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Feudalism

Page history last edited by PBworks 17 years, 4 months ago

Week 11: Medieval Europe IDs

 

Feudalism

Structure

The idea of European feudalism centered around the idea of a lord granting land to people who were less weaalthy than he was in exchange for their loyalty. For a lord to give a person a land grant, or a fief, he first had to make them a vassal, which was done at a commendation ceremony. Once this ceremony had been completed, the lord and vassal were officially in a feudal relationship, in which they were expected to uphold previously arranged mutual agreements between each other.

A lord's foremost duty was to grant a fief, or a grant of land, to his vassal. The fief was the primary incentive for a vassal to enter into a feudal relationship. Since the lord hadn't given the land to the vassal, and had only loaned it to him, it was the lord's job to maintain the land, while the vassal had the rights to collect taxes from the serfs, or the peasants, which inhabited the fief.

The vassal's primary obligation was to provide military aid for his lord. In exchange for the fief, the vassal was expected to reply with any call for military assistance from his lord. He sometimes had to provide the lord with his council as well, meaning he was obligated to help his lord make important decisions. The vassals were also recquired to provide a certain aggreed upon amount of the income they made off of their fief to their lords.

Lord-vassal relationships could be held at any level of the social hierarchy. A king was lord to aristocrats, who were the king's vassals, and lesser lords were the vassals of the aristocrats, and so on all the way to the serfs who were the peasents that worked the land and paid the taxes to the lowest of the lords. This created a universal monarchy which could stretch across the land without it's resources and power being exhausted because of the strain of governing large territories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Compare to Japanese feudalism

 

Japanese and European feudalism are very similar in deed yet they differ in many specifics. It seems that both were derived from the fall or weakening of the former government. In Europe the fall of Rome led to the conditions needed for feudalism to thrive, and in Japan the weakening of the Emperor did the same. Japan was relatively isolated as compared to Europe and thus the rise of feudalism in Japan occurred in the 12th century as compared to the 9th century rise in Europe. As defined within feudalism the vassal lord relationship was crucial in both places but each had a different yet similar class structure.

 

In Japan the social structure consisted of the emperor, shoguns, daimyos, samurai, ronin, artisans, merchants, and peasants. The Japanese classes centered on warfare and order, much like that of Europe. Shoguns were both excellent generals large and land owners. They were the closest to the emperor, or in other words the highest class other than the emperor himself. The daimyos and samurai were exalted warriors and they were often given land to rule. The ronin were landless samurai who fought for pay. The peasants were those who worked the land of the shoguns or the samurai and they worked in exchange for the protection given. Just as in Europe each land owning class was required to provide warriors in times of need.

 

The fighters of each feudal system had a specific code they lived by. In Europe it was Chivalry and in Japan it was Bushido. Each dictated how one was to conduct themselves on and off the battle field and each was grounded in the native religions. Both codes held justice, benevolence, love, sincerity, honesty, and self-control to be very important. The main difference between the two is that Chivalry is grounded in Christianity while Bushido is a mix of Shintoism, Zen, Buddhism, and Confucianism.

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