Lecture 1

What is civilization? Aristotle once said: I know what it is but when I turn to write it down, it
eludes me.

Civilization (Lat. civis a town dweller) The term emerged during the Enlightenment (around
the eighteenth century) when it referred to an achieved state which could be contrasted with
barbarism. It refers to a society viewed in an advanced state of social development (e.g., with
complex legal and political and religious organizations); "the people slowly progressed from
barbarism to civilization."

Civilization describes a form of human organization (it covers a significant geographical area
and lasts for a considerable period of time).

Medieval and Renaissance Civilization (Western Europe England; 5 17 centuries)

Medieval Civilization; Periodization: Early (5 1000 AD), High (1000 1300 AD), Late Middle
Ages (1300 1500 AD; 16th century the beginning of the Early Modern Period, the Renaissance).
The expression Middle Ages became common during the time of the Renaissance to refer to the
period between the ancient world and the modern world. Of course, the people of the Middle Ages
were not aware that they were living in the Middle Ages. This period was also called the Dark Ages
but that isnt the best term for it. One reason is because, while there were times of comparative
darkness, there were also great times of light, progress, and learning. It is not accurate or
appropriate to label the whole period the Dark Ages, even though there were some dark times
during that 1,000-year period.

The Early Middle Ages is a period in the history of Europe following the fall of the Western
Roman Empire which formally ceased to exist in 476. However, that date is not important in itself,
since the Western Roman Empire had been very weak for some time, while Roman culture was to
survive at least in Italy for yet a few decades or more. The Early Middle Ages lasted for almost 5
centuries from about AD 500 to 1000. This was a period characterized by shifting polities (polity =
a form of government of a state, society), a relatively low level of economic activity, and successful
incursions by non-Christian peoples Huns, Germanic peoples, Arabs, Vikings and others : the
Migration period, the Ostrogoths and Visigoths, the Merovingians. Its the period of the Anglo-
Saxon England, the Frankish Empire and the Viking Age. There were then many competing tribes
and feudal units. However, after the fall of Rome, there was one unifying factor. The only thing that
held society together was Christianity. Christianity had spread beyond the cultural bounds of the
Roman Empire into barbarian Europe just in time so that when Rome fell, Christianity did not fall
with it. Christianity was already the religion of many of the barbarians who were invading the
Roman Empire. Kenneth Clark said in his book Civilization, If you had asked the average man of

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the time to what country he belonged, he would not have understood you. But he would have
known what bishopric (= the diocese of a bishop) he belonged to. The idea of belonging to
England or France or Germany would not have been a thought of someone of that time. The
unifying factor in all of the confusion of the Middle Ages was Christianity.
While the Roman Empire no longer existed, modern Europe had not yet emerged either.
England, Italy, France, and Germany were not on the map yet. Europe was divided into barbarian
kingdoms and since these barbarians were nomads, as they moved, they encroached on someone
elses territory (intruded on someones rights on a piece of land) and in turn forced those people to
move.
Within the larger areas controlled by various barbarian peoples, smaller units gradually
developed. This is described as the time of feudalism. Larger tribal areas were subdivided into
small areas, and even smaller areas, with a lord and his vassals.
(http://worldwidefreeresources.com/upload/CH310_T_19.pdf)
The feudal system was based on mutual obligations. In exchange for military protection and other
services, a lord, or landowner, granted land called a fief. The person receiving a fief was called a
vassal. To visualize the structure of feudal society, think of a pyramid. At the peak reigned the king.
Next came the most powerful vassalswealthy landowners such as nobles and bishops. Serving
beneath these vassals were knights. Knights were mounted warriors who pledged to defend their
lords lands in exchange for fiefs (provide military service which amounted to forty days' service
each year in times of peace or indefinite service in times of war; in the late medieval period, this
military service was often abandoned in preference for cash payment or an agreement to provide a
certain number of men-at-arms or mounted knights for the lord's use mercenary knights.). At the
base of the pyramid were landless peasants who toiled in the fields. In practice, the feudal system
did not work so simply. Relationships between various lords and their vassals were never clear-cut.
Sometimes feudal arrangements and agreements were quite complicated. It was not unusual for a
person to be a vassal to two or more lords at the same time. Having received a fief from each, he
was therefore obligated to serve both. This posed no problem unless his two overlords went to war
against each other! Sometimes the vassals contract would say what he was to do. For example, he
might have to fight for one lord but send a number of his knights to fight on the other side! The
feudal pyramid often became a complex tangle of conflicting loyalties. A vassal had responsibilities
other than to serve his lord in battle. He also had to sit on the lords court, where he might judge the
guilt or innocence of another vassal. If his lord stopped by for a visit, the vassal had to provide food
and shelter for his superior and all of his party. Not the least of the vassals promises was to help
pay the ransom demanded when his lord was unfortunate enough to get himself captured by an
enemy.

