When was feudalism created

He might have to supply several knights beside himself, according to the amount of land he held. This relationship lasted only during the lifetime of both parties. When one of them died, the acts of homage and investiture and the oaths of fealty had to be renewed. When the hereditary principle was supplemented, the son normally succeeded his father as a vassal of the lord, and received the fief on the same terms, although he was required to pay a sum of money called relief, in recognition of the fact that the fief belonged to the lord.

If the new vassal was minor, he became a ward of his lord, who administrated the fief in his own interests until the boy came of age. Heiresses were also wards of the lord until they married, and the lords asserted the right to choose the husband, who would become their vassals.

When a vassal died without heirs, the fief reverted to the lord as owner. Forfeiture to the lord resulted when the vassal failed to live up to his obligations if the lord were powerful enough to enforce it. Subinfeudation came about as vassals regranted part of their fiefs to men who then owed allegiance to them rather than to the original lord of the land.

The consent of the overlord was theoretically required, but in practice, it was difficult to withhold it. This process might go on several times, as the sub-vassals granted fiefs to their men. Thus, a chain of landed dependency grew, from the king, who was theoretically lord of all the land, through the nobles, who were both overlords and vassals at the same time, down to the simple knight who had a fief and overlord but no vassals of his own. However, this development complicated the chain of personal dependence.

As fiefs became alienable and heritable, it was not long before several were held by one vassal, who might thus have obligations to several lords. In France, an attempt was made to overcome this difficulty by the principle of liege homage to one lord, which was more binding than homage given to others.

Even this became confused as vassals came to owe more than one liege homage through the process of inheritance or otherwise. Since there was no real definition of what constituted a breach of the sacred bond between lord and vassal, it was easy for either to find an excuse to declare it broken.

Appeal to force was the only remedy, and private war was regarded as a privilege of the feudal nobles. Vassals began to regard their fiefs as hereditary possessions burdened with services and dues that they continually tried to restrict or evade altogether.

As a result, the personal bond of vassalage was weakened. Feudalism, which had served to hold society together when the central authority almost disappeared, tended to be a system of organised anarchy. They established their own system of justice, minted their own money, and set their own taxes.

In return for the land they had been given by the King, the Barons had to serve on the royal council, pay rent and provide the King with Knights for military service when he demanded it. They also had to provide lodging and food for the King and his court when they traveled around his realm. The Barons kept as much of their land as they wished for their own use, then divided the rest among their Knights. Barons were very rich. Knights were given land by a Baron in return for military service when demanded by the King.

For the next years, great accumulations of power and landed wealth pass between a few favoured players as if in a vast board game. The rules are complex, and to an outside eye deeply mysterious.

But certain actions and qualifications bring a distinct advantage. The top players in feudal Europe come from a small group of people - an aristocracy, based on skill in battle, with a shared commitment to a form of Christianity at once power-hungry and idealistic in which the pope in Rome has special powers as God's representative on earth.

As a great feudal lord with moral pretensions, holding the ring between secular sovereigns, the pope can be seen as Europe's headmaster. Bishops and abbots are part of the small feudal aristocracy, for they are mostly recruited from the noble families holding the great fiefs. Indeed bishops can often be found on the battlefield, fighting it out with with the best.

As in any other context, the strongest argument in feudalism - transcending the niceties of loyalty - is naked force. The Normans in England or in Sicily rule by right of conquest, and feudal disputes are regularly resolved in battle. But feudalism also provides many varieties of justification for force. And the possession of a good justification is almost as reassuring to a knight as a good suit of armour. One excellent excuse for warfare is the approval of the church.

In the pope virtually commands the Normans to attack Sicily , by giving them feudal rights over territory not as yet theirs. Similarly Rome lets it be known that the Holy See is on the side of William when he invades England in Therefore, he had to leave the country for weeks at a time. He needed a way of controlling England so that the people remained loyal. William spent much of his time in London. He built his own castle — the Tower of London — so that it dominated the city. It was also his home while in London.

He did not trust the builders of London — or English stone — so he used Norman craftsmen to do the skilled work while the English acted as labourers and he brought in from Caen in France the stone needed for what we now call the White Tower. He also built the first castle at Windsor. The motte is still visible. Castles represented a visible threat to the people of England. Soldiers were kept in them and they could be used against the English should they cause trouble. However, he needed a way of actually governing the country.