CHAPTER THREE -
THE CENTRAL MIDDLE AGES: THE MILITARY ELITE
DEFINING FEUDALISM
With the collapse of the
Carolingian Kingdom/Holy Roman Empire in the 9th century, Europeans entered the
core period of the Medieval age - the Central Middle Ages. This age was
the heart of the "feudal" period in European history. As stated
earlier, feudalism is a situation where there is no dominant political power or
effective central leadership - in other words there is no state or
empire. Local leaders control political decisions, command
military power, have controlling economic power and even dominate in the
cultural realm. In a feudal society, power is a private
possession; there is no effective state. (see description)
Another feature of
feudalism is that it is a military-based society. This is not surprising
in a society with competing local leaders. In feudal
In a feudal society, the
glue that holds the society together is not a written law or formal
bureaucratic system - these don't exist. Nor is there a formal economic system;
commerce collapses without formal political control and regulation.
Instead of formal structures, in a feudal society a network of social
relationships tie the society together. A feudal society is a world where oaths
and obligations, vows and promises, and established expectations and customs
provide the only stability possible. Loyalty to others and fulfilling one's
oaths are the most important values in a feudal society. If these ties
break down - then there is anarchy.
The term reciprocity
is used to describe these social relations - it is a system of mutual
obligations; in other words - if you do this for me, I will do this for
you. In a situation where formal structures of the state such as law,
currency and military defense have broken down, people turned to each other for
the basic services and skills needed for their survival. Europeans during
the Central Middle Ages tried to guarantee survival through reciprocal
arrangements with others.
THE FEUDAL ELITE
As the Carolingian/Holy Roman Empire declined, many powerful
regional leaders who had been loyal to Charlemagne began to strengthen their
own regional control. They became the feudal lords - powerful
local leaders solidifying control in their territories of political, military,
economic and even religious affairs. The key power these local leaders
had was their ownership of large estates often called manors.
Recognize - land ownership was the only reliable measure of wealth in a society
in upheaval. Land, unlike currency or precious metals, was of permanent
value. With land, one could produce food and resources.
With these large estates (and thus wealth), local leaders were able to put
together the second key part of their local power - private military forces.
These feudal lords enlisted the military commitment and services of
ex-Carolingian soldiers, tribal warriors or transient "soldiers of
fortune." These warriors/soldiers who entered into private military
service to specific feudal lords were called knights. Once a
knight entered into a relationship with a feudal lord, that knight became a vassal.
A vassal was of lesser status than the feudal lord, but was still part
of the military elite that dominated
A Vassal's Duties
First and foremost, a
vassal owed his feudal lord his military service. This meant that if the lord's
lands or family were threatened, the vassal was expected to fight. The vassal
was always on call defensively. In terms of offensive assistance,
however, if the feudal lord felt like expanding or stirring up trouble with
neighbors, the vassal had only limited obligations to join in an offensive war
for his lord. Throughout Europe, there were various customs/feudal laws about
how many days of aggressive fighting a vassal had to fulfill; in northern
A vassal also pledged his
loyalty to a feudal lord. This was an extremely important concept since
loyalty was all that stood between feudal society and complete chaos. A
whole vocabulary of words dealing with loyalty emerged, emphasizing this ideal;
terms like fealty and fidelity come from this feudal
obligation. When a knight joined the private army of a feudal lord and
thereby became his vassal, he made two oaths. The first oath was that of homage
whereby the vassal recognized the superior status and power of the feudal
lord. The vassal also made the oath of fealty (loyalty). (see example)
To break one's oath of loyalty was to commit a felony, the most serious
civil crime one could commit in this culture. These oaths were usually made in
public, and often in a church to solidify the relationship, so that the oath
became a holy oath.
A final obligation many
vassals had was to help the feudal lord in running his manor. They carried out
the law of the lord, helped to collect taxes, and served on a warrior council
for advice (the Germanic term for this council was comitatus; in
A Feudal Lord's
Duties
In return for these
military services, the feudal lord owed certain things to the vassal.
