With the decline of the Roman Empire, the Germanic peoples began to settle where they were before the territories ruled by the Romans.
These people inhabited the regions beyond the Rhine River to the south of Scandinavia. Before contact with the Romans, the Germanic peoples weresemi-nomadic and lived on herding and agriculture. The land was a community and the livestock belonged to the main warriors of the tribe. Only in time of war came with a power of command authority in the tribe. This was called theCommunity system primitive.
But the Germans who had contact with the Romans hastened many changes that had already occurred in primitive communities barbaric. Firstly, began to emerge social differences among members of the tribes and the chiefs who took the land for their own use. They raised cattle on these lands to exchange for goods with the Romans. They came to attack other tribes to sell their prisoners as slaves.
From these changes, formed a hereditary aristocracy, who waged war to increase his property. The chiefs had powers similar to those of future kings. Graduated from a well nobility who no longer worked in the field and remained with the work of some peasants enslaved or dependents. Thus, consolidated a layer of noble owner of property in slaves and warriors, who distanced himself definitively from the rest of the community.
The Romans encouraged these changes and caused wars among the barbarians, because that kept the Germans divided and facilitated the maintenance of imperial authority on the barbarians. Armies of Rome by barbarians were admitted at the borders to prevent entry of other barbarians. Many of these new soldiers entered directly into the Roman military forces in exchange for land. Thus, many of them became high officials of the Roman army.
The mixture of Roman society, which was in decline, with the German society, who was changing, was born a new system called feudalism
Politically feudalism was characterized by political fragmentation. Personal relationships became stronger with the weakening of state action. These relations, vassal-called feud or suzerainty and vassalage, originate from the Roman and Germanic traditions. Consisted in the act of a man donating property, particularly land and other rights to you in exchange for some favors and obligations. The aristocrat who donated the well was the suzerain, and he received was the vassal. This practice of giving did not end there: the aristocrat who received the land redistributed to other aristocrats, who passed to have the same obligations.Theoretically, the feudal lords received the lands of the king, the sovereign, but with the fragmentation of political power on the fragmentation of land, the king became a sort of suzerain chief.
The vassal in exchange for land, should help the overlord with his army when he needed, and participate in the councils manor. By overlord fit with similar obligations to his liege.
If a vassal to rebel, the other vassals were summoned to combat it. The vassals could also be called to fight a rebellion of slaves or a dispute between overlords, or against other people in case of war.
The feuds were never sold or divided among the children of the Lord. The sole heir was her first child, or firstborn. Therefore the size of land a family has never diminished.
Younger sons of a gentleman, who did not inherit the land, could be trona knights, defending the land of his older brother. The daughters, in turn, usually married with other feudal lords or knights and changed their feud. Another option of the sons and daughters of a gentleman who did not inherit their land was part of the clergy.
When a man you had only daughters, could accomplish a tournament between knights and choose one of the bidders for the husband of one.
These knights fought evidence concerning the use of arms and reciting poems. The chosen successor became the feudal lord, conquering not only the lady but also a title of nobility.
Bishop Fulbert's letter to William, Duke of Aquitaine, c. 1030
He who swears allegiance to his lord should always have the memory of these six principles: health, safety, honor, interest, liberty, college. Health means that nothing should be done in the body damage from you. Security, nothing to the detriment of their homes and fortresses [...]. Honor, nothing at the expense of his justice or whatever that depend on their honor, interest, nothing against his property. Freedom and power, nothing is impossible or difficult to you to do good [...].
Moreover, [...] these six orders of duties, pay the help and advice vassal to his liege lord faithfully [...]
The suzerain vassal owes to the consideration of all these things.
Source: FREITAS, Gustavo, 900 texts and documents of history. Lisbon, nd, v. 1, p.139.
The military features of feudalism
The rider was a characteristic figure of the military organization of feudalism. Being a knight, with shields, spears, swords, chain mail and armor, was the privilege of the aristocracy, because access to the cavalry depended on the origin and wealth. This characteristic was linked to the separation between warriors and chief who was given the Germanic tribe and also the cost of complete equipment of a knight, that was too high for the poorest. I had to have many lands and servants working to support a rider. That is, only the feudal aristocracy was capable of it.
One of the main military functions of the cavalry was to ensure and expand the areas of lords and suppress peasant rebellions that threatened the power of the aristocracy. But the militarization also served to defend Christianity against their enemies, for example, Muslims at the same time guaranteeing the achievement of more land.
Constant fighting ended up destroying the crops and fields. In the tenth century, the Church intervened, proposing the Truce of God, which determined that there could be war between Thursday and Monday morning.
Feudal society was rigidly stratified, ie, there was hardly mobility, because the position of the groups was determined by the relationship with the land. According to the mentality of the time, society was divided because God will determine different functions for each layer.There were three layers fixed. The clergy (priests) was the most important layer, considered an intermediary between God and men. Its function was to pray for the salvation of all. The Warriors (nobility and aristocracy) were fighting to protect the rest of society from the evils of the world. Its power came from the fact that they own the land and have the military monopoly. The workers were supposed to produce the necessary sustenance for the whole society.
In fact, each of these orders is subdivided into various internal layers. There were different types of workers: those smallholders who cultivate their plots (allodial); former owners, who clung on to a master (villains, because they lived in the villages) and the slave worker, not totally disappeared from medieval Europe. But the main work during the feudal period was a servant, native of the former Colonus. The servant was not a free worker, but neither was a slave. He was grounded and could not be taken off to be sold. Another difference between a servant is the servant who owned the instruments of production.
