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= Feudalism =
======================================================================
Introduction
======================================================================
Feudalism was a combination of legal and military customs in medieval
Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly
defined, it was a way of structuring society around relationships
derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.
Although derived from the Latin word 'feodum' or 'feudum' (fief),
then in use, the term 'feudalism' and the system it describes were not
conceived of as a formal political system by the people living in the
Middle Ages. The classic definition, by François-Louis Ganshof (1944),
'feudalism' describes a set of reciprocal legal and military
obligations among the warrior nobility revolving around the three key
concepts of lords, vassals and fiefs.
A broader definition of feudalism, as described by Marc Bloch (1939),
includes not only the obligations of the warrior nobility but also
those of all three estates of the realm: the nobility, the clergy, and
the peasantry bound by manorialism; this is sometimes referred to as a
"feudal society". Since the publication of Elizabeth A. R. Brown's
"The Tyranny of a Construct" (1974) and Susan Reynolds's 'Fiefs and
Vassals' (1994), there has been ongoing inconclusive discussion among
medieval historians as to whether feudalism is a useful construct for
understanding medieval society.
Definition
======================================================================
There is no commonly accepted modern definition of feudalism, at least
among scholars. The adjective 'feudal' was coined in the 17th
century, and the noun 'feudalism', often used in a political and
propaganda context, was not coined until the 19th century, from the
French 'féodalité' ('feudality'), itself an 18th-century creation.
In a classic definition by François-Louis Ganshof (1944), 'feudalism'
describes a set of reciprocal legal and military obligations among the
warrior nobility, revolving around the three key concepts of lords,
vassals and fiefs, though Ganshof himself noted that his treatment
related only to the "narrow, technical, legal sense of the word".
A broader definition, as described in Marc Bloch's 'Feudal Society'
(1939), includes not only the obligations of the warrior nobility but
those of all three estates of the realm: the nobility, the clergy, and
those living by their labour, most directly the peasantry bound by
manorialism; this order is often referred to as "feudal society",
echoing Bloch's usage.
Outside of a European context, the concept of feudalism is often used
by analogy, most often in discussions of feudal Japan under the
'sh�guns', and sometimes Zagwe dynasty in medieval Ethiopia, which had
some feudal characteristics (sometimes called "semifeudal"). Some have
taken the feudalism analogy further, seeing feudalism (or traces of
it) in places as diverse as Spring and Autumn period in China, ancient
Egypt, the Parthian empire, the Indian subcontinent and the Antebellum
and Jim Crow American South. Wu Ta-k'un argued that China's fengjian,
being kinship-based and tied to land controlled by the king, were
entirely distinct from feudalism. This despite the fact that in
translation 'fengjian' is frequently paired in both directions with
'feudal'.
The term 'feudalism' has also been applied�often inappropriately or
pejoratively�to non-Western societies where institutions and attitudes
similar to those of medieval Europe are perceived to prevail. Some
historians and political theorists believe that the term 'feudalism'
has been deprived of specific meaning by the many ways it has been
used, leading them to reject it as a useful concept for understanding
society.
Etymology
======================================================================
The term "féodal" was used in 17th-century French legal treatises
(1614) and translated into English legal treatises as an adjective,
such as "feodal government".
In the 18th century, Adam Smith, seeking to describe economic systems,
effectively coined the forms "feudal government" and "feudal system"
in his book 'Wealth of Nations' (1776). In the 19th century the
adjective "feudal" evolved into a noun: "feudalism". The term
'feudalism' is recent, first appearing in French in 1823, Italian in
1827, English in 1839, and in German in the second half of the 19th
century.
The term "feudal" or "feodal" is derived from the medieval Latin word
'feodum'. The etymology of 'feodum' is complex with multiple theories,
some suggesting a Germanic origin (the most widely held view) and
others suggesting an Arabic origin. Initially in medieval Latin
European documents, a land grant in exchange for service was called a
'beneficium' (Latin). Later, the term 'feudum', or 'feodum', began to
replace 'beneficium' in the documents. The first attested instance of
this is from 984, although more primitive forms were seen up to
one-hundred years earlier. The origin of the 'feudum' and why it
replaced 'beneficium' has not been well established, but there are
multiple theories, described below.
