PPT on Feudalism

1. Medieval Life
Feudalism & Peasants

2. Feudalism
• A loosely organized economic system of
rule in which powerful local lords divided
their landholdings among lesser lords.
• It provides protection to the common
people in return for work.
• This is a political system based on land
control.
• The king owns ALL land.

3. The king owns the land !!!

4. Feudalism
• Emerges from 850 to 950.
• A lord (ruler of a territory) gives
fiefs (land grants/estate) in
exchange for services.
• Vassals – a lesser lord in the
system of Feudalism.
–They receive the fiefs
–Become powerful landholders

5. The Feudal Pyramid
• Power in feudal system much like
a pyramid, with king at the top
• Kings are served by nobles
• who are served by knights;
• Knights (mounted warriors) defend
their lord’s land in exchange for
fiefs
• peasants at bottom

6. The Feudal
System

8. • Medieval feudal system classifies
people into three social groups:
• those who fight:
• nobles and knights
• those who pray:
• monks, nuns, leaders of the Church
(clergy)
• those who work:
• Peasant (serfs)
Social Classes

9. Social Classes
• Social class is usually inherited
• Majority of people are peasants
• Most peasants are serfs—people
lawfully bound to place of birth
• Serfs aren’t slaves, but what they
produce belongs to their lord

10. The Lord’s Estate
• The lord’s estate, or a manor, has
an economic system (manorial
system)
• Serfs and free peasants maintain
the lord’s estate
–Grow food
• grain, etc
• The lord provides housing,
farmland, protection from bandits

11. Manor System
• The manor was
the heart of feudal
life
–lord’s estate
• Medieval manors
include lord’s
house, church,
workshops, village

12. Manor System
• They cover a few
square miles of land
and are largely self-
sufficient.
• Most of the
population were
serfs.

13. Manor System
• Most serfs never traveled farther
than a few miles away during their
entire lives.

14. Feudalism
• Think of Feudalism like
this:
–You have two cows.
–Your lord takes some of your
milk…..and anything else he
wants.

15. Manor System
• People lived in small villages and
nearly everyone had to farm to
provide enough food. (agriculture!)
• If everyone is farmer, there are no
artists, lawyers, teachers, etc.
• This made the loss of knowledge
even worse.

16. Medieval life

18. Peasants

19. •Lowest of the
social classes.
•Peasants did hard, physical work
and received very little for it.
•Even simple things like
wood had to be paid for.
•Life was not fun.
Peasants

20. The Harshness of Manor Life
• Peasants pay taxes to use mill and
bakery
• pay a tithe (church tax) to priest
–one-tenth of a peasant’s income
• Serfs live in crowded cottages with
dirt floors, straw for beds

21. The Harshness of Manor Life
• Daily grind of raising crops,
livestock; feeding and clothing
family.
• Poor diet, illness, malnutrition make
life expectancy 30-35 years.
• Serfs generally accept their lives as
part of God’s plan.

22. Food
• Meat was rarely
in their diet.
• Bread/vegetables
• Everything had to be boiled because
of the “fertilizer” used.
–Human poo
• Main food was pottage.
–You’d take whatever food you
could and boil it.

23. Church Influence
• Almost everything people did,
believed or thought was
centered around the church.
• Heaven and Hell were very real
to them.
• If the church told you to do
something, you did it almost
entirely without question.