feudalism

Also known as feudal system

thumb|Investiture of a knight (miniature from the statutes of the Order of the Knot, founded in 1352 by [[Louis I of Naples)]] thumb|Orava Castle in Slovakia. Medieval castles are a traditional symbol of a feudal society. Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of various customs and systems that flourished in medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.

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Feudalism was a medieval European system (9th to 15th centuries) that organized society around relationships where people held land in exchange for providing service or labor to those above them. It matters because it shaped how European societies were structured, governed, and economically organized during the Middle Ages.

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Commons category: Feudalism

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~30 min read

Article

24 sections

Contents

Definition
Etymology
History
Classic feudalism
Vassalage
The feudal revolution in France
End of European feudalism (1500–1850s)
Feudal society
Historiography
Evolution of the concept
Heinrich Brunner
Karl Marx
Later studies
Challenges to the feudal model
See also
General
Non-European
References
Bibliography
Further reading
Historiographical works
End of feudalism
France
External links

The classic definition, by François Louis Ganshof (1944), describes a set of reciprocal legal and military obligations of the warrior nobility and revolved around the key concepts of lords, vassals, and fiefs. A broader definition, as described by Marc Bloch (1939), includes not only the obligations of the warrior nobility but the obligations of all three estates of the realm: the nobility, the clergy, and the peasantry, all of whom were bound by a system of manorialism; this is sometimes referred to as a "feudal society".