The most widely held theory was proposed by Johan Hendrik Caspar Kern
in 1870, being supported by, amongst others, William Stubbs and Marc
Bloch. Kern derived the word from a putative Frankish term '*fehu-ôd',
in which '*fehu' means "cattle" and '-ôd' means "goods", implying "a
moveable object of value". Bloch explains that by the beginning of the
10th century it was common to value land in monetary terms but to pay
for it with moveable objects of equivalent value, such as arms,
clothing, horses or food. This was known as 'feos', a term that took
on the general meaning of paying for something in lieu of money. This
meaning was then applied to land itself, in which land was used to pay
for fealty, such as to a vassal. Thus the old word 'feos' meaning
movable property changed little by little to 'feus' meaning the exact
opposite: landed property.
Another theory was put forward by Archibald R. Lewis. Lewis said the
origin of 'fief' is not 'feudum' (or 'feodum'), but rather 'foderum',
the earliest attested use being in Astronomus's 'Vita Hludovici'
(840). In that text is a passage about Louis the Pious that says
'annona militaris quas vulgo foderum vocant', which can be translated
as "Louis forbade that military provender (which they popularly call
"fodder") be furnished.."
Another theory by Alauddin Samarrai suggests an Arabic origin, from
'fuyū' (the plural of 'fay', which literally means "the returned", and
was used especially for 'land that has been conquered from enemies
that did not fight'). Samarrai's theory is that early forms of 'fief'
include 'feo', 'feu', 'feuz', 'feuum' and others, the plurality of
forms strongly suggesting origins from a loanword. The first use of
these terms is in Languedoc, one of the least Germanic areas of Europe
and bordering Muslim Spain. Further, the earliest use of 'feuum' (as a
replacement for 'beneficium') can be dated to 899, the same year a
Muslim base at Fraxinetum (La Garde-Freinet) in Provence was
established. It is possible, Samarrai says, that French scribes,
writing in Latin, attempted to transliterate the Arabic word 'fuyū'
(the plural of 'fay'), which was being used by the Muslim invaders and
occupiers at the time, resulting in a plurality of forms - 'feo, feu,
feuz, feuum' and others - from which eventually 'feudum' derived.
Samarrai, however, also advises to handle this theory with care, as
Medieval and Early Modern Muslim scribes often used etymologically
"fanciful roots" in order to claim the most outlandish things to be of
Arabian or Muslim origin.
History
======================================================================
Feudalism, in its various forms, usually emerged as a result of the
decentralization of an empire: especially in the Carolingian Empire in
8th century AD/CE, which lacked the bureaucratic infrastructure
necessary to support cavalry without allocating land to these mounted
troops. Mounted soldiers began to secure a system of hereditary rule
over their allocated land and their power over the territory came to
encompass the social, political, judicial, and economic spheres.
These acquired powers significantly diminished unitary power in these
empires. Only when the infrastructure existed to maintain unitary
power�as with the European monarchies�did feudalism begin to yield to
this new power structure and eventually disappear.
Classic feudalism
===================
The classic François-Louis Ganshof version of feudalism describes a
set of reciprocal legal and military obligations among the warrior
nobility, revolving around the three key concepts of lords, vassals
and fiefs. A lord was in broad terms a noble who held 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 use of the fief and
protection by the lord, the vassal would provide some sort of service
to the lord. There were many varieties of feudal land tenure,
consisting of military and non-military service. The obligations and
corresponding rights between lord and vassal concerning the fief form
the basis of the feudal relationship.
Vassalage
===========
Before a lord could grant land (a fief) to someone, he had to make
that person a vassal. This was done at a formal and symbolic ceremony
called a commendation ceremony, which was composed of the two-part
act of homage and oath of fealty. During homage, the lord and vassal
entered into a contract in which the vassal promised to fight for the
lord at his command, whilst the lord agreed to protect the vassal from
external forces. 'Fealty' comes from the Latin 'fidelitas' and denotes
the fidelity owed by a vassal to his feudal lord. "Fealty" also refers
to an oath that more explicitly reinforces the commitments of the
vassal made during homage. Such an oath follows homage.
