Which countries had feudalism

This feudal connection between church and state gave rise to the controversy over lay investiture. In England the Frankish form was imposed by William I William the Conqueror after , although most of the elements of feudalism were already present.

It was extended eastward into Slavic lands to the marches frontier provinces , which were continually battered by new invasions, and it was adopted partially in Scandinavian countries. The important features of feudalism were similar throughout, but there existed definite national differences.

Feudalism continued in all parts of Europe until the end of the 14th cent. The concentration of power in the hands of a few was always a great disruptive force in the feudal system.

The rise of powerful monarchs in France, Spain, and England broke down the local organization. Another disruptive force was the increase of communication, which broke down the isolated manor, assisted the rise of towns, and facilitated the emergence of the burgess class.

This process was greatly accelerated in the 14th cent. The system broke down gradually. It was not completely destroyed in France until the French Revolution , and it persisted in Germany until and in Russia until Many relics of feudalism still persist, and its influence remains on the institutions of Western Europe. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed.

All rights reserved. Enter your search terms:. 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 formed the basis of the feudal relationship. Feudalism, in its various forms, usually emerged as a result of the decentralization of an empire, especially in the Carolingian empires, which lacked the bureaucratic infrastructure necessary to support cavalry without the ability to allocate 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. Many societies in the Middle Ages were characterized by feudal organizations, including England, which was the most structured feudal society, France, Italy, Germany, the Holy Roman Empire, and Portugal.

Each of these territories developed feudalism in unique ways, and the way we understand feudalism as a unified concept today is in large part due to critiques after its dissolution.

Karl Marx theorized feudalism as a pre-capitalist society, characterized by 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.

While modern writers such as Marx point out the negative qualities of feudalism, the French historian Marc Bloch contends that peasants were an integral part of the feudal relationship: while the vassals performed military service in exchange for the fief, the peasants performed physical labour in return for protection, thereby gaining some benefit despite their limited freedom.

Feudalism was thus a complex social and economic system defined by inherited ranks, each of which possessed inherent social and economic privileges and obligations. Feudalism allowed societies in the Middle Ages to retain a relatively stable political structure even as the centralized power of empires and kingdoms began to dissolve.

Feudalism in 12th-century England was among the better structured and established systems in Europe at the time. Below the king in the feudal pyramid was a tenant-in-chief generally in the form of a baron or knight , who was a vassal of the king.

Holding from the tenant-in-chief was a mesne tenant—generally a knight or baron who was sometimes a tenant-in-chief in their capacity as holder of other fiefs. Below the mesne tenant, further mesne tenants could hold from each other in series. 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, while the lord agreed to protect the vassal from external forces. Roland pledges his fealty to Charlemagne. Roland right receives the sword, Durandal, from the hands of Charlemagne left.

From a manuscript of a chanson de geste, c. Once the commendation ceremony was complete, the lord and vassal were in a feudal relationship with agreed obligations to one another. Using whatever equipment the vassal could obtain by virtue of the revenues from the fief, he was responsible for answering 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.