Explore reasons why feudalism developed and provide a glimpse into the lives of those who lived on manors. Be sure to discuss specific obligations and duties required by each.

Question

markchernioglo · Answer

"Practicing medieval historians have dropped the concept of ""feudalism"" as a model for medieval society. The term has been given too many contradictory definitions over the years and doesn't really mean anything. For example: For French revolutionaries, ""feudalism"" meant the battery of legal privileges and exemptions held by nobles and churchmen, which they wished to abolish. For Karl Marx, ""feudalism"" meant an economic system based on nobles' landowning and tenant peasant labor. For others (pulling a blank on a specific name right now), it was the devolution of public governing functions like holding law courts, collecting taxes, and raising soldiers, into the hands of nobles as a personal, hereditary right. For Marc Bloch, it was a society organized by hierarchical ties of personal dependence. For Louis Ganshof, it was a pyramidal organization of society based on the exchange of land granted in fief by lords in exchange for (mostly military) service and homage by vassals."