Feudalism was a social, economic, and political system that dominated medieval Europe roughly from the 9th to the 15th centuries. It structured society around relationships derived from the holding of land, known as fiefs, in exchange for service or labor
. Key features of feudalism include:
- Land Ownership and Hierarchy: The king or monarch owned most of the land and granted large estates (fiefs) to powerful nobles or lords, who in turn parceled out smaller portions to lesser lords or vassals. This created a hierarchical pyramid of authority with the king at the top, followed by nobles, knights, and peasants at the bottom
- Reciprocal Obligations: Lords granted land to vassals in exchange for military service, loyalty, and other duties. Vassals, who were freemen, pledged to protect and serve their lords. Peasants or serfs worked the land and provided labor, produce, or rents to their lords, often in exchange for protection and the right to live on the land
- Legal and Military Customs: Feudalism was based on a set of legal and military customs that governed relationships between different social classes, especially between lords and vassals. This included mutual obligations of service and protection
- Manorialism: The economic aspect of feudalism involved manorialism, where peasants were tied to the land and under the control of the local lord, providing labor and a share of their produce
Feudalism was not a formal political system consciously designed by medieval people but a historiographic construct named later to describe the distinctive social order of the early and central Middle Ages
. In summary, feudalism was a system of land tenure and social obligations that organized medieval European society into a hierarchy of lords and vassals bound by mutual duties of service, protection, and labor, with land as the central element of power and wealth
