2 The rise and decline of feudalism

Scenario History and culture 2 THE RISE AND DECLINE

OF FEUDALISM

▶ Pyramid of feudal hierarchy.

The feudal system: a pyramidal society

The Normans introduced the feudal system into England. The country that William I had conquered in 1066 was a rural territory that the King subdivided among the Norman lords who had fought with him and the Church that was supporting him.

In the feudal social system the King was at the top of the social ladder. Below him were the barons, who included all the nobles who were direct vassals of the King, regardless of their rank, and bishops. Bishops and abbots held the land on behalf of the Church. The nobility’s best soldiers, the knights, were loyal to the barons and received lands in return

KING for their favours. All these categories not only owned the land but also the people who lived and worked on it: the landless serfs who were at the bottom of the feudal pyramid. Serfs were BARONS ‘unfree’ and tied to the land: they shaped the farming landscape and had to work long hours for the landlord, but not all peasants were serfs. Many were freemen who owned their own land, but had to pay a high rent to greater landowners. The feudal system began a slow yet inexorable decline in the 13th and 14th KNIGHTS centuries. Some great events contributed to this remarkable social change: the

PEASANTS

SERFS signing of the Magna Carta, the Black Death and the Peasants’ Revolt. The Magna Carta of 1215 with its idea of a limited monarchy led to the foundation of modern democracy. Killing up to half of the population, the

Black Death was the largest disaster in European history. The 1381 Peasants’

Revolt called for the abolition of serfdom, threatening the existing social structure and the country’s ruling elite.

▲ An illustration of Christine de Pizan, poet and author at the court of King Charles V of France, from The Book of the Queen (ca. 1410).

Women in the Middle Ages

The role of women gradually grew in importance during the Middle Ages. Aristocratic women could exercise considerable power through their possession of land. Though women generally had to accept combined marriages, they could nonetheless enjoy a certain degree of independence and some economic rights. Another field where women enjoyed considerable authority was religion. Monasteries and nunneries were often run by abbesses. In the convent, nuns were usually given some sort of education, and they, in turn, provided education for upper-class girls. As for the lower classes, peasant women had many domestic responsibilities, including caring for children, preparing food, and tending livestock. During the harvest, women often joined their husbands in the fields to bring in the crops. Women often participated in vital cottage industries, such as brewing, baking and manufacturing textiles. Women living in towns assisted men in a variety of trades and crafts, including the production of textiles, leather goods, and metal work. Some women ran market-stalls and inns, while others worked as nurses and even acted as medical practitioners.

The Plantagenets (1133-1453)

The first Plantagenet King, Henry II of Anjou (1154-89), ruled over England, most of Wales, Normandy, and other parts of France (acquired through his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine). Through the Constitutions of Clarendon (1164), Henry II created a body of laws regulating the relationship between the King and State, Church and society. Thomasà Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, refused to submit to the King’s laws since the Church would be deprived of its rights. Thomas was first sent to exile in France and then murdered in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170. The Church made Thomas a martyr and a saint and from then on Canterbury became a place of pilgrimage.

Plantagenet comes from Latin ‘planta genista’, a yellow flower that Henry’s father wore on his helmet.

Henry II was succeeded by Richard I (the Lionheart), who joined the Third Crusade. On returning to England Richard had to defend his French possessions but was killed in 1199.

▲ Henry II disputing with Thomas Becket.

The Crusades and Britain’s role

The Crusades were a series of religious wars between Christians and Muslims that started primarily to secure control of holy sites considered sacred by both groups. They were also the first European attempt to expand in non-Christian lands. England’s contribution to the Crusades varied over the centuries. Though some Anglo-Norman nobles participated in the First Crusade (1096-99), the most celebrated English crusader was Richard I the Lionheart, who distinguished himself for his abilities as a commander during the Third Crusade (1189-92). In 1191, Richard’s forces defeated the Saladin’s army and in 1192, Richard and Saladin signed a peace treaty that ended the Third Crusade.

The Church in medieval England

Throughout the medieval period there was only one universal Christian Church, which possessed vast wealth, political influence and a virtual monopoly of thought and education. Its values, sacraments and holidays defined the lives of ordinary people from birth to death. The conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity was started by St Augustine in 597, and in less than a century all the Saxon kingdoms of England had accepted the new religion. When the Danish invaders occupied the country, they destroyed monasteries and weakened the Church’s power. A religious revival took place in the 9th and 10th centuries, when political and religious unity was established by Alfred the Great and his heirs. After the Norman Conquest, England became more closely connected with the culture of Latin Europe, and the English church became a major unifying element in society. When, in the later Middle Ages, religious unrest spread all over Europe, it also affected England. John Wycliffe (1320-84), a reformer and theologian, strongly criticised the papacy and had a major influence on the Protestant Reformation that followed in the 16th century.

▲ 15th-century miniature of the Siege of Antioch, Third Crusade.