MYP3 INDIVIDUALS & SOCIETIES

UNIT 2. KNIGHTS AND VASSALS

Table of contents:

I. Islam and the Christian kingdoms in Spain: The Iberian Peninsula between 8th and 11th cents.
1. Al-Andalus
a. Emirate of Cordoba (756 – 929)
b. Caliphate of Cordoba (929 – 1031)
c. From Taifa Kingdoms (1031 – 1085) to the Nasrid kingdom of Granada (1238 – 1492)
2. The Christian kingdoms

II. The origins of feudalism

1. The invasions of the 9th century
2. The rise of feudal lords and the nature of feudalism
3. Politics: feudal monarchy

III. Feudal society and economy

1. Feudal society: the three estates
a. Nobility
b. Clergy
c. Third estate (peasants)
2. Feudal economy:
a. Manorial system
b. Agriculture and livestock

IV. The Medieval Church and Crusades

1. The Catholic Church
2. The organization of the Church
3. The Crusades
I. AL-ANDALUS AND THE CHRISTIAN KINGDOMS (Contents covered through research project)

II. THE ORIGINS OF FEUDALISM

1. THE INVASIONS OF THE 9TH CENTURY

After the collapse of the Carolingian Empire, Europe was divided into many small kingdoms. In the
9th century, Europe faced great insecurity as a result of a new wave of invasions, similar to the earlier
Germanic attacks on the late Roman Empire.

Firstly, the Vikings came from Scandinavia. Vikings expeditions conquered territories in Britain,
France and Southern Italy, and they reached Russia, Sicily and many other parts of Europe. The
Normans in north-west France were descendants of the Scandinavian Vikings. Among them, William
the Conqueror became important as he took over England after his victory in the battle of Hustings
(1066) and became king. These events are represented in the Bayeux Tapestry.

Secondly, the Hungarians arrived from western Asia. They attacked many parts of Europe before they
finally settled in Eastern Europe and created the kingdom of Hungary. They were also known as
Magyars.

Finally, Muslim raiders, based in North Africa, became a threat along the Mediterranean coast, as
well.

2. THE RISE OF FEUDAL LORDS AND THE NATURE OF FEUDALISM

The new wave of attacks weakened Royal authority. As the kings could not guarantee security, they
turned to nobles and church leaders for support. At the same time, the peasants looked for the
protection from nobility in return for their work and services.

This led to vassalage, a network of strong personal ties across medieval society: a lord granted a fief
or piece of land to some men in return for services and loyalty, and the people who accepted these
obligations were called vassals. Sometimes, these nobles or feudal lords granted smaller fiefs to the
knights who became their vassals (a knight might receive fiefs from various lords).

The king himself was a great feudal lord who granted fiefs to leading nobles. In return, these lords
did homage to the king and promised him loyalty and military assistance when he needed it. This
allegiance was signed in the homage ceremony. However, in practice, many feudal lords were
entirely independent of Royal authority and ruled their fiefs as if they were monarchs.

This social, economic and political system that emerged in Europe in the 9th century is called
feudalism.
 3. POLITICS: FEUDAL MONARCHY

Feudal kings had little effective authority because most of their territories were granted to feudal
lords.

They received income from their own lands and collected taxes from a few towns. They also had
courts that travelled with them (family, counselors, knights…). But they only had full control over
their own lands, and they had no direct power over the fiefs that were held by their vassals.

In wartime, a feudal monarch asked nobles to fight with their private armies and he might also call
on the Church for assistance. In theory, the kings and his leading vassals were all united by their
feudal allegiances. But in practice, there was continuous fighting between monarchs and their
vassals, as well as between nobles.

III. FEUDAL SOCIETY AND ECONOMY

1. FEUDAL SOCIETY: THE THREE ESTATES

Medieval society was divided into three groups called estates: the nobles, the clergy and the
workers. They were determined by birth (except for the clergy) and they could not move from one
group to another.

Each group had different roles:

• Nobility: military role (bellatores)
• Clergy: spiritual role (oratores)
• Third estate: working the land (laboratores)

They were unequal by birth:

- Privileged groups: nobility and clergy. They held important positions in the government and
did not pay taxes.
- Non privileged groups: third estate. They could not participate in politics and had to pay taxes.

a. Nobility: bellatores, privileged group

Feudal nobles were dedicated to warfare. They were given military training as young boys and
carried on their military activity throughout their adult lives. By fighting in wars, they could acquire
more land and greater wealth.
Lords (upper nobility):

The upper nobility owned large fiefs and lived in castles where they were surrounded by knights.
Serfs and free peasants worked for them. In wartime, they called on the knights who were their
vassals and created private armies to help the king. These leading nobles acquired hereditary titles
such as Duke, Marquess and Count.

They lived in castles. The size of a Medieval castle reflected the importance of its feudal lord. At first,
castles were small wooden constructions, but they evolved into huge stone complexes designed for
siege warfare. All the inhabitants of the fief could take refuge in it in wartime.

Knights (lower nobility):

Knights fought on horseback using weapons such as lances and shields. Beneath the lords, the knights
often had little wealth except for their horses and weapons. Young boys received a long military
training over many years:
- By the age of 8 they became pages.
- By 15 - 16 they became squires at the service of a knight and learned how to use weapons
and behave like knights.
- About five years later, they could be made knights in a special ceremony.

In peacetime, knights still practiced their military skills: they went hunting and fought against each
other in tournaments.

