![]() The serf was the worst fed and rewarded, but at least he had his place and, unlike slaves, had certain rights in land and property … If a lord chose to dispose of a parcel of land, the serfs associated with that land stayed with it to serve their new lord (a serf could not abandon his lands without permission). Serfs were often required not only to work on the lord’s fields, but also in his mines and forests and to labor to maintain roads … The Black Death (1347, Europe) caused massive fatalities (75 to 200 million people in Eurasia), disrupting society… A serf “worked for all” while a knight or baron “fought for all” and a churchman “prayed for all”. In return they were entitled to protection, justice, and the right to cultivate certain fields within the manor to maintain their own subsistence. It was a system for structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labor. Feudalism was a kingdom-wide social structure that enabled a king to hold onto power by handing out land and influence to people loyal to the king, who in turn would control regions of the kingdom on behalf of the king. Serfs who occupied a plot of land were required to work for the lord of the manor who owned the land. Feudalism and Manorialism in Europe-How Does Feudalism Work: Feaudalism is a set of legal an militay customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries. Feudalism and manorialism are both hierarchical ways of structuring societies that were present in the Middle Ages. ![]() The feudal system was defined by inherited social ranks, each of which possessed inherent social and economic privileges and obligations - wealth was derived from agriculture, which was arranged not according to market forces but on the basis of customary labor service owed by serfs to landowning nobles. Peasantry bound by manorialism, and the estates of the Church. Feudalism decayed and effectively disappeared in most of Western Europe by about 1500, partly since the military power of kings shifted from armies consisting of the nobility to professional fighters ( effectively reducing the nobility’s power ), but also because the Black Death reduced the nobility’s hold on the lower classes. The vassal promised to fight for the lord at his command, whilst the lord agreed to protect the vassal from external forces. A vassal pledged an oath of fealty and homage. ![]() In exchange for the use of the fief and the protection of the lord, the vassal would provide some sort of service to the lord. A lord was in broad terms a noble who held land, a vassal was a person who was granted possession of the land by the lord, and the land was known as a fief. Classic feudalism describes a set of reciprocal legal and military obligations among the warrior nobility, revolving around the three key concepts of lords, vassals and fiefs. * Feudalism - a combination of legal and military customs in medieval Europe ( 9th-15th centuries ) -a way of structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labor. ![]()
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