Divine Right of Kingship

In European history, a political doctrine in defense of monarchical absolutism, which asserted that kings derived
their authority from God and could not therefore be held accountable for their actions by any earthly authority such as
a parliament. Originating in Europe, the divine-right theory can be traced to the medieval conception of God’s award of temporal
power to the political ruler, paralleling the award of spiritual power to the church. By the 16th and 17th centuries, however, the
new national monarchs were asserting their authority in matters of both church and state. King James I of England (reigned 1603–
25) was the foremost exponent of the divine right of kings, but the doctrine virtually disappeared from English politics after
the Glorious Revolution (1688–89).

Feudalism

The word ‘feudalism’ derives from the medieval Latin terms feudalis, meaning fee, and feodum, meaning fief. The fee signified
the land given (the fief) as a payment for regular military service. The system had its roots in the Roman manorial system (in
which workers were compensated with protection while living on large estates) and in the 8th century CE kingdom of
the Franks where a king gave out land for life (benefice) to reward loyal nobles and receive service in return. The feudal system
proper became widespread in Western Europe from the 11th century CE onwards, largely thanks to the Normans as their rulers
carved up and dished out lands wherever their armies conquered.

Feudalism was the system in European medieval societies of the 10th to 13th centuries CE whereby a social hierarchy was
established based on local administrative control and the distribution of land into units (fiefs). A landowner (lord) gave a fief,
along with a promise of military and legal protection, in return for a payment of some kind from the person who received it
(vassal). Such payment came in the form of feudal service which could mean military service or the regular payment of produce
or money. Both lord and vassal were freemen and the term feudalism is not generally applied to the relationship between the
unfree peasantry (serfs or villeins) and the person of higher social rank on whose land they laboured.

Starting from the top of society’s pyramid, the monarch – a good example is William the Conqueror (r. 1066-1087 CE) who
considered all the lands of England as his personal property – could give a parcel of land (of no fixed size) to a noble who, in
return, would be that monarch’s vassal, that is he would promise loyalty and service when required.