Chapter 15-2
Feudalism
Interesting Information: Britain, Denmark, and the Netherlands still make people knights. Today, knighthood honors people who have performed a great service to society. When a person in knighted, they get to use a title with their name. Men use Sir and women use Dame.
What is Feudalism?
Feudalism a system where nobles who owned land protected the people that worked/lived on the land. The workers in return for this protection farmed the land or was a soldier for the noble.
Nobles were both lords and vassals.
o Vassal a noble that served a lord of a higher rank
§ Showed loyalty by serving in his lord’s army
§ In return, the lord gave the vassal land
§ This land was called a fief
§ Vassal’s governed their own fief
§ Knights were vassals who fought in wars riding horses
· Knights wore suits of armor (plate armor)
· Under the armor they wore linen or woolen underwear
· For the areas not covered by the plates, knights wore mail or maille
§ Mail: steel mesh made of little rings hooked together
Fiefs were called manors
o Lords ruled the manors while peasants farmed the land
o Some peasants were free, had rights, and could move around wherever they wanted
o Most were serfs
§ Serfs could not leave the manor, marry, or own property without the lord’s approval
§ But, the lord had a duty to protect his serfs
§ If the serf wanted freedom, they had to run away and stay in town for a year
§ By the end of the Middle Ages, many serfs could buy their freedom
New technology increased crop productivity in the Middle Ages
o Wheeled plow, horse collar, water and wind powered mills, crop rotation all helped farmers produce more food
Life in Feudal Europe
Knights followed rules called the code of chivalry
o Required knights to be brave
o Obey their lords
o Show respect to women of noble birth
o Honor and help the church
Wives and daughters ran the manors when the noblemen went off to war
o Castles were split into two pieces
o The first was the human made part
o The second was the motte that had a bailey (an open space) next to it
o The central building of the castle was called the keep
§ The keep was built on the motte
· Inside the keep was the basement, kitchens, stables, a great hell, chapels, toilets, and bedrooms
Peasants lived in simple cottages
o Walls were plastered with clay
o Cottages had thatched roofs
o Poor peasants had one room cottages
o Better cottages had separate rooms for eating and sleeping
§ They worked in the fields year round
§ Did not work on Catholic feast days (about 50 total each year)
§ Women worked the fields and raised children
§ Peasants ate bread (a basic staple) vegetables, milk, nuts, and fruit
Trade and Cities
After the collapse of the Roman Empire, most trade ended and many people didn’t leave their villages
Feudalism and technology helped promote trade
o Increased trade made towns larger
o Many towns became wealthy because of this
· Venice (Italian trading center)
· Towns in Flanders (modern day Belgium, center of trade for northern Europe)
o Northern European merchants traded with Asian merchants in trade fairs
o In early Middle Ages, people bartered, but later on they started using money again
Often, towns were under the control of the lords
o In exchange for taxes, the lords gave people basic rights
§ Freedom to buy and sell property
§ Serve in the army
Eventually, towns set up own governments where they elected members of the city councils
o Members of the wealthy families were able to control the elections
People who made crafts set up organizations called Guilds which were business groups
o Set standards for quality products
o Determined how many products sold
o Set prices for products
o Decided who could enter a trade
o Children at the age of 10 could become apprentices
§ Apprentices learned trades from master craftspeople
· Apprentices went on to become journeymen then masters
Medieval cities contained crowded wooden houses on narrow winding streets
o Easily destroyed by fire
o Cities were dirty and VERY smelly
o Pollution filled the sky and contaminated water
Women in cities prepared meals
o Raised children
o Managed money for their households
o Often helped husbands with their trades
o Some even had their own trades
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Chapter 15-3
Kingdoms and Crusades
England in the Middle Ages
Alfred the Great united the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and drove the Vikings out