Noblewomen:

Women did not have many legal rights in the Middle Ages even if they belonged to the nobility. Their
main role was to marry and have children to continue the family line. Women usually had many
children, but some of these died in childhood.

Marriages were planned to strengthen the links between leading families and were often arranged
when the future husband and wife were only children. The girl’s family had to provide a dowry:
property or goods given to the husband at the time of the marriage. Women who did not marry
usually went to convents.

In general, noblewomen were better educated than their husbands: they learnt social skills, music,
dancing and riding. They became skilled at making clothes, and they learned about household
management and organizing the servants.
 b. Clergy: oratores, privileged group

The clergy played a key role in feudal society because religion was such an important part of
everyone’s life. Unlike most people in Medieval society, they received an education and they directed
religious practice.

Upper clergy:

Church leaders, such as bishops, who controlled a large area called diocese, nearly always came from
noble families. As well as being spiritual leaders, they were important feudal lords because the
Church owned many great territories and some churchmen were royal advisers.

Lower clergy:

At a lower level, priests, monks and nuns led much simpler lives: they spent most of their time in
prayer and meditation. They also worked in the garden, looked after the poor and sick and copied
manuscripts in the library.

c. Third estate: laboratores, non-privileged group

The Third Estate was formed by merchants, craftsmen, free peasants and serfs. The peasants made
up the great majority of the population and lived in very harsh conditions.

The main differences between free peasants and serfs were:

FREE PEASANTS SERFS

Sometimes owned small plots of They were completely subject to
land. their feudal lords.

They were free to move around or They could not leave the fief or get
get married. married without permission.

They paid rent to the lord and tithe They were not paid for their
to the Church, but kept some of the work and were often badly
harvest. treated.
 2. FEUDAL ECONOMY:

a. Manorial system

The feudal economy was basically rural and self-sufficient, as people lived from what they produced.
The economic system that regulated the relations between lords and peasants was the manorial
system or manorialism. A manor was the feudal lord’s fief.

The manor included a castle where the lord lived. There were also villages where the peasants lived,
agricultural land, mills, wine and oil presses, forests and pasture for livestock. The demesne, part
of land on the manor, was kept by the feudal lord for his own use.

The lord rented small plots of land to free peasants to grow their own food. It was paid in money,
products (part of their harvests) or work on his demesne.

Lords had full authority on their manors:

- They took decisions about the private lives of their serfs
- Free peasants had to pay special charges to use the mill, oven and presses.
- They took tolls, or taxes, from merchants who crossed through their land and bridges.
- They administered justice.

b. Agriculture and livestock

Work on the land was very hard: the whole peasant’s family, including children, worked from sunrise
to sunset. They used basic tools, such as scythes, sickles and ploughs.

They had no fertilisers, so they practised crops rotation. This means that each year they left half or
one third of their land fallow and only grew crops on the rest of the land. This way, land had time to
recover its fertility, but agricultural production was very low. The main crops were cereals for making
bread and beer.

Livestock provided meat and milk as well as leather and wool to make clothes. They also used animals
for transport and to pull ploughs.

In 10th century Europe there was some progress. New areas were turned into agricultural land and
improvements were made to agricultural tools like the plough. As a result of these innovations, more
food was available, and population began to grow.
IV. THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH AND THE CRUSADES

1. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Catholicism was the only recognised Christian religion in Europe. In Rome, the Pope was the head of
the whole Catholic Church as well as the ruler of the Papal States on the Italian peninsula. He had
great influence as the spiritual leader of Catholic Christianity.

One way in which the Pope exercised this authority was through excommunication, which was to
exclude a person from membership of the Church. If the Pope excommunicated a King, he would lose
much of his authority over his subjects.

The Church acquired great wealth through the tithe, a special tax that required peasants to give them
one tenth (10%) of their production.

Religion greatly affected the lives of everyone in the Middle Ages. Christian ceremonies accompanied
births, marriages and funerals and there were religious festivals throughout the year.

2. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH

The Church was divided into two groups:

- The secular clergy were the members of the Church who directed religious services or mass
for the population.
- The regular clergy were the members of religious orders, who lived in separate communities
and were led by an abbot.

Many different religious orders were created during the Middle Ages. Each religious order had to
follow its own rule. Monks that belonged to these orders lived in monasteries where they dedicated
their lives to prayer and meditation. They played a very important role in the survival of classical
culture by copying manuscripts. They were sometimes also teachers of theology, botany, and farm
management.

3. THE CRUSADES

The Crusades were a series of military expeditions led by Christian monarchs and nobles, usually at
the request of the Pope. They aimed to take control of the Holy Land (Jerusalem) from the Muslims.

Pope Urban II preached the First Crusade in 1095, and many people enthusiastically joined it. They
attached a cross to their clothing (the word ‘Crusade’ comes from ‘cross’). During the First Crusade,
the Christians conquered Jerusalem and other territories. Many more expeditions were needed over
the following two centuries to defend and reconquer the region after the Muslims had won victories.
However, the Christians finally lost their last territories in the Holy Land in 1291, defeated by
Mamluks (Muslims) in the battle of Acre.
During the Crusades, different military orders originated to protect Christian pilgrims in the Holy
Land, which evolved into an army that defended Jerusalem. Important examples include the Knights
Templar, the largest and most influential of the military orders, suppressed in the 14th century. Some
persisted longer in their original functions, evolving into honorific chivalric orders with charitable
aims in modern times, such as the Military Order of Santiago or of Malta.