An economic, political, and social system of medieval Europe.
Historians in the eighteenth century coined the term “feudalism” to describe the political, social, and economic system of much of western Europe during the Middle Ages. The name derives from a grant of land known as a fief (feudum) that a lord gave to his vassal in exchange for performing military duties. The origins of the feudal system can be traced to practices of the late Roman empire and to the customs of the Germanic tribes. Roman aristocrats who lived in the provinces granted a tenure (precaria) of land to retainers in exchange for a variety of services. Roman law called the relationship commendatio since the retainers commended themselves to their aristocratic patrons. The Germanic tribes had a similar practice that the Romans called comitatus, whereby a group of followers attached themselves through deep bonds of loyalty to a powerful leader. The Anglo-Saxons called such a leader a hlaford, from which the English word “lord” is derived. The Carolingians used the term “vassal” (vassus) to describe a man who served his lord through military service.
Beginning in the eighth century, Carolingian leaders granted tracts of land to vassals to strengthen their rule. This reversed the more traditional practice whereby a vassal first promised service to a lord and then received a grant of land in return. Now vassals performed services because they had been granted land. The process remained a fluid one for some time as younger sons of the nobility and even freemen were able to win land for themselves by promising to serve the royal family. However, the many invasions of the ninth and tenth centuries made feudalism a more rigid system. With Europe under steady attacks from Viking, Saracen, and Magyar invaders, lords and vassals swore oaths of fealty to one another. In a formal ceremony known as homage, vassals pledged to be faithful to their lord and to serve him in war, while the lord promised to protect his vassals and grant them the use of fiefs. The lord and vassals in turn were to protect the freemen and peasants who lived on their land. Under these new conditions, feudalism strengthened the power of local lords over the rule of kings. It also made the development of trade difficult since fiefs were economically self-sufficient. Trade was further discouraged by the tolls and fees that lords could charge merchants who passed through their land.
Feudalism, a political order that dominated Europe in the Middle Ages, included the limited political sovereignty of centralized states, making long-distance trade difficult. Feudalism also involved hierarchical relations between masters, or lords, and their servants, or vassals. Shown here is the investiture of a vassal from a 1492 Italian miniature. (The Art Archive/Bibliothèque National Paris/Dagli Orti [A])
The institution of feudalism took hold in northern France during the tenth century and spread to the rest of western Europe by the twelfth century. Ironically, at the moment that feudalism triumphed, changes were already under way that would bring it to an end as a viable economic system by the fourteenth century. The rise of cities, improved trade routes, and the financial effects of the Crusades laid the foundations for capitalism that made feudalism obsolete. However, it would continue to influence the political and social life of Europe until the democratic revolutions and world wars of modern times.
Mary Stockwell
See also: Crusades.
Hoyt, Robert S., and Stanley Chodorow. Europe in the Middle Ages. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1976.