Serfs and Villains
When the servant went to live and work in the grounds of a feudal lord, all his descendants were forced to remain on that property and work for the descendants of this gentleman. For more exploited they were, the servants could not get out of fiefdoms where they lived.
In addition to the servants, the work was in fiefdoms run by villains or villains. They had to pay the same taxes as servants, but were not required to remain in the lands of the lord forever. They were therefore free individuals, unlike the serfs who were bound to land.
Serfs and villains were subject only to the authority of the feudal lord, because there was no other authority above it. There were no written laws. The feudal lords defined the rules of his fiefdom in accordance with local customs and thought everything that happened in it.
Thus the centralized power in the hands of the emperor or the king has virtually disappeared in the realms of Western Europe. In its place came the local government.
The figure of the king continued to exist, but he lost his power of decision. Each feudal lord held the government and administered justice within his fiefdom. All who lived in the manor owed him loyalty and obedience - that is what is called local. The king had virtually no power there. Of course, the king also had their territorial domains, ie, his own fiefdom, where he ran it. But the feud of the others he could hardly speak.
Social relations in feudalism
Feudalism was formed by the articulation of relations between two axes: relations fief and vassal-servile relations of production. The feud vassal-established relationships among members of the military aristocracy and territorial and were based on the feud and reciprocity. Servile relations of production were being set up between the landlord and the worker and were based on inequality of conditions and the exploitation of labor.
The feudal aristocracy took their livelihoods and securing their power and wealth through the work of the servant of the war alliances. The servants were given a lot to grow and were defended by you, should this one series of bonds were to work in the reserve manor few days a week, and all of this work was the product of the feudal lord (drudgery), delivered a part of that produced in the reserve servile (hoist, paid for the use of the mill or the mill (trivia), when a slave died, the children should continue to pay on their land (mortmain).
There was a strong religious element in this exploration of the master over the servants, because they saw the Lords as protectors and patrons, helping them through difficult times.
But somehow, the servants could have some independent activities. The servants helped each other in the small fields, pastures and communal lands in some parties. All this can be considered as resistance to the power of the Lords.
The socio economic characteristics of feudalism
The concept derives from the word feudal fief, which means "well paid in exchange. "Thus, feudalism is the name we give to the system where the feud - a well, which could be one or more landlords (land), an annual amount (stock), the armor of a knight (Loriga), a set of rights collection and peasant obligations (bank) - is the foundation of the socioeconomic and political relations.
The feudal system was a typically European. Developed between the tenth and eleventh centuries, but reached its height in the twelfth century, when it started to go downhill. Theagriculture was the economic activity that predominated during the feudal era and all the people involved, directly or indirectly. The landlord, the basic unit of production of the feudal system, was virtually self-sufficient. Producing all or almost all that had need: milk, wood, iron etc.. What was not produced by the landlord, was purchased in small markets in the villages.
A Landlord
1. 1 - Barn, Stable
2. 2 - Church
3. 3 - Smithy
4. 4 - Fields of common pasture
5. 5 - Cultivated fields manor
6. 6 - Marsh
7. 7 - Oven
8. 8 - wasteland
9. 9 - Fallow Land
10. 10 - Grove
11. 11 - Fields cultivated by farmers
12. 12 - Orchard
13. 13 - Prado
14. 14 - Mill
15. 15 - Castle
16. 16 - House of the pastor
17. 17 - Village
The territorial feuds or landlords ("Mr.") were divided into three parts: a reservation or gentle manor manor, which were land for exclusive use of peasant or servile meek, who were land farmed by peasants and their families, the communal lands, consisting of pastures, forests and commons that provided fruits, wood, honey, nuts etc.. Hunting was the exclusive right sir.
· Centuries III and IV - Start of significant changes in the Roman Empire to the transfer of many of the city to the countryside and the emergence of settlers.
· 476 - The Roman Empire in the West disintegrates
· Fifth century - are formed within several Germanic kingdoms formerly occupied by the Roman Empire.
· V to VIII centuries - Period they begin to develop feudal relations of production in Western Europe.
· Eighth and ninth centuries - the Iberian peninsula is occupied by Muslims and other European regions are conquered by the Vikings, trade declines and enhances the formation of the feudal system.
· IX centuries the century. XIII - It reinforces the feudal society in almost all Western Europe.
The consolidation of feudalism
The feudalism resulted in the synthesis of Roman society in decline and barbaric German society in transformation.
Roman society was predominantly agrarian, but with intense urban life. With the crises of the third and fourth centuries, the shortage of manpower caused the great slave owners to abandon the cities and head for their Villae (estates), which explored the work ofcolonization (former slaves or peasants who have become bound the land and dependent on their masters). The colonized were legally free, but they could not leave the land. These workers are the forerunners of the medieval serfs.
The social condition spent thus be determined by the relationship with the land. Roman society was undergoing a process of ruralization, accentuated by the disappearance of the middle groups linked to trade and urban activities in general. This process was important for the formation of feudalism, it strengthened the political power of local lords, weakening the central power of the empire.
Political decentralization mentioned above was accentuated by the barbarians: thecomitatus was an old barbaric institution that established a relationship of mutual loyalty between chiefs and warriors, which strengthened the ties of personal dependence and diminish any central authority. The leaders reward their employees with barbarian lands, called the benefice, which gave some autonomy to the warriors who greeted him, especially when given immunity, ie independence to administer their territory.
The German society was also predominantly agrarian and pastoral, which accentuated the process of ruralization of the economy and society after the invasion.
A major contribution of barbaric society for the achievement of feudalism was its system of laws, which was based on customary law, ie the old customs inherited from ancestors, to which the practices were founded the Oral Law, which regulated personal relationships .
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