The Beginning Of Feudalism Period In Europe

Introduction

When Charlemagne died, and the Vikings took over, so the lords started caring more about society. In the 700 A. D. –1200 A. D, they raised armies and protected their properties. All of these lead to the beginning of feudalism. Feudalism is a society based on promises. The more land you had the more powerful you were. At the top there was the monarch, then there were the knights and church officials and at the very bottom there were the serfs. You can imagine Charlemagne's kingdom as a beautiful vase. When he died that vase broke into tiny pieces each piece represents a manor

Manors

Manors are a farming community ruled by a seneschal. The job of the seneschal was to look at the fiefs of the lord (in other words there land). Another official was the bailiff. His job was to supervise the workers and make sure they were working. A manor consists of a castle, a church, fields, farms and a mill. The castles were houses made out of stone, at each corner there was a tower. For more protection people used a moat, which they passed with a drawbridge. In the middle of the castle there was a keep. A keep is a tall tower that contains the rooms of the people. But who protected these manors?

Knighthood

In feudalism knights were extremely important, and only a noble could become one. Every knight had to follow the code of chivalry. These were seven crucial rules: obey the lord, show bravery, respect noble women, honor the church, help people, be honest and fight fairly. A noble started training to be a knight when he was seven. His parents sent him in another castle, because they knew that if they trained him they would of been to nice. Firstly they became a page, which helps a knight's by taking care of their war horse, cleaned there armor and learned good manor. After words they became squires, a squire had to train only one knight and go to battle with him. If the squire succeeded he became knight in a special ceremony called dubbing.

But are knight as important as the church?

The Church

The Catholic Church has the reaches its maximum level of importance in the 1000 A. D. - 1300 A. D. It was the center of everything. On Friday people were not allowed to eat meat on Sunday they had to come to church and have ceremony called mass, made by the priests. The church even leads an important part in the government. Its job is to spread the word to honor the lord and the church. Church was going great but it faced some problems, like the heretics. Heretics are people that refused to obey to cannon laws, or laws made by the church. In the beginning people that did not respect these laws were excommunicated, but that did not work, so in the 1129, they created the inquisitions. Inquisitions were a church court. You had one month to confess, if you did then you would go to prison for a few years but if you did not then you would be burned at the stake.

Conclusion

Feudalism is a hard but significant period. Were the church controls everything were women are not treated fairly were killing is a game, and under all that it is really interesting.