Western Civilization I
Notes from 6/19

The Middle Ages are often divided into three distinct periods: the Early Middle Ages (476-1000); the High Middle Ages (1000-1300); and the Late Middle Ages (1300-1500).  During the period known as the Early Middle Ages, a number of important developments take place.  These include:

I alluded to the retreat of people into the interior regions of Europe last time (in the context of the barbarian invasions); today I talked mostly about feudalism, and the social organization that developed during the Early Middle Ages.  We will return to religion, and the growing power of the Roman Church, next time.

The economy of the Middle Ages was agrarian; 90% of the people were peasants.  Peasants became serfs when they surrendered their land to a more powerful landholder in exchange for assistance in time of dire need, such as prolonged crop failure or foreign invasion.  This arrangement of exchanging goods for services (barter) was necessary in the cashless economy of the post-Roman world. 

Serfdom was a condition of servitude to an economically or politically more powerful person.  The manor was central to the agrarian economies of the Middle Ages.  Serfs labored as tenants for a lord, who allotted them land and tenements in exchange.  The part of the land tended to for the lord was called the demesne, typically between one-quarter and one-third of the total arable land of the manor.  Some manorial land may also have been set aside for the local priest, who either farmed it himself or hired others.  This portion, usually a few strips, was called the glebe.

Serfs were unfree peasants.  They were obliged to work the lord's land for a specified number of days per week (usually 3 or 4), and to provide additional service at special times of the year, such as plowing and harvest.  Lords also received mandatory "gifts" at holiday time, such as eggs at Easter or a chicken at Christmas  (hence, the origins of western holiday food traditions).  Serfs could not leave the land with out their lord's permission, which they also had to obtain in order to marry, or to have their sons or daughters marry outside of the manor.  The status of the serf was hereditary.

Serfs were not allowed to hunt in the woodlands adjoining the manor, nor could they cut firewood, graze livestock or do other such things on common land without the lord's permission.  Over time, the special privileges of the nobility, particularly with regard to hunting, would be the source of considerable social tension.

Warriors

Depending on the region in Europe, between 1% and 10% of the population was part of the nobility.  During the chaotic period after the collapse of Roman authority, individual warlords asserted themselves, administering rudimentary justice and protecting their "constituents" from attack.  Over time, a system of complex relationships involving land grants and obligations of service between stronger and weaker nobles developed.  This system is known as feudalism.  Land granted from more powerful nobles, kings, or sometimes the Church, to a less powerful nobleman was called a fief.  The less powerful nobleman was known as a vassal.  Vassalage is the term used to describe the obligations of the inferior noble to his superior, and those obligations most often took the form of military service.  Chivalry, as distinct from vassalage, is the term used to describe the values of aristocratic (noble) culture as the evolved over time.

Vassalage is, of course, reminiscent of the patron/client relationships of old Rome, as well as the social organization of their Germanic invaders.

At the top of the feudal pyramid sits a king.  The political history of the Middle Ages is largely about the struggle by kings to centralize their powers (at the nobility's expense), and on the part of the nobles to restrict their monarch's prerogatives and force them to obey the rule of law.  But more on that in a few days.