the feudal system

• the feudal system was introduced into england after william the conqueror won the battle of hastings in 1066
• there were 4 main ranks in the feudal system: the king, the tenants-in-chief, the knights and the peasants
• the king was at the top of the feudal hierarchy and was the most powerful person in the country, with all land belonging to him
• the king demanded the obedience of the people in his kingdom, and in return he had a responsibility to protect his people
• to protect his people, the king needed an army which was expensive as soldiers needed paying and providing with horses and weapons, so the feudal system was used to enable the king to recruit soldiers without paying them
• the king divided up the land in his kingdom and granted some of it to the tenants-in-chief, who held their land in return for providing services to the king
• the tenants-in-chief's most important service was to provide knights for the king's army, alongside providing advice to the king and helped to manage the kingdom
• important tenants-in-chief were called barons, while others were high-ranking members of the church, such as archbishops and bishops
• the knights held land from the tenants-in-chief and, in return, they fought on horseback in the king's army when the king demanded knights from his tenants-in-chief
• the knights provided their fighting skills, and paid for their own horses and weapons, in return for their lands
• the knights were normally lords of manorial estates
• at the bottom of the feudal system there was a very large class, most of whom were peasants, who held little power
• peasants worked the land from the knights and the tenants-in-chief, and, in return, the army of knights, recruited by the tenants-in-chief, would protect them from the threat of invasion
• the king could not control his lands alone, so his land was divided into fiefs, which were portions of land that was granted to a landholder
• in return for fiefs, the landholder had to pledge homage to his lord by swearing an oath of fealty, becoming the vassal of his lord and was required to perform service for him in return for the land that they held
• the vassal made his oath of fealty in a public ceremony
• it was treason to break the oath of fealty, and the oath-breaker could be punished by death
• homage


  the public demonstration of loyalty where a vassal swore an oath of fealty to his lord
• lord 


  a general term used to describe the person who granted land to a vassal and received homage in return. a lord might also be called a vassal's overlord
• vassal


  a man who held land under the feudal system and had done homage to his lord for that land
• the lands the king kept for himself were known as the royal demesne, and the remaining lands were divided up amongst his tenants-in-chief, most of whom were barons
• the fiefs that barons held were scattered across england
• barons kept some land for their own own needs and then sub-divided the rest of their lands to the knights who became their vassals, or under-tenants
• knights divided out their land among the peasants who lived on it, and the peasants held strips of land and farmed in return for the protection provided to them by the knights
• knight service was the duty that knights owed to their lord in return for holding their land, and the tenants-in-chief granted lands, known was a knight's fee, to knights and in return the knights performed certain duties
• one duty of knight service was to serve in the king's army for at least 2 months at his own expense, which included providing his own horse, weapons and armour, and if a conflict lasted for longer, then he had to be kept on at the king's expense
• one duty of knight service was to perform up to 40 days' service in guarding the lord's castle and in training
• one duty of knight service was to help raise money to pay the ransom of his lord if he was captured in battle and imprisoned
• ransom 


  a payment demanded for the release of a prisoner. during wars, knights, barons and even kings were often captured, instead of killed, so that large ransoms could be demanded
• the quota, known as the servitium debitum, of knights that tenants-in-chief owed to the king depended on how much land they held from him
• the number of knights owed by the tenants-in-chief ranged from a handful to some 50 or 60 knights
• across the whole of england, there were up to 5,000 men who owed knight service in return for their land
• in the ceremony of knighthood, the knights were presented with a sword and belt and struck gently on the back of the neck with their sword, known as dubbing
• during the ceremony of knighthood, the new knight also placed his sword on the altar in a church and promised his services to his overlord and to god, and in return for this oath, the knight received land that he could rent out to those below him in the feudal system
• the rents provided knights with enough money to support themselves and their family, but they were not necessarily rich
• the lowest rank of society came below the knights, and included freemen, villeins and cottars, and collectively, these people are usually referred to as peasants, the majority being villeins
• the peasants produced all the food for the country's population to eat
• in return for their land, villeins and cottars had a feudal duty to perform labour service for the knights and the tenants-in-chief
• the villeins had to work for the lord on his land on certain days of the week, known was 'week-work'
• the villeins had to work for the lord gathering in the harvest, known as 'boon-work'