Feudalism

Introduction

Feudalism IS A TERM generally used to describe the political, economic, and social life of Europe from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 c.e. up to the rise of the modern nation-states in the 15th century. Feudalism can roughly be defined as a social system in which a strong warlord was able to provide protection for weaker citizens in his region.(Norman, 12) In return for providing protection from roving bandits, the warlord would receive military service, or agricultural or other economic support. Given this definition, feudalism actually first emerged in England after the Roman legions were withdrawn in 410 c.e. to defend Rome and the continental empire from the onslaught of the Germanic tribes and later the Huns.

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Romanized Britons were dealt a severe defeat at Crayford in 457 by the Germanic Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. Yet, according to the historians Gildas and Geoffrey of Monmouth, Ambrosius Aurelianus, a dux bellorum, literally a “warlord,” rose up to lead the Britons against the enemy. Because of his martial prowess, the Britons assembled around Aurelianus to seek his leadership.(François, 112) Therefore, Aurelianus has a fair historical claim to being the first feudal leader in Western Europe.

Discussion

Throughout England and Western Europe, the invading Germanic tribes were becoming influenced by the Christian church and gradually established more formal political identities. Chiefs of the tribes became seen as kings, and the model for their realms was feudalism.(François, 112) Indeed, the only way for lesser warriors to gain property soon became to swear allegiance to their overlords in return for military service. Such a solemn act was called giving fealty, in which the new landowner became the vassal of his lord. Michael Howard, in War in European History, marks this military relationship as the heart of the feudal system.(Norman, 12)

By the 8th to 9th centuries, the “barbarian” tribes had evolved from tribal societies into kingdoms. In order to cope with the new responsibilities, the kings of the new states had to rely on the assistance of the Christian church and the pope in Rome. While the political structure of Western Europe had been devastated in the 5th century, the church had survived, and with it five centuries of administrative experience. Christopher Dawson, in The Making of Europe, notes the role of the church in helping to create new political institutions in Europe out of the wreckage of the Western Roman Empire in the Middle Ages.

By the 9th century, the new feudal kingdoms were defending Christian Europe from a new wave of invaders. In 732, Charles Martel, commander of the Franks under Clovis, who had earlier invaded Gaul (France), turned back the Muslim invaders at Tours, France. Alfred of Wessex, the only English monarch to earn the sobriquet of “The Great,” confronted the Danish invasion under Guthrum in 878, and defeated the Danes at Ethandun. Guthrum made peace and accepted baptism into Christianity.(François, 112) The future Holy Roman Emperor Otto the Great crushed the Magyars at the Lechfeld, near ...