Changes in European Institutions h 125Feudalism was a political, economic, and social system. Throughout most areas of
Western Europe, nobles or landlords offered benefi ces, or privileges, to vassals in exchange
for military service in the lord’s army or agricultural labor on the lord’s estate. Often the
benefi ce was a grant of land, called a fi ef. Feudalism was structured so that a person could
enjoy the position of a noble with vassals under him and, at the same time, serve as vassal to
a noble of higher status. Knights, similar in their role to the samurai of Japan, were vassals
who served in the lord’s military forces. Like the samurai, the knights of Western Europe
followed an honor code called chivalry. In contrast to the samurai code of bushido, however,
chivalry was a reciprocal, or two-sided, contract between vassal and lord. Whereas the code of
bushido applied to both men and women of the samurai class, chivalry was followed only by
the knights.
Occupying the lowest rank on the medieval European manor were serfs, whose labor
provided the agricultural produce needed to maintain the self-suffi ciency of the manor.
The life of serfs was diffi cult. In addition to giving the lord part of their crops, they had to
spend a number of days each month working the lord’s lands or performing other types of
labor service for the lord. The agricultural tools available to them were crude. Only after
the invention of the heavy moldboard plow in the ninth century did they possess a tool
adequate to turn the heavy sod of Western Europe. Serfdom was different from slavery;
serfs could not be bought or sold and could pass on their property to their heirs.The Beginnings of Regional Governments
At the same time that feudalism provided protection to the inhabitants of Western Europe,
the people known as the Franks rose in prominence in the region of present-day northern
France, western Germany, and Belgium. The Franks were the descendants of the Germanic
tribe that overran Gaul (present-day France) after the fall of Rome. By the fi fth century, the
Franks had converted to Christianity. From the time of the ninth century onward, some
areas of Western Europe saw the strengthening of regional kingdoms such as that of the
Franks.
Rulers of northern Italy and Germany also gained prominence by the tenth century.
Eventually, in an effort to connect with the classical empire of Rome, they began to call
their territory the Holy Roman Empire. As the French philosopher Voltaire later com-
mented, however, it was “neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.” The new empire was
but a fraction of the size of the original empire of the Romans. In spite of its grand claims,
northern Italy continued to be organized into independent city-states, and Germany into
numerous local states also overseen by feudal lords. While providing a measure of unity
for a portion of Europe during the Middle Ages, the long-term political effect of the Holy
Roman Empire was to delay the unifi cation of both Germany and Italy into separate states
until the end of the nineteenth century.
In England, an alternate form of feudalism took hold as a result of the Norman inva-
sion of 1066. In that year, the Duke of Normandy, later called William the Conqueror,
arrived in England from his pro vince of Normandy in northern France. Of Viking descent,
William transplanted his form of feudalism to England. Rather than following a complex
structure of lords and vassals, William imposed a feudal structure that required all vassals
to owe their allegiance directly to the monarch.http://www.ebook3000.com