Feudalism is a decentralized sociopolitical structure in which a weak monarchy attempts to control the lands of the realm through reciprocal agreements with regional leaders.
Outside of a European context, the concept of feudalism is normally used only by analogy (called semi-feudal). Some have taken the feudalism analogy further, seeing it in places as diverse as ancient Egypt, the Parthian empire, the Indian subcontinent, and the antebellum American South.
Overview
- The system, in its most basic essence, is the granting of land in return for military service.
- Feudalism, by its very nature, gave rise to a hierarchy of rank, to a predominantly static social structure in which every man knew his place, according to whom it was that he owed service and from whom it was that he received his land.
- To preserve existing relationships in perpetuity, rights of succession to land were strictly controlled by various laws, or customs, of entail. The most rigid control was provided by the custom of primogeniture, by which all property of a deceased landholder must pass intact to his eldest son.
- Every man was the vassal, or servant, of his lord. The man swore fealty to his lord, and in return the lord promised to protect him and to see that he received justice.
- Feudalism was the expression of a society in which every man was bound to every other by mutual ties of loyalty and service. Feudal society was characterized by military landholders and working peasants.
Lords, vassals and fiefs
Three primary elements characterized feudalism: lords, vassals and fiefs; the structure of feudalism can be seen in how these three elements fit together.
- A lord was a noble who owned land, a vassal was a person who was granted possession of the land by the lord, and the land was known as a fief.
- In exchange for the fief, the vassal would provide military service to the lord.
- The obligations and relations between lord, vassal and fief form the basis of feudalism.
- Feudalism Wiki
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