o This new kingdom became Angleland or England
Normandy was an area in western France
o Across the English Channel from England
o Named for the Norsemen who ruled
o Ruled by William who was cousins with King Edward of England
o Edward died and William invaded
§ He defeated English and became king after the battle of Hastings in 1066
§ He was known as William the Conqueror
· Ordered a census called the Doomsday Book
· Counted people, manors, and animals
o Normans (people from Normandy) brought their customs to England
§ Eventually the two merged into one
Henry II was a powerful ruler of England who created the jury system to address arguments over land
o The grand jury decided if people should be accused of a crime
o The trial jury decided whether an accused person was guilty or innocent
o Established English common law
King John was Henry’s son and successor (one who takes the throne after the current King)
o He raised taxes and punished people without holding trials
o He made many royals angry
o The nobles met with John and made him sign the Magna Carta or the Great Charter
§ This took away some of the kings power
§ Helped establish people’s rights
§ Limited government
In the 1200s, King Edward I gathered representatives from across England to advise him and help make laws
o This gathering of people was called Parliament
o Parliament was divided into 2 houses
§ House of Lords
§ House of Commons
The Kingdom of France
After Charlemagne’s empire was divided up, the western part of it became France
Frankish nobles chose Hugh Capet as king in 987
o First Capetian king
o Controlled area around Paris
o Nobles had more power than the kings
Philip II
o Took the French throne in 1066 after the battle of Hastings
o Warred with England
o Captured land in Western Europe that had once been controlled by England
French society had three classes
o Clergy
o Nobles
o Townspeople/peasants
1302 King Philip IV met with representatives from each of the tree classes
o It was the first meeting of the Estates-General
o This was France’s first parliament
Eastern Europe and Russia
Slavs settled villages in Eastern Europe around 500
o Eventually divided into three major groups
§ Southern
§ Western
§ Eastern
700s the Vikings moved into Slav territory
o Took power from the Slavs
o The Slavs called the Viking rulers Rus
Oleg was a Viking ruler
o Created a Rus state around Kiev (Kievan Rus)
o Grand Duke Kiev was the main ruler
§ Had local princes, merchants, and landowning nobles
Kievan Rus grew and attracted missionaries from the Byzantine Empire
o Vladimir, a Rus ruler married the sister of the Byzantine Emperor
o Declared his people Eastern Orthodox
When the Mongols invaded Kievan Rus they conquered everything EXCEPT the city of Novgorod
o Rulers of Novgorod paid money to the Mongols
o Alexander Nevsky was named the grand duke
While the Slavs recovered from the Mongol invasion, Moscow (a city located at the crossroads of important trade routes) began to grow
o Alexander Nevsky’s descendants became dukes of Moscow
o Moscow became center for Russian branch on the Eastern Orthodox Church
o Ivan IV ended the Mongol rule of Moscow and expanded its territory
Ivan III (aka: Ivan the Great) was grand duke of Moscow
o Married Sophia (niece of Byzantine emperor)
o Started to call himself czar (emperor)
The Crusades
During the Middle Ages, Muslim Turks invaded the Byzantine Empire
o Pope Urban II asked European leaders to capture Jerusalem and free the homeland of Jesus from the Muslim Turks in 1095
o This started the crusades
o Thousands of soldiers captured Jerusalem in the First Crusade
§ They conquered other lands along their way
§ Conquered lands divided into four states
o Muslims fought back and Europeans began the Second Crusade
· Saladin (Muslim ruler of Egypt) had his troops capture Jerusalem for the Muslims
· Europeans lost the Second Crusade
o France, England, and the Holy Roman Empire banded together to fight the Third Crusade which ended in a truce
o Around 1200 the Fourth Crusade began
§ Merchants used it as an excuse to attack Constantinople and seize its riches
§ Byzantine Empire became weaker
o A total of 6 more crusades were fought but they really didn’t achieve much
§ Eventually the Muslims were able to take back the territory they lost during the First Crusade.
The Crusades helped to break down feudalism and increased trade between Europe and the Middle East