Once the commendation ceremony was complete, the lord and vassal were
in a feudal relationship with agreed obligations to one another. The
vassal's principal obligation to the lord was to "aid", or military
service. Using whatever equipment the vassal could obtain by virtue of
the revenues from the fief, the vassal was responsible to answer calls
to military service on behalf of the lord. This security of military
help was the primary reason the lord entered into the feudal
relationship. In addition, the vassal could have other obligations to
his lord, such as attendance at his court, whether manorial, baronial,
both termed court baron, or at the king's court.
It could also involve the vassal providing "counsel", so that if the
lord faced a major decision he would summon all his vassals and hold a
council. At the level of the manor this might be a fairly mundane
matter of agricultural policy, but also included sentencing by the
lord for criminal offences, including capital punishment in some
cases. Concerning the king's feudal court, such deliberation could
include the question of declaring war. These are examples; depending
on the period of time and location in Europe, feudal customs and
practices varied; see examples of feudalism.
The "Feudal Revolution" in France
===================================
In its origin, the feudal grant of land had been seen in terms of a
personal bond between lord and vassal, but with time and the
transformation of fiefs into hereditary holdings, the nature of the
system came to be seen as a form of "politics of land" (an expression
used by the historian Marc Bloch). The 11th century in France saw
what has been called by historians a "feudal revolution" or "mutation"
and a "fragmentation of powers" (Bloch) that was unlike the
development of feudalism in England or Italy or Germany in the same
period or later: Counties and duchies began to break down into smaller
holdings as castellans and lesser seigneurs took control of local
lands, and (as comital families had done before them) lesser lords
usurped/privatized a wide range of prerogatives and rights of the
state, most importantly the highly profitable rights of justice, but
also travel dues, market dues, fees for using woodlands, obligations
to use the lord's mill, etc. (what Georges Duby called collectively
the "'seigneurie banale'"). Power in this period became more
personal.
This "fragmentation of powers" was not, however, systematic throughout
France, and in certain counties (such as Flanders, Normandy, Anjou,
Toulouse), counts were able to maintain control of their lands into
the 12th century or later. Thus, in some regions (like Normandy and
Flanders), the vassal/feudal system was an effective tool for ducal
and comital control, linking vassals to their lords; but in other
regions, the system led to significant confusion, all the more so as
vassals could and frequently did pledge themselves to two or more
lords. In response to this, the idea of a "liege lord" was developed
(where the obligations to one lord are regarded as superior) in the
12th century.
End of European feudalism (1500�1850s)
========================================
Most of the military aspects of feudalism effectively ended by about
1500. This was partly since the military shifted from armies
consisting of the nobility to professional fighters thus reducing the
nobility's claim on power, but also because the Black Death reduced
the nobility's hold over the lower classes. Vestiges of the Feudal
system hung on in France until the French Revolution of 1790's, and
the system lingered on in parts of Central and Eastern Europe as late
as the 1850s. Slavery in Romania was abolished in 1856. Russia finally
abolished serfdom in 1861.
Even when the original feudal relationships had disappeared, there
were many institutional remnants of feudalism left in place. Historian
Georges Lefebvre explains how at an early stage of the French
Revolution, on just one night of August 4, 1789, France abolished the
long-lasting remnants of the feudal order. It announced, "The National
Assembly abolishes the feudal system entirely." Lefebvre explains:
Originally the peasants were supposed to pay for the release of
seigneurial dues; these dues affected more than a fourth of the
farmland in France and provided most of the income of the large
landowners. The majority refused to pay and in 1793 the obligation was
cancelled. Thus the peasants got their land free, and also no longer
paid the tithe to the church.
