain of learning. Finally, the fourth success was the creation of a number of new religious figures.

A medieval town was organised around a number of centres. The towns changed very much in their appearance and two types emerged. The first type was the Episcopal town with the presence of a bishop. The second was the big towns which were few. The largest town of all was unquestionably Paris, which has been shown to have had probably 200,000 inhabitants in about 1300. There were two types of towns of political importance- capitals and state towns.

Towns and feudalism

Rodney Hilton, among others, has shown how, in the cases of England and France, the medieval towns not only came to terms with feudal structures in general, but were even part of them. The towns grew thanks to the immigration of peasants. Most of the inhabitants of the medieval towns were recent peasants. Agricultural surplus fuelled the development of economic and craft activities.

A medieval town was characterised by a government which came to terms with the feudal system and at the same time evolved in its own way. Soon different forms of inequalities appear, of which wealth was an important one, between the different classes of people in this urban society. The well to do made up the councils and governed the towns. A medieval town was a centre of production and trade in which craftsmanship and trade were both fuelled by a monetary economy. Maurice Lombard sees the medieval merchant-townsman as a man in a network, linking different centres together, a man open to the outside world, receptive to the influences.

During this time there was a commercial revival and expansion which is described as commercial revolution. Three great commercial centres emerged- Italian, Hanseatic and the one in between these two.. The two poles of international trade were the Mediterranean and the North and the zone in between these developed as the third region. Merchants and traders still had to face a lot of hardships and the only significant improvement in trading in the 12th and 13th centuries was the construction of many bridges across rivers. A Europe of sea now emerges with the capacity of ships being increased and with the introduction of the stern-post rudder, the lateen sail, the compass, and cartography.

Absence of a uniform currency had been a major obstacle to trade, so the West now reverted to the minting of gold coins that Charlemagne had abandoned. . From 1266 on, France was minting gold ecus, but it was the great Italian commercial towns that took the lead here. In 1284 Venice began minting its gold ducats.

The church gradually came to justify profits made by the merchants. The prestige and growing power of the merchants brought about great changes in European attitudes. The merchants did many charitable works in order to provide justification for their wealth.” Now the merchant could keep his purse and have eternal life.”

Schools were multiplying since the 12th century and now universities or advanced schools made their appearance. The demand for books also began to increase. Hebrew, Greek, and Latin were the three main languages with Latin being used for learning. Many vernacular languages also now made their appearance.

A Europe of charity, the third order

Clerics of a new type who belonged to the Medicant order now appeared. They lived in the community among the ordinary people. They brought to life a Europe of charity known as works of mercy. They founded the Third Orders, groups of lay people from a variety of walks of life who, while remaining with their families and continuing to practice their respective professions, at the same time endeavoured to lead a life as close as possible to that of the friars. On the one hand they were admired and followed while on the other they were subjects of hostility. The medicants takeover of the functions belonging to the secular clergy was the reason for this.

A European identity took shape in reaction to its enemies which now was the Mongols. The Mongol invasion of 1241, which advanced as far west as Silesia, but then pulled back eastward, produced severe shock and panic among the Christians that they even abandoned the crusades. Hungary and Poland presented themselves as ramparts of Christendom against the Mongols.

Fourteenth and Fifteenth century

The 14th and 15th century is generally considered as the end the end of the middle ages and is a period of crisis after the relative stability and prosperity of the 13th century.

The problem had 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 thus resulting in mass unemployment.

Famine

By the beginning of 14th century a serious scarcity of food happened in Europe. The productivity of marginal lands was very low resulting in a decline in productivity. So agricultural production stagnated and eventually declined. This affected the economic activities as well which were supported by the agricultural surplus. There was also a change in the climate particularly in northern Europe, with long periods of extreme cold and torrential rain which caused the famine in an unprecedented scale. It lasted from 1315 to 1322. The famine deaths caused a decline in population and this was accelerated by large scale deaths caused by the terrible plague which swept throughout Europe.

War

When warfare erupted in almost all of Europe in the 14th century, what shocked the people were its new forms. The most visible signs were the appearance of canons and gunpowder and the improvement in siege techniques. The monarchies now raised armies of permanent soldiers who were given regular pay. Mercenaries hired themselves out to towns and princes. Among the wars was the Hundred Years’ War and the wars of succession in Brittany. In the fourteenth century in England, feudal service was replaced by the establishment of national and voluntary militias. In the fifteenth century, every community and parish in the realm had to supply independent archers and crossbow-men whenever the monarchy called for them and most monarchies now had permanent armies.

Black Death

It was characterized by the appearance of swellings, known as buboes, in the groin. These were filled with black blood, from which the disease and the epidemic took their name. It had had ravaged the east and the west in the 6th century and then declined in the west but continued to remain in the east. It now made its appearance in the west again. The Black Death was a catastrophic phenomenon that did not die out in the West until 1720. In England, the population fell by 70 percent; by 1400 it had dropped from 7 to about 2 million inhabitants. The situation was made worse by more or less severe and regular recurrences of the epidemic. The battle against this was however, fiercely waged.

Then there appeared a Europe of violence and revolts. Crime now made its appearance. There were worker revolts mostly by the well-to-do who felt their position and privileges being threatened. Unemployment, fluctuating wages, and the increasing numbers of poverty stricken and marginal people gave rise to rioting and revolts.

The Shattering of the Unity of the Church

French pope Clement V, archbishop of Bordeaux, who was elected in 1305 and crowned in Lyon, did not then proceed to Rome. In 1309 installed himself in Avignon, but in the minds of most Europeans at this time was their attachment to all the symbolism represented by the town of Rome. This affected the support of the people to the church. Another reason was the existence of two or three Popes at the same time, like in the case of Clement VII and Urban VI where Urban VI refused to step down, thus dividing the church.

Then there was also the new heretics who made their appearance in the 14th century, namely the Wycliffites and the Hussites, which were the two main ones. John Wycliffe denied the validity of all Church decisions that did not originate in and correspond to the Holy Scriptures. His ideas continued to be diffused after his death. Jan Hus was a student at the recently established university of Prague. He called for a moral reform of the Church and strict obedience to God’s word, and so found himself in conflict with the ecclesiastical hierarchy. He was burned at stake in 1415 and this caused various riots and uprisings. Most Czechs rejected his condemnation and clung to his ideas.

The Turkish Threat

The threat of an attack by the ottoman Turks had been growing ever since the mid 14th century. At the instigation of Emperor Sigismund, a crusade against the Turks was launched. This was the last crusade. On July 21, 1453 Pius II wrote to Nicholas of Cusa. ‘‘The Turkish sword is now suspended over our heads, yet meanwhile we are engaging in internal wars, harassing our own brothers, and leaving enemies of the Cross to unleash their forces against us.’’

To conclude, by the 15th century feudalism had come to its last stages and gone into a steep decent of decline. The long famine, economic problems, internal crisis, fear of plagues and continuous threats of attacks from outside seriously affected the feudal system and feudal mode of production. According to Maurice Dobb, the decline of feudal mode of production had begun with the decline of serfdom. The monarchy, with the establishment of permanent armies now no longer needed the lords and nobles to provide them military services. This was a main blow to the feudal system. Feudalism had reached its height in the 13th century where it was most stable, but like most systems, a combination of internal and external factors led to its decline by the fifteenth century. It brought changes to the whole of Europe and led to the rise of Capitalism in the later centuries.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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