Primarily, the lord gave wealth and support to the vassal. This might take the
form of money (although in most parts of
The feudal lord was also
responsible for protecting the family of any vassal who was killed. The
children were protected as wards of the feudal lord until they married (if a
daughter) or became a vassal (if a son). Widows, and the property that they
controlled, were to be protected by the feudal lords as well. In essence,
the vassal achieved a kind of insurance for his family by entering the service
of a feudal lord.
If this sounds like a contract,
that is accurate; this reciprocal relationship of the feudal lord and vassal
was in fact an informal contract between two parties. It was not held
together by a court or written law, but rather by trust, oaths, social
pressures, and a strong sense of loyalty. To help sustain this critical,
stabilizing relationship, many feudal oaths took place in public with witnesses
and in a church. So the reciprocal obligations were made as holy oaths;
breaking these oaths therefore not only had political and civil, but also
religious consequences. (see further
discussion of obligations)
If both parties fulfilled
their obligations, then both benefited. In essence, in a society where there were
no formal structures to provide stability, people turned to each other and
their reciprocal relations to fulfill these needs. Feudal lords gained
protection for their territory, themselves and their families by creating a
private army. Knights/vassals gained land, wealth and power as well as
stability and insurance by pledging themselves as part of feudal lord's army.
One
point to make here, feudal society was at its heart a male-dominated culture.
Military strength and warrior virtues were held in the highest regard, rather
than intellect or scholarship. Even economic power was subservient to military
might. Women,
even elite women of the powerful families, had influence only in one area -
property ownership and economic management. In some areas of
CHIVALRY
The mutual obligations of
the military elite were emphasized and reinforced through the social code of
that age. This set of ideals as to what earned the respect and esteem of
society became the code of chivalry. Chivalry is still
a term used in today's society, however recognize it has changed from its
initial formulation. During the Central Middle Ages, the code of chivalry was
primarily a warrior code and stressed the need to fulfill certain
expectations of military behavior. To be respected (and maybe even have
ballads sung of your deeds) one had to be - above all - loyal.
Chivalric knights were those who were true to their lords, even dying for them.
Next, one had to be skilled
in the arts of the warrior including fighting with sword and dagger,
archery, keeping one's seat on a horse, and exemplifying bravery and strength.
All these abilities were to be demonstrated in accordance with the code of
chivalry. If there was no war in which to display one's military prowess, there
were always the tournaments
(tourneys) to publicly display one's abilities (or example jousting).
So, to prove chivalric worth - one had to demonstrate military expertise in war
and in peaceful times.
Finally, chivalry demanded
honourable behavior from the knight or lord. Recognize, honour initially
meant honour towards fellow warriors - both friend and foe. It meant to respect
a foe who was a good fighter, to not fight dirty, and to come to the aid of a
fellow vassal. In later centuries, the Catholic Church and noble women
stressed the idea of honourable treatment also to be directed towards
members of the Church, women and the defenseless. Traditions such as courtly
love and poetry later became part of a knight's chivalric duties. However, at
its roots, chivalry primarily focused on the way a warrior was to behave on the
battlefield - it was the code of the warrior.
There are still echoes of
this chivalric code (as least as an ideal) in the modern western world.
Probably the most famous images of the chivalric world at its most idealized
come from the tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Although
largely mythical, these stories deeply impacted European, in particular Western
European culture and historical memory. They reflect the deep cultural roots of
chivalric ideals, and medieval patterns of behavior. (See Camelot page)
We have described the
military based elite that created some semblance of military protection and
political rule in the feudal age. In the next chapter, we look at how the rest of
society lived in the feudal world.
Interesting Related Web Sites
Anglo-Saxon
Chronicles
Knighthood,
Chivalry and Tournaments
Arthurian
Studies
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