Feudal society
======================================================================
The phrase "feudal society" as defined by Marc Bloch offers a wider
definition than Ganshof's and includes within the feudal structure not
only the warrior aristocracy bound by vassalage, but also the
peasantry bound by manorialism, and the estates of the Church. Thus
the feudal order embraces society from top to bottom, though the
"powerful and well-differentiated social group of the urban classes"
came to occupy a distinct position to some extent outside the
classical feudal hierarchy.
Historiography
======================================================================
The idea of 'feudalism' was unknown and the system it describes was
not conceived of as a formal political system by the people living in
the Medieval Period. This section describes the history of the idea of
feudalism, how the concept originated among scholars and thinkers, how
it changed over time, and modern debates about its use.
Evolution of the concept
==========================
The concept of a feudal state or period, in the sense of either a
regime or a period dominated by lords who possess financial or social
power and prestige, became widely held in the middle of the 18th
century, as a result of works such as Montesquieu's 'De L'Esprit des
Lois' (1748; published in English as 'The Spirit of the Laws'), and
Henri de Boulainvilliers�s 'Histoire des anciens Parlements de France'
(1737; published in English as 'An Historical Account of the Ancient
Parliaments of France or States-General of the Kingdom', 1739). In the
18th century, writers of the Enlightenment wrote about feudalism to
denigrate the antiquated system of the 'Ancien Régime', or French
monarchy. This was the Age of Enlightenment when writers valued reason
and the Middle Ages were viewed as the "Dark Ages". Enlightenment
authors generally mocked and ridiculed anything from the "Dark Ages"
including feudalism, projecting its negative characteristics on the
current French monarchy as a means of political gain. For them
"feudalism" meant seigneurial privileges and prerogatives. When the
French Constituent Assembly abolished the "feudal regime" in August
1789 this is what was meant.
Adam Smith used the term "feudal system" to describe a social and
economic system defined by inherited social ranks, each of which
possessed inherent social and economic privileges and obligations. In
such a system wealth derived from agriculture, which was arranged not
according to market forces but on the basis of customary labour
services owed by serfs to landowning nobles.
Karl Marx
===========
Karl Marx also used the term in the 19th century in his analysis of
society's economic and political development, describing feudalism (or
more usually feudal society or the feudal mode of production) as the
order coming before capitalism. For Marx, what defined feudalism was
the power of the ruling class (the aristocracy) in their control of
arable land, leading to a class society based upon the exploitation of
the peasants who farm these lands, typically under serfdom and
principally by means of labour, produce and money rents. Marx thus
defined feudalism primarily by its economic characteristics.
He also took it as a paradigm for understanding the
power-relationships between capitalists and wage-labourers in his own
time: �in pre-capitalist systems it was obvious that most people did
not control their own destiny�under feudalism, for instance, serfs had
to work for their lords. Capitalism seems different because people are
in theory free to work for themselves or for others as they choose.
Yet most workers have as little control over their lives as feudal
serfs�. Some later Marxist theorists (e.g. Eric Wolf) have applied
this label to include non-European societies, grouping feudalism
together with Imperial Chinese and pre-Columbian Incan societies as
'tributary'.
Later studies
===============
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, John Horace Round and
Frederic William Maitland, both historians of medieval Britain,
arrived at different conclusions as to the character of English
society before the Norman Conquest in 1066. Round argued that the
Normans had brought feudalism with them to England, while Maitland
contended that its fundamentals were already in place in Britain
before 1066. The debate continues today, but a consensus viewpoint is
that England before the Conquest had commendation (which embodied some
of the personal elements in feudalism) while William the Conqueror
introduced a modified and stricter northern French feudalism to
England incorporating (1086) oaths of loyalty to the king by all who
held by feudal tenure, even the vassals of his principal vassals
(holding by feudal tenure meant that vassals must provide the quota of
knights required by the king or a money payment in substitution).
