The Middle Ages is a special epoch with historically unique characteristics - heretics and the Inquisition, indulgence and alchemy, crusades and feudalism.
Who is a feudal lord? This definition and the concept of feudalism are discussed in more detail below.
The concept of feudalism
Feudalism is a special system of land and legal relations that developed in Western Europe during the Middle Ages.
The basis of this form of relationship was the feudal lord. This is the owner of the land allotment (feud). Each feudal lord received land with the peasants from another, larger owner (lord), and has since been considered his vassal. All the vassals were in the military service of the seniors and had to, at the first call, come forward with arms in hand against his enemies.
Hierarchy
The hierarchy of feudalism was quite complex. To understand it, we first consider a simplified model of relations of 3 links: at the lower level stood a peasant, a commoner, who was in the power of the owner - the feudal lord, over whom the monarch stood.
But the feudal lord is not just a person entering a certain stratum of society, it is part of a complex system. The feudal staircase consists of lower knights - vassals who were in the service of the higher seniors. Each lord, in turn, was also someone's vassal. The head of state was the king.
The schematic chain of hierarchy can be represented in this form (from lowest to highest): peasant - knight (vassal 1) - lord 1 (vassal 2) - lord 2 (vassal 3) - lord 3 (vassal 4) - ... - king .
The main feature of the hierarchy was the fact that the large feudal lord did not have power over all subordinate vassals. The rule "vassal of my vassal - not my vassal" was respected.
The customs of the feudal lords
All landowners, regardless of the size of their holdings, were not economical. They did not try to increase their wealth by accumulating or improving production methods. What are the main sources of income had any feudal lord? These are exactions from peasants, captures, robberies. Everything mined was spent on expensive clothes, luxurious furnishings and feasts.
Among the feudal lords there was a code of honor of the knight - courage, exploits, protection of the weak. However, other facts are historically recorded: they everywhere showed rudeness, cruelty and waywardness. They considered themselves God's chosen, ordinary people despised.
The relationship between the vassal and the lord was complex. Often the newly elected vassal attacked his lord and seized his wealth, peasants and land.
The difference between feudalism and the slave system
The feudal lord is not a slave owner. Slaves belonged to the owner, did not have their own will and property. The peasants who belonged to the feudal lord owned property, their own economy, which they disposed of independently - they could sell, donate, exchange. For their piece of land, they paid the landlord a rent, and he ensured their safety.
The feudal lord could declare war on a neighbor, conclude a truce with him, organized military campaigns with the aim of capturing captives, for whom he could receive a ransom, robbing other peasants, other landowners, the church.
All this created a state-to-state situation, weakened the power of the monarch and continental Europe as a whole, the majority of whose inhabitants were in poverty and hunger due to robberies from all sides.