The Role of the Black Death in the Decline of Feudalism Essay

Serfs farmed and did other work for the lord and in return were given protection in case an invasion was to happen. Unlike the last document, in this document the artist is trying to show that you were not just given land and a serf, that you must ask and negotiate on the terms in which you owned the piece of land. I the vassal would like this piece of land and in return I will give you military service and loyalty. Manorialism was an economic system structured around the lord estate. “Also, if the lord wishes to buy corn or oats, or anything else, and they have such things to sell, it shall not be

During the middle ages the lack of protection and a stable government after the Fall of Rome created the need for a new political system. Feudalism was the political system that emerged and shaped the lives of people socially and politically. Manors were small communities that were made up of a castle, church, village, and land for farming. The structured society provided a place and responsibility for everyone. The feudal obligations showed that in exchange for one thing they would be provided with something else. Serfs and peasants would work and produce goods for the rest of the manor and in return had their land and promised protection. The vassals would need to obtain land from the Lord and in return would provide the Lord with military service, loyalty, and ransom if asked for (Doc. 4). To make clear the vassal’s specific allegiance to their lord whom they owed in for exchange for their fief they would take the Homage Oath (Doc. 2). This interdependent system required everyone to do their part and it created social classes that they were born into. Their daily lives were centered on the manor and that was how it stayed until towns began to

The decline of the western part of the old Roman Empire left Europe without the laws and protection the empire had provided. The vacuum was filled by the creation of a feudal hierarchy. In this hierarchy, the serf, or peasant, was protected by the lord of the manor, who, in turn, owed allegiance to and was protected by a higher overlord. And so the system went, ending eventually with the king. The strong protected the weak, but they did so at a high price. In return for payments of money, food, labor, or military allegiance, overlords granted the fief, or feudum – a hereditary right to use land – to their vassals. At the bottom was the serf, a peasant who

The Black Death was a bubonic plague pandemic that spread throughout Medieval England during the years 1348-1350. The Black Death is believed to have killed between 30-45% of people in England alone. There were numerous ideas if what the cause of the disease was, however was a bacteria-born disease from the bacteria Yersinia pestis, which was carried in the fleas off infected black rats and spread to Europe by Genoese trading ships from Asia. Consequently, due to the severity of the Black Death, it could be considered a “turning point” in England which this paper will be assessing, in respect to the Black Death’s influence socially, assessing standards of living and social unrest and economically, assessing production levels and wages. It will also be important to consider the political role the Church and government played during the period, as well as other factors that may have influenced a change at the period in question.

The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in history. Many Western Europeans were living with this disease for nearly four hundred years. The disease was able to spread rapidly and affected Europe in many ways. Since this disease was rapidly spreading throughout Europe it scared many of the people during this time. Many historians considered the Black Death in the fourteenth century a turning point in Western European history. According to Streissguth, “Before the epidemic of bubonic and pneumonic plague died out three years later, it would kill more than one-third of the continent’s population.” Hundreds of thousand people died from this horrific disease which changed Europe forever. Near the end of the fourteenth century it was obvious to the people living during that time that the plague had become a regular and destructive aspect of life. The plague had left many rural areas untouched after the late 1300’s but the epidemic began almost every decade. When the Black Death began to spread across Europe it caused unimaginable fear, panic, and chaos for the people. The Black Death was an important turning point in Europe, where the economics, politics, and society would never be the same. The Black Death spread rapidly across Europe causing many people to become ill and die which resulted in social, economic, and religious upheavals.

The Black Plague (also known as the Black Death or Bubonic Plague) of the 1300s is considered by many historians to be one of the most influential events in the history of Europe. Originating in Asia, the Black Plague has three forms; Bubonic which affects the lymph nodes, pneumonic which affects the lungs, and septicemia which affects the blood. Through examining the effects of the Plague on Europe and its people, it is clear that politics, social life, and economics were all irreparably thrown off balance. Perhaps the part of Europe disturbed most by the Black Death was politics.

1.The serfs are the most important role in a feudal society.(A feudal society is a “ political and economic system of Europe from the 9th to about the 15th century”). Another word for a serf is a peasant which is a very poor person. If this role didn’t exist then the kings would have no one to rule. So that would mean there is no kingdom. Another reason why serfs are the most important is if the serfs weren’t there,who would feed the king, his knights and his vassals on their journeys. Serfs also did the lord's hard work so how would the lord get all of his work done. 2. I know this because the serf poster wrote the serfs feeds the king, his knights and the vassals on their journeys. Serfs also did the lord's hard work and labor.3.What this

The medieval time period survived on a system that provided order and good military, this system was called Feudalism. Serfs had a major role in the medieval time period, they were the ones, along with the freemen, who did the hard work in the manor, not only for themselves to survive on, but for the whole manor, the lord, and the king. Feudalism was a type of government, it was created not for fairness, but for organization. Without serfs, the feudal system would deteriorate, therefore, there needed to be a specific role for labor, or no drudgery would ever be done. Feudalism brought many things to everyone in this time period, some people got more freedom than others, some worked harder than others, everyone had a role, they may be treated differently for the role, but they all matter.