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 Central to the feudal system was the ritual of homage which consisted of several formalized
gestures that were performed in public by the aspiring vassal who kneeled in front of his future lord.
The ritual included: the public declamatio of the vassals wilful subordination to his lord, the
clasping of paired hands (immixtio manum), the kiss of friendship (osculum), the solemn oath sworn
on relics or on the Bible, the investiture of the fief and handing of a symbolic object as a token of
granting possession of land, all these ritualized gestures pointing to a personal, intimate bonding
between lord and vassal. So, as you can see the tie between lord and vassal was traditionally
established on a deeply personal basis: man to man (the vassal was the man of his lord), hand to
hand (the vassal placed his hands between those of his lord), and face to face (the ceremony of
homage was sealed with a kiss of peace).

An Anglo Saxon Form of Commendation (Date Unknown)

Thus shall one take the oath of fidelity:
By the Lord before whom this sanctuary is holy, I will to _________(name of the lord) be true and
faithful, and love all which he loves and shun (abhor) all which he shuns, according to the laws of
God and the order of the world. Nor will I ever with will or action, through word or deed, do
anything which is unpleasing to him, on condition that he will hold to me as I shall deserve it, and
that he will perform everything as it was in our agreement when I submitted myself to him and
chose his will.

Broadly defined, feudalism describes a hierarchy of power in which land

constitutes the principal form of wealth and provides the basis for political and
social orders as well as economic structures. Central to feudalism was the
personal, mainly military, relationship between lord (patron) and vassal (client).
The relationship was often perpetuated through family structures and in some
cases actually reflected blood ties. Feudalism is a form of clientage that
resulted in hereditary distinctions and may even have originated in them.
Medieval writers also classified people into three groups (ordines) dividing
society into oratores (those who pray, monks and nuns, men and women of the
Church), bellatores (those who fight, nobles and knights) and, laboratores (those who work,
the peasants). This simple tripartite division known as the three estates of feudalism proved
unworkable, and the necessity of skilled craftsmen, merchants, and other occupations was quite
visible in spite of the theoretical model given in some sermons and political treatises. This reality
becomes more visible starting with the thirteenth century when the emerging money economy
changed the social hierarchic system, which relied heavily on the vertical disposition of ordines,
now complemented by a horizontal hierarchy of estates.

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 (More on this topic:
http://www.learner.org/courses/worldhistory/support/reading_8_2.pdf;
http://www.mitchellteachers.org/WorldHistory/EuropeafterRome/PDFs/feudalism
/FeudalSystemArticle.pdf ;
http://www.crsd.org/50820815122812980/lib/50820815122812980/Feudalismc
hart.pdf )

Feudalism had two enormous effects on medieval society. (1) First, it discouraged unified
government because individual lords would divide their lands into smaller and smaller sections to
give to lesser nobles and knights. These lesser noblemen in turn would subdivide their own lands
into even smaller fiefs to give to even less important rulers and knights. Each knight would swear
his oath of fealty (loyalty) to the ones who gave him his lands, which was not necessarily the king
or higher noblemen, let alone an abstraction like "France" or "England." Feudal government was
always an arrangement between individuals, not between nation-states and citizens. (2) Second, it
discouraged trade and economic growth. Peasant farmers called serfs worked the fields; they were
tied to individual plots of land and forbidden to move or change occupations without the permission
of the lord. The feudal lord might claim one-third to one-half of the serf's produce in taxes and fees,
and the serfs owed him a set number of days each year in which they would work the lord's fields in
exchange for the right to work their own lands.

When was Feudalism established in England?

Feudalism in England was established by William the Conqueror and the Normans following the
defeat of the English Anglo Saxons at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. William invaded England
when Duke of Normandy, in Autumn 1066. The invasion followed a dispute over succession to the
English throne following the death of Edward (the Confessor). At the battle of Hastings, Harold, the
last Anglo-Saxon king was killed, presumably he was hit by an arrow in the eye (Bayeux Tapestry
according to a myth it was the work of Matilda, William the Conquerors wife origins unknown;
specialists agree that this is a product manufactured in the 11 th century shortly after the Conquest;
subject: It begins with Edward the Confessor sitting in royal splendour with Earl Harold
Godwinson. Harold then sets sail for Normandy, where he lands, perhaps by accident, in the
domains of Count Guy of Ponthieu. Count Guy takes Harold to Duke William and the Duke brings
Harold with him on campaign against the Bretons. Harold fights bravely and receives armour from
William. At Bayeux Harold makes an oath (of uncertain nature) to William and is freed to return to
England. In England, Edward dies after some unspecified deathbed words to his advisors, and
Harold is crowned king. When William hears the news he prepares an invasion fleet. The fleet lands
near Hastings in Sussex, and meets Harold's troops in a fierce battle. After heavy losses Harold is
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killed and the Saxons flee. The tapestry ends there, though we may infer that a final panel showing
William on the throne may have existed, corresponding to the original panel of Edward.

