Ap Euro Chapter 1 Essay

Serfs paid back for what the lord gave them by providing labor, primarily. The specific services asked for included farming fields, caring for livestock, and other tasks on the manor (Nardo 27). The amount of labor that was required of serfs varied from manor to manor and based on the amount of land the serf farmed for himself (Bennett 103). What was common, however, was that serfs owed two types of work to their lord: week-works and boon works (Bennett 106). Week-works were the work that was done on a weekly basis, and boon works were done as extra labor occasionally throughout the year (Bennett 106).

there were three groups of, i gus u can people. lords, vassals, and fiefs. Manorialism or Seigneurialism was the organizing principle of rural economy and society widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe. Manorialism was characterised by the vesting of legal and economic power in a lord, supported economically from his own direct landholding and from the obligatory contributions of a legally subject part of the peasant population under his jurisdiction. These obligations could be payable in: labor produce or, on rare occasions,

People throughout the years had different ways to organize the government. The medieval times used a system called feudalism, feudalism allowed everyone to receive what they desired. The manor was important in order for feudalism to advance smoothly. One of the essential roles in a medieval manor was a peasant, they were the main reason the manor was organized. Feudalism in a manor creates an economy that lets a military protect peasants who work for the upper class, by using laws.

Kings were at the top of the feudal pyramid and granted fiefs to have his own needs met. The King was the lord of all the land in the kingdom (Mortimer 40), and during the Middle Ages, the kings were not very powerful as a result of invasions in their kingdoms (“People of the Middle Ages”). They relied on lords to provide them loyalty and support. Therefore they gave their nobles a fief in return for auxilium and consilium which meant serving the king by providing him knights when needed and giving him their loyalty and advice (Norman 103). Those who the king granted fiefs to became his tenants-in-chiefs who held their land directly from the king (Mortimer 40).

They were the rich people that didn’t have to pay taxes and who took care of the king. Next, were the nobles they were middle class people next to the first class and they also were privileged and didn’t have to pay taxes who also took care of the king.

In exchange for loyalty, lords provided land. Land became the source of power and wealth. The king acquired support from the nobles by granting each of them a fief, or large plot of

It was a wide spread system regulating soci-eties in the Middle Ages in which serfs and their families were tied to a specific land and dependent on their feudal lord. They had to cultivate the land and they enjoyed customary rights and provision of public goods, such as justice and protection, but on the other hand they were subject to legal restrictions and degrading social status. Manorialism was the eco-nomic system prevailing at the time, the manor was the central unit in which administrative, legal and economic activities took place and in which the lord lived. Because of the lack of a central authority, the power was in the hands of the lords of the different manors, and since this spe-cific institution was set up according to their own interests, an institu-tional change was hard to access. However population growth and land shortage were the starting points of a process that led to the dissolution of serfdom in Western Europe, since as opportunity income fell, landlords were able to negotiate with peasants, who were untied from the previous bonds and who gained rights on their land.

Lords and kings are the most important necessity to have in an army, because without them no one would come up with ideas, support knights living conditions, or pay for the supplies needed to have a successful army. lords and Kings are similar to sport coaches except their decisions would affect their city-state more than a sports game. Every decision the Lord or King made would be life or death hundreds to thousands of people or saves hundreds to thousands of lives. The king had the most pressure on him than anyone else because any bad decision that he may have could kill someone, and that would be his fault. Some lords or kings would give food and land to build a house for his knights and without him a lot of knights would be homeless and

The kingdom is only as good as its noble men and women, was the common way people had thought. . The King is great, he runs the country and makes most of the financing, the Queen’s job is to look pretty at his side, and most people adore the prince or princess. Then it was the noble men and women who truly did not have a job, besides pretending to be important. They were the people of the court, used to show off how wealthy the kingdom was with their elaborate dresses and thick jewelry. They had some purpose, though, as they themselves or their children made were in line for the throne if something happened to the King and his decedents.

In return, peasants reimburse the lord by working his property and giving a portion of food they produce. Manors are self sufficient groups; everything that was needed is created by the

The Knights and Barons of the land would make sure that the people, or peasants, provided the necessary goods to the King, even at the cost of the people. The system of Feudalism consisted of the King at the top who had Lords, Nobles, and Knights serving him. The castles constructed at this time gave protection to the Nobles and Lords, these castles are the most notable remains of the Feudalist system in England. However, this social system was only beneficial to those that were at the top of the power scheme. The peasants were not given the rightful compensation for their work.

Then they would divide their land until every vassals had at least a peasant village with 100 acres of land. These lands were called fiefs (Biel, Timothy levi p10). In order for a vassal to receive a piece of land he would have to swear an oath of fealty. This was an oath of loyalty that meant the vassal would be loyal to his king in order to receive a piece of land

The lord, in this case the king, would choose loyal nobles or lords that he could trust upon to hold land for him. These men were also known as vassals (Bell, 1863, p. 189). This land was not simply granted to his vassals. They had to swear loyalty to the king (William I), collect land taxes from the people who lived in their area and they had to provide the king with soldiers when needed. This assured the king of money and soldiers during wartime (Opello, 1999, p.

Engels (1972) pointed out in The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, for the knight or baron, as well as for the kings themselves, marriage

They could in turn essentially rent the land out to serfs, who would work the land, and give a portion of everything to the vassal. Therefore, they were able to have a steady income, while spending their life learning to fight, and fighting for their liege