1. Feudalism in Europe
European Middle Ages
500-1200

2. Quiz
• Name one group of invaders that attacked
Europe from 800 to 1000?
• What is a “serf”?
• Describe what life might be like living on a
“manor”?

3. Pepin the
Short
Setting the Stage
•Charlemagne’s grandsons
Carloman Charlemagne
broke up the kingdom
•Territory became
Louis the
battleground of new
Pious
invaders
•Led to the rise of feudalism Charles the
•Political and economic Bald
system based on land
ownership and personal Louis the
loyalty German
Lothair

4. Invaders Attack
Western Europe
•Muslim invaders
seized Sicily, raided
Italy, sacked Rome
•Magyars from the
east, terrorized
Germany and Italy
•Vikings from the
north

5. The Vikings - Northmen
• Germanic people that
lived in Scandinavia
• Worships warlike gods
• Seafarers that attacked
with terrifying speed
• Known for warships
– Weighed up to 20 tons
– Could sail in 3 feet of
water

8. The Vikings
• Vikings were also traders,
farmers, and explorers
• Journeyed far and wide
• Explorer Leif Ericson
reached N. America in 1000
• Around 1000, Vikings
stopped their reign of
terror
• Later accepted Christianity
• Warming trend in Europe
made farming easier = less
seafaring needed

10. Magyars From the East
• Horsemen from modern
day Hungary
• Invaded W. Europe in
late 800’s
• Attacked isolated
villages, overran Italy,
took captives to sell as
slaves

12. Muslims from the South
• Came from N. Africa through Spain and Italy
• Goals: conquer, settle in and plunder Europe
• Seafarers who attacked settlements on the
Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts

13. Results of Invasions
People in
Kings constant
unable to danger
provide
protection
Widespread
disorder
People now looked to local rulers
for security (not a central ruler)

14. A New Social Order: Feudalism
• Feudalism: a system of governing and
landholding based on rights and obligations
emerged in Europe
• In exchange for military service, a lord
(landowner) would provide a fief (land) to a
vassal (person receiving the land)
• Depended on control of land

15. The Feudal Pyramid
King
Vassals
Nobles and
bishops
Knights
Mounted horsemen who
defended their lord in
exchange for a fief
Serfs
Landless peasants who tended the
fields, could not lawfully leave

16. The Manor System
• Manor: the lord’s estate & the basic economic
arrangement during the Middle Ages
• Depended on a set of rights and obligations
between a lord and his serfs
Provided housing, farmland,
LORD protection from bandits
Tended the lord’s lands, cared for
SERF
the animals, maintained the estate

17. The Life of a Serf
• Women shared in the work
• Owed duties to the lord
– At least a few days per week
– A portion of their grain
• Rarely traveled more than
25 miles from the manor
• Produced nearly
everything they and their
lord needed for daily life

18. The Life of a Serf
• Taxed on all the grain • Lived in crowded cottages
ground in the lord’s mill with only 1 or 2 rooms
• Baking bread elsewhere • Slept on dirt floors in beds
was a crime made of straw
• Paid a tax on marriage • Ate mostly vegetables,
bread, grain, cheese and
• Weddings could only
soup
occur with the lord’s
• Life = work as soon as you
permission
were old enough
• Owed the village priest a
• Illness and malnutrition
tithe (church tax) = to
1/10 of their income were common

19. Life on the Manor
• Usually covered a few square
miles of land
• Consisted of:
– Lord’s manor house
– Church
– Workshops
• 15 to 30 families lived in the
village on a manor
• Surrounded by fields, pastures,
woodlands
• Streams sometimes ran through
the manor
• Produced crops, milk, cheese,
fuel, cloth, leather goods,
lumber

22. For next class…
• Feudalism Layer Cake Assignment