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          Feudalism
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The predominant economic and political structure of the Middle Ages was
feudalism. This system evolved in response to a breakdown in central authority
and a rise in social chaos following the end of Roman rule. A hierarchy of
strongmen in allegiance replaced the Roman system of emperor, senate, province,
city, and town.


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| Feudal Contract |
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Feudalism was an agreement between two nobles, one the lord and one the vassal.
The vassal pledged an oath of fealty (faithfulness) to the lord and agreed to
carry out duties in his behalf. The most important duties were usually military
service (normally limited to 40 days per year), providing soldiers to the lord's
army, and providing revenue to the lord. The lord agreed to protect the vassal
with the army at his command and to provide the vassal with the means of making
a living. The vassal was given control of a fief that was usually a large
holding of land, but he could also be assigned the job of tax collector, coiner,
customs agent, or some other responsibility that created revenue. A lord with
many vassals thus had steady sources of revenue and an army. A feudal contract
was made for life. A lord could take back a fief if the vassal failed in his
duties. It was much harder for a vassal to leave a lord. During the early Middle
Ages fiefs were not inherited, which was to the advantage of the lord. The more
fiefs he had to give out, the harder his vassals would work to earn them. As the
Middle Ages progressed, vassals found opportunities to make their fiefs
inheritable, leaving the lords fewer fiefs to pass out as rewards.

Only nobles and knights were allowed to take the oath of fealty. In practice
most nobles were both vassals and lords, fitting in somewhere between the king
and the lowest knight of rank. Feudalism was never neatly organized, however.
Vassals might be more powerful than lords. The dukes of Normandy, controlling
much of France and all of England, were more powerful than the kings of France
who were their lords. Vassals might have several lords, causing problems when
different lords wanted the vassal to provide a service. The senior lord, or
liege lord, was usually given preference. Nobles also discovered that if they
were strong enough they could ignore the rules of feudalism and attack neighbors
to get what they wanted. Such private wars were endemic throughout the late
Middle Ages.


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| The Manor |
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The most common fief was a land holding called a manor. During the Middle Ages
nine families worked on a manor producing food to feed themselves and provide
food for a tenth family to do something else. (In the modern United States, the
relationship is perhaps 100 to 1 in the other direction.)

A typical manor was a great house or castle, surrounded by fields, cottages,
pastures, and woodlands. The manor was largely self-sufficient. Surpluses of a
few commodities were traded with other manors for commodities in shortage. As
the Middle Ages continued and the markets of towns grew, manors became more
specialized because they were more efficient at producing only a few
commodities. Some manors specialized in cheese, pigs, wine, grain, or
vegetables, for example.

The lord of the manor (landlord) occupied the manor house or castle with his
family, servants, and retainers. Retainers were usually knights and professional
soldiers on hand to provide defense and be ready to fulfill any feudal military
obligations to a senior lord. The larger the manor, the greater the number of
retainers.

The population of a manor consisted mainly of peasants (nonnoble and
nonprofessional). The farmhands were mostly serfs who spent up to half of their
week working the lord's lands in return for his protection. Each serf family
owned several rows in each of the manor's fields from which it obtained a
living. Serfs were not slaves, but they were not free either. They could not
marry, change jobs, or leave the manor without the lord's permission. But a serf
had some rights, unlike a slave. His position was hereditary and passed down in
his family. His land could not be taken so long as he fulfilled his obligations.
While the relationship between vassal and lord seems comparable to serf and
landlord, a clear distinction was made in the Middle Ages between an honorable
contract to provide military service versus mere manual labor.

Farming technology gradually changed the lives of serfs as the Middle Ages
progressed. Food production increased and surpluses were sold, providing serfs
with the money to buy their freedom. By the end of the period, there were few
serfs in western Europe.