Feudalism, Vassalage, Investiture & Medieval Social Orders

Feudalism and Medieval Social Orders

Definitions and Key Terms

Tame: land worked by peasants that was given away by the lord.

Secular clergy: those living in the world who administer the sacraments; hierarchy includes archbishop, pope, bishops, and priests.

Socio-feudal: the nobility under a king, headed by the crown; although all nobles could be lords over their subjects, some were wealthier and more powerful. The Pope appointed ecclesiastics. Ecclesiastical life varied according to clerical rank within the church hierarchy.

Laboratores: the laboring groups were heterogeneous and included peasants, artisans, serfs, inhabitants, and traders.

Feudalism: Concept and Practice

Feudalism is the social, political, and economic system based on the fief that dominated western Europe between the ninth and fifteenth centuries. Land was cultivated primarily by serfs, part of whose production had to be given as a census (rent) to the owner of the land, often a lesser noble (a lord) nominally loyal to a king.

Institutions of Feudalism

Two institutions were key to feudalism. First, vassalage, a legal and political relationship between lord and vassal. It was a bilateral contract (between equals in the sense of mutual obligations) with responsibilities on both sides. Both lords and vassals were usually free men and often warriors or nobles.

Vassalage and Tribute

The tribute (or act of homage) was a ritual by which a lord granted a fief to another privileged man in exchange for services, generally military. The delivery of an object to represent the fief—called the investiture—took place immediately after the tribute. The legal status of delivery formalized the relationship.

Investiture and Investiture Controversy

What is the investiture quarrel? The Investiture Controversy was a conflict between popes and Christian rulers between 1073 and 1122. The cause of the dispute was who had the authority to grant ecclesiastical benefices and titles (investitures): secular rulers or the pope. This conflict concerned the provision of benefits and ecclesiastical offices.

Social Structure: Orders and Roles

The socio-feudal system was estamental (divided into orders). Traditionally it is broken into three main estates: I, II and III.

Secular Clergy and Hierarchy

The clergy included both secular and regular clergy. Secular clergy lived and worked in the world and administered the sacraments; the hierarchy included the pope, archbishops, bishops, and parish priests. The Pope also sent ecclesiastics to fill offices; life within ecclesiastical institutions varied according to ranking.

Nobility and Feudal Lords

The nobility were the military and landowning elite. They held fiefs and owed military service to their superiors while exercising lordship over peasants and tenants on their lands.

Laboratores: Peasants, Artisans, and Residents

The laboring orders were heterogeneous: peasants (free and unfree), serfs, artisans, and other inhabitants and merchants who worked the land or provided services in towns and manors.

Agriculture and Land Use

Fallow: land that is not sown for one or several growing seasons to recover organic matter and moisture. Leaving land fallow helped to recuperate organic matter and retain humidity in the soil.

Muslim Expansion and Early Islam

Muslim: From the year 622 in the Arabian Peninsula a new religion, Islam, began and spread across Asia, Africa, and Europe.

Notes, Questions and Historical Points

• Which text does this pertain to? Question: Low Middle Ages.
• On Christian–Muslim relations and early conflicts: Charles Martel is a notable figure in this context.
• Photo: vassalage, homage, investiture.

Additional historical notes preserved from the original text: the socio-feudal order was estamental; remember I, II, and III as the classic estates.