In the 20th century, two outstanding historians offered still more
widely differing perspectives. The French historian Marc Bloch,
arguably the most influential 20th-century medieval historian,
approached feudalism not so much from a legal and military point of
view but from a sociological one, presenting in 'Feudal Society'
(1939; English 1961) a feudal order not limited solely to the
nobility. It is his radical notion that peasants were part of the
feudal relationship that sets Bloch apart from his peers: while the
vassal performed military service in exchange for the fief, the
peasant performed physical labour in return for protection - both are
a form of feudal relationship. According to Bloch, other elements of
society can be seen in feudal terms; all the aspects of life were
centered on "lordship", and so we can speak usefully of a feudal
church structure, a feudal courtly (and anti-courtly) literature, and
a feudal economy.
In contradistinction to Bloch, the Belgian historian François-Louis
Ganshof defined feudalism from a narrow legal and military
perspective, arguing that feudal relationships existed only within the
medieval nobility itself. Ganshof articulated this concept in
'Qu'est-ce que la féodalité?' ("What is feudalism?", 1944; translated
in English as 'Feudalism'). His classic definition of feudalism is
widely accepted today among medieval scholars, though questioned both
by those who view the concept in wider terms and by those who find
insufficient uniformity in noble exchanges to support such a model.
Although he was never formally a student in the circle of scholars
around Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre that came to be known as the
Annales School, Georges Duby was an exponent of the 'Annaliste'
tradition. In a published version of his 1952 doctoral thesis
entitled 'La société aux XIe et XIIe siècles dans la région
mâconnaise' ('Society in the 11th and 12th centuries in the Mâconnais
region'), and working from the extensive documentary sources surviving
from the Burgundian monastery of Cluny, as well as the dioceses of
Mâcon and Dijon, Duby excavated the complex social and economic
relationships among the individuals and institutions of the Mâconnais
region and charted a profound shift in the social structures of
medieval society around the year 1000. He argued that in early 11th
century, governing institutions�particularly comital courts
established under the Carolingian monarchy�that had represented public
justice and order in Burgundy during the 9th and 10th centuries
receded and gave way to a new feudal order wherein independent
aristocratic knights wielded power over peasant communities through
strong-arm tactics and threats of violence.
In 1939 the Austrian historian subordinated the feudal state as
secondary to his concept of a persons association state ('),
understanding it in contrast to the territorial state. This form of
statehood, identified with the Holy Roman Empire, is described as the
most complete form of medieval rule, completeing conventional feudal
structure of lordship and vassalage with the personal association
between the nobility. But the applicability of this concept to
cases outside of the Holy Roman Empire has been questioned, as by
Susan Reynolds. The concept has also been questioned and superseded in
german histography because of its bias and reductionism towards
legitimating the Führerprinzip.
Challenges to the feudal model
================================
In 1974, U.S. historian Elizabeth A. R. Brown rejected the label
'feudalism' as an anachronism that imparts a false sense of uniformity
to the concept. Having noted the current use of many, often
contradictory, definitions of 'feudalism', she argued that the word is
only a construct with no basis in medieval reality, an invention of
modern historians read back "tyrannically" into the historical record.
Supporters of Brown have suggested that the term should be expunged
from history textbooks and lectures on medieval history entirely. In
'Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted' (1994), Susan
Reynolds expanded upon Brown's original thesis. Although some
contemporaries questioned Reynolds's methodology, other historians
have supported it and her argument. Reynolds argues:
:Too many models of feudalism used for comparisons, even by Marxists,
are still either constructed on the 16th-century basis or incorporate
what, in a Marxist view, must surely be superficial or irrelevant
features from it. Even when one restricts oneself to Europe and to
feudalism in its narrow sense it is extremely doubtful whether
feudo-vassalic institutions formed a coherent bundle of institutions
or concepts that were structurally separate from other institutions
and concepts of the time.
The term 'feudal' has also been applied to non-Western societies in
which institutions and attitudes similar to those of medieval Europe
are perceived to have prevailed (See Examples of feudalism). Japan has
been extensively studied in this regard. Friday notes that in the
21st century historians of Japan rarely invoke feudalism; instead of
looking at similarities, specialists attempting comparative analysis
concentrate on fundamental differences. Ultimately, critics say, the
many ways the term 'feudalism' has been used have deprived it of
specific meaning, leading some historians and political theorists to
reject it as a useful concept for understanding society.
