Feudalism

• Dinus de Rossonis or Mugellanus


  An Italian jurist of the late 13th century who studied civil law at Bologna University up until 1278 before teaching law at Pistoia and Bologna, where he taught Cino da Pistoia and where he is recorded in 1289 as the first civil law teacher to draw a salary
• Castellany (castellania)


  Not a land division but a sort of castle estate or domain
• Libri Feudorum


  The earliest written body of feudal customs in Europe, codified in northern Italy c.1100-1250, which gave rise to feudal law as a branch of civil law
• Feudalism


  The dominant social system in medieval Europe, in which the nobility held lands from the Crown in exchange for military service, and vassals were in turn tenants of the nobles, while the peasants (villeins or serfs) were obliged to live on their lord's land and give him homage, labour, and a share of the produce, notionally in exchange for military protection
• Domesday Book


  A manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of King William the Conqueror
• Matilda of Scotland


  Also known as Good Queen Maud, or Matilda of Blessed Memory, was Queen of England and Duchess of Normandy as the first wife of King Henry I. She acted as regent of England on several occasions during Henry's absences: in 1104, 1107, 1108, and 1111
• Mâconnais


  The Mâconnais district is located in the south of the Burgundy wine region in France, west of the Saône river. It takes its name from the town of Mâcon
• Capitulary


  A series of legislative or administrative acts emanating from the Frankish court of the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties, especially that of Charlemagne, the first emperor of the Romans in the west since the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the late 5th century
• Feudal Society, term invented by 19th cent. French Historians to describe specifically a period of French history when the monarchy retreated and the 'tyranny' of fiefdoms came into play
• Feudal Society was "reductionist and unbalanced" as it reduced society to their bonds of dependency and relationships, and ignored other networks than just the knights
• Feudal Society overemphasised the amount of conflict, with the idea of "knights existing in a state of constant warfare"
• The 11th Cent. seems to be the first proper feudal century (as if this was indeed a working system)
• The high nobility was not eradicated and were seen continuously
• J. Flach encouraged emphasising the importance of local and family ties within this 'feudal system', deeming them more important than the 'man-to-man ties' of feudalism
• The 'feudal society' beloved of M. Bloch and the old school did not consist merely in links of allegiance or interpersonal dependency on a purely private basis or for the purposes of war; it was also equipped with quasi-public institutions, class solidarity, and symbolic violence on the part of the dominant
• Feudal society was traced back to the 'feudal revolution' of 877 ("background of Normans-Viking invasions")
• French historians argued that it was the year 1000 that changed everything, not 877
• Barthelemy believed this 'transformation' was a myth
• J.-Fr. Lemarignier believed that political chronology pointed to devolution of power in late Carolingian times as most kingdoms turned into principalities, counties and then castellanies
• In the Spanish March an old public order based on Visigothic law (which maintained peasant property and slavery) was destroyed by castle violence in the 1020s, a feudalised social order emerged by 1060
• Scholars other than Duby, who worked on this idea, reserved the word 'revolution' for the birth of these feudal societies
• R. Fossier believed this was a 'veritable social revolution' that lasted from 990 to 1060
• Bisson suggests that revolution is perhaps the right term for the development of feudalism as it doesn't represent the idea of continuity but rather disruption
• Bisson asserts that while mutations are finished, revolutions are often never finished
• The only conspicuous events of this age, including the hypothetically troubled years 975-1025, were public convocations and courts
• The 991, Synod of Saint-Basle de Verzy and the 1023 Assembly at Compiegne demonstrates that clergymen were debating over the right order, these were fully public affairs and recorded by chroniclers
• Duby placed the 'transformation of the year 1000' around 980-1030 due to the sheltering of knights
• Lemarignier also placed it around 980-1030 but said it was due to the breaking of countries in castellanies, the existence of the Capetian kings was a key example of this
• Bisson said the clearest demonstration of the trans1000 was in Catalonia (Spanish March)
• Archaeological sources support the millenial theory as the year 1000 was known for the raising of 'feudal mottes and all kinds of secondary fortifications'
• O. Guillot suggests a transformation around 1060, he based this on the idea that conventional charters had survived to 1060. After which archives mainly told a story of violence and an imperfect justice system. Guillot argues this was revealed by the independence of Castellan lords
• D. Barthélemy refutes Guillot's point and study of the Vendomois, arguing that the Allods were mini-fiefs or small domains, not peasant property, and that nothing suggested that freehold peasantry was in decline, in fact localised lordships were still quite strong
• Those who believed in a feudal revolution also believed in an antifuedal revolution in 1100
• While fiefs and vassals (and lords) could be found in the 8th and 9th centuries, feudalism was a post-millennial phenomenon
• Guy Bois's La mutation de l'an mil (1989) was severely criticized for its uneasy use of problematic and equivocal sources
• Barthélemy called for the rejection of the concept of feudal mutation, arguing that too many verbal changes have happened, the history of servitude has been misconceived, and the concept of a pre-existing 'public order' preserving justice, freedom and property is anachronistic and prone to exaggerate violence
• Bonnassie discovered non-noble soldiers had used violence to climb the ranks of society, hence forming a new class of knights which bordered on nobility
• The Peace of God movement was argued to be an insurrection against feudalism as it began in 989
• F. Cheyette and S. White, invented an American school of thought which said that in France there was 'an objective system of conflict resolution' thus taking away from previous arguments of continued violence
• In the 10th century order violence was "frequent, continuous and by no means new"