Much of the story shows events in Normandy. We can only guess that the tapestry was meant to
show Edward sending Harold (the obvious Saxon choice as his successor) to William to cede the
crown to the duke. Harold is shown as William's vassal (receiving arms from William) and the oath
he swore is presumed to be an act of forswearing his right to the crown in William's favour. The
deathbed scene may represent Edward telling his advisors that William was his choice as successor.
Harold's very legitimate claims to the throne are ignored in this heavily slanted Norman account.
History, as we are constantly reminded, is written by the victors.)

After the battle of Hastings William was victorious, later being crowned king in London on
economy based on agriculture, wool and fisheries. It possessed a well-developed administrative
system. The country was divided into shires or counties, which were subdivided into local areas
called hundreds. There was an effective taxation system. The Normans retained much of this local
government structure but largely eliminated the English aristocracy, many of whom were killed or
exiled. Having dispossessed the English aristocracy, William took large estates for himself and
redistributed land to his supporters. The lands of over four thousand English lords were seized and
and passed to less than two hundred Norman and French barons. Holding major estates on the
borders, the barons protected England from attack from without; and, by holding dozens of other
estates scattered through the counties, they consolidated Norman rule.

Immediately after the invasion the Normans started a massive program of castle building to
protected the newly conquered territories. The first castles they built were made of wood and were
know as the motte/moat and bailey castles. It is believed that as many as 1000 motte and bailey
castles were built in England by the Normans. At first they were simple defensive structures: an
earthen mound (or motte) crowned with a wooden palisade (= a strong fence made of stakes driven
into the ground, esp for defence), the bailey, with maybe a keep [donjon] at the centre of the
structure. One of the advantages: they were quick to erect and they could hold by a small garrison to
defend the spot. Despite their imposing positions and solid construction, these early Norman castles
with their wooden palisades and keep were more vulnerable to attack than castles built from stone.
So wooden palisades made way for stone curtain walls and wooden keeps were replaced with stone
ones. Towards the end of the Conqueror's reign, many of the early castles were being rebuilt in
stone and extended. Keeps became larger and more elaborate. Styles varied, round shell keeps and
square tower keeps being the most common. Not only did they show their English subjects that the
Normans were there to stay, but stone castles were also safer and stronger, and a few home comforts

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were also added. Large keeps would have accommodation for the men of the garrison on the ground
floor, while the knights or the lord's family would have rooms on the upper floors. The bailey would
contain a well, enclosures for livestock and storage for food and fodder, along with a kitchen and
maybe even a smithy. More elaborate keeps would even have a chapel for the family's use. Often,
castles were extended several times to make space for larger garrisons, or had their towers rebuilt to
be easier to defend and harder to attack. Gate houses and drawbridges were added and sometimes,
the only feature left from the original castle would be the castle mound.

The system and structure of feudalism had been well established in Europe for some time and the
Normans imposed feudalism in England. King William the Conqueror used the concept of
feudalism to reward his Norman supporters for their help in the conquest of England. Following the
Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror ordered in 1086 a full survey of England: the Domesday
Survey. The results of the Domesday Survey were compiled into a document that later became known as
Domesday Book. It gave the new King of England full details of the land, the people and how much
taxes and dues would be paid to the Normans. For many years after Williams death Domesday
Book was extensively used in the courts to resolve disputes over land title. The land was described
county by county, village by village, the owners and the subtenant were listed and their possessions
valued, even the farm stock was recorded. It also gives the manorial net income (referred to as the
annual value) and tax assessment. During the Middle Ages it was so respected that it was simply
called the record so great was its authority. Unlike modern surveys, the Domesday Survey was a
public event. Individual questionnaire responses were not treated confidentially, but were verified in
the courts by local land holders under oath.
(http://www.econ.canterbury.ac.nz/research/pdf/Paper_McDonald.pdf)

Bibliography:

Middle Ages Almanac: Understanding Medieval Times pp.4-5; Britain becomes England
p.22; The Church pp. 23.29; Feudalism . pp.37-39. The Birth of Europe: Societys Upper
Crust. pp.35-56; The Medieval King pp.69-72. The Cambridge Companion to Medieval
Philosophy: Hierarchy pp.60-62