This article is about the classic, medieval, Western European form of feudalism. For feudalism in other societies, as well as that of the Europeans, see Examples of feudalism.
Investiture of a knight (miniature from the statutes of the Order of the Knot, founded in 1352 by Louis I of Naples)Orava Castle in Slovakia. A medieval castle is a traditional symbol of a feudal society.
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.
The classic definition, by François Louis Ganshof (1944),[1] describes a set of reciprocal legal and military obligations of the warrior nobility and revolved around the key concepts of lords, vassals, and fiefs.[1] A broader definition, as described by Marc Bloch (1939), includes not only the obligations of the warrior nobility but the obligations of all three estates of the realm: the nobility, the clergy, and the peasantry, all of whom were bound by a system of manorialism; this is sometimes referred to as a "feudal society".
Although it is derived from the Latin word feodum or feudum (fief),[2] which was used during the Medieval period, the term feudalism and the system it describes were not conceived of as a formal political system by the people who lived during the Middle Ages.[3] Since the publication of Elizabeth A. R. Brown's "The Tyranny of a Construct" (1974) and Susan Reynolds's Fiefs and Vassals (1994), there has been ongoing inconclusive discussion among medieval historians as to whether feudalism is a useful construct for understanding medieval society.[10]
^ abFrançois Louis Ganshof (1944). Qu'est-ce que la féodalité. Translated into English by Philip Grierson as Feudalism, with a foreword by F. M. Stenton, 1st ed.: New York and London, 1952; 2nd ed: 1961; 3rd ed.: 1976.
^feodum – see Shumaker, Walter A. (1901). The Cyclopedic Dictionary of Law. George Foster Longsdorf. pp. 365, 1901 – via Google Books.
^Noble, Thomas (2002). The Foundations of Western Civilization. Chantilly, VA: The Teaching Company. ISBN 978-1565856370.
^"Feudalism", by Elizabeth A. R. Brown. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
^Cite error: The named reference ebrown was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference reynolds was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Halsall, Paul. "Feudalism?". Internet Medieval Sourcebook. Archived from the original on October 18, 2014. Retrieved November 4, 2007.
^Harbison, Robert (1996). "The Problem of Feudalism: An Historiographical Essay". Western Kentucky University. Archived from the original on February 29, 2008.
^West, Charles (2013). Reframing the Feudal Revolution: Political and Social Transformation Between Marne and Moselle, c. 800–c. 1100. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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