Feudal System: Roles and Responsibilities of King, Nobles, and Peasants

In the feudal system, the king, the nobles, the clerics, and peasants all had different responsibilities and rights. Basically, the system consists of:

• Somebody gave protection/land to someone else.
• In exchange, the other had to fight or work for their protection.

The King

The king was the ruler of the country and owned all the land. However, he didn't have a big army and was weak. This is why he needed the noblemen and their armies.

The Noblemen

The noblemen were the vassals of the king. They promised obedience and loyalty to the king in the ceremony of homage. They provided knights and in return received a land (fief). In their lands, as lords, they acted as judges and collected taxes for themselves.

Knights

Knights were less important nobles, were the vassals of the feudal lords. They fought for the lords and in return received land.

Peasants

Peasants were farmers who rented land for a noble. They paid the rent working for them, paid taxes to the feudal lord, and the tithe (10% of the crops) to the Church. Serfs could not leave the noble's land without permission; however, they weren't slaves.

Clergy

Knights gave lots of land to the Church that rented it to the peasants. Everyone paid them the tithe. In exchange, the clerics prayed for their souls.

In feudal society, towns were no longer important; instead, life was based on fiefs. A fief was an area given to a noble by the monarch in exchange for providing protection and swearing loyalty to the king. Each one was formed by the:

• Demesne: the lord's private area.
• Tenements: area used by the peasants.

Peasant Life

Peasant men worked in the fields from dawn to dusk, made their own tools, and had little free time. They normally ate bread and vegetable soup and occasionally had rabbit, fish, or pork. Peasant women also worked in the fields, cooked, looked after children, sewed, and weaved.

Noblewomen

Noblewomen had to marry and have children, their parents arranged their marriages, and they had to obey their husbands. If they didn't marry, they usually became nuns. They usually spent their time reading, sewing, weaving, looking after the children, and organizing the servants. Girls were educated by their mothers.