Vassals were another essential role of feudalism, who had an extremely important relationship with their king, or higher vassal. The vassals job was completely based off of trust with their king. The vassals ruled over land that they were given by their king. In order to be given the land, vassals promise loyalty and military service to their king or lord, this promise was called the Oath of Fealty (Biel 9). Although the land that vassals ruled over technically belonged to their king, when they are given the land they are given control over everybody and everything on the land (Biel 10). Vassals had many responsibilities as the ruler of their land. Not only did the vassal vow his military service to his lord, he also owed a fixed number of armed horsemen during times of war (Bishop 111). The vassal also had to entertain his lord and their large and hungry suite, which is why the serfs had to farm and produce such large amounts of food (Bishop 111). Another responsibility of the vassal was that whenever summoned, he had to attend his lord’s court, as a judge when he was needed. The vassal did gain some significant

Serfs had multiple promises made in order to keep the flow of feudalism running smoothly. The laborers worked on the King’s land and gave him food in return for their property (Macdonald 17). The workers were required to give a payment to be able to live on the king’s land. Just about everything Serfs did, they had to pay a tax to do (“Social Classes, Life, and Plague”). The workers were required to pay a certain fee to the lord be able to do their daily job- provide for the lord.

Life in the high middle ages, between 1000 and 1300 A.D., had two kinds of communities, manorial villages and towns. The major difference in these two distinct types of communities was the freedom and rights of the people. In the manorial villages you had lords who owned large portions of land. The vassals who entered into a military obligation with the lords, in exchange for land and protection. Finally, serfs who were a class of people that worked their lord’s land as half slave and half freeman. Vassals were more of an employee and the serfs were little more than a slave because they were bound to the lord’s land. The serfs could not leave or do anything without the lord’s permission and most of the time they had to pay fees to be granted the permissions they requested. In contrast the townspeople elected their officials, had freedom to choose a careers, they move about where they liked, and could acquire training and schooling. Townspeople were in fact free and not absolutely controlled by a lord. As for the manorial villages, the lords had all the power and had absolute control over all the actions and work of the vassals and serfs.

The economic system of this era is termed feudalism. Feudalism is defined by conditioned holding of land by lords on some kind of service-tenure to the monarch. The lords were a noble class who supplied military service and council to the monarch. The lords' social status was determined by their land holdings. The lords' estates were farmed by compulsory labor, known as serfs. The lords maintained a great deal of control over the serfs. They dictated what, where and when to plant. They also operated as a judiciary force over the serfs (Hilton, pp. 34-36).

Western Europe suffered numerous hardships through the ninth and tenth centuries and this was the ultimate reason they established a new political organization which was known as feudalism. By providing honor, protection, and a sense of control, this new social system revived peace and order in Western Europe after the fall of the Carolingian Empire. Feudalism was a necessary ingredient to yield stability in during these times of calamity.

In Medieval times during the 10th and 13th centuries, a form of political and social organization called feudalism was a way of life that had great effect on people of the time and on the modern world. Feudalism was developed because of the weakness of Europe and it's kings. The word feudalism comes from the word fief, which was the land held on condition of feudal service, similar to an estate (English). The fiefs bound together lords and vassals. Feudalism was a structure in which a lord divided his land into smaller parts to give to lesser lords (“Feudalism”).

This story takes place in England, during King Richard’s reign from 1189 to 1199, in the middle ages also as the medieval times (European history beginning at the downfall of Rome in 476AD until about 1500AD). During the middle ages, the form of government and society that was set up was called the feudal system. It was based on the ownership of land. While the king of a region owned all the land, he could give possession of tracts to those who worked for and pledged allegiance to him. People were separated into different classes during the middle ages. There was the nobility, or vassals, which was composed of people having hereditary title, rank and privileges. The nobility included those that worked directly for the king, mainly having the job of protecting the kingdom. Then there was the clergy, who were in charge of the spiritual needs of society. And then there were the peasantry, also called serfs, who worked for the nobles, cultivating the lands and performing the manual labor. Lastly, there were slaves. Many of the nobles owned slaves, who may have been prisoners captured in war, or people who actually sold themselves to the nobles in order to survive. The dream of the serf was to become a nobleman, and the dream of the nobleman was to