Unit 3: Feudalism
1. Feudalism in Europe
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The term feudalism is controversial in its meaning and chronology. Through the subject that concerns us, we will date it in a period between the ninth and eleventh centuries. Feudalism was the predominant political and economic system during the late Middle Ages.
The main ideas about feudalism are:
1. Loss of king's power
2. Agriculture based economy
3. Social structure based on relationships of dependence.
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We can locate the origin of feudalism after the death of Charlemagne. This emperor believed that by creating vassalage relations between kings, nobles, soldiers, clergy and peasants, society would remain stable.
The power of the kings came into crisis because of several factors:
1) The struggle between Charlemagne's grandchildren, which ended with the disintegration of his empire.
2) The invasions of the Islamic Empire.
3) The Viking invasions, coming from Scandinavia, reached Seville and even North Africa.
4) Magyar and Slavic invasions in Eastern Europe.
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In this state of affairs, the kings, seeing their power weakened, sought support from the great nobles. These powerful landowners, who even had an army, swore to lend military support to the king in exchange for more land, positions of power or other favors. In return, the nobles hired knights for war in exchange for land or other privileges. The peasants, in a very vulnerable position, agreed to work for the lords in exchange for protection. The act of submitting to a lord in exchange for land or work is called vassalage.
When developing this system, the nobles and the high clergy (bishops, cardinals, abbots ...) accumulated a lot of power. Sometimes, they had more power than the king himself.
The Curia Regis was a group of nobles and high clergymen who was around the king giving him advice. Sometimes, the relationship among those men was controversial.
2. Feudal economy
In theory, the fiefs were the property of the king, but he donated them to the nobles and the high clergy in exchange for favors, with which, in practice, these were the owners. The fiefdom was divided into two parts:
1) The demesne: Lands exploited directly by the Lord. In these ones there were the best crops and pastures, the mansion, the forest for hunting, etc.
2) The dependent holdings: Small lots of land that the lord left to his peasants for them to exploit. In return, they had to give part of the harvest or work for free some days of the year in demesne. In addition, the peasant had to work for the lord doing repairs, going to war with him or even hunting frogs so that the lord could sleep.
The fief had workshops, mills, furnaces, rivers, etc. so that within this they could live in autarky.
The fief or manor
3. Feudal society
The feudal society was very structured. If one was born within a class, it would belong to that establishment for life. There was no social mobility except on rare occasions. Within the clergy, it was something different, because if one did an ecclesiastical career he could ascend from social class.
This social order was theorized by Adalberon, Bishop of Laón, France. He divided society into bellatores (noblemen who fought the wars), oratores (clerics who prayed) and laboratores (peasants and artisans who worked).
The first two estates, nobility and clergy, were privileged classes: they did not have to work or pay taxes and enjoyed special privileges. The other class, the peasants and artisans (commoners) were the only ones who did productive work, had to pay taxes and had hardly any rights.
Cleric, Knight and Workman representing the three classes – from British Library Ms Sloane 2435, f.85 ‘
The vassalage
Social relations were established in the form of vassalage. This means that a high ranking lord took as vassal another one of lower ranking. The former granted protection and a judicial system to the latter, and the latter, in return, swore allegiance to his lord and lent him military aid and, at times, economic assistance. The ceremony was accompanied by the handing over of a fief by the lord of greater rank to the lower rank one. This fief usually consisted of a plot of farmland, but it could also be a political or ecclesiastical office.
Both the nobles, as the clergy, as the knights participated in this system of vassalage.
The vassalage ritual was called a commendation ceremony, and consisted of two parts:
1) The act of homage: The vassal knelt before his lord, put his hands between his master's, and swore allegiance to him.
2) The investiture: The lord gave his vassal a symbol of their alliance. It could be a handful of earth, which symbolized the fief he gave him; or a staff, if he appointed him as bishop, etc.
3.1 The Nobles
The nobility was a privileged and wealthy class, owners of large estates and armies. It was divided into:
1) High nobility: they used to be part of the Curia Regis. Dukes, counts, marquises, and barons.
2) Low nobility: formed by knights, who owned horses and weapons. This, which may seem simple today, was far from being available to everyone.
The work of the nobility focused on administering their fiefs, advising the king (Curia Regis) and fighting wars. They were also part of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church.
Marriages within the nobility were arranged by families for economic and social interests. It was very strange for someone to marry a person of different social class.
The usual residence of the nobles was the castle, the palace or the mansion. It was located in the highest part of the fief, from where they could control their surroundings. Around the castle, there was a moat to protect itself from enemies. Inside there were many dependencies: workshops, stables, warehouses ... And the keep, where the commendation ceremony took place.
Interior of the keep at Almodóvar del Río castle. Córdoba, Spain.
The Medieval Castle
3.2. The clergy
The clergy was also a privileged class, as it did not pay taxes.
The clergy were divided into high clergy (the Pope, bishops, abbots) and low clergy (priests, monks and nuns). The high clergy was much more powerful, and usually there was always a representative of it in the Regis Curia.