Richard Abels notes that "Western Civilization and World Civilization
textbooks now shy away from the term 'feudalism'."
See also
======================================================================
* Bastard feudalism
*
* Cestui que
* Examples of feudalism
* English feudal barony
* Feudal duties
* Feudalism in the Holy Roman Empire
* Lehnsmann
* Majorat
* Neo-feudalism
* 'Nulle terre sans seigneur'
* Protofeudalism
* Quia Emptores
* Scottish feudal barony
* Statutes of Mortmain
* Suzerainty
* Vassal
* Vassal state
Military:
* Knights
* Medieval warfare
Non-European:
* Fengjian (Chinese)
* Hacienda
* Feudal Japan
* Feudalism in Pakistan
* Indian feudalism
* Mandala (political model)
* Ziamet
* Zemene Mesafint
Further reading
======================================================================
* Bloch, Marc, 'Feudal Society.' Tr. L.A. Manyon. Two volumes.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961
*
* Guerreau, Alain, 'L'avenir d'un passé incertain.' Paris: Le Seuil,
2001. (Complete history of the meaning of the term.)
* Poly, Jean-Pierre and Bournazel, Eric, 'The Feudal Transformation,
900-1200.', Tr. Caroline Higgitt. New York and London: Holmes and
Meier, 1991.
* Reynolds, Susan, 'Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence
Reinterpreted.' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994
*
Historiographical works
=========================
*
* Brown, Elizabeth, 'The Tyranny of a Construct: Feudalism and
Historians of Medieval Europe', 'American Historical Review', 79
(1974), pp. 1063-8.
* Cantor, Norman F., 'Inventing the Middle Ages: The Lives, Works, and
Ideas of the Great Medievalists of the Twentieth century.' Quill,
1991.
*
* Harbison, Robert. "The Problem of Feudalism: An Historiographical
Essay", 1996, Western Kentucky University.
[
https://web.archive.org/web/20080229034347/http://www.wku.edu/~rob.harbison/pro
jects/Gfeudal.html
online]
End of feudalism
==================
* Bean, J.M.W. 'Decline of English Feudalism, 1215-1540' (1968)
* Davitt, Michael. 'The fall of feudalism in Ireland: Or, The story of
the land league revolution' (1904)
* ; compares Europe and Japan
* Nell, Edward J. "Economic Relationships in the Decline of Feudalism:
An Examination of Economic Interdependence and Social Change."
'History and Theory' (1967): 313-350. in JSTOR
* Okey, Robin. 'Eastern Europe 1740-1985: feudalism to communism'
(Routledge, 1986)
France
========
* Herbert, Sydney. 'The Fall of Feudalism in France' (1921)
[
https://archive.org/details/falloffeudalismi00herbrich full text
online free]
* Mackrell, John Quentin Colborne. 'The Attack on Feudalism in
Eighteenth-century France' (Routledge, 2013)
* Markoff, John. 'Abolition of Feudalism: Peasants, Lords, and
Legislators in the French Revolution' (Penn State Press, 2010)
*
External links
======================================================================
* [
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9034150/feudalism
"Feudalism"], by Elizabeth A. R. Brown. 'Encyclopædia Britannica
Online'.
* [
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1i.html#Feudalism
"Feudalism?"], by Paul Halsall. Internet Medieval Sourcebook.
* [
https://www.academia.edu/634989/Feudalism_the_history_of_an_idea
"Feudalism: the history of an idea"], by Fredric Cheyette (Amherst),
excerpted from 'New Dictionary of the History of Ideas' (2004)
*
[
https://web.archive.org/web/20120209083705/http://www.scribd.com/doc/28860952/M
ediavel-Feudalism
'Medieval Feudalism'], by Carl Stephenson. Cornell University Press,
1942. Classic introduction to Feudalism.
* , by Robert Harbison, 1996, Western Kentucky University.
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