The place where a cleric exercised was very important, because it defined their social relevancy. It was not the same to be bishop of Toledo as of Cuenca, for example.
High clergy
Low clergy
Medieval society was very religious. Christianity was what the different kingdoms of Europe had in common, and what united them in the face of the Norman invasions of the north and the Muslim invasions of the south. With this panorama, it is not strange that the Catholic Church played such an important role. Some characteristics of the Church in this period are:
1) Intervention in politics, having counselors in the Curia Regis.
2) Possession and administration of large estates.
3) It served as a brake for war, through the 'Peace of God' and the 'Truce of God'.
4) Help for the poor and needy.
5) Promotion and protection of art and culture.
6) Control of the behavior of the people, by means of strict norms.
In most of the monasteries of Europe the rule of St. Benedict was followed. He was a monk of the sixth century who wanted to regulate and establish a same way of life for all Christian monks. In the 9th century, Charlemagne ordered that the Rule of Saint Benedict should be enforced in his empire.
The rule established the schedule that a monk should follow each day, with specific time for prayer, work, food and rest. Their motto was "Ora et labora" (Pray and work).
Diagram with the daily schedule of a Benedictine monk from the Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos, Burgos, Spain.
3.3. The peasants
The peasants were a class without privileges and were divided into two groups:
1) Villains: they lived in the villages, and worked in the fields or in manual works (blacksmiths, carpenters ...). Even being very poor, they were free to go where they wanted.
2) Serfs: they had accepted the protection of the lords and, consequently, they had to work for them and could not leave the fief without asking permission. The lords lent to the serfs a small land called dependent holdings (usually not of very good quality) for these to exploit, but, in return, the serfs had to deliver part of the harvest to the lord, work for him for free in the demesne, and pay tolls for using facilities such as the mill, the waterwheel, the bridges, etc. In addition, the farmers had to give the tithe (10% of the harvest) to the Church.
The life of the peasants, in short, was very hard.
Questions about this video
4. Romanesque art
It is an artistic style that begins in the 11th century and lasts until the 13th century, when the Gothic style begins.
The name 'Romanesque' is due to the fact that it coincides with the expansion of the Romance languages ​​in Europe, and the gradual abandonment of Latin in the popular classes.
Its main features are:
1) It is a religious art, because it was materialized from the development of the great monastic orders, such as that of Cluny or that of Cîteaux.
2) It spread throughout Europe, although with its own personality in each place.
3) The most important manifestation is architecture, and, within it, the churches.
4) Some of the common elements were: the use of the semicircular arch, the barrel vault, the thick walls, few and small openings, dark interiors and the general feeling of solidity, with sculptural decoration in the portals.
4.1) Architecture
This type of floor plan is called 'Latin cross'. Romanesque churches are normally pointing at Jerusalem.
The Italian Romanesque was heavily influenced by classical Greco-Roman architecture.
This type of floor plan is called 'Latin cross'. Romanesque churches are normally pointing at Jerusalem.
4.2) Sculpture
Romanesque sculpture has, like architecture, an unequivocally religious character.
As the majority of the population was illiterate, the only way in which they could learn about the teachings of the Bible was by looking at the sculptures of the churches, specially the ones located inside the tympanum. Therefore, this art has a didactic function. The favorite themes were the life of Christ and the saints and the Last Judgment.
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There are two types of sculpture: Relief sculpture and Free-standing sculpture.
1) Relief Sculpture: is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. Normally made of stone, they are placed on the churches entrance portals, on the capitals of the columns and inside the cloisters. These sculptures follow the 'Law of the frame': their size adapts to the available space.
2) Free-standing sculpture: Normally made of wood or ivory, they represent religious figures, especially Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary. The figures have a serious and deep expression.
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The entrance portals of the churches are full of decoration. The upper semicircular part is called the tympanum, and inside it, in the middle, Jesus Christ (a.k.a. the pantocrator or the Almighty) is usually represented within the mandorla, an almond shaped form. Around Christ, the tetramorphs are usually placed. These are allegorical representations of the evangelists: Saint John has the form of an eagle, Saint Mark, of a lion; San Mathew, of a angel; and Saint Luke, of a bull.
In this tympanum, we can see the pantocrator inside the mandorla and surrounded by the tetramorphs.
This type of crucifixes, which represent Christ clothed, are called 'Christ in majesty'.
4.3) Painting
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Romanesque painting also has a marked religious aspect. The paintings are usually located on the interior walls of the churches, in a style called 'fresco painting'.
The figures are represented almost always frontal position and with serious expression. The outline of the figures is highlighted with black lines. The colors are flat, but very vivid.
Perspective and volume, already dominated by the ancient Romans, were lost during the Middle Ages, since what was important was the transmission of the religious message. At the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance, perspective will be rediscovered.
There are also drawings in sacred books called Medieval Miniatures.
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